 What up, what up, what up, I'm Brandman Sean. And I'm Corey. And we are back with another episode of No Labels Necessary where you can tune in every Tuesday, every Thursday on YouTube, Apple Music Spotify, wherever you stream podcasts to hear us chopping up about music, money, and the creator economy as a whole. Now today is a very special episode because we went to South by Southwest and we want to talk a little bit about our adventure of sorts, right? It was an adventure. Yeah, it's got a lot of interesting little stories. And then I know y'all got some questions. So we already got some questions from people specific to South by Southwest in terms of do we think it's worth it, how we would move if we went back again or how we think artists should move in particular. But first, I want to start with a topic by J.R. McKee that's very relevant to going to any event like South by Southwest. Check this out. Want to learn how to build relationships in this industry. Listen, the thing is relationships are mutually beneficial. You're an artist, you have talent, you have to use that to build on. Listen, you need a piano player, I play piano whenever you need one, let me know. Listen, I write songs. Listen, I do hooks. Listen, I'm in Houston. If you need somebody to move your artists around the club, I got all the clubs down here on lock. Listen, I know all the DJs. Come with something that's mutually beneficial. Bring something to the table. Come with your talent out and not your hand out and you can build a relationship. Straight forward. Yeah, straight forward. How do you build relationships in the music industry? Rachele, that's how you start with it. Yeah, bruh. Especially as an artist, man. Like I was just having a conversation with an artist about this, like two days ago. I was like, man, you gotta realize, bruh, the artist is your competition, your comp, you know what I'm saying? Everybody don't like working with comp, but when you say, hey, you know, I also play the piano, now that other parts can see the situation in where you're not competition, you're more beneficial to them. You know what I'm saying? And so I think he's touching on something important. Like he's not even saying like, yo, what are your music talent? Right, leave your music talent. He's just sounding your lead with a talent, in fact. Cause you never, you never really know what other skills you have that these people might need until you break it up. And sometimes it'll be like random shit. Like you'll be like, you know, all I know how to do is I don't know IT shit. All this dude's a producer. You know what I'm saying? He don't need IT shit. He's like, yo, yes I do. You know what I'm saying? Like I would love to have an IT person in the studio or help me out or something, right? So not even just leading with your music talents, but like leading with things that you have that overall might be beneficial. Now, is it gonna be beneficial to everybody? No, right? But sometimes, what I've learned in networking a lot of times is sometimes even making the attempt is enough to let the other person know, like you serious, I don't need marketing, but that's fine, you know that. Yo, let's stay in contact if I ever know somebody that needs it. I just link y'all together. Win is win, you know what I'm saying? And that's still a win in that scenario. So yeah, man, that was a bar. Now, yeah, I definitely agree with that. Big bar. Especially like what you just said. Artists, if you were the artist as competition a lot of times, it just is what it is. And it's interesting, I didn't expect that going in. I remember someone used to tell me about that where you would be like, yeah, man, you know, artists, if you were the artist's competition and I'm a songwriter, so they tell me everything or people let me in every other room or whatever because they don't view me as competition. I'm writing jiggles for Kate Martin, like writing stuff for their stuff. Like, so it's just that other guy over there in the room. And you gotta be aware that in terms of one, what value do you have beyond just those musical talents? Right, because nobody's gonna find value in every single thing. Some people might not find value in having a songwriter, right? You're like, nah, I write all my whole songs or I already got a stable of songwriters, right? So like no one person is gonna find value in every single thing. But also on top of that, you need to be able to like just read the room to see what they might find value. Yeah, exactly, right? Yeah. I then figure out, oh, can I help you with that? Whether it's me directly or do I know somebody and just plug and build a relationship from there? Yeah. That's how I see it. That's a good point. I'm thinking about it like, you don't even have to be the one with the talent. If you're close to the talent, a lot of times that's enough for these people. Oh, I don't do IT. Not my roommate do IT. I can put you in contact with my roommate tomorrow and you can let you know what he does and whoop, whoop. And if that situation goes well, then you get out of the benefit, right? They're gonna always remember like, oh, this is the guy or girl that put me in contact with the person that helped me. And just like we said, sometimes that can be just as beneficial as being the person that actually helps them. You know what I'm saying? They'll see it the same way. Yes, I agree with that, man. Cause I think there are not enough artists try to lead with value. They usually try to lead with like, yo, this is what I need. Yo, I'm a big fan of you, and I see you do marketing. I need you to help me with marketing. And it's like, I'm gonna be real with you, bro. I don't give a fuck about none of that. Like we ain't crossed the barrier yet of like, should I care that you need or want my help? Or is there something I could get out of this? And it sounds fucked up, right? Some artist try to minimalize like all this selfish and it's like, what the selfish you to ask me for help? Well, you don't want to need help. You know what I'm saying? You can ask me what I need in this situation. So I'm going to be selfish back and be like, no, I don't know if I want to help you yet. I don't know what the fuck you can do for me. And everybody in music is thinking this way. Everybody in music to varying degrees, of course, right? But everybody's thinking it. And it's just one of those things I think it's best to have in mind, right? Before I go talk to this person, let me see if I can assess and see if there's a way I can help them out. Or let me see if I can at least get into conversation with them, not ask for anything until I've assessed what they might need from me. And then I figure out a way to work that back into, you know what I'm saying? Like what I need? Some of y'all just jumped the gun so fast, you know what I'm saying? Like be too over eager, bro. Oh my God, there's Sean, bro. I'm gonna go tell Sean how much I fuck with him and need his help. And Sean, you know what I'm saying? Sean, I'm gonna cut off by a car on the way to the hotel, you know what I'm saying? Sean having a bad day. And then Sean'll look at you like, no, I don't want to help you, bro. What the fuck can you do for me? And you feel crazy, you know what I'm saying? So I think it's a lot of that like happens in music, right? A lot of like unequal value exchanges on different sides of the networking spectrum. And yeah, it's just looked at like, if you can at least figure out how to assess what type of value this person might need and then see if you can bring it or like you mentioned be able to introduce them to someone that could bring that value, then like your networking experiences would go much, like much better and go a much longer way. Exactly, exactly. And there's something really key that JR said that I don't want y'all to miss is going to really save your feelings in this industry. And we got some stories from South by South, was like I said, we're going to get right into that. But before I do that, got to break this down for y'all. So with this video from JR McKee, y'all know he knows this stuff and y'all don't. This guy is the guy who broke money long. He owns a distribution company. He's been in this industry for years, worked a little, helped break a little dirt, helped build Alamo was integral on that role. And if y'all don't know, we got a course with him breaking down not only how he broke money long as an artist, play by play, step by step, the real details. Y'all don't ever get the talking about how somebody is blowing up from some of the people who actually was working on that project. These are the details. One of the best courses we've ever created in all the years we've been creating courses. Just check out brandmannetwork.com slash shared information course. We're gonna put this in the link in the bio for the YouTubers, but brandmannetwork.com slash shared information course. Check that out. And if you get there, we're gonna have something. We got something like big coming real soon that people will get that. They're gonna be able to be as a part of it for completely free. But with that being said, what did JR said? Say, I wanna replay this clip. I'm gonna learn how to build relationships in this industry. Listen, the thing is relationships are mutually beneficial relationships are mutually beneficial. That's the big part, right? That's the part I don't want people to miss because I know oftentimes people, people in the industry like, hmm, how do I say this? All right, so this is an industry that's very casual. Oh, I thought you were like selfish. Yeah, people are selfish though, right? Even in a positive way, like you have to just in life to some level. Yeah, be selfish, yeah. Just to live, right? But no, this is a informal industry compared to others as because things are so casual, things can feel like friends real fast, right? So someone might be talking to you, just met this person, you hung out with this person a few times and now y'all feel like y'all are friends, but really y'all are still just getting to know each other. You ain't been working with them long enough you don't have anything going on with them or you might even get into a business dealing with somebody and all of a sudden, you know, things are casual so y'all think y'all are friends, but you just started working with this person. You have to build with anybody to know how you can trust them. And I advise people to start with this is business and then figure out if y'all are friends that can't be friends from there. I agree, bro. That's my least favorite part about the industry is that everybody wants to be friends. Nobody just wants to do like good business. Everybody wants to be friends, bro. I hate it though. That was actually one of my first things. I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna get to that. Because that's funny that you had that respect that was probably why we linked. And we worked so well together. But like people, people like I know a lot of artists get hurt or like an artist will move on and sign a deal and a person who was like the manager or not even manager wasn't officially in business but was thinking about making the management or was thinking about signing that will be heard that the artist moved on but you could have it on paper. And I understand of course that you were just building up. You had your long sales cycle that you were building but you have to know that's a possibility that they can get taken away from them. And if they see a situation as good business for them then that kind of just has to be is what it is. We had a situation recently where we ended up not doing business with somebody that we were talking to about an assigning type capacity or working with them in that type of capacity. We don't got no bad blood. They found a situation that was for them. Hey, let's chop it up. And we still plan to keep rocking with them in self-former fashion. I thought I'm doodled up the thing. Yeah. People have to see it that way and then let things