Unleash Your Creative Genius with Clear Intentions | Jason Derulo EP 395

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:11I think a lot of people are in breakdown now, but they have a hard time getting clear on what they want and where they want to go. How did you get clear? Like, okay, I know I want to do social media now, and I'm going to go all in on it for this year. I know I want to go and do this music, and so I'm going to go all in on the studio every single day. How did you get clear to even execute that routine on the vision? I'm a guy who feels like you should work on your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Yeah, this is one of your 15 rules in your book. My falsetto is probably one of my strengths, right?

0:46It's like one of the things that I feel set me apart. So I work on my falsetto and I utilize it. That's something that I, you know, will just continue to work on because I feel like that kind of sets me apart. And something that I was weak at was social media, right? So like that was a perfect opportunity to like, let me utilize this time to really kind of see if I can knock this out of the park. Now, were you also thinking like, OK, TikTok is this new thing. Let me start on TikTok. And well, here's an opportunity. Or were you like, let me do YouTube and Instagram and everywhere else where people are already at.

1:18Or were you like, here's an opportunity. I see some people starting to pop off. Maybe I could start here. Was that the strategy? I genuinely saw that there was an opening in the TikTok space. I saw my nieces and nephews on it. They were very young. All day, right? All day. Obsessing. It was an app called Musical.ly at the time. Yes. And I was like, what is this app? Why do you like this? This is not even like you slow down and people are dancing and doing lip syncs. I'm like, this is not how social media works. You're supposed to show your life. So I was like, let me give it a try. And then I did a live.

1:55And then I had a lot of people on my live. I was like, wow. On TikTok. On Musical.ly at the time. On Musical.ly, yeah. I was getting more engagement with my 2 million followers here, and I had like 4 million on Instagram at the time. And you weren't getting the engagement yet. And I wasn't getting that engagement. So I saw something. The pandemic hit. I was like, I've been meaning to like really dig my teeth in this app. This is the perfect opportunity. Let me try it out. So I was posting one time a day. Then I went from two times a day. And then like that went to three. And then all of a sudden when I posted six times in a day, my following, my followers started to explode.

2:33And it got to the point where I was receiving over a billion views a month on my TikTok. When that focused energy hits, it's different, man. But like I go nuts with it. Like I know I have to be obsessive to be the best at anything. You have to do way more than anybody else is going to do. So I knew I had to. OK, Charli D 'Amelio is posting like five, six times a day. I know I have to post that. She's uberly successful. I got to do it too. Addison Rae is doing it. There is the blueprint. But you had a lot going on still. Even though it was a pandemic, you know, you got a business, you got music, you got things you got to do.

3:08How are you doing everything else you're doing and your routine and working out and doing six videos a day? Prioritizing the videos. I prioritize the videos before anything else. A lot of people thought I was out of my mind. People laughed at me from being on TikTok. I was an artist. I was supposed to be in like this world-renowned singer, and I was on TikTok. With like 12-year-olds. Yeah, exactly. And they're like, this is for 12-year-olds. What's he doing? Exactly. Interesting. So how did you quiet the critics in the music industry and other celebrity friends who were like, what are you doing, Jason?

3:41I didn't want to quiet that. I didn't care. Because I knew in the back of my mind that those 15-year-olds in five years were going to be 20 years old. Right. So even if the elders didn't join, the party, the 15-year-olds were going to be 20 in five years. Thankfully, it all happened way faster than that. It worked out. But that was a huge gamble. It could have went either way. It could have. The interesting thing is sometimes we do things where people might laugh at us, but later they're replicating us. 100%. And that's what people have been trying to do with you. TikTok is now the gatekeeper of the music industry.

4:17It went from being something that people laughed at in the music industry to being the gatekeeper. The top 13 songs of last year, 12 of them had a major social campaign. Like a trend to them. A trend, yes. Really? Those numbers are staggering. Social media now is for everyone. Everybody is a brand now. It doesn't matter if you're a doctor, if you're a lawyer, if you are a fireman, if you're a beekeeper. These are all businesses and you personally are a brand. And until you can see yourself as a brand, you are totally selling yourself short. I'm so sick and tired of hearing, it's not for me, I'm too old.

4:57Do you not see that's happening in the world? It's all about social media. Every single brand out there is scrambling, trying to figure this thing out. But if anybody knows, it's the creators, it's not the brands. Right. Because at the end of the day, they're just hiring somebody that sounds like they know what they're talking about, but they don't. Right. Because they don't even have following themselves. Why are you listening to that person? What was the three biggest things that came out of the growth of your social media, the three best things that have happened for you since rising to social media stardom?

5:30The number one biggest thing is what I can produce from an ad. The money that comes from that is substantial. It's really, really life-changing, and I've been doing music my whole life. If you are a huge brand or a blue chip brand and you're looking for eyeballs, eyeballs are on socials, right? And it used to be where they would go and get a commercial or they would go and, like, put it on the radio or something. But now, socials are the biggest thing in the world, right? And the viewership that I get on my page, I mean, you can't get that everywhere, you know? Can't get that on TV? You can't because the biggest shows in the world are only getting like four or five million views.

6:11I mean, you know, like my videos are in the double digits all the time. Also, it's become like this crazy thing that I never expected was going to happen. Honestly, I was trying to connect the dots with everything. And I was like, if people got to know me better, they'd probably listen to music more. But I never thought that my social business would be as big as my music business. Really? How else are you monetizing besides, I guess, brand deals? Are you selling your own stuff now? Are you building your own businesses on the back end that are either silent or public? What are the businesses you're building or the other revenue streams you're generating beyond the brand deals?

6:50So now when any company comes my way, if they are not, you know, the biggest companies in the world, I don't want to mention any brands. But if they're not the biggest brands in the world, they have to come with some sort of equity conversation now. So if I believe in a brand, I can get ownership in so many different brands like this. Every day is like a new thing. You never see the deal that you didn't like, right? They all look amazing. They all look amazing. But you got to go for the ones that you personally love. That's a huge win from socials as well, obviously. The best thing that I like, man, honestly, I love the fact that people got a real inside to my life.

7:35Like, people will ask me how my dog is. People will ask me how my son is. Like, I think that's just, like, a beautiful thing. Like, I've never met a person in my life, and they'll come and ask me these personal things about me, and I just think that's really cool. That's beautiful, man. I feel like people have, like, a real inside now. That's beautiful, man. What is the thing that people don't know about you that you wish they knew? But I just really enjoy building things from nothing. That's my passion. And so, like, writing a song is like building something from scratch. Real estate, I love, you know, building things from the ground up.

8:08Businesses is the same way. I love building the businesses from the ground up. And that's kind of been, like, my last, like, five years is just, like, starting something from scratch. And then just, like, you know, watching it grow.

8:30Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple podcast right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

9:20Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.