How Rance 1500 Turned Music, Culture & Relationships Into Wealth 🎤 E168

0:05Dan Fleyshman:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money Mondays podcast. We cover three core topics, how to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. As you guys know, these podcast episodes are under 40 minutes for your listening pleasure. Why? Because the average workout takes 45 minutes. The average commute to work takes 45 minutes. This episode will be between 35 and 39 minutes to make it nice and easy for you to listen to. As you guys know, we don't do a bunch of fancy sponsors here. I've been running this podcast for almost four years now, sponsor-free. There are two partners on this podcast.

0:38Dan Fleyshman:We don't do any affiliate codes or things like that, but FanBasis.com and GoHighLevel are who power my actual life for many, many years. And so if you like those multi-billion dollar type companies to help you with your back end, check out FanBasis.com and GoHighLevel. Now, without further ado, when we listen to these podcasts, keep in mind, it's not just for you. It might be your friends, family, and followers that might need to listen to this episode. It might be for people from your past, present, or future that need to listen to this episode. Our guest has worked with some of the biggest artists in human history that you've listened to.

1:13Dan Fleyshman:Billions and billions and billions and billions of hours of music has come through his fingertips and from his mind, working with household names, which I'm going to let him get into. And as you guys know, these episodes are designed to open up your mind because too often we grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. It is not rude. The whole reason for this podcast, why we have a 93 % listen-through rate, is people want to talk about money. Money is not the root of all evil. It is a tool for your food, your beverage, your medical bills, your light bill, your cars, your gas. Is there a little bit of evil?

1:48Dan Fleyshman:Some tiny little percent? Sure. There's a little bit of evil in everything. Movies, film, medicine There's plenty of tiny little piece of evil In any category But the other 99.999 % of money Is a useful tool for everything in your life For your kids, your parents Your travel, your medical And everything in between So as we get into this Rants 1500 Give us the quick two minute bio So we get straight to the money Two minute bio Born and raised from LA Four time Grammy award winning producer I got like Four times Yeah, four times Worked with Artists such as I did like The Box Ferrari Ridge Boot Up Ella Mae Last couple Justin Timberlake albums I did Chris Stapleton Justin Timberlake They got You know Got a country one for that Worked with everyone from Maluma to Eladio The Latin side Wow I got the number one Netflix show out right now That I compose called Nemesis crushing it.

2:51Um, we just put out something for the basketball commercials called the drop It's the spin-off for snowfall. So I'm also composing that We're about to do the Jay-Z show At the Yankee Stadium. I can keep going We'll go more than two minutes. Go ahead I don't want to go to him, but God is good.

3:12Dan Fleyshman:I'm just blessed man. All right these artists that you're mentioning from Maluma to Jay-Z and everyone in between country artists Latin hip-hop and all they have a lot of options there are tens of thousands of music producers out there people that can help them with their albums or their songs why you why Rance 1500 why do they keep coming back to you um I'm someone that took the stairs and I learned all the rules to break the rules to make new rules so when you see you know someone in a group of people making new rules, you create your own hub and culture, you know, and that gets recognized because, you know, we're an acquired taste.

3:52You know, I'm somebody that came from church, born and raised in church and, you know, being from L.A. and understanding gang culture and then traveling with Snoop Dogg after high school, doing four world tours now. Four world tours? Meeting princes and everybody that paid them. That's my friend now. So it's just just me understanding like the importance of people and real estate of people and in being a service to people could make you a lot of money later later It's hard in the beginning, right? See it's hard. It's hard in the beginning, but you know, you get what you give so

4:30Dan Fleyshman:So someone's out there they want to be a music producer or rapper country artist, etc They're first getting into music. What would you say to them to give them a chance to beat out the other millions people that want that spot? Also, it's about the foundation you have to study study study study the great study from I mean, I study hits and people from 1960s and up that understands human behavior because when you understand it from all these different Years it becomes the same thing. You'll figure out a pattern. You'll figure out a pattern with space figure out a pattern when And, you know, there are songs where it's a question in the beginning or in the question in the hook.