build from there. If you continue to do good business, which is separate and then you continue to build with somebody and build a legitimate something level of friend relationship and you stay in this business long enough, it's gonna come back, right? But you could just be like, oh man, this man finesse me. This artist done, you know what I mean? Now I mess with him because he saw me and now like you miss out because maybe that artist continues on and becomes like, I don't even have to become somebody big. I don't like just like banking on everybody. But that person might just continue on in life and end up having resources that could be helpful to you at some point down the line. And you continue to stay in relationship and they'll know that, oh man, even though I didn't go with them, they didn't dis me or do not crazy or whatever. People recognize that kind of stuff over time, especially as they start to deal with some of the fluctuation, right? So, but a lot of that comes from you building and having confidence in yourself of being able to survive without having to have that other person, right? And I think sometimes people's anger is just like, man, I can't even do to get where I was. I was playing in my whole life around them. I'm just gonna do right so I can go. Yeah, yeah. Now, back to what you said earlier though, like that whole, I wish people would just like this. All right, like everybody ain't gotta be your friend, man. Gotta be your friend? Yo, man. I, when I first see a guy in the music coming from like other industries, it was just a little weird to me, bro. It was like, man, like, let's just do the work. And then, so it's the opposite. It's like you can do the work and then chill. And other industries oftentimes, like it's just the formal way you move. Usually they try to chill, chill, chill. You wonder the work is ever gonna get done. So, and then that makes it hard to identify if you're dealing with somebody who actually do the work at some point. Or, you know, if you're dealing with somebody who's just, it's gonna stay that and they never get to it and you gotta figure that out fast. I'm better and better at that. And I think because of like the success that we had so far, we are in a space where like there's more people who just like get to the work one day, might wanna do a deal with us. And it's very clear and it's about business, which is fine, right? Yeah, I love it. That's the mutually beneficial aspect of it. Don't think that they're your friend. Don't think that when they have to make some kind of decision that they think is business, that, you know, it is. It's just like that just was what it was, you know? But like the way I look at it is, I like to do good business and then hopefully find friends to give it. Yeah, like I feel like if we're meant to be friends, things are gonna lie. Like I have some music industry friends that I just did not plan on being friends with, but life put us in certain scenarios. You know, you would, they would say something on the call that would make you laugh. But I'm also, I also kind of fuck with that. You were talking about that, I was like, well, like things naturally happen, but I would say if I had a ballpark, I'm probably friends with maybe 7% of people I've done business with, probably put a number, maybe somewhere between 27 and 10% I would say, because, you know, try to keep, keep them across that barrier for as much as I can. They slip over, that's the way I look at it. I build the wall intentionally. And if you slip through, you slip through, but I ain't trying to bring everybody across the wall. You know what I'm saying? The friend wall. Yeah, sure, the friend wall, like some people gotta stay where they are. And like I said, this is the only industry I've ever been in where it's even like, like some people get offended when you don't want to be their friends and music, man. It's the craziest shit ever. So I mean, isn't the fact that I'm not about to scam you and do my job like enough? Is that not enough? You know what I'm saying? Like you want, you want friendship for me as well? Like, man, come on, man. Right, right. And I mean, and it's like a no offense thing because it's like, there's people that I would love to be friends with if I had time with more friends, you know what I'm saying? I think that's part of it is just like you said, like you said, people can slip through. And it's people that like, I feel like we weren't doing all the stuff that we were doing. We will, we probably would be really good friends because of where we match and think, you know what I'm saying? But hey, just have a good associate ally. That's what you should be looking for. Yes. You know what I'm saying? It's friends, allies and enemies. Allies are not necessarily your friends. They have similar incentives to you and there's a character that y'all kind of all abide by. And that's what you're looking for. It's like, just like global politics, right? So, oh, we believe in communism. We believe in democracy. Every country is still for themselves. But, hey, we link with y'all because we're trying to keep the world in a certain side of things. And then y'all got the other side of links, however they link up, all right? Allies are the ones that are gonna be there for you. And business is for their friends, right? And that's what some of y'all, I encourage you, I implore you not to look for more friends, look for more allies because, hey, they just are good if not better many times. Because you can trust them to show up. They're not better because of the agree, I didn't think about it, but the agreed upon character that we both agree to stay in. Are you gonna stay, you know, this person that maybe wanna work with you, at least to majority capacity, right? I'm gonna stay this way, for majority capacity. Friends don't, friends don't deal with it. And that's what I be saying, sometimes I think that's what people be trying to really say is what you just said and that the skies are just friends. I mean, you don't really wanna be my friend. You don't want the labor and the work that comes with being someone's true life. You want the good parts of it, hey, we have positive conversations about things that we both agree on. We can tend to do good by each other. And we both win, it's like, that's not necessarily a friend, you know what I'm saying? But the word gets thrown out a lot. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? I didn't think about that until you just said the agreed upon character, I made it clear. That's so true, but I just want you to, you've been cool this whole time, I just want you to stay cool, keep clanging his invoices and let's keep winning together. No more, no less. Hit you up, we know that I'm coming with something that's probably about this and I can trust you to like break it down for me if this makes sense, give you a P, you know, connect me and then you can do the same, right? And it's beneficial too because you get to move faster. All right. You don't like, you know, I don't get on and just start ranting about my life, people are like, hey, yo, what you doing? They're like, hey, that's nice to hear. Yeah. But I was like, Sean, why are you waiting my time? Where it's an hour and you ain't coming for nothing? Like they actually want to help you, that's the funny part. It's like, no, like, and that's the great part about allies, you know what I'm saying? It's almost like, oh, Sean probably needs something and I'm like, and I'm gonna pick up knowing that he probably needs something and I'm willing to give him what he needs, but I also trust that Sean is not gonna ask for nothing still a bit, right? And then also I know Sean's pick up and give me what I need or help if he can, if I call him, right? Beautiful, very beautiful relationship. And, you know, like over time, over years and years and years, I think it's hard to have like, you know, like a long, long, long-term allies that don't, you know, in some sense, you know, friends will become friends, but it's mission first, right? Like, let's get there. And because we are now in this rare air together, it's only us we might as well be friends. Made it past the battle. It's like teammates on the sport. Like, y'all don't start out friends, y'all start out with mutual respect for each other's skills and crafts. And you're like, hey, man, whether I'm willing to put personal feelings aside to some degree to work with you to make this thing happen. And then like, you see a year later, those players be best to friends and shit. They get podcasts together and things like that. It's crazy, right? But they had time to let that relationship develop. I mean, that's what I'm saying. Like, it naturally happens in music. I think more people in music need to stop trying to force it, because I've even heard, like, Aries and things that are like, I can only work with people I'm friends with. I'm like, oh, really no. It's interesting because you're gonna be a lot of really talented people that do, they do very well. They do not want to be your friend. They just want you, like I said, they just want you to clear your invoice. Talk to you, you know what I'm saying? Get your thoughts on a couple of things. They're gonna do what they want to do. And you can't say they're bad, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's not really a good or bad thing, right? And then at the same point, hey, you gonna fuck around and put your friends in some positions that they shouldn't be in, because you don't want, you want somebody that you like to that capacity. And, you know, the working with friends is a whole different conversation. But, you know, that could go in so many different ways. There's so many different reasons, especially depending on the position that you put them in. Yeah, man, I think that's just the best way to look at it. Like, hey, can we build a foundation of respect and mutual respect for each other's talents that make us work with each other in a respectable capacity? You know what I'm saying? There's no finessing, no, no ill will towards either. But we both work for two people or two institutions during the best that we can to move this thing forward. And then maybe we can become friends a lot. And if we don't, I'm fine with that. If you don't like me, I got some people that I only hear when they need a campaign running. Ooh, that man. Imagine if I was like, damn, bro, that's fucked up. You don't ever hit me up when you want some Facebook guys running. That's crazy, bro. They be like, man, what the hell are you talking about? You want this money or not? Just like any other company. Yeah, exactly like any other company, bro. That's the problem there. There's no company face and people, so it's like more, you know, you're going direct to person a lot. Usually there's no company that you're doing business through. It feels like a company wall to stop all that. Cause then I think about like when you do, when we do business with, let's say like a, like a BMG or something. Like the big ones, like you don't really feel that way. You don't, I'm not, yeah, I'm not on the calls. Like all of this marketing record, BMG is trying to remember like, no, they just like every week, there's the men, there's what we're talking about. All right, great. See you next Monday. I hate you on email if I need something beautiful, beautiful, I love it. So amazing. On that type of time. I can appreciate you that it just also makes your business just easier. All right, it's good. So yeah, I haven't heard the, I haven't heard that I can only do business with friends. I've always heard some people say, I can do business with friends and family. The can do business with friends. I can only do business with friends. That's like, I don't know, man. That's wild. First of all, what level of impact do you plan to make? Because science claims you could only remember like 150 people, you know what I'm saying? So once you get past 150 people, like you just stop making impact. I don't know, man. It just