Connor Price

28:54Yeah, I'll just say this really quick because this is kind of cool. So I found out that in the, so I was pretty late to YouTube shorts. I watched a Mr. Beast podcast where he was talking about, you know, YouTube shorts being the future, dah, dah, dah. I was like, all right, let me just try this. And what I did was I took all my popular TikToks and because I edit them, I have them all on my computer saved and I just repurposed them on shorts and, you know, without the TikTok watermark or anything, I took the original, you know, and just reposted. And then YouTube emailed us and they're like, you were the most subscribed to artist in November.

29:26Yeah. Of all artists. In the month of November. Yeah, they said I was most subscribed. Did you just reply, damn right. Send. I said, is there like a plaque for that or something? Yeah, so I got 800 ,000 subscribers in one month just from posting every day for a full month all my popular videos, including the globe stuff. So, I heard something funny, by the way. I don't know if this is true or not. It might be a conspiracy theory, but somebody was saying like, obviously this part, which I think showed to be true, which is if you just re-upload your TikToks with the watermark, like Instagram and YouTube, I think we're deprioritizing.

29:55I don't like it. So the original file is good, but actually they also scraped the metadata, the name, the file name. I don't know if you guys are, is this true or are you guys aware of this? If you have the same like MP4 file name underneath, they also are trying to match that to just see like. Oh shit, we should start changing our file names. Somebody told me that. I don't know if that's true or not. It could be possible. I don't know why they would care. Like that globe video. We didn't change anything. Which is kind of weird that they both, have exactly 72 million views on both platforms and i i posted them months apart because like i said i was late to shorts um so now because of youtube that's an extra five figure so yeah so that's that's why i brought that up was i which one grows faster youtube shorts or tiktok what do you where do you which horse do you see winning it's tough because the tiktok algorithm changes so much but i think right now we're more excited about youtube because youtube lets you pin a comment and a link to stream the song but tiktok doesn't they removed the pinned comment feature so it's harder to convert tiktok views to streams right now i had a call with tiktok and i said bring that back so hopefully they bring it back and even more interestingly enough on tiktok there so maybe my manager right this is amazing youtube is much more creator friendly uh as far as you know when you want to promote something like that that video um that first globe video that i post on YouTube, I was able to make the pin comment, the streaming link for the song.

31:17And that comment has like 40 ,000 upvotes. And so it definitely allowed people to get to the streaming way easier than TikTok. TikTok at this point too, even if you try to write the word link in bio or even Spotify, they'll hide the comment. And we've tested this. I've written that. I've posted that comment under my own video, logged into a different account to go there and the comment's gone. And so they don't want to encourage anybody off the app, obviously. So finish this out. So it's Spotify, it's youtube then brand deals okay recently like the last couple you can negotiate like six figures high six figures depending on the ask i'm sure we could get even higher but like in our current state current followers it's like six figure deals syncs which is like getting your songs in commercials or tv video games video games all that stuff um publishing um can you explain publishing real quick in like two sentences?

32:12It's hard to explain in two sentences. But yeah, pretty much like a song has two parts to it. There's like the master which is also called the sound recording which is what the streams are. Yeah, what the streaming royalties are. And then there's the publishing side which is like the writers, the songwriters. And so the publishing you get paid for like performance rights. So if it gets played on the radio, if someone wants to cover your song and use your lyrics. So it's sort of like a different part of the pie. So pub and then merch and then live shows. So those are like our one, two, three, four, five, six, like seven streams of revenue.

32:43And people don't know this. Are you negotiating all this? I mean, that's very impressive. If you're the one also doing the publishing stuff and commercials and things like that. I mean, that's badass. I was up until like three months ago for the Sinks. I still am like if he needs to get his stuff in a TV show or movie or a game. I'm still doing that. But for brand deals, we brought on a brand agent team because I just don't have the bandwidth. I was like losing my mind because being a mom comes first. And if Jude is sick or having a tough day and things are due, I'm like, I need someone else to take this.

33:16So we do have a brand agent negotiating the brand deals, but everything else is us. And so you, um, you have these, uh, revenue streams. Most of the time I've heard that touring is like number one for a lot of artists. You put it at the bottom. We were just talking about this on a walk last night. I'm like, how are we going to talk about touring because it's just not, I don't like to speak confidently on anything we've never done ourselves. Of course, if you're at like Drake, Taylor Swift level, blah, blah, you're bringing in hundreds and millions of dollars. But just for context, we opened on the European tour and I had a chart of the money.

33:49I'm pretty sure we just broke even on that one just because you have to like rent a bus. You have to pay a tour manager. You have to pay for everyone's travel, your DJ, merch. How do you think about that? Because it's obviously a lot of effort. You got a little baby at home um you could you probably reduce your output on tiktok because you're touring because it takes up so much time you're breaking even but there's the fan love and you're like okay this means something and like that matters um and you know i think most artists give you the politically correct like oh i do everything for my fans and blah blah blah but like there's a reality there's trade-offs to everything me and sam experienced this and i'm super small level with the podcast where we did a couple live shows they're fun but they're a lot of work.

34:27You don't make any money off of it. And it's kind of like, well, that was just one episode. Like we could have just done so much more in that same amount of time. So we kind of, and Sam doesn't like to travel and I got little babies at home. So I'm not, I'm not looking to travel either. So we kind of don't do it that much. How do you guys measure that? Think about that trade-off of like the live fan experience, which is create super fans, but you lose all this other stuff. We found a really good medium for this. We met in the middle, Connor's booking agent. I totally forgot to mention her earlier, which is ridiculous because she's iconic.