5:09And then you're like, oh, OK, that works. People like that or you're telling them what to do. And like Bruno song, they're giving you direction. You understand all the rules and you can just make it yours when it's in your brain.

5:21Dan Fleyshman:So they decided. They studied. They listened to Rance. They've been studying, studying, studying everything from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson. They've been learning all the different styles. And they get started. How do they start to stand out? so that people want to book them to work on their label or their album or their tour. You stand out by putting in a work. The work shows when you stand out when you do the work and music spreads, you know what I mean? And you got to differentiate yourself from everyone else. You know, if everybody's going left, you better go all the way right. You know, understanding like the blue ocean strategy.

5:57If you see, you know, 20 red pigs going this way and one pig blue going this way, I'm looking at the blue one.

6:05Dan Fleyshman:Yeah, so like that. The money part of it, the make money part of this podcast, where is the money for a producer? How do they make money? Are they getting paid in advance? Are they getting paid royalties? Are they getting paid percentage? Are they crossing their fingers to get paid? Most producers get paid in advance. You know, when you're working with a label, that's the structure. Labels got a certain template, you know what I mean? So with the labels, you get paid in advance, and you get publishing, mechanicals, radio. You know, I thought you only make money seven different ways, and I looked up my term and told me you make money 52 different ways.

6:44Really?

6:45Dan Fleyshman:So I'm going to continue to do my research on that. But it's a lot of money you can make, And it could be for film and TV and you know the money we're making for Composing these TV shows is it's a totally different thing than you know working with artists and music people Which is also totally working with independent artists. I can work independent artists and you give me you know 200 ,000 and we'll do the album in a week have all the coldest people writers to come in give them some money and then We're done, you know, so you can make money a lot of different ways or you could own half the masters with them or you know I think the best way is just sharing it's a long you last longer when you share and when it's fair how does someone figure out what the heck to charge when they're first getting started or should they do it for free at first just to get in the game I mean bro my first my the first time I got paid I got like five thousand dollars for a long time when I first started that's how that's the lowest right you should get if you have at least one placement but then you are who you negotiate you know how you negotiate though i also sing deals for hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on if it's songs or if it's just one song or depending on if it's the prince's daughter or if it's you know what i mean so it all depends but you should always whatever it is you should always cut them a deal or make them feel like they're getting cut a deal does a personal brand matter does social media matter for a producer uh it does when you start the engine you gotta have some music you gotta have something to make people care about you you gotta you gotta have one word that aligns with who you are where we can oh he did that oh she did that yeah and then that's when you can turn your social media up so i used that trick many years ago in in each category but especially my energy energy drink days i got into 55 000 retail stores with this drink and i did every single meeting every single presentation the same way.

8:45Dan Fleyshman:I'd walk in. Let's say you're the buyer from Costco and it's one o 'clock. I'm like, yeah, this morning at 11 a.m. I met with 7-Eleven and at four o 'clock, I'm going to go meet with Budweiser. They do my distribution out here. So I just really want to figure out how many drinks do you want to order?

9:01Dan Fleyshman:25 seconds. What did I do? I flexed on them. Then I have retailers. That's their competitor. I told them I have the distribution from a big boy that's in their space. and I didn't ask if they're gonna buy, I asked how many they're gonna buy. There's no if. How's there an if? I'm already with 7-Eleven and with Budweiser. There's no if. And I did that with this intense, I don't wanna say cockiness, but like confidence that I acted as if it's not even an option not to buy from me. Right. And by doing that in the music game, if you say, look, I did this record for this person or I did this song or I did this commercial or I was on this TV show or this jingle, you now can act with confidence that they have to get from you like if they don't they'd be crazy yeah but it's also a preference you could you could tell me you did all this and i can hate every movie and film you fucking did so it's also about being a service and just being a good person and always just you know being like yourself bro you know what the fuck i'm talking about so how does someone learn how do they get better is it just studying all the grades or are there actual schools or academies like you worked with the academy as well like yeah yeah um so we had a academy called 1500 sound academy which was x-men school for the best creators in the world where all the teachers are famous we didn't have we taught everything from tech fashion film music sports but mainly music and how to teach how to make hits human behavior hits to where you can write a song and without a human even realizing it they're moving their head dancing and you're really taking control of the subconscious mind and that's when you can do that and make people feel good that's when you know life gets better so let's do the same thing for a rapper or country artist or someone that's actually singing performing or rapping what would you say to them to stand out when they're first getting started i mean you got social media you got youtube tiktok you got it there's so many ways to be creative you can do one song and do a Spanish version or Latin version.

