February 5, 2020 • 48 mins
On this episode of Legit Check talk to his friend Justin Johnson about his love for kicks and how it helped him to gain success in the tech industry.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on? Guys. Welcome to Legit Check. Welcome to
another episode. I'm your host, yeasy bust, and I'm here
with my very good friend Justin Johnson. What's up, y'all?
Thanks for having me to really appreciate it, you know, Justin,
tell us a little bit about yourself, like who are you?
What do you do? Loaded question? Man, It's it's the
hardest one to answer. Yeah, I'm a I'm a Texan
(00:20):
by birth, but probably also by choice if I even
wasn't born there, originally from San Antonio, born and raised
so Go Spurs Go. Probably one of the biggest, most
loyal Spurs fan even though they have any shitty season
this year, um to stay true to them. Pretty like
interesting background in the sense that I was the first
generation scholar, growing up and doing things that none no
(00:43):
one else in my family had done or has done,
or wanted to do. U ended up at the University
of Texas at Austin, where I studied business and got
a degree in finance and information systems. And then it
was kind of crazy because uh, like taking a step,
taking a few steps back and thinking of about how
I ended up at UT I was salutatory and in
my my high school class. And what that means is
(01:05):
that your rank second in your class because I had
really good grades and I remember the counselors telling me, like,
you'r ranked second, And my only response was why wasn't
I first? Because I didn't really know what that meant,
but it unlocked a lot of doors. I was getting
recruited by top tier universities, full right scholarships and whatnot.
Ended up getting the Terry Foundation scholarship, which is near
and dear to my heart that fully funded me throughout
(01:26):
college and undergrad and sent me abroad to live in
Barcelona where I did exchange business school to SADE and
just like had a blast because of them. And it's
kind of been amazing to come full circle present day
where I live now in Los Angeles and still really
involved with the Terry Foundation where now I get to
and have helped them um select scholars to receive the
same scholarship that I did, which is ultimately life changing.
(01:48):
It was my Willy Wonka Golden ticket to go and
like see what the world held, kind of answering your
question of who who am I? Right? But essentially if
you ignored everything else, I'm I'm from San Antono, know,
from Texas, die hard Texan, love barbecue, love breakfast, tacos.
Lived in Austin for ten years, um, sort of by force,
(02:09):
not really by choice. I was figured that I'd go
to u T Austin and and leave when my time
was done at the university, and uh boy, I was wrong. Um,
And I stayed there for six additional years, so ten
years total, and kind of saw Austin become the city
that it is today, which a lot of people from
California still moved there to this day. I actually made
(02:29):
the opposite transition from Texas to California and decided I
wanted to pay stay income tax and overpay for everything.
But but here I am now in l A. Very
well put. So what was you think the biggest transition
from from Texas to l A besides the state income
tax and the six dollar gas prices? Um? Yeah, yeah,
(02:52):
I mean there's there's not a lot of good barbecue places,
for one, in my opinion, And I've had a lot
of different restaurants and and some people don't agree with me,
and that's totally fine because I don't agree with them
and in their taste palette. But I would say the
biggest transition and coming out from being born and raised
in Texas and spending my home life there and then
moving to l A completely for much big actual big
(03:14):
city right second largest in the US, was the fact
that I had no family here. That was a conscious
decision I was aware of, but I didn't really realize
the impact of it until I got here. Right. I
can know all these people because I did some work
in the music industry and had a bunch of friends
out other companies, But it's a very distinct difference between
(03:34):
being a one hour car right away from Austin to
San Antonio versus being a three hour plane ride from
Texas to California right absolutely different time zone as well,
I'm behind two hours or you know, looking at the
other way, my my family is ahead of me by
two hours. And so I think the biggest transition for
me was just like figuring out who I was and
what I wanted out of my experience, and so moving
(03:55):
to l A in late July, I figured, hey, I
can come do this for a year and I go
back to Texas because Texas is home, right and it
was It was interesting, I would say the first thirty
days were sort of an experiment to just try and
find a rhythm, try and find where I wanted to
live longer term, and find my group of friends, because
(04:17):
all the advice I had been given prior to moving
to l A was just kind of watch yourself and
watch your back, right, because everyone, from what I've been
told that at that time have figured out in some
ways is that you know, people are looking for their
next set of shoulders to stand on to help them
get to where they want to go. It is, but
it's right, but it is right, and it's not everybody.
(04:37):
It's not to say it's a blanket or generalized statement
that everyone I've met is trying to use or leverage
what I know who I know to benefit them. But
it is very different coming to a city where everyone
comes to try and become someone they're not, or they're
trying to be a better version of themselves, which I'm
totally for right for improvement in progress, but it doesn't
(04:59):
have Southern hospit mentality the way Texas does, right, So
imagine being in that environment and being brought in with
a history of like Southern hospitality and always thinking the
people have the best of intentions and that's not always
a case, right, So it's kind of a slap in
the face the route awakening what you have, like what
life outside of Texas is. And I learned it. I
(05:21):
learned it really quickly in my first thirty days here.
And now it's been a year and a half that
I've been here, and now I proudly call um l
a home for for now at least, because I don't
know how long I end up being here, but it's
where I live, and it's where I spend my time
and spend my energy, um doing what I do and
having fun and learning a ton about myself and others
along the way. Very well put. So I know you're
(05:45):
into fashion, right, You're into sneakers like you were in
some Supreme tell wins. There we go, ye I know
some things about sneak you know a little bit yea, Um,
got some dunks on and um, so you worked at
Champs finish Line. There we go. Okay, Yeah, so finish
(06:06):
Line is is a crazy story. So I worked at
Finish Line. It was my first real job that um,
I had to pay taxes on. But would you say
would you say that you worked there because you were
into sneakers. Do you think that finished line got you
into stinkers? I was already into sneak into it. Yeah,
and my and my mom actually helped me get that job.
So I was sixteen years old. It was my first
real legal job before I started like working at the
(06:28):
age of fourteen cutting grasses for seven dollars an hour
in a hundred degree summer heat. Believe it or not.
Respect No, it's really stupidity, um, but I didn't know better, right,
and it was like I was, dude, believe this or
not I would I was with a lawn more uh
weed eating Your face is perplexed looking at me, like
what are you talking about? Like that's how naive. I
(06:48):
was cutting four five ft tall grass with the lawn more.