34:58Connor's booking agent, her name is Kara Lewis. She also repped like Eminem and a bunch of other really awesome artists. And I've talked to her about it. Only white rappers she likes? Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Young Gravy. Who else? She had Travis Scott at one point. She's got Ice Spice right now. She's literally the best. There's an article about her and it's called The Most Terrifying Woman in Music. I'm like, I want that to be me. That's me next. Anyways, so we've come to a conclusion with her that right now, while Jude is in these early stages of life, and we're really just trying to build, build, build, we'll do pop-up shows.

35:30So for example, we're doing a pop-up show in Chicago in November, and then we're going to do a pop-up show in Toronto, his hometown, a few days later. And then he'll accept festivals. Like a month ago, he went to Calgary for a rodeo, and he did a festival where they offer you a certain amount of money, and you play for 45 minutes. I'm like, easy. He's gone for two nights. So we're gonna do that. And then just keep doing pop up shows to have fan love and like connect with the audience because it is really magical to hear people sing his songs back to him in person. Yeah. But the TikTok experience is good too, though.

36:05Because the thing about digital stuff is I see it. And even though I see 100 ,000 likes or 10s of millions of views on it, I'm like, I don't know who else knows this. And then I saw the video of you in Europe and you do really cool TikToks of you like before the show and then during the show. And I'm like, holy shit, this guy, this is a movement. You know, this is actually, it's sort of like when Casper and all these companies that like when digital companies started advertising and buying billboards in the subways and shit like that, you're like, oh, it's actually adds value to see it in real life as opposed to just on my phone, even as a digital viewer.

36:40You know what I mean? Totally. That's a great comparison. Yeah. Yeah. So for us right now, shows aren't like live shows, like a festival is a money thing. It is a revenue stream because he gets paid for like 45 minutes. But the concept of touring for us, it wouldn't be lucrative enough at this stage for us to invest the time, energy, funds, blah, blah, blah into it. But when he does do shows, it's purely fans. I know a lot of artists will like charge for VIP meet and greets. I'm like, why am I charging a fan to say hi to you? They're the reason we have a career. No. Like he'll stand outside and talk to absolutely everybody there for free.

37:10He'll go to the merch table, sign merch. The venues will try and even fee us for that. They're like, if he's at the merch table, there's going to be a fee. That's so silly. But anyways, when we do do live shows, it's going to be completely just for the fans and not a revenue stream. How big of a venue can you sell out right now, you think? We've honestly never tested that because we've never done a headlining solo show, but I'll get back to you in a few weeks when we do. What's your guess? You can guess. our hope is somewhere between 900 and a thousand those are like the oh dude you're gonna crush that well hey you know it's like the thing so i mean technically you could like who knows you could sell out a 5 000 venue like you never know but in the touring world you have to like build a proof of purchase first so like you can't just go from zero to booking a massive venue you have to start at this venue and then your booking agent can negotiate this venue And then this, because you have to like show them, hey, he sold X many tickets here.

38:06So now your venue should take him because you have to negotiate with like the promoters and the club owners. And so it's hard to say, like touring is a tough topic because one, we're not versed in it enough. And two, it's too complicated of a business to be like, I can go from here to here. You have to build. It's not as much like TikTok where we can go viral overnight and your life changes. Yeah, it's true. Sorry if that's a lame answer, but it's just. so mike posner went to my high school my college when i was there and then we were all like this is a guy in the other building that's trying to become a rapper like what is he talking about and um that he did so that was kind of amazing um and one of the things he did when he kind of came back so he like had his high like the traditional way and then he kind of hit a low where like he wasn't making hits anymore like his first album was like whatever big and then like he kind of dipped a little bit and then he like reinvented himself and he's like i'm gonna walk across America.

38:59So he started doing things that I thought were interesting because it added new layers to him, new dimensions, new content kind of like ideas. He wasn't doing it for that reason, but it worked well also. And he would do these pop-up shows just in a park where he would just be like, I'm just going to start playing in this park and see what happens. But like, it kind of didn't matter what happened live. Like some people got a magical experience that came or were there. Most people weren't there, but he's like, what does it matter if like, okay, let's say there's 50 people here that are having like a hundred out of 10 experience because like something over the top cool just happened and okay i don't have 900 other people here but this video looks so interesting and it makes me more interesting than the how a traditional artist does it so the content would always pop off and his brand would be kind of like the people's champion in a way that he would just do these free shows in the park rather than um rather than like how you know an artist would So I think, you know, there's something to flipping touring on its head and be like, I am going to do these fan things on my own terms, but I'm actually going to do them optimized for content and not filling venues because content is my game anyways.

40:05And if I just keep building that mountain, right, that's what Mr. Beast does. He's like, if I just keep building this mountain on digital. It always, like everything in this business, it's like, what's your goal? Like if your goal is to be a mega superstar and perform in arenas, then yeah, sign with a label and do those things and dedicate your life to building your touring resume so you can get there. But that's just not our goal, at least right now. So we're just focusing on making as much music as possible because I forgot who said I think it was this artist named Mike Studd. He compared songs to real estate.

40:33He's like, if you can buy a piece of real estate every two weeks, why wouldn't you? Some of them will remain shacks on the beach, but some of them will be mansions in Laguna. So that's our mindset right now. We're investing in as much real estate. What is your goal? Do you guys have like, do you want to do this for 30 years? Are you trying to just get super rich? What do you write on the whiteboard or on the fridge? Business, business. He loves the art and we love to make good music. But ultimately, the goal would be to scale this like we would scale a business and then potentially sell the catalog someday.