doesn't make sense. I would take it as a sign of like a new artist. I trust it. Yeah, exactly. Like if you were saying things and I'm like, okay, you ain't, you haven't been around long enough. You would know there's no way. Like I said, the bigger you start to get, the more you start being put in situations where these people are not your friends. They're just people trying to do good business. Oh, ideally you're trying to do good business by you, right? So yeah, whenever I hear Art said, I'm like, oh, you ain't, you ain't been around long enough. You know, you'll figure it out. You ain't went through, man. Yeah, you'll be back. Yeah. Hey, well, like that's the perfect transition and start a topic to get to this trip. South by Southwest. Southwest. Austin, Texas. My first time ever going, you a second time. My second. Basically, I was living in the first place. Okay. It was so long ago. My first time was pre-pandemic, so, you know. That's a big start, sober? No, yeah, exactly. My very first time, we got back from South by Southwest and then the next week was when it let a lockdown. So I was still out here. Probably even something like that. And I'm like, oh, did you such a such a looks? No, man, that was pre-pandemic shot. Man, I was, man, good. You're labeling me? Well, this trip was, it was definitely a dope one. Like a lot better than I. I presumed one because we went, we didn't have any tickets to the event. We knew we were gonna make some shake. We always figure out how to make some shake. Yeah, I believe in me. All right, every single trip when you get there, you don't know how it's gonna shake yet. So there's the period of, all right, I know I gotta make sure I win and I feel like it's worth it by the end of this. Yeah. You go there every time what you used to, what you used to it. You just know it's gonna come. It's like, all right. Right now I'm wasting time and money. Like I pay for this. You know what I mean? I'm gonna hear the joke. We don't want just to have money hanging out, right? So there's that. Before we get into like some of these details. It's bad. I would say my biggest highlight was the scooters. Okay, yeah, I mean, I feel like I would say the same but it's gonna expand so much time. Like the scooters were like 40% of the whole trip. It really was. It really was. I just love the fact that she could go so fast, man. You know, we talked about this, man. Like Atlanta, they slow you down so quick, man. You can't go nowhere. They got everything, Geo, you know, Vince to whenever it starts at your speed, you might turn up for like, I don't know. Maybe about five seconds and then you slow down again. We were on like 17, 18 for like a mile. It felt like that's for lying. He had main roads. Main roads. Shout out to Austin for that. Y'all keep that culture up. Bobby highly disappointed if I went back one day and that was different. Yeah, Austin got some of the wildest sidewalks I've ever seen in my life, you know. That's interesting, man. The sidewalks that made for people just to be on, you know. I used to say Atlanta sidewalks, what they made for you to like get discouraged and get off and go back to your car, you know what I'm saying? I was like, hey, man. That's funny. That's funny because it was like the opposite, like New York, all these people on the sidewalks and he could, you really don't want to be in the car. And Atlanta was like, now I'm getting this coming. Get in the car, bro. Get in the car, I was like, get in the car. And you feel like people are out and in the way in Atlanta, in your car, you like now. When you get a car, you're gonna bite, get out of the way. School to get out of the way. Definitely a different culture. Now, again, as I said, we didn't pay for any tickets because we saw they were 800 or something dollars. Peace. And the regular tickets for the full events were like $1,800. So just music, the last, maybe four days, maybe five, was $800 or something dollars. And it's not that we can't come up with $800, but we don't continue to do well in bed by just throwing $800 around. Throwing $800 every time something called for us wants it. Yeah, and we didn't know what the direct ROI would be. We're not guaranteed to be talking or dealing with someone in particular. It's just wild, wild west. I'm just getting thrown into the conference land. So I was like, okay, we're not paying, but we do need to go. We were in a bus to a hotel. I ain't gonna lie, bro, it was moldy. Yeah, I ain't know if you saw any mold. I just didn't want to address it because I knew it was only beer. I ain't peeping, man. That's fucked up, bro. What? You know, that's crazy, bro. You ain't gonna touch it. I'm like, you're right, man. It'd have been nicer than I was. What I was dealing with. But you know, it was a bus to a hotel right across the bridge, but it's a feist. It did what it needed to do, for sure. And like with that in mind, you know, get there, chill out, you know, get acclimated. I'm definitely gonna get acclimated instead of hit the ground when I go to these type of events. But get acclimated, start figuring everything out. You know what I mean? Fresh enough, you eat the bathroom, catch up on work, do what you gotta do. And then finally, it's like one thing to go to. And that first night, what did we do? We went to the Dolby thing. Dolby thing, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were gonna go to the... We thought the Bidgey Law thing might've still been going on or something there. And then we went there. And we missed it. And we missed it. But the Dolby thing was hard because, I mean, well, it was just a cool display. All the tech we had, it wasn't a Maybach or something. Yeah, Maybach with the new Dolby technology in it. Whatever, I don't know what they call it, but... So that one was, I feel like that one was a nice get into the city. But technically, we didn't do anything there that we could've said, like it was ROI that night from a standpoint of like, all right, I could go home and feel like this is already worth it. No, I mean, we ran into the one old client on the way from the event. On the way from the event? Yeah, so you know, maybe that'll turn into something. That's what you're starting to do on the thing. So this is the strategy, all right? Now, you know, I know y'all ain't trying to hear it. Just talk about all the details. I'm gonna get to the strategy on this. Every time you go, it's the same thing that I would do like on Brain Breaker. I go someplace like with, I don't know, in college. You go, fill it out, and then you start meeting people. And then you ask people, hey, what are you doing? What's up? Where you going? All right, where are you going? What are you doing? What have you heard, right? Whether that was like a party or a club or something back in the day, here is like, all right, what event? Is there anybody in particular that you're here to see? What do you do? Maybe we're worth like continuing to know. And in fact, that reminds me of that girl that we met. Did we get her information? I feel like we got her ID. At the Adobe thing? Yeah, yeah, I think I got an ID. She did something. That's the cannabis company. She worked for a cannabis company. That was interesting. I gotta look deeper into that. So that's the strategy, all right? If you wanna go to anything, period, that's probably gonna help you out. But then, especially if you're going for free, like you just ask people, ask and ask them. That's the important part. If you're going for free, you have to talk to them, everybody coming real. Because if not, you're like, well, the paid events are pretty clearly laid out in the app and stuff. But which I thought we were gonna kind of get into. Usually the more fun stuff, or not even just fun, but the stuff that you can tell is gonna probably have the most high quality people there, you're gonna learn about it just by talking to people. Like a real party bro, like man, I've talked to 10 people in the eight of them. Keep talking about this one event. Shit, we're going to this one event, you know what I'm saying? Exactly. And seeing what's cracking there and if not, then we can go back to the one to the other two people brought up. Right. See what that joint looks like. You can judge whether the event is worth going to based on the quality of the person you're talking to. Yes. Quality of person doesn't mean just this is their role or already popping or not. You might not even know. It's literally just how they're presenting themselves. They seem like they got a good head on their shoulders and do they seem to be on the same type of time you're on? Yeah. Right? Some people who could be, I think you could be a major label exec, got a good career, but AMA, really, I'm just here to kind of like chill. You know, I'm going to speak on my panel and keep pushing like so it's not like they're not going to know where to go or they know where to go. It's not necessarily going to be in the mix that you're specifically trying to be into. Yeah. So yeah, feeling people out now, I can't tell y'all the exact way to do that because I don't know what type of time you're going to be on in that moment. Right? Right. But finding somebody who's on the same type of time that you are on. Right? You could all vary different times at night, different times at day, right? So that's the rule. Now, on top of that though, then of course you got to start doing the weight of things. What's up there? All these events. I got all these people that said go here and there. Then it's logistics. Like, which of these events seemed like their most worth going to? What's the distance? Do I have a car or not? Do I have a scooter or not? You know what I mean? Is it cold or not? You know what? You start weighing in every single thing. Yeah. Like, do I need to dug it out? Do I need to push through? Right? Which, like skipping ahead. The night where you went to go see Hannibal Burrs. Which, shout out to Hannibal, man. I still ain't, Yeah, you got to mean, this is a cool guy, man. This is a cool guy. I still ain't like, you know, obviously met you a person or even had the phone combo. You know what I mean? But the short exchange we had and knowing that you were fan of the pie, I really appreciate that, man. And this was the mentality when I say, again, like we ain't in moments of logistics and stuff. Like, you ain't no going like, you tell her I was asleep. Yeah, you're a hot fuck up. And we were waiting here back. Like, we were pretty much out for the night except for if he had hit us up. Yeah. All right? Then I'm like, hey, by the way I feel, I'm just gonna have to sleep. Cause it'll suck to be up for like two hours and he ain't hit us up. And then we got to go and I'm just, I'm hurting. You know what I'm saying? Well, I'm a sleep and then, or I'm up for two hours and then nothing happened. And then I'm still hurting, you know what I mean? But I'm just gonna go to sleep. And I'm a rare like napper sleeper type person. Yeah. So usually I don't go until I'm just out for the night. But go to sleep. So I point, you're like, hey, y'all might go out to meet Hannibal. I bet, man, you got him glad to sleep. So glad it's two of us. Power in numbers, baby. With him wet back to sleep. Which is important, an important tip. Well, like, hit these events with multiple people. Yes. But sometimes you got friends that just are better at making friends than you are. That too. Sometimes you got friends that got better. Now they can manage night better than you can. You know what I'm saying? They're more like that type of time. Like it sort of helps, bro. Conquering the body conquer. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like better at things, no different topics better. Like whatever it is, whatever it is. And, you know, then, cause you wake me up, I slept for a decent amount, but it was like broken. So I actually woke up. I probably wouldn't have woke up if you didn't wake me up at all. You know what I mean? So I woke up, I'm like, all right, hmm. This is that wake up where you really should be going back to sleep. He kind of, am I gonna wake up at night at all? Yeah. I was like, I'll get up and pat you on the floor if you say you want to go to the gym. Hmm, let me go see my home. My home, go to this. It's like, I don't know what your query got this. Good. But at the same time, Dianna Shaw, you know, you're not gonna be here forever. You know what I'm saying? It's only, I bet that was technically last night. Right? Last night, Dianna, I'm a fan of Hannibal. I really thought you, you know, I just know it's comedy growing up. I didn't know much about the music side of it. I mean, you didn't really have it out there, but I was like, I'll be dope to meet him if that does happen. But even if I don't make, I like, you know, should just be happening at night sometimes. So you got to go. Or even not just at night, like stuff just to be happening. So you got to go and you only hear for a reason. I get up, let you know I'm gonna get there. You tell me, you will, you end up sending me a location or whatever. I think you're still talking to Hannibal at that time. And then hop on the scooter, cause I'm like, dang man, scooting at night is a little different in a city. I know, the breeze start ripping through your jacket, man. So ripping through the jacket, bro. I really know. And I'm like, ah, everything felt like safe ish that I was in and around. We rolled the scooters before. So everything should be all good or whatever. You know, cause I'm, look, I always had this one rule. You don't just go to anybody hood, you know what I mean? Like my hood is good enough. I don't think I'm hard to just go up to anybody like trying to, there ain't no chance you take. Yet somehow I'm riding this scooter. I'm like, huh, this is taking me in a direction that we haven't been yet. Wait, what the fuck? I'm not going to a bridge, a highway pass. The bridge was when I was last. I was like, I was like, okay. Interesting. You know what I mean? I see some, a couple of people that, you know, that obviously weren't well, you know what I mean? It looked like they might bite you. You know what I'm saying? I was like, all right. You know, I'm on the scooter. And there's no protection. And I'm fast. And I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I might believe basically I don't have no problem. I'm like, hey, someone jumped at me. The scooter, like, you just, you don't have to like engage. You know what I'm saying? And you can't up the scooter for me. And I could catch a scooter on foot. I wanted to. So I know there's other people that could too. I'm like, all right, well, whatever. You know, you know, you just got to think you always, you never stop sculpting. But I'm just like, all right, cool. Cause this, this is looking very different than what we were before. I get off on a scooter. Well, after I like pass all these police and I don't know what was going on. And get off. I'm like, it's nobody outside but me. However, I'm in the middle of a place that don't look great. And I'm like, you know how, have you ever like put in the address and it'll be the right address. Somehow it's on a different side of town. It might be something like Southwest versus Northeast or something. I'm like, I don't know. Ain't nowhere in hell is your Corey here and didn't warn me. Corey was there and didn't warn me. I mean, you shouldn't say like at least look sketchy but you in the right place. That's all. Yeah. Cause in my defense, right? When I went, I was riding behind a group of other people on a scooter. So we was, we was in numbers. See that gang. Yeah. So they were like ahead of me. So I know if anything like fucked up where to happen and come like they will react to it before I would see it. And I could just make my decisions based off of that. So I didn't think about it being a sketchy place until like you call them like, man, like, was it in this place in the sketchy place? And I was like, kind of sketched out here. Like it was like a bridge right there. There was like a homestead around the corner. It was like a no. Anywhere with a tattoo shop. Most places, most places tattoo shop equals slightly sketchy area. You know what I'm saying? This one I could debate. Cause it was like a coffee shop in a tattoo shop. So that to me made me go like, oh, this can't be a sketchy area. I mean, anybody serves coffee in sketchy areas. It was like a sketchy people don't want coffee. You know? So I didn't think about it because like I said, I was, I was ganged up when I went and by the time you got there, I already been there for like an hour and a half, two hours and I'm, I'm, I'm deep into the, you know, deep into the funds of the night. You know what I'm saying? So I didn't even cross in my mind. So, you know, my, my bad man, you know? And again, you know, I done done a lot of things with my pastes, but it's the lack of being prepared. Cause I was still have sleep, my dream. You know what I mean? I'm on a scooter cold. We should hit my face. I'm like, this don't look right. I'm starting to have to wake up. Now I was outside dead ass alone, bro. After I passed like a bunch of home. Yeah, cause you came out late like, yeah, so yeah. And it's probably like, if one of you something like that, like, ain't, I don't, and I didn't hear no activity. I didn't even hear the music around the corner. Like that wasn't even, I don't, I guess it hadn't technically started yet. Right? The one man was going to be performed, but he wasn't there. Yeah, not bad at DJs since I got there. So yeah. Oh no, man. You can't get nothing out there, man. That's crazy. So you tell me, oh, yeah, walk around the corner. I walk around corner, I started seeing people, but I'm good cause at least I see there's some people out there. And then get to the door. Oh, buddy, at the door, tell me it cost $70 again. $70. Whoa, exactly. And I'm like, yo, yo, I came out late at night. I'm really just here to like chop it up with Corey Hannibal and like go back. So, and y'all, I know y'all been talking for a minute. So I'm thinking like I'd probably be in there for 10 minutes. And again, thought that I don't have $75. I didn't plan to spend $75 though. So, hey, oh man. Now what shy are you here? You just have to say this is business experience. Technically anyway, there's all this business, everything here for, that's what I'm saying, man. See, that's what I'm saying, man. Man, I guess it's a, what the hell, man? What was, what would Grant Cardone do? He was in the 75 and right it off. Hey, you'd better be careful with the, what was Grant Cardone? It was the way he been moving lately, but. I'm bullshitting. I'm bullshitting. I'm bullshitting. I thought it was, I was saying that it was too late. It was too late. It happened. Well, I feel like I was here at the door. When I got there, I was like, cause I walked up to it. Similar experience that you and Ariel being sketchy I had. I was like, damn, what the fuck is the big guy? And I'm like, I walked to the door to that, I don't know if you saw that front door to the venue, but it was like locked. And this guy on the door was just like, well, okay, yeah, go to the other side. Yeah, when I get there, the security guard is about to fight this dude. Like, you know what I'm saying? I don't know if you saw like the really large guy. I saw the door. A really slow. The security guard. Yeah, yeah. I see the dude he was going to fight. Well, yeah, cause by the time you got there. And he's playing as a NG, he was like, Mido. Yeah, he was in the very back, we got that. But when I got there as him and the guy were about to fight, I'm like, let me just walk between y'all and get over here to the door. And then the girl's like, oh, you got a ticket? Like, nah, you need a ticket no time to play stupid. Nah, you know, I have a little tome to pull up. We need tickets for it. Yeah, yeah, they can buy tickets online. Okay, great. Let me still to the side real quick. Cause my service, my service was terrible. I don't know if your service great, but my service was like on and off and that shit. It was crazy. So in this area, I didn't have the greatest of service. So I still had to like walk around to the front to get some bars, download the app to then just see that this ticket is $75. And I'm like, damn, I could just get back on the scooter and ride back to the hotel right now, save myself the embarrassment. You know what I'm saying? She think I walked around the building. You know what I'm saying? Check on my phone. She don't know I'm double thinking about the 75. And then that's when I sat there and thought, I was like, man, I'm already here. I'm already rode the scooter 12 minutes to get over here. You know what I'm saying? That's another 12 back to be disappointed. Let's show I'm gonna ask about it. I can see you now. I'm like, man, how was it? They didn't go in. Man, that's just fair. But I was like, yeah, we've been like, bro, come on. So I said, fuck it. And I paid for it. And I wear it. And it was cool. I have a personal rule with events that I pay for that. Cause this event had an open bar. I should throw it out there, which made it better. And I'll personally exact my revenge on the bar. Like I'm like, all right. Same for all of us. If this wasn't open bar, these drinks probably about 12 to 14 dollars. So that's about five to six drinks to get my money's worth. I mean, anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. If I can get five to six drinks and get like three connections, this same five dollars would be worth it. That's how I look at it. I had, for those of you wondering, I had eight drinks. You kept going back. Yeah, but I had eight drinks and I met like five or six people. So it was worth it. Yeah. Hey, me on over there. I wasn't paying that sitting five dollars. I was, I did start to pay. I was, I was right there. Shit it, it was the security guard's energy. That made me say, let me go ahead and like, try to pay. Yeah, no, you, he was blown, bro. He was in a really bad mood. And I was like, I ain't trying to start nothing weird. No matter what he just said, I can't get off, get in off of the strength that he don't fuck. You know what I mean? I don't care what you got. You give your money and like, no. So I was like, all right. Let me like, at least open my phone, like start checking it out. I put my credit card information and I put some button and it wasn't like letting me like go to the next part for the pay page. I was like, man, let me step back, man. I'm gonna rethink this. God, God didn't want that to happen. I just kind of tried to pay. God said, nah, so I stepped back. Man, like fell into this group of people. I saw this girl come out and give this guy like this little band or whatever bracelet band. And then keep moving and he was standing there. And then dude was like, hey, man, I'll give you this band for 50 dollars. And I was like, nah, bruh, nah. And even though I was like, I'd rather pay the $75. Sometimes I didn't move where I just don't want to deal with new people, but I'd rather just pay the money didn't deal with someone I don't know and then possibly be finessed or feel like we have a relationship where I OM or like, just how I deal with them. You know what I mean? You know, because I was already, I'd already been through what I've been through. But then this girl comes back and she had a couple more bands like she had went to the car, came up and she was like, I'm usually like, do I want one? And she was giving it to me for free. And I was like, oh yeah, of course, of course. You know, smiling, chopping up with her. And then she gave it to this other guy and then she like put her hand back on him. It was in my hand and his hand, she put her hand back on like, she was about to take him back. And she said, hold up. Do y'all love black women? I said, hell yeah, I love black women. Like, and I'm looking at buddy like, bro, you taking too long to answer. Like, I don't understand. Like, do you want to get in or not? Like, let me be clear. Sean loves black women. Sean loves black women at all