11:02You can take whatever your concept of the song is and align it with products and then try to sell that as a product. There's so many things you could do. It's just being inconsistent. Being consistent and good. Some people are consistent and bad. You've got to be consistent and good.

11:21Dan Fleyshman:That's what I say about poker players. You're practicing wrong. Or basketball players. You don't practice free throws and you just shoot them when you end the game. Exactly. You're never gonna be Kobe. You're never gonna be Jordan. They practice for hours before and after so When it when it comes to Someone they make their songs they get booked they're performing at these nightclubs They're getting performances. They're getting to be like the third performer at a big concert for a big name When it's time to move up is it connections is a relationship? That's when it's collaboration That's when you got to have one good song and people want to collaborate with you And then those collaborations that's when you can start, you know, borrowing fans And if you're that good you can end up, you know having new fans.

12:08So Collaborations and just being more consistent you can think you're doing good being consistent YouTube and every day But the higher the steps go you're gonna have to do more more radio stuff more content You got to really treat your life as a real business, you know

12:24Dan Fleyshman:I mean two of the most famous stories about people getting discovered was before social media was really that big Justin Bieber on YouTube with Usher and Scooter and that whole squad and Tyrese right singing on a freaking bus yeah cuz real phenomena is you can't like you can't if phenomena is when it's just amazing and you can't you know so like Michael Jackson you know sometimes when you make a song like oh this beat is gonna be it yeah you could say that but I've I've been wrong a couple times because it's about the engine it's if you can't just have a good song and a label that don't support you and the tree falls in the forest no one's around here that don't believe you a lot of things could go wrong right what a hit song you know what I mean so it's really about everybody being aligned together you know The label itself these guys, you know have to sign 20 30 40 50 100 artists hoping for one two three or four successes Tell me about the label side of making money.

13:32Dan Fleyshman:Is it are they like venture capitalists? They're just effectively gambling They just give you money and your face and I Mean, but I can't even it's about you really understand how to get an attorney and getting in the terminal and And then, you know, it's a lot of things to where you can't make that mistake to where we made 20 years ago, having been not able to pay certain attorneys and stuff like that. So it can get tricky because with labels, man, it's tricky talking about labels. I still work with a lot of labels. Yeah, we don't need to name names, but like we've heard the stories of what happened with 112.

14:13Dan Fleyshman:A lot of them weren't really making money when they had a multi-platinum singles and albums. We've heard about obviously the NSYNC back to board stories with that guy Lou Pearlman like we've heard the different scenarios Over the years of record labels owning even when someone hits it and they become very successful Are still not really making money and that all comes from what you're saying is that the devil's in the details, right? Yeah, the contract it's in the words They're made up they make up a bunch of words that you don't understand and put some money in front of your face to where you just sign Most people make that mistake but not realizing that you're signing your future off.

14:47When I was young, I made that mistake. I signed a terrible publishing deal, not knowing it was a publishing deal. And for seven years, that's why I went on tour. And I didn't even want a major hit. I was getting the best album cuts. But as soon as that deal was over, number one after number one, it was a blessing. But I had to learn the hard way. That made me read contracts. that made me understand what perpetuity is and worldwide territory and all these words that could just ruin your life.

15:17Dan Fleyshman:So when it comes to the music industry, there's a lot of ways to make money. The tour that you mentioned or a concert or someone performing, a lot of times it's actually their better cash flow for them than the album itself, right? You hear about sometimes someone like Mariah Carey will sell millions and millions of albums would actually make more money from her tour doing A Million A Night, doing 80 Cities, right? Walk us through the concert tour side of things when you mentioned you went on tour. I mean, it depends. Some artists do a deal with Live Nation or they'll do their own tours. When you're doing your own tours, that means you got a piece of the tour.