41:05Because it can be evaluated similar to a... What number? What number excites you? 50 million. at what age three or four years from now yeah okay i'll be your advisor no charge just add a zero to that number okay because that like you guys uh 50 is you guys you're already fingertips away fine sean how's 100 million no no out of 500 is the number uh what did what did bruce springsteen get dude i think bruce springsteen got 300 you know i want to say something here that's a little bit so I've definitely this is probably the most I've ever like you know complimented any guest on this podcast before usually even if I like him I know I'm hard to get a little bit Sam's usually just like Sam Sam usually fangirls pretty easily he's like he's like so you're hot and I just love people that are hot and like you know you're fit so like you know you're awesome and you know I usually keep it you know a little close to the vest but but you guys are you're the you're the creative version of hot and I think that's amazing and you're hot thank you yeah yeah we'll take the physical as well the thing that i would say that's kind of an insult is when i watched you on youtube i didn't have the same fun as i did on tiktok so like i watched the full songs and i was like these are good songs but i didn't like you know i wasn't like hooked and i wasn't um like i wasn't as like i felt like the things you guys are doing on tiktok i've kind of never really seen before it felt so original and um it almost felt like a different thing than like music, which is like a thing I understand.

42:37And there's a bunch of like pre-established music options that I can go to. I'm curious, do you guys feel this, A, do you feel the same way? And B, like, is there any part of your ego that's like, no, I want to be a traditional take me serious rapper versus like, no, this kind of like these tick-hack quick hooks, almost like half songs. That's my thing. And I'm actually creating a new lane over here. How do you think about it. The goals are different on those platforms. On TikTok, our goal is to reach new listeners. And YouTube is more to nurture the listeners we already have and to nurture the platform because it does pay well.

43:13So more views on YouTube is more money in our pocket from the AdSense and stuff like that. But yeah, with YouTube, we're not approaching those long form videos with the goal of reaching new people, if that makes sense. It's kind of hard to explain. And then also sometimes if the videos are a bit more polished, like for example, he did a song with baby no money and that was a very polished music video but like that's like baby's team right they were like all right if we're gonna do a song with connor connor's got to jump into our world and do a music video i'm like great then you got to jump into our world and do a skit so yeah well the thing about your skits is like first of all like i i see a tiktok video and then i listen to you guys when i work out like i i associate it goes video first then i listen to while i'm exercising that's our goal but i um when i see the video like you do this you have this amazing thing where you basically you're clearly an actor you have three characters you have the producer then you have you the rapper and then you've got your nerdy brother or cousin or whoever you're supposed to be the guy yeah like the guy who wears the turtleneck and i get to know the characters and you do such a good job i was telling sean i was like i forget you forget that it's you it's connor like you do even obviously it's you don't dress up or anything just the same person you do such a good job that i'm getting to know the characters it's very much like uh Dr.

44:27Doolittle or whoever it was, Tyler Perry, where they played the... It's the same actor doing multiple characters, but you're not even dressed up. I get to know the characters and I see the weird brother come in and I'm like, oh, he's about to do something funny. And I get to know the personality of the producer version of you. It's so good. You do such a good job of adding characters that when I listen to the songs, I'm remembering that video and that's what makes me like it. If it was just the songs, they are good, but I the the skits add so much meaning to it I'm like oh this is the carrot one you know what I mean so cool um and the funny thing is so like like music uh like if you listen to an album they they've always done these like skit type things in them like back when I used to have cds like Kanye's you know uh college dropout album there would be these little skits but they weren't that good and like they they weren't that funny they were kind of long and like um so that concept's been around how did you guys come up with this idea to have these characters how did you come up with the idea for the characters uh like what was the inspo behind that the characters was really just like we don't have anyone else like we're really like we don't really hang out with many people uh we couldn't think of anyone who could play these characters as well so i'm like kind of just freaking put on glasses and just be yeah it was just it really was just the most efficient way to do it and i i had control over the whole process because i was i film it all myself i set up my iphone film them late at night when the bait it's like you can't coordinate that with other people like hey can you can you come over at 11 p.m for a tick tock like no one's gonna do that so we just do a good job of getting like you have this other video uh i forget i don't even know who the rappers are like eventually i figure out oh this that's hoodie allen but in the video i'm just like oh it's a the skit is like it's a late night thing the janitor has to fill in yeah and i just know the actor as the janitor not even the rapper then you see him rapping and i'm happy it's really good this is like really creative stuff we would love to our dream would be to like almost make a not a parody but of like the office but call it the studio where we can kind of extend these characters a bit more and like go a bit deeper into them and maybe bring on a few new like if we have a episode of the studio where Connor's all these characters and then the guest is like Idris Elba comes in and he acts on it and then we get Courtney Cox to come in on the next episode and we use these connections Connor has from acting to now elevate his TikTok skits yeah that'd be fun and then I have another dream of like pitching spin the globe to Netflix.

46:48I'm like, how cool would that be if it's a 45 minute episode of Connor spinning the globe lands on a country, then he actually flies there and we meet the artists and we see their culture and we see the music scene there. Like for example, Zambia, we have to go there because it would blow your mind. He couldn't send us his video because he only had 12 hours of electricity allotted like per day. And he said, until we get a heavy rain, the government will not increase our electricity. So I can't send you my video clips. So we were waiting to post this episode because you don't have electricity in Zambia to send these videos.

47:22So I'm like, I want to go there and see this and like bring awareness to it. And I think that'd be so cool because you have food shows on Netflix. You have like Zac Efron changing the world. Everybody feeds Phil. Everybody or somebody if you feel yet. I'm like, Connor should go there and do that. But for music, I think that'd be so sick. Well, there's a few there's a few like paths here, I think. and there's a few examples one example which i'm not relating it as an insult but weird al yankovic like i bet you i don't know this for sure but i would bet you that weird al probably out earned most every artist from the 90s i bet you he crushed it in terms of obviously it was in the cd era where it was 22 for a cd that costs 50 cents to make but i bet you weird al crushed it and then the other guy and again i'm not saying it's just because he's another white rapper but Lil Dicky, you know, he's got that awesome show, Dave.