No one does that, No one should do that either,
but I was doing it because I was just like, oh,
like this is the challenge. Is like I am near
died of heat exhaustion because I was in Texas, fourteen
years old getting paid seven dollars an hour. And I
remember like, over the course of m a weekend, had
(07:10):
worked Saturday and Sunday with with my neighbor at the time,
who's employing me? So I had worked seven hours each day, right,
so that ends up being forty each day. So it's
ninety eight bucks. And I remember this guy telling me,
I'm gonna give you a little bonus. Right. The dude
gave me a hundred dollars, so I made two extra
dollars on top of the ninety eight dollars I had
worked for. It was then where I said, I'm never
(07:33):
doing this again, right, But what that taught me in
that time frame was not to cut grass that's five
ft with a lawn more, not to do it in
Texas in the middle of the summer, and to teach
me that this is not a way of life that
I want to live. But there's application of working hard
and saving up money for sneakers and video games that
(07:53):
as a fourteen year old to apply that in a
different capacity. And so fast forward when I was sixteen
years old and legal to to work in the state
of Texas was finish Line. And so I was going
to finish Line weekly basically to buy sneakers. And this
was out of the fact that I was just like
really into shoes and still am and have been since
I was a kid. And so I would go into
(08:14):
the store pick whatever the latest like quick strike or
general release at the time was, which this was two
thousand and when was this sometime during the two thousand's, right,
and I'll go with my mom and that's what I
would do, get a new weekly pair of shoes. And
then from there was able to build rapport and relationship
with the manager store manager, and one time he then
(08:36):
asked me like, hey, you're always in here, like pretty often,
like why don't you work here? And I said, well,
why don't you hire me? And that was pretty much
the extent of the interview. He's like, I will because
you seem to like shoot, you know about it? And
so I worked for Finish with Finish Line four Finish
Line for four years and this was from ages sixteen
to twenty. And the only reason two reasons I took
(08:59):
the job. One employed discount, which is thirty percent off
at the time, I don't know what it is anymore,
I finished, right, And then two was I get to
make my own money and be able to buy things
that I wanted, which ultimately was shoes and video games
at the time. Yeah, it kind of just transpired based
on passion and interest. Even to this day, Um, I'm
still buying and spending money on shoes just because I
(09:21):
enjoyed doing it as an expensive hobby if you will. Um.
But it was kind of crazy because that experience of
working at Finish Line led me to work for Nice Kicks.
And this was when I was in Austin, Texas in
college at ut I didn't even need the job, but
I had a full right scholarship that I mentioned, but
I just wanted to be around shoes and I had
read about this guy named Matt half Hill, So shout
(09:43):
out Matt Um who's now a really good friend and
mentor of mine. Where he hired me, I came into
Nice Kicks and like really got into the origins of sneakers.
He had something at the time called the Vault, so
he had some of the most exclusive seekers that had
sneakers that I've ever released, but weren't available for sale,
so you just collected these in a two bedroom apartment
(10:04):
above Nice Kicks in in Austin, Texas. And so it
was just a really cool time to be around shoes
for me. Right this is around the time I forget
what your this is, but the Galaxy Foam posits were releasing.
That is when I work for Nice Kicks, and so
these were just like cultural moments and sneakers in which
I had the opportunity to be around and be around Matt,
who is very much like an O G sneaker head
(10:26):
if you will, uh in the space. And so a
lot of that came from the fact that I just
knew what I was talking about, that had worked at
Finish Line for four years and just got all that
like knowledge and experience and being around shoes day in
and day out. That's awesome, so that you really had
like the behind the scenes kind of look of like
how the whole shoe game works. Yeah, I mean it
really helped me to basically launch a little like buying
(10:50):
flip thing in college to just have extra money to
do whatever I wanted. And so I would look to
see what was going to drop and then I would
just say, like, that's what I'm gonna go after and
put a little bit of markup on it, and people
were buying before it was like the stock X and
go present day, you would just do like in person transactions,
like you would buy a shoe turn around in the
same line you had just waded in sell it to
(11:12):
the person a few back because they had already sold out,
but they were willing to pay a premium on it.
And I'd make a hundred bucks for just buying a
pair of shoes. Yeah, that's crazy. So many people have
had like a very very similar beginning to how they
got into shoes. Like Draf one of his friends told him,
I forgot which Jordans was, but like, um, he had
a pair of Jordan's and somebody offered him over how
(11:33):
much he paid and He's like, what the hell? So
the next drop he got like four pairs and then
basically sold the three and then his end up being free.
So you know you said before you worked to finish
on you were into sneakers, right right? What got you
into it? Was it because it was a basketball? Was
it fashion? Was it? Like I would say basketball? And
then I mean for me, Michael Jordan's right, he was
(11:54):
the hottest player in the nineties. I was a kid
during the nineties, so I saw him growing up with
you know, Shock Penny and like the crazy rebox shoes
and Iverson had like the Bulldog and the insul, but
like specifically Michael Jordan's. I remember my first pair of
Jordan's was the Jordan's fourteen. It was the black and
red one. I think it's called the Ferrari or whatever
the color way is. But that was my first vivid
(12:15):
memory that I can remember of having of name brand shoe,
because before that, I was very much into like the
Ninja Turtle. You know, you step on the ground and
they like light up. I don't even know what the
brand is, but you like ten dollars shoes, twenty dollars shoes.
That's what I wanted. But then as I started seeing
more basketball and essentially this icon and Michael Jordan's of
(12:36):
like he's more than just a basketball player, I'm like,
I want to be like Mike right, which is catchy phrase,
but like that's like what people wanted to do, wanted
to be. And I'm like, how can I be like him?
If I'm never going to play basketball like him, I
can at least try to dress like him or have
his shoes, right, And so that kind of sparked a
lot of the interest for me, and I just started
collecting even further. As a kid, I want to say
(12:56):
I was I might have been five when I had
my first pair of Jordan's and wow, yeah, since then,
so you know, twenty plus years since, Um, I haven't
really slowed down. What's up? So and you know I've
seen you, You've You've come to the warehouse a few times.
You pick you know, you know what I mean, like
you got you got the heat. Yeah, it's uh, it's
(13:16):
it's just a collection. Man. I try and like pay
homage to things that I enjoy, but also just like
moments in time that I just want to like remember,
and I remember that through sneakers, right, So like one
of my my my guarded pairs that I wear here
and there so often. It's like the Kobe Grinch, right,
So that shoes from Yeah, that that shoes from two
thousand ten, nine years going on ten years old this year.
(13:39):
And when I first saw that shoe when Kobe was
playing on on Christmas Day and I saw George Lopez
sitting courtside with it, I'm like, I need those that
shoe took me four years to hunt down in my
size in a condition that would not crumble when I
wear it. Wow, because I cared so much about that
moment and I need that association to the shoes. It's
more than just sneaker. Of course, for me, at least
(14:02):
and uh, yeah, you know, I mean that's that's one
of them. I still have some like O G stuff
that I picked up when I was at Nice Kick,
some O G stuff that I picked up when I
was working at Finish Line like years ago. Um, some
stuff I still have that doesn't even fit me and
never did, but I just bought it anyways just to have,
which is completely real. Um and like I still don't
understand why I did that, but I don't disagree with
(14:24):
my decision, even though I know that doesn't sound logical,
but it's just something that it's like the journey, you know,
the chase or the hunt down of whatever it is
you're trying to get and you finally get it, at
least you have it. You can say you have it,
or it's like a trophy to some extent absolutely like
bro like even like the sneakers I'm wearing right now,
the Jedies. Man, I probably have another five weares of
(14:45):
these and that's it because they will fall apart right
because their sold I think these are two thousand four,
I want to say, so, Like, uh, you know the
original ray guns, So I got those pretty much brand
like they were worn once and I wore them at
Art Basel three times and now like literally the soul's
coming off, like that's it. Those are my three wear
It's a sad feeling, it is, but at the same time,
(15:08):
like I'll always remember those three times I wore that shoe.