times. But at this moment, I don't even understand why you would even think, right? So I already had to reflex just cause I grew up like black women for like, all right. I'm already going like, you asked me that. It's a trigger and it's a reflex. So it was not for me to think about. But when I know this buddy, like, not answering, I'm like, man, what's wrong with you? Do you know what I'm saying? Yeah, just get your band and keep moving, bro. So got that. And then I try to, you know, go get in again. Like I put it on and then I got to, and I, you know, I put it on my phone to my ear, tell the security guard, like, hey, yo, my, like I'm talking to you, I said, my homie said that I actually could get in with the band. So basically say, make it seem like, oh, I just didn't know I could get in with this. And I just like showed him my risk, whatever. He was like, like, what? But he was like, no, like my homie said I could get in, man, like, like for real, man. He ain't really trying to look at my hand cause he just in that bad mood. And then these two young white women who were like the door letter hands, she saw there was some energy going on. She was like, hey, what, what's going on? What'd you say? And I was like, oh, yeah, like my, my homie said I could get in with this or whatever, all these issues. Like, oh, at first she was like, oh, no, it's something different that she looked at it. She was like, oh, yeah, come on in. I'm in for free and I'm good, all right? Which I was happy because I didn't get to meet Hannibal. You know what I mean? So I'm like, the reason I'm even here, I would have meant I paid $75, you know what I mean? And then like, yeah, cause I'm not here just to have fun at that point. Like, cause I just woke up. You know what I'm saying? I could just stay asleep. But there you go. You read the energy and then you put yourself in the right position. Yet again, you can, you can make your way in for free. Love navigating those moments. And then like that was a cool night. We'll get into like some specifics. I know y'all are hearing a lot of story right now, but this is our first time really getting a chance to recap, recap. Yo, that was a cool night because in the line, I heard people mention red man. Well, it was some red man, but I only know red man. Something in some other different red man. Cause at no point in my life that I ever think I would be in the same space as red man. I would actually be willing to go to like an event knowing that he said like there's a little concert and I had the opportunity. I was free and it wasn't too expensive. I would pull up, but still, you know, point in life that I ever thought that I would be in the same space as red man. And I didn't even know he was out here moving doing shows and stuff like that. That's right. So, oh wait, it's actually red man over there. And then who else all was there? Red man to live, Jadakiss, Dave Chappelle, which was a cool pop up. Just Blaze, which I feel like just Blaze. Like it was, it hit me in a different way. I know and had plenty of respect for just Blaze where it's career, but I really realized the set in the way things are set up is like, you know, they all performing with just Blaze really. These are different artists and people up there, but really they just on just Blaze tracks. He's running all of this. Yeah. So it was just cool to see it in that way. Almost like you're a producer doing some type of verses and you bring all your folks out. You're like, I did all these collabs or whatever. So it was cool to see that. And then the room was so intimate when we got in there. It had to only be like a hundred people in there. I was like that. I was like at Max, we became like maybe four. Yeah, Max maybe like 400 people. We first got in there, it was closer to a hundred. But when we first got in there during, who was performing when you came in? Cause I was in tacos when you first got there. I was eating. So I don't remember, I don't know what you saw at that time when you walked away. I don't think you remember when I even started. I think he was about to start or he was just mad. It was more, sometimes when I got there, it wasn't like packed out yet, but it was like a good amount of people. One that made people point bullet. So it wasn't that many people. And then for it to see them all performing in a more intimate environment. And then being in the same role, DeChapelle doing his thing and it's still such an intimate environment. It was cool. Cause I felt like I was a part of one of those random nights that you always hear DeChapelle popping up somewhere random. Exactly bro. That was cool. Hey, I mean, you know, it's not even like he took over, like he was his show or anything. He didn't do like a full special, but it was just cool to have him around it and see him. I part of saying he was lit. He was having a good time. He was hot. You know, I just like to say if he will have a good time. His audience knows what's up. So we got sugar coated. He was mad. Yeah, he was gone. But then, now reeling it back in, like, so that's the same type of mentality of just like figuring out like, all right, how can I make song work? How can I make a shake? And then the go anyway, type of mentality. I for sure could have just stayed my butt in the bed and look, stay as long as you can. Cause you for sure would have been gone if I didn't get there late. Yeah. I was about to leave when you got there. I know. You were like, what's up baby taco, bro? Like, I'm about to here. But I was like, I'm only here for a few minutes. Let me wander in there. And then we end up staying or whatever. And you got more drinks. So it was good. So, you know, made it more worth it. With that being said though, like, so people ask us, is it worth it? Mom to go to South by Southwest? And I think for an artist in general, yes. See, I don't want to ruin people's events and nobody ever paid to go to events, but you said something earlier that I was kind of say here. I don't, it's not that you should never pay and it is never worth paying cause it can get you into certain rules and get you closer to some people and you know everybody's like there for a certain type of thing. But a lot of times the things that are paid for are the people who like all have to pay for access to get in. So those people don't have access to themselves. You get what I'm saying? So it's like, it's everybody that's usually more like you. And a lot of times I know you aren't necessarily trying to meet somebody who's on your level. You're trying to meet somebody who's above. There's somebody you're trying to get to connect with hoping to pull you up. Now when I say that's not the mentality you have all the way through, there's plenty of people that you can meet that are dope on your level, whatever level that looks like for you and that are worth building with. But a lot of times it's the free stuff, the side stuff that you have to figure out how that even exists that ends up being the things that were going to the most at these events. So don't just like look at the itinerary. You're the type of person who's only gonna look at the itinerary and only go to that stuff. It's very, very little worth in these conferences because you can get a lot of this information off of a YouTube video, you know what I'm saying? Or like a regular like, I don't know, panel or something. I mean, what panels or conferences do like play a really just social media or Googling. And a lot of times it's even more service level than the stuff that you'll find on YouTube. Well, that's gonna be, cause you're speaking to 4,000 people that just heard about this topic for the first time, it has to be a lot of time. Right, you have no idea what people are in the crowd are already aware of. So it's very service level. You might catch a couple of gems for you, but just in nature of the platform, you can't make it super specific at the panels and things like that. The smaller groups, like they had something which I would have loved to do. I just, again, was in a place where I felt like paying for and this is all like such a last minute decision for us to even go, by the way. But there was like some manager meetups and it seemed like you were a cool people who were like some managers that you could do like these office hours or one-on-ones with beer. That would have been cool. So I would have did that just to do it. Like even not somebody who's, as somebody who, you know, looking for a personal manager or anything like that. Managers tend to be from pretty interesting people they're all together. So I would have definitely done that. And even as an artist, I would have definitely done that. Now, let's see. It was cool. Shout out to all y'all who recognized us and want to wear another. Way more people than I thought it would be. Way more people than I thought it would be. And we met some real cool dope people. Because of it. Because of it. Right? Which I will say this first. Shout out to, I think you can say your name was Running Man of Austin. Oh yeah. No, what was it? Austin the Running Man. It was like, he's a dude from Atlanta who moved to Austin, got his own like, but I don't know. He's like branded into city apparently. He got a proclamation from the city, which I don't know all the details of a proclamation but I know it's like some formal recognition from the government. All right. And all by branding himself as an artist in the local area. It looked like the whole Running Man of Austin or Austin the Running Man came from. Hey, I'm in Austin. He's running around for all the time and he's like rapping on the corners. That's his thing. He is a Running Man. Literally a running man. So shout out to you, bro. If you ever hear this clown, I can't remember I told him to hit me up. I don't think he ever hit me up because I would actually just do one like a quick little interview segment to hear his story out how he finessed and navigated the way he did because he moved there. He's from Atlanta, naturally. So shout out to him. And which way I want to go with it? Let's go to a networking hack that many people can use for themselves. And I think we've all done this at some point of time in some way where you have something that's a talking piece. All right? Yeah, you know where this is going. Yeah, you know where this is going. And that might be you wear some kind of crazies. Like a lot of times people go to extremes. There's a crazy hat I'm wearing or you just doing something that's bringing attention to yourself. Wow, and it can be great to start a conversation. Me, I've never been a reversal to go over the top with it. But it'll be more like what you had going on because, you know, technically you still just doing something normal. You being normal, but it just happens. It just happens to shine. It happens to be nice. So what am I talking about? Cory got this sweater. He got this special sweater that just, it just brings life. Lights the room up. It just lights the room up. And I'm not talking about no shit with like lights on it or nothing shiny. You know what I mean? It's a normal sweater. Like you would probably like this one. I'm wearing it. I wanted to do that though. Okay, yeah. We'll have to figure out what episode. Whatever. And literally this sweater, everybody damn near feel like, be like, I like your sweater. A lot of people. It could be short, it could be long, but I like your sweater. The beautiful thing about this though is one, you almost lost it. I almost lost it. See, this manager Cory left his bag at the airport. He stole the bag. No, switched. He fucked the wrong bag. Switched the bag, oh yeah. Realize it way yours. And, so this manager Cory stole somebody's weave, bro. But this is crazy because like what are the odds? Think about this y'all. What are the odds as you travel thousands of miles away from your home through a random airline, not random Delta, but still random airline and you land and somebody has the exact same suitcase. And this has happened to me twice. It's happened to me