48:12He's done a really good job of parlaying this thing into more than just music and rapping. You know what I wish Dave did though, which I was so disappointed in? The songs on the track were so good and he's just now releasing them. I'm like, those songs should have been out because I would have streamed it. So not only are you making money from your show, but you're also making money because your Spotify is about to go up. So that's another thing. If we were to do Spin the Globe, all the songs would be out. You watch the episode and then you can instantly stream it. Yeah, that's another part of our rollout is we don't promote the song until it's out.

48:44Some people promote the song months in advance. They do pre-save campaigns, stuff like that. Wait, what were you going to say about that, Sam? Well, what I was going to say was Weird Al and Dave are like, I actually think Weird Al is even more talented than Dave, but they're both like this like cutesy type of thing. I actually don't view you that way. I view you as like significantly more serious. Like you're not like, I'm laughing with you, never at you. Whereas with Dave, it's usually at, you know what I mean? but he's still done a really good job of taking these over-the-top music videos and turning them into a thing but uh i actually think that you have more potential than him for sure because uh with you you're relatable but at the same time aspirational and like you're still serious but at the same time funny i don't know i just i think that's such a nice compliment but it's so hard to respond to because that that's just hard to respond to i don't know how else to word it but we love Dave and he's a little dicky so good and I just think I just admire you guys I just I think that you like you're you're gonna you're just you you both have the it factor and it's so evident and I think the reason Sean said add a zero to it was because we don't know anything about music but we've hung out with a whole bunch of rich people a lot of billionaires and shit and like you see like some patterns and certain things and it's like oh well this is yeah like we don't know how big this is gonna be it's already big, but it's going to be significantly larger than the way it is now.

50:04If you have a little bit longer of a time horizon and just keep like doing pretty good. How long does it take you to create, to create a video or a video with a song? So what is the creative timeline for, for, you know, one of these that you make? It could be like, I'm looking at your songs made or the song isn't made yet. Yeah, I guess either way. Or like, for example, this, uh, the, the top video right now on your Tik TOK is this collab, the branded collab that you did, um, with ruffles in KFC. So you did that. I assume you basically had to, you made something specific for that. It wasn't something you already had made, right?

50:36Correct. So how long does a process like that take you when you're going to create something from scratch? Or is it just some days it's one day, some days it's three months. It's hard to say. Like, do you have a kind of a consistent formula for creation? For songs, some days it can be three hours and some days it can be weeks because he's stuck on something. Sure. But for videos, I'll script something in like 20, 30 minutes and then he'll film himself for a few hours and then he'll edit for a few hours. Yeah. On average, I'm probably filming for one or two hours and then editing for one to three hours.

51:06And do they all have to be full songs or do you just do like, I make, you know, three verses and that's for this TikTok video, but I'm not turning it into a full song. Do you ever do that? No. Now we only will invest time in a TikTok if it can convert to streams or else that's just not uh lucrative for us i was like my brain fart but yeah uh for ruffles they only requested a 30 second demo so for that one specifically he only had to write 30 seconds of a song boom done easy but normally it's a full song needs to be done or we won't post it because tiktok doesn't pay you for views yeah but it does indirectly because uh let's say something goes viral now your fan base grows the next video you put out with a song uh It's going to pay.

51:50Oh, totally. But if the song is out, we can show you the charts. It'll be like, it's so much different if the song's out. Yeah. But I hear what you're saying. But I admire people who kind of like, there's a temptation. Anytime you're doing something new, because new stuff is so unproven, there's a tendency and a temptation to take the energy and the momentum from the new thing, but shift into the proven game. so for example i did a comparison once of joe rogan's podcast which is like an interview talk show type type of thing and i compared it to the top like uh the tonight show and i was like okay you know just i forgot who's the host or which show i did but like let's say jimmy fallon was the the host of the show and it's basically like if you just compare across every key metric so it's like audience size joe blows joe's podcast blows away jimmy fallon and actually has for years and years and years.

52:45Once Joe got the Spotify deal, then it was like, it got kind of legitimized. But way before that, Joe was making a ton of money and a huge audience, like five years before that. But people didn't think of it like a business because they just didn't have a headline of$100 million a year to Spotify to latch on to. Audience size, Joe is bigger. Production. Joe's podcast, I think, is Joe, Jamie, and maybe one other person. It's like three or four people total to pull off that show. The Tonight Show has like 50 people behind the scenes just to like run one show um like episodes per year he has like more output with fewer people bigger reach and the only thing that was missing was like it wasn't didn't have like a category that it fit into really it was like oh it's a podcast okay podcast like is that a business i don't really know like seems like there's a bunch of those um but joe stuck with it and like he had a lot of offers to do other things but he just stuck with it let it build build build build build so that then by the time you know it got really really big he could promote whether it's his own product like on it or some other you know athletic greens or whatever some product that pays him and start making ludicrous money and mr beast kind of does the same thing where like he flirts with this idea of like i could go create a netflix show but the reality is if you talk to him and you've seen him do what he's been doing over the last few years it's just like build audience build audience through this like what he's like why would i leave youtube i can reach more people than the super bowl and you're like yeah but it's different but he's kind of not wrong like he he is right it seemed like this frivolous thing and then now people see mr beast as like kind of a business entrepreneur guy but like it's because of like it's because he committed to this new lane like many years ago and i guess what i would say for you guys is it seems like you guys have a new lane of this kind of like what i'm it's almost like fast fashion but for music which is like these tiktoks that are hooky and and catchy and skit based and like they can get millions of views and builds you a huge fan base um and i actually think if you just stay with that and you don't try to be a traditional musician you're going to end up way bigger than all the traditional musicians it's the problem is it's just like a little bit unproven where that goes exactly or like and it's very tempting to like take offers from legitimate brands and and legitimate like paths that you've heard of but the good news is you're you're making millions of dollars along the way.