15:55Yeah, you're putting up the money or you got an investor, you got to pay back. But I mean, it's tours, it's an everyday. So you're making money every single day when you're doing music you get paid maybe every three months every six months But you're making money every day on touring and it's not just touring depending if you got a 360 deal or not You could be getting merch some tours make more money in merch They do it's always because they got to pay people and they got sponsors for the tour Yeah, and then depending on how like amazing the artist is and how big they dream a lot of the artists can lose money on tour because they want an LED screen or they want a 12-piece orchestra just because they care about the stakes.

16:39Dan Fleyshman:And they want to bring 24 friends with them and get a whole extra bus for them. Yeah, it really just depends on what level of artist that you're at. Alright, so they've been making money. They became the top couple percent in the industry. And now they got this extra money. What would you say to them so often that are going broke or bankrupt because they're making a million dollars, two million dollars but like athletes like influencers like celebrities and some musicians they then spend it all what i've learned what i would do is you get that million dollars you borrow it against yourself you take that million dollars now you got two million dollars you pay that off use some businesses and and try to grow that money and then you always have that extra million dollars that you never spend and you invest you real estate there's stocks there's so many ways people are making money.

17:31Now it's unfair, especially having this podcast.

17:35Dan Fleyshman:Yep. So the whole concept is we talk about the making money side. Let's talk about the investing side. You have so many options. You just listed real estate, stock market, crypto, cash flowing businesses. Your friend has restaurants. Your friend has barbershops. They open a nightclub. There's so many things you can invest into this plant or this pillow company. There's unlimited options. Since you have access to so many people hitting you up all the time how do you decide what you want to invest your money into um i decide if you start the engine first you got to start the engine don't come to me talking about you know i got an idea because i got an idea but it's really about starting the engine and you could tell if somebody's really serious it's you got to look at it if either they're going to do it with you without you and those type of people you want to stay stay close to and people that really understand the language of it because take fashion film music and sports if I if I know if I say I do music I better know what you know a scale is or a flat and you know all that type of stuff same thing with venture capitalists you got to know RSU stock options 409 A's vestings quorums all that type of stuff so you understand the language changes the game for me because then I can learn stuff for me too where are you learning the venture capital side you just rattled off some very intricate things in the venture capital space?

18:55Well, me also doing music, I've been blessed to be on a few boards. One of my best friends is Ryan Breslow. Actually, I met Ryan Breslow through somebody telling me I should meet you. And so he has a company called Bolt, FinTech Company. It's the one-click checkout.

19:12Dan Fleyshman:Yes, Bolt's huge. I was evaluated at like$14 billion before COVID. And he's young. He's super young, super. But he was someone that was like, yo man I see what you're doing I want you to be a part of this part of this board and because I brought something that they go left I go right you know so when when you understand innovation it's it's old and new it's it's left and right yeah so I was just he told me to look learn all these words and understand it and if you don't know them figure it out because you gotta be able to you know the questions and do my fiduciary duties and you know know what I'm talking about and I did that and it changed my life so then I was like dang and me understanding VCs and now I'm on the board of Suno so that was number one AI company you know out that's out right now so I had to learn more words for that so now well what I've built is a company called Academy called culture silicon where we're bringing tech to the hood yes we're teaching everything they're not teaching in schools from babies to teenagers to adults from everything from UCC codes to Tax breaks.

20:24I study every billionaire in the world To where I've really studied them and I've created a curriculum Understanding how they even build their trust how they I mean, it's it's pretty sick And then it explains the culture version of like how me Nipsey and 50 Cent talks and then the silicon version of how Y Combinator talks, you know, so it's pretty cool

20:46Dan Fleyshman:Is there somewhere people are gonna be able to find that later? Is it around now? Oh, it's a just it's out We're doing slow launches, but uh within like the next two months after this Jay show. Yeah, we're going full force of culture silicon. So so On the investing side, I have this theory I call 40 40 20 40 % low risk. I want to make between 5 and 9 % for the year 40 % medium risk. I want to make 10 to 30 % for the year and 20 % high risk. I want something crazy to happen. It's shot at glory like 7x 12x. But if it doesn't work or it takes a long time, I want the medium risk and the low risk to cover the high risk.