once in LA and once here. So clearly, clearly something. I don't have to know. Now now, like literally when we got back to Atlanta, I had to start smacking stickers all over my suitcase. Never happened again. But he had the same suitcase as me. You know what I'm saying? It was an honest mistake. Like literally when I went back to the airport to get it, the guy left a note was like, hey, I think this person took my suitcase because we have the same suitcase. Like he knew, he knew what was up, he wanted you to roll. Always open mind before I leave with it. But yeah, you know, so open the suitcase, it was what? It was like some weed and some other stuff. Some weed, a durag, you know what I'm saying? I had some clothes. But the termination was your suitcase was worth more than his suitcase. Yeah, a hundred percent. Like the stuff that you had in my clones, my shoes, my magical sweater. See, but that was funny. You didn't think about the magical sweater at first. It was like, you kind of like kindergarten, it was like, dang, I gotta find this. And then later on, it like just hits you like, damn, I was like, what? He was like, my sweater was in there. I was like, all right. She was like, no, bro, it's a thrift store. Like I don't even know how to get the kid if I can. Venture sweater, you know what I'm saying? I've been to shop a lot with people, a lot of people I remember. I'm really big. This is like a nice ass sweater from this vintage place out here. Probably one-on-one or somebody's granddad somewhere it might have it. Either way, I'm not finding it. Again, no time or something. And like this sweater for me personally has been magical. Every time I wear it anywhere, I get a helicopter mess on it. So, exactly what happened. So whenever I go, so when I told Sean, I said, I said, when I finally got it back, I got it back the next day, I was like, Sean, you gonna see, bro. I know it sounds like I'm being weird and it sounds like I'm just saying shit to say it, but you gonna see, bro, we're gonna go around this sweater and this sweater gonna start opening doors up for us. And then we went to the convention center and then as soon as we walked through the door, the girl's like, you know, I like your sweater. Can we take it and I'll take your picture. But what does she do? Oh, I work for Amazon. I work for E-News, I work for blah, blah, blah, blah. All right, that's one. That's one that's sweating on knockdown already. You know what I'm saying? Like. It just kept happening. It kept happening. It kept happening. I remember that dude later on that we met who plucked this and we're... Oh, it's in front of the sign. He's talking to the sweater. I thought he'd recognize you. He stopped for the sweater and then he recognized you. And then other people passed by, like you talking to him and say, I like your sweater, man. You know, then it was so funny because he was talking to you for like 20 minutes. Yeah. And I don't know how I came up. Oh yeah, I was telling him. I was like, yeah, man, you know, agency's biggest client is 24K Golden Mood. And he's like, oh, you work with Mood with Sean? And I was like, Sean, he's like, Brandon and Sean. I was like, that's Sean right there. And then that's when all of that popped. He turned around. I'm right there. I was like, I was standing there the whole time. And he was like, oh my God. Oh, shit. That shit was funny just because literally, I was like, bro, I've been standing here. I just, I just, I didn't know me, which is cool. You know what I mean? It was weird though, because it would be a lot of times people would be stopping for me. And then like, oh yeah, Corey. And whatever, like, oh shoot. Like that's Corey. Oh man, both of y'all together though. It was interesting. But again, that's the value too of having multiple people with you. Yeah. Somebody's gonna get the attention. Somebody's gonna get the attention. Which like, it would be weird, like to me, like especially when people would recognize me first because I'm like, are you taller? You got your sweater on. You know what I'm saying? But you're bringing more attention as far as I'm concerned. So I'm gonna recognize me first or whatever, but then yeah, then other times people would recognize you first. And again, either way it goes, flip it in the conversation. That small conversation piece of a sweater. He just talked about, oh, I met this girl. We're at the Amazon and he knows that guy. Darian, shout out Darian. You sound like a beast, bro. I definitely want to keep up with you. Like he, this guy, young guy, he's single. I don't know. 23, 20 block. Okay, yeah. 23, 24. He's starting to market some artists. Like, he's really selective on who he works with. He works with people who he feel like he can really help him and make go. And he's doing a lot for free. Pretty much most of them are free or next to nothing. Yeah, cheaper than he said we should. Way cheaper than he said we tried. Then he said we tried. You know what I mean? We made that kind of clear tool. Like Darian and me and this again. Way cheaper from the value of what you've done. But I don't mind. I get it. Cause at that age, if you can and your responsibility's in place, go ahead and get that experience. Cause it's way worth, way more. Cause what immediately happens, he gets the experience, he says he's done these things. And then he introduced us to some pretty important people at Symphonic. And they're like, oh yeah, this is my guy. We were already thinking like, hey man, how can we figure out a word with this guy? Or whatever, help him out, maybe bring him on to the team at some point or like just do something with him in the future. Because of the things that he had done. Like to see you, the way you were used grinding out for it and not like entitled meaning, like, oh, I need to find this money. He ain't ask us for no opportunity. But like already in my mind, I'm like, man, this guy seem like he on this shit. You know what I'm saying? So like when you move like that, especially young and then you networking and people just see what you're doing. So make sure you talk about what you're doing and how you're going about it. Don't be afraid of that. Cause it can make things like that happen. You know what I mean? It kind of got to the people at Symphonic. And, you know, when we started talking about him, Darian a little bit, like, oh yeah, he seems like a real cool guy. And they seem like, oh yeah, no, we already got Darian. Yeah, I'm sorry man, I was that way. Exactly, he's the type of guy that people want to work with, right? Like you could put yourself in that position by literally giving off great energy, working hard and connected with the right people. It doesn't mean that there might, wouldn't be some people who try to take advantage of you or anything like that. But that, that pattern works. Like working hard and having good energy and then sharing and selling your story. Yeah. Again and again and again. You do it till you find the right people. Give you opportunities, then you rents and repeat. So I know some people get discouraged again, like, cause I know there's something that's in this industry who might like try to take advantage of you. But I always like to err on the side of the right advice, right? But I always say that these days, you hear all this polarization of in the relationship world, giving all this crazy advice cause everybody's based off of fear. When it's like, hey man, you don't need to be acting this way because a girl might take advantage of you or like be about you for your money. No, you need to just not be with that person. Don't change your behavior to the wrong behavior. It's the same thing here, right? Someone might take advantage of you or whatever there's people who might. That doesn't mean you change your behavior to the wrong behavior. You just stop messing with those people, right? And you keep working until you find the right people that can help you in a situation. So Iderian was a reminder of that for sure. And it's always, like, even one of those people that, you know, like gave me hope in the world. One of those guys, bro. Like, well, he just, he seemed like such a good guy, you know, bright eyes, like. It's like I'm gonna be all right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? He seemed like an adult person. But with that being said, so there's another question that we had from artist and that was, what are the benefits of attending if they're not performing? I wanna say that's pretty much. Not a network. Not a network. That's strong, right? Network. And that's really what you're going for. You're not even going for the information. Like, you look at the topics more so to kind of get a sense of who would be there and say, hey, they're on my type of time if they're looking at this type of topic. Right? But is it worth performing there? I don't know. What do you think of his, to actually perform? I think it depends on your performance history, right? Cause I've heard from bigger artists that it's not the most worth it to perform there. You know, some of them have their own reasons for going. I remember watching his 21st average vlog from when he did South by Southwest and he was like, he never did that shit. And I remember that stood out to me because I saw that vlog of how everyone in the South by Southwest and I was like, I wonder why he feels like that. Right? And then I went and I was like, okay, I could kind of understand. Cause I don't think, I don't think you get paid for them unless like the vendor pays you. But yeah, but like, I don't think South by is paying you, you know what I'm saying? They're like, hey, that's their issue. You know what I'm saying? They wanted to get you out here. So I think if it's, if you're a bigger artist, that's kind of you, right? Is it rotted into your tour? Have you never been to Austin? If you're Austin fans, if you want to tap into, right? Do you want a little bit of practice? Or are you just trying to get a free wristband? So you can walk around the rest of the event. I know artists that go perform at, not even just South by, but conferences like this just for that. Hey, I did this shit so I could get the free, all inclusive wristband that gets me into everything. And now this basically paid for me to go network, right? So I think it can be beneficial for those different, those different things. Yeah, if you're a smaller artist, a lot of those same things plus just getting some show experience in a different place is always good. And I do think it's important for artists in general, especially small artists to perform in different cities and states because it teaches you that, you know what I'm saying? Shit moves different where you're at, where you're from. For good or for bad, depending on the type of person in your local relevance and stuff. So I think it can be worth it, man. I think the issue of what makes it not worth it sometimes because I saw this from the first year that went, not really this much this year, but the first year I went, is artists will pay, is more likely, most of these artists are paying to be on events. Paid to be on showcases that I'm not going to bring out a lot of people. And that's when it's a waste, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's you and 15 other people on here that drove from 20 different places to, you know what I'm saying? To perform, none of y'all really have an audience. Nobody's really going to come unless the event people are that crazy live, which that kind of goes how it goes. And what you got to remember, like it's soft bias, literally hundreds of events happening. Deserts of them are happening at the same time. So you're in competition. If your event is going on at the same time as a Flow Millie event, you are in competition with Flow Millie. I'm a Flow Millie fan, which I am, I'm gonna see Flow Millie. You know what I'm saying? It ain't too much you can tell me on that side. Maybe you'll elaborate. Or the other day by the way. Oh, was it the Skittles one? Skittles? Yeah. Nah, that was a song. Oh. No, not Skittles. She got a serial ad. What's that? Nah, it's some shit. Okay, I should actually tell her, but it's just crazy. Yeah, but so I think, I think you need to do your due diligence and to the people that are putting together the event. You were thinking about performing that. See what the other acts are. You know, what are their chances of possibly bringing people out out there looking to the event curators? What's their chances of, you know, or do they have a well-known name that's gonna have the type of people that really hustle up a good event and make sure people come out? Like I saw not so much this year, but the last one I went to, I saw people like events. 