55:00You're making millions now. So at least it's at least you ain't broke. And we've talked to every major label. It's it's not like I our friend Nick said that he's like, we're independent by choice, not by default. Because you'll see in the comments like, why hasn't anyone signed this kid yet? Someone signed Connor. And I'm like, they've tried. We will not because that's not our goal. Our goal is to like do this ourselves, do things the way we want to do it. And honestly, like prove to other people that you can do it. because I had no idea that this was possible. And I'd love for other people that are making music to know it too.

55:31How old are you guys? I'm 29 and Connor's 28. Wow. And early on, I remember you had this cool video with Courtney Cox and then you had another one with, what's his name? Idris. Idris. Idris Elba. Those are cool. Have you had any other heroes or celebrities reach out that floored you? There's one guy I really look up to. His name is Russ. he's a huge I like Russ yeah he's a huge independent artist he really kind of wrote the blueprint that I followed if you want to talk to someone about independent touring it would be Russ because I know Russ does it and he sells out massive like if you want to talk about the financial part the business part of touring he'd be the one to talk to his song Civil War gets me pumped up great song yeah he's amazing but yeah Russ reached out yeah so he like DM'd and showed love which is just really cool because he's sort of been my north star as far as just like how to do this independent he wrote like unsolicited advice stay independent you'll be making ems like clockwork and i'm like that's all i needed to hear like thanks for us that was that was a really cool one for me he only talks and raps too that's amazing uh his dms are also raps it's so hard because that the the dms are so like um simu reached out oh simu leo yeah yeah yeah he he's amazing um yeah i can't i'm like you know when people ask you a question on the spot and you're like name a song and you're like i don't know any songs yeah there'll be random things where like i'll notice on tiktok like oh logan paul liked the video or t pain liked the video like you know there'll be little things like that that's cool as far as like directly talking to someone the big one that comes to mind is is rust just because he's someone who i'm trying to emulate as far as the business goes i know you're in vegas is it translating into off the screen stuff you know are you walking around downtown Vegas and people are coming up to you?

57:17Has that been happening? That's been the weirdest part because like I said, we stay in our bubble and we hadn't been leaving the house much, especially during COVID. And then we went on a trip to Salt Lake City because we love Utah. It's so random. But we went there and it was a ton. And especially at the airport, like the TSA agents are always like, oh my God, wait. They'll like look at his ID and then be like, the music guy. Like we love your stuff. And I'm like, that's crazy. But the best is when little kids come up and they have their little, are you a YouTuber? And they're so cute. And it's like, Hey, yeah, what's up?

57:48And we had like a five-year-old super fan come to Calgary to meet him at the rodeo. And Connor took him to Tim Hortons for donuts. Um, but yeah, that, that's, that's really cool. Cause you get to see it translate in real life. And especially when it's kids and you're like, Oh, that could have been like a core memory for that kid. That's really cool. Yeah. Now that you are winning in one lane, what I found is that when people are, let's say, winning, and let's say that right now you're winning in this content music game, you'll often see, it's kind of like Neo in the Matrix, you sort of see the game a little differently.

58:22You sort of see opportunities that, oh, I feel like other people could be doing this in this other lane, or we could do this, but we think that would work, but we just have our hands full, so we're not going to do it. But have you seen any, what I call, adjacent opportunities for either content creators or on the business side? You've come from a business brain, right? So do you see other opportunities? I just had one the other day. This guy, Kevin, he has this account on Instagram called Icon Brick, and he makes Lego animations. And I've seen a couple of big rappers and labels hire him to make Lego animations for their songs.

58:57Long story short, he's an incredible songwriter. And I was telling him the other day, dude, put out your own music and use this platform you're building to promote your own music. Like, yeah, every like 10 to 12 videos, you're doing like other rappers, but then slide in one of your own videos in there with your song. Wow, this is sick. I'm watching one of these videos now. Oh, they're incredible. We're actually releasing a song with him in a couple weeks. Dude, he only has 127 ,000 followers. You're buying early on this guy. This is great. Yeah, dude, he's insane. I'm like, that's a double revenue stream.

59:27You'll be making money from labels paying you to make Lego animations of their songs. Meanwhile, you'll be pocketing Spotify revenue for your own songs. So that's like a perfect example. That just won't happen. That one happened recently. So I can think of it. I can't think of any others that are super recent. You know, what's crazy is with TikTok, like, it's just crazy how sound bites are becoming songs. So, you know, like there's that one on TikTok where it's that lady going, I want to thank my man. Thank you for my man. I saw that the other day. it was just uh so she said that at a like yeah she she just said that at a uh at a uh award show and that turned into a clip and then yeah it was just it was her saying it and i don't know if she did it or someone else turned it into a thing and then there's this other one where there's this guy he's got a 30 second video um uh where he talks about his uh his boo thing uh but it it it's literally a 30 second clip of him rapping and i'm googling for this guy and he's got it has a million likes on Instagram on reels.