And also it's like it's it's almost like an art
piece now you know it is? Yeah, I mean you,
I think personally, my view is that you say a
lot about people. Yeah, you know, I I believe that,
and those who are fortunate to be able to to
get their own and select their own like totally. And
(15:29):
I'm not saying one way or the other that if
you don't have shoes it doesn't say much about your whatever.
But of course I just think that like for me, um,
at least when I'm building my like outfit and whatnot,
like I started with the shoes and then I match
everything else to the shoes. I don't do it the
other way around. You go from the bottom to the top. Well,
that's the thing about shoes is like my dad always
told me that your shoes are the most important thing
(15:49):
that you're wearing no matter what. And it's funny because
I wear sneakers and my dad was like super fancy
looking loafers. Yeah, exact loafers. But I couldn't agree more.
And everybody has their own swag, you know what I mean, Like,
I wouldn't judge someone based on the fact that they're
not wearing. Like you know, our friend Xander, right, he's
(16:10):
a big boots guy. But his boots are always from Texas,
you know. But but his boots are fresh and they
look good on him, and he rocks them, and he
probably has fifty pairs of boots. Just how me and
you people might think that we're stick in the head
because we have fifty pairs of sneakers or like, however
many so Yeah, but I think for whatever reason, I
don't know why, like it always I was always curious,
(16:32):
like why the sneakers? Why why is it always the
shoes have to be like the most important part of
the outfit. Yeah, you know, I make shoe contact before
I make I look down then look up, Isn't it
Isn't that interesting though, Like I swear, like at sneaker
cons and stuff, like you just see people just their
first interaction. You just see their heads just going like this,
Oh dude, those are dope. You're you're basically like evaluating
(16:54):
people based on their feet and what they have on
them isn't that interesting? But also I feel like misconception
is like you look at someone's feeling like, oh, those
are expensive, so you're cool. Like, Nah, I don't think
it's about that. I think it's about how you put
it together more so. Is that like you could wear
all black pair of vans and still make it look dope. Yeah, absolutely,
you know, as long as it's presentable, as long as
(17:14):
they don't have sixteen thousand holes in them. But I
mean everybody, everybody has their own. Like I never judge anyone,
but like, I just feel like I have friends who
have like super dope outfits, like very expensive clothes, and
their shoes are just trash and like it just makes
their whole outfit look whack, you know what I mean.
And I'm like, dude, like come on, bro, let me
(17:35):
get you right, like you know what I mean. Um,
but yeah, the shoes are so so important, you know,
so like you from a young age were always into
it kind of like you know, yeah, and and the
opportunity to be around that, um both by choice really
like going in weekly to purchase the Shoe and then
me working there at Finish Line, and then me being
around shoes again, working at a Nice Kicks for a
(17:57):
bit of time when I was at school was just
it was you know, it was just like a perfect
storm of everything to be around what I what I
really enjoyed wanting to be around, and like it's it's
something I care about. So for me, it's always like
entertaining and interesting to be able to like see things
in person that I've only heard about or read about
or seen on Internet or magazine from way back when,
(18:19):
and to actually see it as a tangible thing in
front of me. It's like a special moment. After you
worked in Nice Kicks, what kind of took you away
from working in like the sneaker industry. Yeah, opportunities, man,
Like I originally went to school because my goal was
to work for the FBI. Wow. And I wanted to
(18:41):
fight white collar crime. Wow. I basically wanted to catch
bad people doing bad things with money. Yeah. So originally
I wanted, Yeah, I wanted to be like Batman in
the suit, right. And originally I wanted to study accounting
because I was going to basically do forensic accounting to
see what sort of money laundering was happening and where
(19:03):
and how can I track it down? But I want
to do for the FBI because I've seen a show
when I was growing up, and I'm like, I want
to do that. And so I started doing that when
I entered college, to like get on track and get
on path to have that degree and have those opportunities.
And I remember being in touch with the FBI and
being in touch with the CIA for recruiting purposes. And
then shortly after I just decided, like it's not for me.
(19:26):
I spent some time in New York City, UM doing
a program at Goldman sachs In and realized, like this,
this is not for me, and I needed to be
honest with myself of what I really wanted to do,
and that just wasn't didn't feel a line, didn't feel
like me right UM. And so then I had the
opportunity to join Google. And so I spent over the
(19:48):
course of three years some time with Google, living in
New York, San Francisco Bay area, and then yeah, I
mean this, these experiences an exposure to tech world, tech life,
and I'm still in tech to this day, more so
like entertainment with talent management um with digital creators. It's
just kind of like trial and Eric, trial by fire,
trial by error, where I kind of just ran with
(20:11):
it and was sort of taken away from what I
originally want to do, which was you know, this FBI
thing forensic accounting to what I do today, which is
probably the furthest thing I could probably do from what
I originally want to do. And that's fine. That's fine. Um.
And it's kind of funny because I still have a degree.
I have a degree in finance, um, but I don't
really do much financial stuff outside of like personal investing. Um.
(20:36):
But yeah, I'm very removed from like Wall Street and uh,
the FBI and CIA and and all the things I
originally wanted to do. Isn't life crazy with it is?
And anything that I've taken from it is just the
fact that, like it's okay if you have the plan
and the plan doesn't work out. Dude, I was supposed
to be a doctor. I remember telling, yeah, so do it.
(20:57):
And it's crazy because like you go through your whole
life king like this is it, this is what I'm
gonna do, and then you start doing it. And don't
get me wrong, like I I still loved it. I
love anatomy. I think the human body is the most
interesting thing on this planet and how it functions. Like
I know it sounds really creepy, but like it's I
enjoyed going to anatomy class. I know a lot of
people probably think I'm a psychopath for saying that, but like,
(21:19):
literally that was like the most interesting thing in the
world for me. Like I sucked a chemistry, I hated it.
Physics I was okay because I was good at math,
but like biology and like anatomy, that was like my ship.
I loved it, Like I thought, it was just so fascinating.
So that's why I was like, you know what, maybe
I want to be a doctor, and that's why I went.