15 hours on the bill, 10 people in the venue because they're walking by while other shit is going on. They come in like, I don't know any of these motherfuckers. And DDG is down the street. I'm just going to go check out DDG or some shit like that. You know what I'm saying? So that's the only big issue I see is like ours will be signing to be a part of showcases that are happening at the same time as other, you know, more rather than showcases with a group of people that don't really have any pool or following or know how to promote event properly. And then they feel like they got scammed. And it's like, maybe you didn't truly get scammed. Like in the sense of like, this person wasn't trying to do you harm. They just didn't know what the fuck they were doing. And that's different. I promised you a stage. I didn't promise you an audience. Exactly. It's exactly what I promised you a stage in a different state during South by Southwest. I hit all three of those boxes, technically, technically, you know what I'm saying? So that's what I was, I would stay away from if I was an artist or like, you know, sometimes I've seen like group of smaller artists like link up and just like truck. I'm never against that. Like, you know, if you want to go out and do it just to like get a feel for it and see like, man, I know how to throw a show in Atlanta and bring a crowd. I wonder if I could do the same thing in Austin, Texas. Let me, let me like, you know, try to sharpen my skills. Go for it, man. I'm always down for a nice pay risk, you know? Well, look, I say it is not one of those official events with like a brand that you recognize. Yeah. Most times it's not gonna be worth it. Even those events won't necessarily be worth it sometimes for you in the way you might think. Cause I don't even know what you're expecting. All right. This is a performance in a random place and you weren't like brought on a bill as like, Hey, this is your show. What exactly are you expecting? But like, if you do the TikTok party, right? The vibe party. I'm sure there's going to be some people in the room cause it's people are attracted to their brand. You know, people aren't coming for you. So look at why would people show up here based on all the information available. And if there is some type of brand or maybe even other artists that's recognizable that might draw you or other people, then that's probably more worth it. Some of these are unofficial events. Cause someone, we got this comment question. Is it beneficial to attend unofficial events? I don't know. Well, it depends. I would say only go to events that you hear. People remember the people that you see what type of time they on and try to get as much intel as you can before going. You can't tell that from above ground before you just kind of figure out what you can figure out. But you really want to get a sense for people who are already here. But that goes into the question how to spot a South by Southwest scam or like any of these events. And to me, again, like you said, like that stage performance type thing, whether that scam, all right? So you got your official itinerary. Then you have some things that you might feel scammed by that aren't actually scams. They're real scams, right? So there's levels to it. As long as you stay in the bunch. And again, follow people, see what type of time it is. I feel like you shouldn't have much trouble, right? Cause even some of the official events feel like a scam. You know, you go, it's like, dang, this whole conference is a scam. This issue wasn't worth it, right? If you move wrong, but then you'll look back and find out such and such was there, such and such was there. This event happened that you wouldn't want it to go to. So it's really like how you move in that time. And it's just a game where you have to do the due diligence and then you got to make the decisions as quick as possible. And then hopefully it leads to something. Cause every, it's like everything's a domino and it leads you the right way or it will lead you the wrong way. Sure. Yeah, so many, this is when you end up like 20 minutes outside the city. Right. Watching the stage of 30 motherfuckers. You never heard of a performance. Yeah. And you were first on that. That was a specific thing actually. What you mean? We actually had something. You saying in like analogy. Oh, no, that's not important. Oh, okay. Hold on. All right, party. It was like that. You were first. You like, I was like, why, what? Oh, yeah. Such and such. 20 minutes away. Let's see what else that we can see first. Cause I know, bro. If you come to a major event like softbox cause I've seen it with A3C, bro. If they, if the, it's all fucked up. But if the event curator does not have the money to throw the event in the main part of the city where the thing is going on, that is a huge red flag, in my opinion. I'm like, why is this shit 20 minutes away? Everybody over here. Yeah. Am I supposed to expect people to leave here where 90% of the things that had to come to your one random event outside? No, nobody's going that shit. So no, I'm not going that. Which is a good way to spot the things that might not be worth it. Yeah, exactly, bro. They tell you that shit in Atlanta and I'm more focused on Stockbridge's scam. I don't even know the outskirts of Austin to make the relevance there. But they tell you it's in Austin, Texas, in South by, you look at this shit. I've now been to Elgin, Texas. Elgin? They tell you that shit's in Elgin. And it's supposed to be South by. Cause that is, oh man. Ooh them bullies, I haven't been out there in a minute. But no man, the whole scam thing, it's not anything that I personally have to worry about heavily. But I'm going to these events cause you just follow those same basic things and then you got to use your real judgment in real time. But we know that exists. I know that there's a lot of promoters trying to make that money, you know what I'm saying? Of course. Like honestly, I don't think it's even worth trying to perform. I think if you have an opportunity to perform or something and it comes up and it's again, something official events or brands then okay. But generally speaking, what are you going to get out of it? I don't think it's worth trying to perform. Like hey, I need to, South by South wasn't happening this year. Let me see if I can find a stage to perform on. Yeah, I grew that. I grew that because like I said, most of these stages are typically paid for whether by artist management team label. Not all of them of course, but most of them are. And I look at it like, man, you could drop $500 to be on this stage or you could use that $500 to get you out there and you'd be out there anyway. It's like I said, like the, everybody's not going to every show anyway. So if you were to go out there and you're meeting people in like, hey, did you perform? You go like, no, it's not going to change their opinion on you because they're not going to. Even if you did, I did perform. Oh, what did you perform? This event at two o'clock. Oh, I didn't catch that. That was at this one event, exactly. That's why it doesn't matter, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, if you're going for content or going to perform for like content or new experiences, you know, to sharpen skills, things like that, I understand. If it's not any of those things, save your money and put that $500 to $1,000 towards your survival while you're in soft bus upwards, you know, because that's gonna be more important in the stage because if you can, you know, I know when I go to conferences, my whole thing is like, man, if I can meet at least the $100,000 worth of connections, I'll be happy. You know what I'm saying? I'll be doing the math and I'll be like, this person for this thing and this and this and do what they say they're gonna do. That's about a hundred bands right there. I feel like I got $100,000 worth of connections with all of this event. You know, I feel like a hundred bands are gonna come out of this one of these connections from somewhere, one way or another, right? And I'm happy with that. So, you know, the number doesn't have to be a, it's hard for everyone else to be personally because we have a system to, I know how the connection can lead to $100,000, right? You know what I'm saying? But if you just go into it that way, like, hey, like performing should be secondary. Like we already said earlier, networking should be the primary goal of like any company. South by Southwest or any other networking, meeting people, leaving like every day with at least one or two valuable connections will make all of the money worth it. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you're real, I'm assuming you didn't, you know, too crazy. And that's how I look at it. It's like, man, if I spend this money to perform, well, I would look at it. If I spend this money to perform, would it be any valuable connections or something that comes out to make my investment justified? Maybe probably not, because it's performing. It's only so much. It could come from it, especially if you're not one, like you said, one of the major stages or on a stage that's connected to a big brand or connected to a big partner. It's only so much that's gonna come out of some of these stages anyway. And, but everything else about it can be done without taking the part of it that way. It's like, like we, It's a lot of good energy and free shit. Exactly, a lot of good. We little, we was eating chicken and waffles. We was getting free drinks. You know what I'm saying? Even to the point of the unofficial events, I will say this, man, unofficial events, I'll have free shit because they're not sponsoring, right? Good to shine, good to money, but official shit, man, I'm gonna take care of you, bro. Like I said, we got, we got chicken and waffles, we got drinks. So I got free shit, you know? Beautiful. That the waffles were amazing. So it's just. Some of the waffle grilled cheese, I just forgot about that. Yo, is that shit good? That was weird, I ain't gonna lie. I couldn't give my mind, couldn't catch up. My taste buds didn't mind too much. My mind was like, I don't know if I want to give this shit, bro. Yeah, I ain't gonna lie. Cause the waffle grilled cheese was, it sounds good though, I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. With the tomato? It was okay. Hey, well, three quick things, we're gonna end this one saying, are there really industry professionals looking to discover talent at South by Southwest? I'd say a blade, no, I don't know anybody, at least in 2023, like there's like, I'm gonna go to South by Southwest and find the next big thing. Yeah, I'm sure it happens, but it's probably not on purpose. Yeah, they might find, they will not go to find an artist. Not at all, not at all. Another quick story that has a takeaway, that night that we met Darian, we drove, well, we rode our schools across town to the TikTok event. Oh yeah. I forgot what it was officially called, but it was like some TikTok event. They were like, oh yeah, this is official business thing. But we got there, we looked at the line. And I walked up to the front, well, did I scoot? Probably scooted halfway there and walked. Went over there, saw this other potential entrance. It was obviously VIP. And then the line was