1:00:30And I'm Googling. I'm like, I want to see the whole song. It's not even a song. There is no whole song. It is just like his 30 second clip. And it's pretty amazing how things are happening with music where it's just a clip of a thing. It's not even real. I guess the best example of that is the corn kid. Remember that kid that was like, I love corn. And it became this viral song on TikTok for like six months. Yeah, it's amazing to start. That's actually something we've clocked and we've wanted to be careful of because sometimes people have their song go viral, the sound, but people don't connect that sound to the artist.

1:01:05So there were a couple like viral sounds. If you asked me who the artist was, I'd have no idea. So I was like, we need to be very cognizant of that and like, make sure that we attach you to the songs as much as possible, which is why we're so like long form skit focused rather than like, let's make a sound pop off. Cause it's great. It could be like a moment and a spike for a song, but long term, the goal is to attach Connor to his music more. Do you, on your way up, like kind of like when you were moving boxes at the Alpha Paul warehouse and you're, you know, in between acting gigs, you're maybe trying to make it in the music game and it's not obvious.

1:01:38You're like now you're winning and winning feels great, but you probably spent many years losing. That's how I felt in the world of entrepreneurship. I, from the ages of 21 to 29, I was only doing startups that failed. that's like i don't know eight years straight of just getting my ass kicked did you like dread going to family events because we dreaded it because it's just like the hey how are things going how's the how's the little music thing yeah no people would be like what's what's the new one because they're so used to me every year having a new story about the new thing that's gonna be the big thing and i was like oh damn you're right there is always a new one fuck uh like i wish just one of these was the one and uh you know like that that was it so was there any i guess like moments you remember from the kind of the bottoms uh that like you know either a decision you made a talk you had with yourself some advice you got that like sticks with you or helped you during that time it was just it was brie it was like you know i i i don't have a bunch of friends which that sounds strange i'm i'm a very social person and i get along with everybody but my core circle is very small.

1:02:46And I spend 90 % of my time with Brie, whether that's us working together or we go on walks every night and we just talk about stuff. And yeah, there was definitely a period, especially when COVID hit and productions completely halted. So I had already a year before that been struggling to get acting work. And then now there weren't even auditions and I was definitely at a low point and was like, what do I do? And Brie was somebody who very early on I had shown my music to. And this was prior to me showing, like I used to just record at home by myself. I didn't show anybody. It was just a hobby I had because I loved hip hop, but I was afraid to put it out into the world because I was afraid of the judgment I would get.

1:03:20He even had an alter ego called like, he's going to kill me. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. It's called unidentified. Unidentified. I use like a fake name and I would, I would use to upload music on YouTube anonymously just because I wanted to see what people would think about it. And I was like, that's stupid. Right. Without like attaching me to it and I was afraid what my friends would think like oh of course like the actor wants to be the rapper now and I was like frozen with judgment fear yeah exactly and and Brie has always from the very start just been such like like my my number one supporter and has given me the confidence and so when I was in that low point and music was something that I was sort of playing with she was like go all in on this trust me try it like try TikTok like what's the worst that's going to happen.

1:04:02Like nothing's going on anyways, you know? And so she, she was the one that instilled that confidence to like go for it. And Ramon instilled that confidence in me because I got hired at the pet company as a social media assistant and I met Ramon. And then after that, like a month later, he's like, yeah, no, you're my creative director a hundred percent. And anything I ever wanted to start, he's like, I'd be your first investor. I'd be your first investor. And he believed in Connor so much. So I was taking that confidence from Ramon, who was my mentor and I instilled it in him. Ramon told me, he was like, I'm, I'm, I'm, whatever they're doing, I'm in.

1:04:38And I'm like, you're an idiot, man. There's no, there's no money in music. Like what's there to invest in? There's nothing to invest in. And he was like, I don't know, but whatever, there's something here. I'm in. You were homeschooled? He told me. I was homeschooled. Yes. Up until high school. I went to a public high school, but prior to that I was homeschooled. Yeah. And, uh, do you think that that like, Did that help you in any way in terms of life? You know what? I think so because when I was homeschooled, I used to start businesses. I showed Ramon my business card. It was like Brianna Peterson.

1:05:08It was like violinist, pianist, vocalist, dog walker, pet sitter, babysitter, hire me for anything. I just had so much time on my hands and also creatively, I would write children's stories. I have old videos from the apartment complex. I wanted to be a director. So I would go around filming all the kids, like documenting their lives. So being homeschooled gave me a lot of time on my hands. And I think it gave me like a need for creativity that most kids didn't have. Because when you're in school, you're constantly entertained by other kids. But I just had my siblings and I, so I had to come up with ways to entertain ourselves.

1:05:45So we would remake spy kids. We would remake Disney movies. Like we would film them ourselves, edit them. So all my family jokes, so like you've been doing this since you were like four. Yeah, you've always been making content. Yeah, so no one's asked the homeschool question before, and I never really thought of it till now that I guess homeschooling really did correlate because it forced me to be creative. Well, we have a large male. Most of our listeners are men. The takeaway here is get yourself a strong woman to be your partner here. I mean, this is a really great marriage, it seems. You got to get yourself a strong woman to help make this all happen.

1:06:23I'm a huge fan of Alex and Leila Hormozy. I think that they're a superpower couple. You know what? They live in Vegas, I think. So I'm going to try and run into them at Milk Bar one night because they never skip dessert, whatever they say. But they're a huge inspo for the husband and wife business relationship because there's really nothing cooler. We get to work together, be parents together, be married. Well, I think most people... Actually, it's horrible. You guys make it work because you are both emotionally stable. You have similar values, it seems you have similar goals. I think in most cases, it's not awesome.