And then you know, this opportunity came up kind of
like how you were saying, how it was the opportunity, right,
(21:41):
and you know, now I'm here, so you just gotta
roll in ride the wave. And you know, for me,
I've always been a big believer of that while it
is important to know what you want to do, I
think it's equally, if not potentially even more important to
know what you don't want to do. Of course, and
you get that through experience and exposure of those things. Um,
most definitely because I think had I not been fortunate
(22:03):
enough to land these opportunities with again, I also realized,
like my trajectory is like crazy where you know, top
tier university in Texas or in the US, basically one
of the best schools in Europe when I was living
in Barcelona. And then you look at down the track
record of Goldman, Sachs, Google, Oracle and present day Facebook,
(22:24):
like you know that that's like hitting the lotto. Um,
I feel right, and it's something that I don't think,
like me, Yeah, it's but it's because I've just kind
of I've gone with it, but I've also gone with
intention and purpose to like get me where I feel
like I belong. Absolutely, And it seems like you love
what you do man, from like every interaction that I've
ever had with you around like where you work now,
(22:46):
I just I feel like you love it man, And
I feel like you're having a blast. I am. I
mean it's and I love seeing that. Yeah, it's it's
it's a fun um opportunity that I'm I'm very fortunate
for it. And don't forget about that, and and and
stay grounded in it and have fun with it because
life's too short, man, So I want to just enjoy
as much as I'm able to buy as many shoes
as I'm able, to help as many people as I can,
(23:08):
absolutely and and have fun along the way more importantly,
and just not take anything too seriously. Well, man, you're
such a humble guy when it comes to everything. And
it's it's funny, like like I can always sense people's
like energy and like the type of people there, and
I knew off the rip. I was like, I was like,
this guy is a good dude. Like I feel like
I have a pretty good read on people. I've been wrong,
(23:28):
but it was funny, like the way we met was yeah,
I mean, well, first off, thank you for sharing that
and u venmou later for that compliment. But I'll send
you an invoice please do um. Yeah, I mean it's
reciprocated man like that. The reason I'm here is is, uh,
it's not for me, it's for you, right, like appreciate
(23:48):
you know. I'll come through l a traffic and deal
with it all. But doesn't matter, right, And I think
how we met and sort of like by happenstance or
chance of being at the same event a year and
a half ago, when when you're running the first people
I met actually randomly in l A, right, and uh,
we've stayed friends, and it's kind of just goes to
show like it's it's reciprocated both ways and umbly, yeah,
(24:10):
it's it's it's it's been a pleasure on my end.
Really your privileged to like just kind of be in
the stands and watch you go to appreciate like this
wasn't a thing. This podcasting wasn't a thing when I
now it is. But it's just like the progression I
think is really important because it's not it's not just
me watching or your parents watching. It's like there's a
(24:31):
big following that you have across the world, right, that
I think is like it comes with responsibility, but it's
also like, because you've earned it, I appreciate it's really amazing.
Thank you, thank you. I genuinely appreciate that. And it's
crazy like the way because like when we first met UM,
obviously just even just being at that event at the
same time was just funny, but like the UM for me,
(24:53):
it's crazy how I've met so many people through sneakers
because I remember you were wearing blue tints, right yeah,
the easy yeah. And I was like, I was like, yo,
it was good broth, nice shoes, like literally, that's it,
and then started that started whole conversation absolutely and um,
you know you actually I don't know if it was
at that event or at a different one where you
where you made this comment, but it got engraved into
(25:16):
my brain and it really made me look at things
differently because you were like, because obviously you know what
you do, I'm sure there's people hitting you up seven
like yo, do this for me, do this for me,
do this for me, because everybody always wants something. And
when somebody asked you for your phone number, I think
you were like why yeah, and and like yeah, I
(25:36):
still I still do that sometime. And dude, when I
heard that, I was like, holy sh it. I was
like I would be petrified if someone said that to me,
because I'm like, oh uh, like you know what, but like,
I feel like I would never put myself into position
to where like if I asked for someone's that where
was specifically for wanting something, because I always thought that
(25:58):
was whacked. Like there's a difference between becoming friends with
someone and sharing each other's connections, you know what I mean, Like, like, dude,
if you want to accomplish something and I know someone
who can help you, bro all day vice versas. You
know what I'm saying. And but there's a difference between oh,
oh you work with so and so yo, let me
(26:18):
get your number real quick or that person or whatever
it's and that's whack. But there's but there's like a
much bigger difference, you know. And and that's why I
think it's so important to have like friends around you
who are successful and who are like doing ship not
only makes you want to work harder and work more.
I feel like it's like, I don't know, like when
I see my friends doing well, it just makes me happy,
(26:39):
you know what I mean. And I'm like, fuck, yeah,
you know, and if there's anything that I can do
to make you look better or do better or anything
like all day. So I don't know, I think I
think it's so important. Yeah, thanks for thanks for sharing that. Yeah,
it's it's a it's just something I started doing, um,
you know, a couple of years ago, where I care
more about quality of relationship quantity to and um that
(27:03):
question makes people uneasy because it puts the person that's
asking for something on the spot. Dude, I would have
shipped myself if you said that, right, and because because
that's that's the thing, like I would, you know, I
would tell you why, but I would just be so
taken back. I'd be like, you're not used to it,
or you're used to you know. And the reason I
do it is because I wanted, like more times than not.
(27:24):
The comment there is that so so we can connect.
And my response is like, well aren't we connecting now? Like,
why don't we just do it now? There's no need
to like unless there is a need to do it later, right,
because we've continued something to to then continue later, but
to just like, hey, what's up. I'm justin, Oh, I'm whoever.
Let me get your number. And it's like I don't
(27:46):
even know you, you don't even know me, you know, like,
and that that's the thing where I'm just like, that's
really interesting. It's it's almost a test of people, right
and understanding and seeing how like by asking a simple
question of why I can really like help you filter
people that either you should be around or shouldn't. And
(28:06):
that's my sort of litmus tests if you will of that,
and so if you if you've never done it, I
encourage you'd at least try it once. It's it's uncomfortable.
It used to be uncomfortable for me because I don't
want to come off as like brash or rude because
I'm that's very far from who I am. I can
vouch for that, but also will send you a venlo
chrestro comp thank you. Um. But it's also just understanding
of like others. And I think that's the thing that
(28:28):
I always think back to. It's just like I rather
honestly have a few good, no, a few great friends,
and I'll optimize for that as opposed to a lot
of good friends. I've rather have like a few great
friends to just keep me ground, to keep me honest
and make sure I stay who I I'm trying to become. Yeah, definitely,
man Like the way I view life is so black
(28:49):
and white. To me, it's either like your family or
I really don't care. I know that sounds terrible, but
like I let people into my life to be hum family,
you know what I mean? Because I meet people all
the time, and some people become my best friend. Some
people I mean, essentially, some people become family and some
people don't. And that's just kind of how it is
(29:10):
with me. So like you said, like you'd rather have
a few just a couple great friends and like a
jillion good friends, right, dude, I'm I'm literally on that.