long, long. You look inside, it was like, oh, this is just gonna be a performance anyway. Yeah, I know, because I actually know some people who are gonna be in this building, I know there's gonna be some, you know, cool people in this building per se who wanna use that term. But, brothers, I don't know, I ain't really feeling this. Cause I don't like to just be in these, up on me here, loud music, cause I'm here to like meet people and stuff, right? I'm not here to be a fan, just to be reals. I don't care who's the performer. And there's probably a lot of people who are like that, right? You know, I caught some performance, see this, that I thought were dope, like when we were at the Grammys party, which I can't believe you skipped, right? That, oh yeah. Oh, not Grammys, the recording academy party. Then I ended up, while you were talking to that girl, I got enamored by this girl singing abilities and was watching or whatever. She was dope and seemed to fish them. But we decided not to go to the TikTok cause it was a symphonic event going right next door. And the TikTok event was like, it was just too packing, it didn't look like it was gonna be it. The symphonic event looked like, oh, might be to actually talk and hear people, right? And the line's so much shorter. So, if anything, we can get rejected from this and still have time to go to this TikTok event if we wanted to, right? So, hey, we ended up pulling up in line. What's the name of the artist and the manager we met? I know they were from either Toronto or? Yeah, they're from Montreal. They're from, oh, actually it might have been Montreal. There was one of them, yo, you're right. Jared, not Jared on IG, bro. Jared McKenzie, shout out to you, dope guy. Again, either people with just similar energy, same type of time, you know what I mean? He's a manager and he has an artist, Callie Technic. So they were both just cool. Yeah. They were just cool. We get to the final line, they say, hey, where y'all's passes? What did I say? I said, I talked to, so I talked to somebody. Shout out, that's when you almost fucked this up. And I was, yeah, I thought it was fucked up. But you told him that, we talked there about. Oh, yeah, I said I talked to, I ain't gonna say the person's name, but somebody that I know at the company, but this is one of those big old companies so he cannot even know the person. He probably didn't actually know the person. So he was like, oh, well, show me the conversation or whatever. So I pulled up an email thread or whatever. And I was like, dad, I can't find it. Whatever he is, that's talking right here. It's a very obvious, like, hey, we really, really know each other type of conversation or whatever. And it's funny, it could have been for anybody. Like, wait, this guy didn't know. So like, you were just gonna see like a random message saying, hey, yeah, you can go in or come. Like that doesn't make sense. But before like anything can happen and we're looking. I mean, and he's like looking at the thing and he's about to say, well, you know, man, I don't know like that type of vibe. Jared goes like, bro, is it really that serious? Is it that serious? Jared has passed. It's not like Jared's like something big with active event. He's just another person who actually does have access to the event. He was legit. He was legit when we weren't. Yeah, he was legit, right? He was like, yo, is it that serious? Is that serious? We just made friends with Jared, man. So I appreciate you for helping us and giving the guy the energy that was required. So you let him know. No, bro, this ain't that serious. That's it free. There's not gonna be any people up in here. It's free. It's free. We not giving off any kind of wow energy. Like, so don't make it be something that they don't have to be right now. And I do think it would help because it was like, maybe 10 seconds after that was when those two guys came up and recognized us. I feel like that helped him. Probably. Yeah. Probably. But he probably eased him a little bit, right? But he had already kind of bowed down a little bit when Jared gave him that energy because it was like, it was almost like, because he wasn't like a legit bouncer or nothing. So he don't seem like he was used to that type of energy. Like, whoa, people push it back. I just want to do my job, guys. You know, so don't let the ties turn again. You know, he was worried about being judged and shit. So, and I look, bro, we're gonna get in one way or another. I appreciate Jared, but I was gonna argue him down and it was gonna happen. But I'm glad that I didn't have to, you know, like bring out my state tactics or anything. So we ended up in there. And that's where we met Darian. That's where we ended up meeting A&R and some other people at Symphonic. Was it Greg and Oz, I think was his name. Well, I remember those or whatever. So shout out to y'all. Had some really dope conversations and learned some stuff for real. But again, that came from deciding to go to the event where it was about talking and not the hype. Don't fall for the hype. Like just following, oh, it's all these people or this person let me perform it. If you could find the event, it's an official event, but it'll look like you can just talk, right? These people, because you know, especially this is an official event, official company, it has to be at least somebody relating to that company in there. So even in the worst, maybe me and them having a conversation, I might be able to learn something, ask some questions, it might not be a connection, but I might ask questions that I legitimately have about business or something, right? And get some knowledge there. So that was a great, I'm having it. Then on the other side, last thing before we close it out, the guy who was riding around performing in the back of a truck, right? So it had the bed back there. It was one of the ones like a moving truck, like a U-Haul or something. And then he had it open, riding through the city. He was performing. And bro, now being at South by Southwest, there's no point in doing that shit to me. And he was on the wrong side of town when he did too. And the idea is defense. He was on the side of town that wasn't lit. Right, so you were on the side of town that wasn't lit. Maybe they were gonna get to that part of town because they were driving, who knows? Yeah, maybe, yeah. But I literally like sped up on my scooter, you know, like an action movie, tracking them down, literally just to record them having a bad execution of his idea. And I will like send it in to you, EJ, so you can put it up on the podcast while we talking about it. See it? But here's why it was bad. Here's a good idea, like good in terms of, yes, it's an off the beat idea you're performing, da, da, da. He was my problem. From the back, you had no idea who this guy is. There was nothing labeling of your name, no IG to follow. When I chased them down, I did end up seeing like a little bit of an IG stuff on the side or whatever. But by the time people pay attention to you, they're looking at you in the back. I don't have a reason to even look at it when I'm on the side of the truck. So I'm looking at you sitting on this couch or whatever performing in the back of a truck. So I need to know who you are. Secondly, here's a major violation because people looking at your IG, there ain't any people really gonna look it up anyway, but at least if you put a name out there for me to remember, I might actually at least remember seeing you later. Yeah. The biggest violation was this man was not recording. He was not capturing the content that he was creating for a truck. You see this whole setup, you going through town, bro, you need to have somebody following you behind, recording this entire process, so then you can make sure it gets seen by people online. You got that footage as a part of your story later on. You're not about to do that every single day. So the fact that he missed recording that moment and getting that content, it hurt, man. It really hurt to see it. He missed on the aim tripling effect. Yes. Yeah, yeah, because you could flip the narrative however you want. It's something that grabs attention and you could have missed flipping the narrative. So please, when y'all execute these ideas, I love the creativity of actually thinking beyond most people, right? And having to actually do some shit, right? A lot of people won't actually do something because they're overthinking it and getting in your head. So you went through all the barriers. You did something a little offbeat and you got people's attention, kind of. You know what I mean? You had South by Southwest. And sometimes a lot of so many things are going on at those kind of events. Dad, like, it's not that pressure. Competition means stiff, yeah, bro. So that's another thing. Honestly, you'd be better off doing that in a place that that kind of stuff doesn't happen. So you are the thing that stands out. But it just feels like, oh, it's another attraction at that type of show. Going to the theme park and seeing a rollercoaster ain't that big of a deal. So that is another thing. But, bro, you've got to capture that content. Any of y'all, y'all, you can spend time with these ideas. You've got to make that investment to go to the next level and capture as well as you can, even if it's just an iPhone, but go as big as you can in terms of actually capturing the content. So that hurt and I had to make sure I didn't forget that one. Yeah, but I don't know if you saw it, but the best example I saw there was, did you see the guys when we rode the scooter through the downtown area with all the bars? And it was like, shoot windows like Mike came from the ceiling, wrapped videos right on the corner. You didn't see that? No, I didn't see that. That shit was fire, bro. It was like a group of people. I didn't actually see what the mic was hanging. No, no, I think I don't know what the fuck the mic was hanging up. So it was hanging out from the sky. There was a dude standing up to a freestyle and he had like three different guys like shooting videos and then like different artists kept like rotating it. I only know that this was the part where the scooter was going like a mile an hour or some shit if we were going through the walking area. But like they, to me from what I saw, had that done the best, you know what I'm saying? Cause like they got a really good spot in the city to get everybody in it. Maybe it should look lit as fuck, right? Maybe it should look crazy for the artists coming up. They got three, four different content people getting the content for it. And it just like, it didn't like stand out from like an energy standpoint. Cause like you said, there's already so much going on, but it stood out because of everything else over there that was happening, this group of people seeing that have that shit together the most, you know? They felt like the most prepared for the situation. Everybody else kind of felt like they had the idea of the last night. It would be cool to go like sit up a drum on the corner and like, you know, maybe draw a sign up or something and perform. Like these guys look like they had been playing this shit for a minute, you know what I'm saying? And finally got this off. Yeah, but I got to get the content. That sounds dope. Actually, I might have missed that one. I was around? Yeah, it was like a head of me on the scooter though. But it was when we was going through the, like I said, the town, the street with like all the bars, I don't know what part of Austin this is, but I just mean this is the part where we were going through that main strip doing like two miles an hour. You know what I'm saying? Through that whole street. It was in that point in time. But, yeah. But, well look, see y'all heard it. A dope idea, ain't it hard to? Dope idea to execute it poorly. Right? So just know that both can exist and make sure you're not on the bad side of that. We out for this episode. Yet another one. I'm brand man, Sean. I'm Kobe. We out, peace.