1:06:56I think working with family in most cases is horrible. Well, thank you. No, I mean, and we have our moments. I don't want to make it seem like it's always just so, so easy because like Brie had kind of alluded to earlier, it's really easy to fall into this. Like we work together, we're coworkers mentality when every so often it's important to remember that we are husband and wife and we need to find that balance. So we're coworkers who kiss. What's the big, what's the deal? Exactly. Yeah. no big deal we all do it um you uh we'll leave it this uh sam's about to be a dad you guys recently uh had your first baby any uh any advice by the way sam have you heard it there's their song about about their son there's a line in there he's like uh what is it it's like you got my eyes and i got your back i was like oh that's sick yes like i remember watching that video and i was getting emotional and and that's why i was like i think you're better than weird al and dicky and all these people I mentioned before is because like I see your stuff and like they don't inspire me I like them you inspire me I won't take any more little Dickie slander on this podcast for the record uh I feel like you know I let the first one slide the second one you know he's cool but I see Cotter's stuff and I'm like oh like little Dickie is like oh bro you just haven't looked into it enough dude no he's inspirational I'm staying out of this conversation you guys I love him.

1:08:14But he like his character of like this neurotic Jewish guy of like always complaining. Like, I don't think I want to be you or like I want to learn from you in terms of the day to day life. It's more so your career is amazing and I respect it and I like your music. But with Conor, like when I saw that song, I'm like, dude, the values that you're talking about the songs like I'm on board with like it. I'm inspired to live a little bit better. I love hearing this from Sam. And I know we have to wrap this up, but I'll just to jump on this point. so many artists have come to us and they're like Connor needs more of a brand.

1:08:43I'm like what do you mean? He's too normal like he looks like every other guy on your street blah blah blah and I'm like I'm pretty sure that's why people really like him. And you're way hotter than the average guy. Let's be real. Sam what's up with you and like hotness? Oh don't give me. Wait till we. You should show me your calves. If you got a good calf muscle I'll freak out over that. That's my one thing. Why'd you bring it up? They're terrible. Show him your calves. Show him my calves. Give me six months and I'll show him my calves. They're just like straight holes. He's got a private Instagram account for just calf work.

1:09:13He's been working on it for years. I'll send you a picture after. They're not great. But we're working on them. We're working on the calves. That's really cool to hear because the realness has always been something that I've had a gut instinct to stick with. It's cool to hear that confirmation from you. This is the first time that Sean has fangirled out a little bit. Normally it's me. Sean it's so nice to finally meet you and thank you thank you for the support and for watching and listening it genuinely means a lot Sean asked about baby advice yeah any dad the number one the number one advice we have is like and it's so cliche but just be so present in those newborn days because they flew by genuinely we look back at old photos like a baby photo of Jude will make me just cry instantly because I'm like I wasn't um I wasn't like oh no I was like I was so focused on business like too much so i wasn't like i would like hold him and wait for him to nap just so i could go work more but i wish at the time i was like enjoying it more so that so that you don't end up crying on a podcast one day here we are no the anytime we get crying we know our views are going to go up so thank you and don't go on tour for three and a half weeks because it was fun but he missed uh he missed a lot i think you're doing it right i think even if maybe there were some moments where I mean, where you maybe think you weren't present.

1:10:40I have a feeling just watching you on social media. I have a feeling you're doing things wonderfully. And the things you've said on the pod about the family business and everything. I think you got I think you're crushing it in life in business. You're crushing it in life. You're probably crushing it even harder. So I know what you mean. I look at those photos and I literally don't even remember. I'm like, I don't remember her looking like this. Right. It's like, obviously, I remember when I see it, but I'm like, oh, man, that just feels like two different times. And kids are this funny thing where like for me at least all day I'm like oh my god I can't wait for you to go to sleep or just like get a moment of free time and then as soon as we have free time that's all me and my wife talk about is it's like okay wait what do we want all this free time for all we're gonna do is talk about the kids anyways um like the funny things that they did today so it's like uh it's this cup that like you know you can never really fill up enough of but at the same time you're like um I don't know it's like this weird dueling thing I don't have like the words or the wisdom to like articulate it but I definitely feel it where it's uh you can never spend it's like an infinite amount of time you could spend but it's really not about the like you know the duration of the time it's kind of like did you kind of sink in and appreciate it versus um just like being there because I've had many days where I spent hours and hours and hours but I didn't really like I didn't really let it sink in you know I was just kind of passing the hours which is a little bit different so yeah I read something once where it's like as soon as your kid is annoying you put your phone down because if you're present in the moment, that kid isn't annoying.

1:12:04But if you're trying to multitask, the whines and that's, that's when it becomes annoying. So we've done a really good job at like, as soon as the babysitter leaves at three, like we didn't, we're just fully present. We're not, but when he was a newborn, we weren't doing that as much. So you're going to have more. Um, I don't know if I want to go through the whole pregnancy thing again. It was really tough on me, especially mentally after. I'm already a very anxious person. So I think having a newborn to care for while recovering from giving birth at home was pretty intense for me. I don't know if I would want to do it again, but we'll see.

1:12:40I know we want to adopt. I've been looking at adoption websites. I literally lay in bed and like cry looking at them because I just want to adopt all of them. But yeah, I think we got to see our son. We got to see what our DNA would look like combined. He's so funny. He's amazing. He's a little Connor. But moving forward, I'm like, I don't know if I need that urge again. I think I would just like to adopt a little Vietnamese baby from where my grandma's from and honor her in that way. You got to make sure they can rap too. Yeah, if they can't rap, we're not. That'll be part of the application.