Like my friends I'll do anything for, Like they're literally
family to me. Like I'm closer with some of my
friends that I am with blood blood relatives, you know. Um,
(29:30):
And I would do more for my certain friends than
I would for certain relatives. So I think that that's
so important. And like one thing that I learned is
like building a relationship is so important with everyone, doesn't
matter who the funk they are, right, And obviously it's
super important to be around people who are doing good
and because you want to surround because you are who
(29:50):
you hang out with, No, yeah, there a reflection of
who you are. So I mean, bro, even this year,
like there's a few people I really had to like
cut out of my life and if you of them,
I didn't want to, you know, and it was really difficult,
And to this day it's still still kind of bothers
me a little bit, but it's all a part of growth.
You know. I mean, there's there's no growth without challenge
(30:12):
or pain, man. And it's the hard things that you
learn from and grow from, not the easy things. You
kind of those just happen and you forget that they happen. Definitely, definitely,
and like, yeah, to this day, man, that that was
just ingrained in my brain out I was like, damn, dude,
that's crazy because I caught myself after that, like some
people just randomly asked for my number and I'd be like, like, okay,
(30:34):
just so you can have my number saved on your
phone so you can randomly text me in six months
asking me for shoes, because that's typically what happens, like
you know what I mean? Or is this person genuinely
interested in like making a connection and becoming friends and
then sharing each other's further connections, because that's just how
relationships work, you know what I mean. But but it's
not all about like like, oh, I can do this
(30:56):
for you, but if you can't do this for me,
then we can't be friends. Yeah, if it's a trans
actional friendship or relationship, it's not I mean that that's
not what I invest in. You know. If that's this,
you should never keep taps. No, not at all. It's
my view absolutely, absolutely, And like you know, I feel
like everyone who you've brought my way has been an
amazing person as the reflection of me. Man, I have
(31:20):
to vet these people through time, and you know, it's
it's just important for me to just not only say
this stuff, but live this stuff, to say, those people
represent who I justin represent right, So I'd hope that
there is alignment and representation of like what those people
stand for and believe in. And I'm I'm again I'm
(31:41):
not saying everyone needs to be similar, because that's not
how I learned from I learned through diverse perspective and
opinion and whatnot. But I'm just saying, for like, morally,
being a good person doing the right things, that's just
something that I try to look for and someone that
keeps their word. Do you think that you being from
Texas and having like a certain morale coming to l
(32:04):
A shaped you as a person. Do you think if
you grew up in l A you'd be, like to say,
I wouldn't be who I am today. I know that
for sure. M sure answer to your question around the
Texas thing, absolutely, I mean, for me, my word is everything, right,
My my word and my time is everything. And so
(32:25):
whoever I tell something to, I do. And I know
that sounds so trivial and simple, but like some people
don't and to have a reputation of being that person
that it's like, oh, yeah, I'll see you there, and
in your mind you're like, I'm not going to see you.
That you're lying. I never want that to be me.
So if I'm not going to go, I won't. I'm
not gonna go. I'm gonna go. And if I'm gonna
(32:46):
be there, you're not gonna be surprised you're seeing me
there because I told you I was gonna be there.
So just these things that I think about in my
life day in and day out, just to be as
much of a consistent person as I can possibly be. Yeah,
absolutely remember that event that you had on the on
the rooftop through hell and back to Yeah, I mean
you had it took you like what six hours to
(33:08):
get from San Diego to l A. But you said
you were coming and you did and you got there
towards the end, and that's fine. But you were there, right,
And I think that that speaks volumes of yourself. But like,
I think the lesson there for others to to just
take away would be like, if if you're going to
do something, do it and let your action lead lead
your words. You don't need to be announcing every single
(33:30):
thing you're gonna do, right, And I think by doing
so that builds your brand, builds your credibility more importantly,
and builds your reputation, so people know what to expect
when they're dealing with you or me or whoever the
person may be. Yeah. Absolutely, And then also another takeaway
from that situation is never take the train when you're
in a rush. Yeah, we'll leave out the details of
(33:51):
what happened, but yeah, yeah, I mean when you're on
someone when someone else is driving you and you're on
their time, you're not on yours. That's the lesson. There's
no more, no less. You dealt with a very anomally
scenario that hopefully that never happens to anyone. The most
anomaly scenario, I would have to say unbelievable things, but
like it clearly happened because there was news on it. Dude,
(34:14):
It's funny because everyone's like, who's listening, Like what happened? Yeah? There,
we gotta tune into the next episode, and that's where
you give the big reveal. Yeah that you know, you
get people to come back and listen to exactly, So
make sure you listen to the next episode. And it
definitely was not an alien that was on the tracks. No,
definitely not not an alien or a spaceship could have
been next episode. So with everything, like with all your
(34:38):
life experiences and like all the various places that you've
that you've worked and like the people you work with,
what would you what would you take away as like
a life lesson from like everything? Is there one thing
that you've been like, damn, like, like I really learned
this one thing. I mean again, I go back to
(34:59):
just staying ground it and being the fact that, like
I've worked my ass off to get to what I've
had and where I'm at and where I'm going. So
I don't forget that, um, because nothing comes easy, right,
and I'm glad that it doesn't, because I don't think
I appreciate it as much as I do now. Um.
But to your question, and this is something that I
think of and have thought over the last few years
(35:19):
and how I've chosen to operate right, And it's simple. Um,
And it's that I treat people like celebrities and I
treat celebrities like people. And that's what's really allowed me
to connect on a human level with all the people
I've ever been in touch with, in contact with and
met and whatnot. And I think that allows like my
(35:41):
best skills people, right. I know that. The reason I
know that is because I've come to realization with what
I just shared and have practiced it every single day
in all my interactions that I do, because that's me,
that's what you get. Yeah. So that's the big takeaway
is the treating people like celet breties and celebrities like people. Ceveryone.
(36:01):
It feels equal. I've never heard that before that. I
love that. Put on a shirt sell in the next
episode swipe of for the merch use Clode justin for
t Off. Yeah. I mean, dude, that's crazy because I
do try to definitely, like whenever I made a celebrity,
I try to really bring him down to earth. I've
like had some celebrities that I've come by blitz that
(36:23):
I have had to almost put in their place. Um,
I'm not gonna really say who, but like literally they'd
be like Oh, dude, come on, you're treating me like
a normal person. I'm like, because you're you're all human
at the end of the day, what are you fucking
the Martian or something like? How am I supposed to
treat you differently? Am I supposed to get you like
a silver pedestal when you walk in and lay out
a carpet and you know, and like they and like
(36:46):
I feel like that's why. I like, that's how a
celebrity will respect you or somebody who's like because I
get it. It's not easy being at the top and
having people constantly asking you for ship and like people
only want to photo with you and ship like that.