21:27Dan Fleyshman:I preach about this. I talk about this all the time. I'm trying to make it simple. If you buy from Amazon all the time, maybe you should buy some Amazon stock. If you have an iPhone that you pay $1 ,500 a year and you upgrade every year and you've got a laptop and you've got AirPods, you probably have some Apple stock. So true if you're driving a Tesla and you're listening to this podcast in Tesla right now, how dare you not have Tesla stock? I wish more people knew that. That's that's what you got to teach in the first grade class of coach to look at We need to know that as children. Yeah, so important if you shop at Walmart all the time You should consider Walmart stock if you use use Facebook and Instagram every day Well meta stock is publicly traded.

22:07Dan Fleyshman:It's being used right every single day And I try to keep it that simple because these are household name corporations that are part of what's called the S &P 500. The S &P 500 is the top 500 companies in the world that are on the stock market. Over the last 93 years, that's averaged 11 % return on the S &P 500. Keep in mind, recessions, depressions, war, so many things have happened during that time and still averaged 11 % a year. Over the last 20 years, there's only been three losing years. So as an investor or as a gambler, 17 good years, three bad years, sign me up. And so I say that because you guys can be looking at things like the S &P 500.

22:47Dan Fleyshman:Can it lose this month? Sure. Can it lose in seven months? Of course. But over the course of time, we've got 20 years and 93 years of data that shows that it works. Because you're betting on the top companies in the world. And so researching things that we're talking about here today, real estate, stock market, cash flow businesses, and find the things that are interesting to you because you want to start to deploy capital. Okay. You're around celebrities, entertainers, athletes, business people. And what's fascinating is the venture capital world and the athletes, they want to be around the rappers and musicians.

23:23Dan Fleyshman:Musicians and rappers want to meet the athletes. You see that all the time. How do you deal with the relationship building side because that's an important piece of your world to juggle all the different people in your ecosystem? Because I go to your events. It's every culture, every age group. There's a 16-year-old girl. There's an 88-year-old grandpa sitting next to me. Talk me through that. It's just about good people, man. And I just like to just put – it's such a disconnect between tech, fashion, film, music, sports, VCs, family offices to where they don't even hang out, they don't even drink, eat the same food.

23:59It's a total disconnect. but one but we got the same purpose you know we want to be great we want to do things we want to give we want to help people we want to build major businesses but i'm because i'm like in the middle of everything i'm with the vcs and they're like you know man i wish we had some celebrities to

24:18Dan Fleyshman:build our products and all this and i'm like oh they can just call a group training right now like but they don't but i had to but they don't realize i had to be on tour with snoop for 15 years every day, you know, doing stuff that... To get them to answer that phone call. To get them to answer that call. So it's valuable. And I just don't think every... From the creatives, founders, operators don't understand each other's value. And when everyone understands each other's value, then we could change and break the rules. You know what I mean? But everybody got to be givers. And I haven't seen all the givers.

24:55Like just imagine we had every attorney full of givers that really understood all the secret words that can really make life better Right and help creatives to where the creatives can really 20 30 extra money if you really give them their fair share They don't really really understand that but you really get what you give so, you know bigger is a big reward

25:16Dan Fleyshman:So some of the music that you work on some of the production and events you do is that a place called we play studios Yeah, shout to we play studios max you're uh um fence we got we got a real cold squad there man where it's literally um the only place where you got tech the only this is the place where tech fashion film music sports bc's family offices live just like the coolest soho house for the coolest people in the world but um these people i'm dealing with they're ukrainians and they specialize in um motion captioned VR, AR, live streaming, live broadcasting, and we got an alcohol license every day.