1:13:11If they can't use three syllable words by 12 months, they're out. If they can't play three different characters in this skit, they didn't pass the 10. yeah no we definitely want more for a versatile child to adopt yeah we need some headshots well we appreciate you guys coming on you're amazing oh my god we appreciate you guys having us yeah this is an honor thank you i feel inspired talking to you i imagine sean i imagine sean does too and uh producer john jonathan was texting me and he goes i'm loving this they're so damn likable and i have a feeling thank you jonathan that was my biggest fear not being likable because I never really come on camera or do stuff like this, but I knew Sam.

1:13:51So I was like, okay, I know Sam. I want to do this. But normally I'm very fearful of criticism. I've always been pushing. I think you need to start like your own personal brand. Like you're so knowledgeable in the music space and you're always behind the scenes. No one knows who you are. No one knows how impactful you are and what I do. And I think you need to start putting yourself out there more. That's very nice. For sure. Well, totally. I mean, if you look at their marriage and end well, so that's not the great example, but The Rock's wife, I forget her name. What is her name? They got a divorce.

1:14:22Danielle? They did, yeah. That's so sad. But they still work together. They have an interesting dynamic. Oh, cool. Yeah, they still work together and she's known as being a pit bull. She is feared in the industry. She's sharp. And I think she has more talent underneath her now. But that's an interesting example, other than the divorce thing, of the business going well. Besides that. Besides that. We'll workshop our next analogy for you. We can go back to the lab on that one. well and people people hate on chris jenner but uh in my opinion i love chris jenner i think i'm like i don't know man she seems like she still has a pretty healthy maybe i don't agree with all the tactics but her kids and her have a great relationship and it seems like it's worked really well and everyone's provided for i was interviewing a nanny that nannied for them and i was like i was like i'm probably not gonna hire her but i did like five interviews just to dig for information about what they're like and she was like i think by the third interview she picked up that i only wanted to ask her questions about what it was like there and um and i was like yeah i'm super curious can you just tell me some things and she was like not really and i was like okay i respect you for that that's that's fair uh we like the kardashians i once made connor binge watch a whole season with me i didn't i didn't get the feel at first and then afterwards i'm like oh i get they're all just killers like they're all killers yeah like and you know you don't have to agree with all the stuff they're trying to do famous but they seem like they have a great relationship they have good relationships yeah they all stick together the loyalty of that family seems strong well thank you all for doing this this is awesome thanks for having us thank you so much everybody go TikTok is that the first place you want people to follow you sure yeah I mean just well honestly I think Instagram is safest I was going to say streaming services just like going to your favorite streaming service typing my name all of it typing my name Connor Price you'll see all my songs there but yeah TikTok Instagram oh you know what can I plug one thing sure any streamers or video gamers watching this all of connor's music is dmca safe so you can put it in your videos without copyright yeah i created a playlist on spotify uh under my channel that's called like dmca safe copyright free where it's all of my songs that are copyright free because i have a few songs that i did with other artists and they have their labels get involved so you can't use them but i have a list of all of the songs that you could use on your youtube videos your intros for your podcast whatever you want unlimited use um because i don't do youtube id i think the long-term value of having creators use your music is way more than like trying to get a few dollars every month because somebody used your song in a vlog.

1:16:48So yeah, if you're a creator and you are looking for copyright-free music, I have a bunch of that that I want people to use. And Brie, you're on Twitter, but you don't have any followers. Oh, I don't even... Do I have a Twitter? I don't even know. Oh, I found it. I was going to say you should promote that because I bet a lot of people are going to want to DM you. Oh, I signed up on Threads. I have Threads. Okay, hit her up on Threads. But Threads doesn't have DMs. You're going to get a lot of opportunities from this. you just got the Brianna Price handle on Instagram. Oh yeah, I got my Brianna Price handle on Instagram.

1:17:14So yeah, just search her up on Instagram because you're definitely active there. Yeah, someday I want to. And I just got this Instagram handle I've been dying to get. It's called Home Studio because I want to start a newsletter for independent artists. And then eventually - Oh, I saw your newsletter. It's really horribly named, by the way. You need to change that name. No, I stopped that. The independent one. Yes. I stopped it. That's done. That's done. The idea was good. Thank you. The spelling was the worst. Thank you. I know. I got it. That's done. Don't worry. So I'm switching. I want to do home studio because I want to build a newsletter for independent artists and then also then turn that into a potential.

1:17:47We sell like home studio kits where everyone's like, what mic do you use? I'm like, just buy Connor's kit. It comes with a mic, headphone interface, smart, everything you can use to make money from home. And I'll record all my songs using that kit. So it sells itself. Amazing. You guys are awesome. Thanks for coming on. I have a feeling that the next time you guys come on, you'll be 10 times bigger because you have the talent for it. And I think you've stumbled into something really, really amazing. And I think if you just keep going, it's going to it's going to get really big. So thanks for coming on.

1:18:15And that's the episode. That's the pod. That's the pod. Thank you. Thank you.

1:18:23I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like my days off on a road. Let's travel. Never looking back.

1:18:37Hey, let's take a quick break because there's a quote that I love I want to read you. It's that we shape our tools and thereafter, they shape us. And as an entrepreneur, if you're using a bank that was built in the 90s, you're operating like you're in the 90s. And trust me, I've been there. Clunky portals, random holds on your money,$50 wire fees, and then being told, please visit your local branch. Well, that's why I switched to a different type of banking solution, Mercury. It turns your financial chores into a smooth workflow. You can do wires, invoices, cards, reimbursements, two clicks, and I'm done.

1:19:07If you're already using Mercury, respect. If you're still using one of the old big banks, I got questions for you. So go visit mercury.com and give it a test drive. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust members, FDIC.