But like I feel like when you put yourself on
the same level as them, they're like, oh, ship, this
is a real person, Like this is a real, real
(37:07):
dude who like I can be cool with you know, yeah,
I mean for me, I'd rather, you know, open up
my mind or their mind before I opened up my phone, right,
Like that could come later, if anything, but that's the
least of my of course. And then I'm thinking about
dude definitely, like I think it's so important to like,
you know, really realize that there's just people too. You know,
before I, before I ever came to l A, I
(37:27):
had this like mindset about celebrities. I was like, holy
sh it, they're like untouchable. I've only seen them like
on TV or like whatever it might be, or have
only heard their voices through through music or whatever. And
I always used to think it was like this crazy
thing because where I grew up, I never saw any
And then when I came to l A and the
first time I ever saw a celebrity, which is funny
because he's not like anywhere remotely close to where he
(37:51):
used to be. But the first time, okay, i'll say it,
the first time I met um, the celebrity was I
love mcconan. I don't even know who that is, you know,
the club going up? Okay, that dude cool, right, And
the first time I met him was like, dude, holy shit.
I was like with with one of my old friends
and I was like like, holy sh it, like what's
(38:12):
happening here, Like dude, this this guy's this guy's celebrity,
like you know, And then I really felt like I
fucked up because I definitely did not act as if
he was just another person. I was just like oh, yeah, dude,
whatever you want, like, you know, just like and like
I remember they made me sit outside because we went
to their studio and they made me sit outside, and
I was like, damn, dude, this guy's a dickhead, you know.
(38:33):
But then I thought about it and I'm like, okay,
well there's a little respect, but whatever. My whole takeaway
I was like, oh my god, holy sh it, this
is insane now, Like I mean, it's cool to meet
these people, like people who I look up to, but
I never really view them as like, oh my god,
like I just met so and so, so I'm cool.
Now I'm like, I just met so and so. This
person worked their ass off and they're on top of
the world right now, and it's I'm blessed to even
(38:55):
like pick their brain about something, you know what I mean,
That's how I view it more so. Yeah. I mean
growing up in Texas too, like I wasn't exposed to
all the stars that I am here on a like
daily basis just completely Like living in l A's a
new norm, which is not the real norm, but it's
the l A norm that I get to live in.
And I mean I think to that point before moving
out here, Like the biggest celebrity I've ever like interacted with,
(39:17):
actually drink tequila with, was Matthew McConaughey. Very I mean
obviously still like a very big star, but in Austin,
like he was the poster child Golden Boy still is
like like a figure for U T Austin, Right, is
that where he's from? Uh he makes a school there,
but I don't know where he's from actually, And then
(39:37):
now it's just like kind of crazy where you could
be at a restaurant and then like in walks you
Kate Beckinsale or you're leaving a restaurant and then you
know one of the Megos people are like getting their car.
Like it's just like it's a whole it's a whole thing. Right, So,
and I don't want to say the Megos people, but
someone from me Goes would be getting Offset Ryan you
(39:58):
know whatever, like take off and quite phone all the well. Um,
now my question is, did you drive a Lincoln before
you got paid to drive a Lincoln McConaughey is isn't
that commercial? I'm just making a joke, dude, I don't
even know what he drives to be honest, No, No,
he said he drives Lincoln before he got paid to
(40:19):
drive Lincoln. From what you've told me, I knew you
had like an insane story of like where you used
to work, like how you built up to where you
are now? What do you what do you see yourself
doing next? Is there is there a next chapter? Is
there somewhere else? Like is there a place where you've
always wanted to work or you've always wanted to start
something of your own? Or like what do you see next? Yeah? Um,
(40:45):
I haven't really given much thought to to the future. Um.
You know, I try to look at things in terms
of a yearly basis. Um is my view, like the
short slash long term. Um. I mean what's important for
me is like education, like that that gave me, Like
getting the scholarship that I received got me the golden
(41:06):
ticket to be where I'm at today. Right, So I
definitely want to do something with education to give back
to students to be able to have a similar or
better opportunity than than I was given. Whether that's some
sort of nonprofit or foundation that I'm able to don't
raise money or donate my own money or resources to help.
That's something I'm very much of interest in and then um,
(41:28):
other things I think about that that I still very
much enjoy would be like the youth, Right, so how
can I get back to the youth maybe visiting them,
coaching them if it's a basketball team or something like
that I think I care about deeply. And then you know,
on the personal side, you know, getting married last year
it was definitely like a big moment for me, and
(41:49):
so like looking through the future, I'm like, I want
to be able to have security and stability for my
own family right and have to provide that. And so
these are things, uh like lenses of of things I
got to think about as I consider decisions that I'm
gonna make that not only impact me, but others. Um,
it doesn't give you the the here's what I'm thinking, Like,
(42:10):
I'm gonna build this business and do this thing and
that and I'm okay not knowing that. And even for
all the success that I've had in my career and
personal life, there's been a lot of things where I've
been told no, and I've been um rejected for and
and I've haven't eve been given the time or day
to even be thought for. And that's what drives me
(42:34):
and so taking that and just kind of moving it
forward day by day and and having progression in that
is something that I really tried to like transpire, uh
in my life to figure out, like what is it
that I want to leave behind? And I think more
in terms of like not necessarily like money, but like legacy.
(42:54):
And that's the thing, like what are people saying about
me when I'm not in the room because I'm like
long gone. That's so that's then I really think about.
That's awesome, that's awesome. Well, that's that's a great thing
to like look towards in the future because I don't
even know what mine's going to be yet. And that's okay,
Like you know, you have time. Yeah, that's all we
have until we don't. That's all you have. That's true,
That's very true. And the only things that are guaranteed
(43:15):
in life or death in Texas. Yeah, and a little
bit of life whatever you're giving taxes, yeah, of course,
of course, of course. And maybe the Spurs winning another championship.
Probably not, but I'm hopeful. I don't know, I don't
know about that one chief that ain't it, especially this season,
But I know, I mean, no way, the local y
m C a team is playing better than them. Yeah,
(43:37):
and I'm a Spurs fan. Um. Yeah, we'll see if
they make the playoffs. If they don't, I'll be sad.
If they do, I'll still be sad because there's no
way they're going to compete in the West with with
what the West looks like an NBA. Man, they're too
good this year, man, I mean Superstar, it's the Monstars. Yeah,
that's true. Who you think is gonna take a Clippers
or Lakers? I'm gonna say that, And this this hurts
(43:58):
me to say because I'm not even a fan of
either the teams, the Lakers. Do you think the Lakers
are gonna take it? If they stay healthy and they're
playing the way they're playing, they're really hard to beat. Dude,
I mean me as a Lakers fan, I'm proudly saying
that I hope they win. Okay, Well, one of my
um obviously, one of my friends plays for the Clippers,
so I wouldn't mind if they want to be really
(44:18):
happy for him. But like growing up, I was always
a Kobe fan. Got it transferred translated to being a
Lakers fan too, So and I'm happy that they're finally
you know, winning again because it was they had to
buy half the NBA. But now it's working, right. Yeah. Basically,
like who's in the Western Conference All Stars? It's get
them to l A, dude, Like, yeah, I mean the
(44:40):
All Star team this year is gonna be what Lakers
and Clippers. Basically, Yeah, the starting the starting five for
the Western Conference I think is might be like Lebron,
Anthony Davis, Harden Hawaii and I'm missing one. I saw that.
I saw the post recently have the starting five, but like, yeah,
it's it's pretty stacked. Leave them from l A. Yeah, absolutely, well,
(45:02):
we gotta play basketball Monday. Yeah, let's do it, dude.
I just just hoop the other day and I feel
so good. I gotta get back in Monday night, eight pm.
I'm down Santa Monica where I'm gonna be. So if
you could, like I know, I kind of pretty you
pretty much said this, but like would you say that,
Like if you could leave with something as almost like
(45:22):
I don't know, you could just say yo, go fallo
men on Instagram if you want. But I always at
the end, I always give my guests an opportunity to
kind of like have the floor. If you could leave
with saying something would you would you leave with like
treat people like celebrities and celebrities like people. Because that's
an amazing quote. I'm going to use that one and
use it, taking everyone who's listening to take it, but
practice it. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, So what would you like?
(45:44):
The floor is yours? Go ahead? Um? Yeah. I mean
I've been told a lot of things in life that
have worked for me and also that haven't worked for me.
So I'm just trying to think of like what what's
important to me and how I decided to live. It's
two words really and um this was told to me
by a healer in Bali when I was in Bally
(46:05):
this past summer. Um, and it's simple, but it's something
that I had. I'd been living like through through these
two words without really knowing un till it was like
made clear to me that this is what I need
to keep doing. And it's whatever it is, whatever you're pursuing,
just just keep going, just keep going. And so those
are two words that I keep in mind when I'm
(46:26):
at the gym doing the reps, or on the treadmill
or on the track doing the ship that I absolutely hate,
but I do because it's important for me and my health. Right,
just keep going, right, And yeah, I think that's whatever
it is that you're doing, want to do, thinking about doing,
people you want to reach out, work with, help, donate,
whatever it is, just keep going because at the end
(46:49):
of the day, that's really all you have, right, you
have the now, but then you just keep going. Just
keep and so that's what I tell myself every single day.
Just keep going because I'm not done yet. I'm running
my own race, which looks like a lot different from yours,
and that's fine because we're all different. But I'm not stopping.
I'm just I'm moving and I'm just I'm moving forward
(47:10):
and I'm I'll just keep going. I love it, man,
that's it. That's it. That's great. Those two words are
very powerful, even though like like I was expecting you
to say, like some like Harry Potter language like crazy
two words in some other language, but like, honestly, keep going.
It's actually extremely powerful if you think about it, because
I mean, we're all well, we're all doing is if
(47:31):
we're you know, were we all try to keep going
right because you know, I'm human too, So sometimes there's
things where I I doubt myself or I question it,
and you want to give up, you want to quit.
You you find a reason escapegoat to try and not
do something because it's easier to not do it because
you you don't have to do ship just stop. The
hard thing is is when you like you have to
(47:52):
keep going in order to get to what you want.
And that's the part that I appreciate most to be
able to look back and say, I did it all,
I got it all right, accomplished it all right. Help
this person, I did that and this and the other
um and that. That's literally the thing that I think
about every single day before I go to bed and
when I wake up, because that's what moves and pushes
me through. I love that. I love that. And you're
gonna be you gonna turn into the next Gary V.
(48:15):
I hope not. Man, I just want to stay myself now.
I'm just kidding. No, I love that. Well, justin, thank
you for coming on. Really appreciate you you having me.
Make sure you guys go follow Justin on Instagram. What's
your J J. Johnson t X. Yeah, go follow just
on Instagram and trust me, like you can learn a
lot from this guy and if you ever run into him,
don't ask for his phone number immediately. Wait one minute. Yeah, man,
(48:36):
thanks again for for coming on. Appreciate you. Thanks for
letting me pick your brain and I learned a lot.
So yeah, thank you man. Appreciate it again. I'm gonna
tell you like I told everyone, keep going, yes, sir, yes, sir.
I mean you know, we'll have Justin back on the
on the show one time. We'll have them again. So
appreciate you, guys. I'm gonna kid you guys next time
on Legit Check. I'm easy, best piece.
What's going on? Guys. Welcome to Legit Check. Welcome to
another episode. I'm your host, yeasy bust, and I'm here
with my very good friend Justin Johnson. What's up, y'all?
Thanks for having me to really appreciate it, you know, Justin,
tell us a little bit about yourself, like who are you?
What do you do? Loaded question? Man, It's it's the
hardest one to answer. Yeah, I'm a I'm a Texan
(00:20):
by birth, but probably also by choice if I even
wasn't born there, originally from San Antonio, born and raised
so Go Spurs Go. Probably one of the biggest, most
loyal Spurs fan even though they have any shitty season
this year, um to stay true to them. Pretty like
interesting background in the sense that I was the first
generation scholar, growing up and doing things that none no
(00:43):
one else in my family had done or has done,
or wanted to do. U ended up at the University
of Texas at Austin, where I studied business and got
a degree in finance and information systems. And then it
was kind of crazy because uh, like taking a step,
taking a few steps back and thinking of about how
I ended up at UT I was salutatory and in
my my high school class. And what that means is
(01:05):
that your rank second in your class because I had
really good grades and I remember the counselors telling me, like,
you'r ranked second, And my only response was why wasn't
I first? Because I didn't really know what that meant,
but it unlocked a lot of doors. I was getting
recruited by top tier universities, full right scholarships and whatnot.
Ended up getting the Terry Foundation scholarship, which is near
and dear to my heart that fully funded me throughout
(01:26):
college and undergrad and sent me abroad to live in
Barcelona where I did exchange business school to SADE and
just like had a blast because of them. And it's
kind of been amazing to come full circle present day
where I live now in Los Angeles and still really
involved with the Terry Foundation where now I get to
and have helped them um select scholars to receive the
same scholarship that I did, which is ultimately life changing.
(01:48):
It was my Willy Wonka Golden ticket to go and
like see what the world held, kind of answering your
question of who who am I? Right? But essentially if
you ignored everything else, I'm I'm from San Antono, know,
from Texas, die hard Texan, love barbecue, love breakfast, tacos.
Lived in Austin for ten years, um, sort of by force,
(02:09):
not really by choice. I was figured that I'd go
to u T Austin and and leave when my time
was done at the university, and uh boy, I was wrong. Um,
And I stayed there for six additional years, so ten
years total, and kind of saw Austin become the city
that it is today, which a lot of people from
California still moved there to this day. I actually made
(02:29):
the opposite transition from Texas to California and decided I
wanted to pay stay income tax and overpay for everything.
But but here I am now in l A. Very
well put. So what was you think the biggest transition
from from Texas to l A besides the state income
tax and the six dollar gas prices? Um? Yeah, yeah,
(02:52):
I mean there's there's not a lot of good barbecue places,
for one, in my opinion, And I've had a lot
of different restaurants and and some people don't agree with me,
and that's totally fine because I don't agree with them
and in their taste palette. But I would say the
biggest transition and coming out from being born and raised
in Texas and spending my home life there and then
moving to l A completely for much big actual big
(03:14):
city right second largest in the US, was the fact
that I had no family here. That was a conscious
decision I was aware of, but I didn't really realize
the impact of it until I got here. Right. I
can know all these people because I did some work
in the music industry and had a bunch of friends
out other companies, But it's a very distinct difference between
(03:34):
being a one hour car right away from Austin to
San Antonio versus being a three hour plane ride from
Texas to California right absolutely different time zone as well,
I'm behind two hours or you know, looking at the
other way, my my family is ahead of me by
two hours. And so I think the biggest transition for
me was just like figuring out who I was and
what I wanted out of my experience, and so moving
(03:55):
to l A in late July, I figured, hey, I
can come do this for a year and I go
back to Texas because Texas is home, right and it
was It was interesting, I would say the first thirty
days were sort of an experiment to just try and
find a rhythm, try and find where I wanted to
live longer term, and find my group of friends, because
(04:17):
all the advice I had been given prior to moving
to l A was just kind of watch yourself and
watch your back, right, because everyone, from what I've been
told that at that time have figured out in some
ways is that you know, people are looking for their
next set of shoulders to stand on to help them
get to where they want to go. It is, but
it's right, but it is right, and it's not everybody.
(04:37):
It's not to say it's a blanket or generalized statement
that everyone I've met is trying to use or leverage
what I know who I know to benefit them. But
it is very different coming to a city where everyone
comes to try and become someone they're not, or they're
trying to be a better version of themselves, which I'm
totally for right for improvement in progress, but it doesn't
(04:59):
have Southern hospit mentality the way Texas does, right, So
imagine being in that environment and being brought in with
a history of like Southern hospitality and always thinking the
people have the best of intentions and that's not always
a case, right, So it's kind of a slap in
the face the route awakening what you have, like what
life outside of Texas is. And I learned it. I
(05:21):
learned it really quickly in my first thirty days here.
And now it's been a year and a half that
I've been here, and now I proudly call um l
a home for for now at least, because I don't
know how long I end up being here, but it's
where I live, and it's where I spend my time
and spend my energy, um doing what I do and
having fun and learning a ton about myself and others
along the way. Very well put. So I know you're
(05:45):
into fashion, right, You're into sneakers like you were in
some Supreme tell wins. There we go, ye I know
some things about sneak you know a little bit yea, Um,
got some dunks on and um, so you worked at
Champs finish Line. There we go. Okay, Yeah, so finish
(06:06):
Line is is a crazy story. So I worked at
Finish Line. It was my first real job that um,
I had to pay taxes on. But would you say
would you say that you worked there because you were
into sneakers. Do you think that finished line got you
into stinkers? I was already into sneak into it. Yeah,
and my and my mom actually helped me get that job.
So I was sixteen years old. It was my first
real legal job before I started like working at the
(06:28):
age of fourteen cutting grasses for seven dollars an hour
in a hundred degree summer heat. Believe it or not.
Respect No, it's really stupidity, um, but I didn't know better, right,
and it was like I was, dude, believe this or
not I would I was with a lawn more uh
weed eating Your face is perplexed looking at me, like
what are you talking about? Like that's how naive. I
(06:48):
was cutting four five ft tall grass with the lawn more.
No one does that, No one should do that either,
but I was doing it because I was just like, oh,
like this is the challenge. Is like I am near
died of heat exhaustion because I was in Texas, fourteen
years old getting paid seven dollars an hour. And I
remember like, over the course of m a weekend, had
(07:10):
worked Saturday and Sunday with with my neighbor at the time,
who's employing me? So I had worked seven hours each day, right,
so that ends up being forty each day. So it's
ninety eight bucks. And I remember this guy telling me,
I'm gonna give you a little bonus. Right. The dude
gave me a hundred dollars, so I made two extra
dollars on top of the ninety eight dollars I had
worked for. It was then where I said, I'm never
(07:33):
doing this again, right, But what that taught me in
that time frame was not to cut grass that's five
ft with a lawn more, not to do it in
Texas in the middle of the summer, and to teach
me that this is not a way of life that
I want to live. But there's application of working hard
and saving up money for sneakers and video games that
(07:53):
as a fourteen year old to apply that in a
different capacity. And so fast forward when I was sixteen
years old and legal to to work in the state
of Texas was finish Line. And so I was going
to finish Line weekly basically to buy sneakers. And this
was out of the fact that I was just like
really into shoes and still am and have been since
I was a kid. And so I would go into
(08:14):
the store pick whatever the latest like quick strike or
general release at the time was, which this was two
thousand and when was this sometime during the two thousand's, right,
and I'll go with my mom and that's what I
would do, get a new weekly pair of shoes. And
then from there was able to build rapport and relationship
with the manager store manager, and one time he then
(08:36):
asked me like, hey, you're always in here, like pretty often,
like why don't you work here? And I said, well,
why don't you hire me? And that was pretty much
the extent of the interview. He's like, I will because
you seem to like shoot, you know about it? And
so I worked for Finish with Finish Line four Finish
Line for four years and this was from ages sixteen
to twenty. And the only reason two reasons I took
(08:59):
the job. One employed discount, which is thirty percent off
at the time, I don't know what it is anymore,
I finished, right, And then two was I get to
make my own money and be able to buy things
that I wanted, which ultimately was shoes and video games
at the time. Yeah, it kind of just transpired based
on passion and interest. Even to this day, Um, I'm
still buying and spending money on shoes just because I
(09:21):
enjoyed doing it as an expensive hobby if you will. Um.
But it was kind of crazy because that experience of
working at Finish Line led me to work for Nice Kicks.
And this was when I was in Austin, Texas in
college at ut I didn't even need the job, but
I had a full right scholarship that I mentioned, but
I just wanted to be around shoes and I had
read about this guy named Matt half Hill, So shout
(09:43):
out Matt Um who's now a really good friend and
mentor of mine. Where he hired me, I came into
Nice Kicks and like really got into the origins of sneakers.
He had something at the time called the Vault, so
he had some of the most exclusive seekers that had
sneakers that I've ever released, but weren't available for sale,
so you just collected these in a two bedroom apartment
(10:04):
above Nice Kicks in in Austin, Texas. And so it
was just a really cool time to be around shoes
for me. Right this is around the time I forget
what your this is, but the Galaxy Foam posits were releasing.
That is when I work for Nice Kicks, and so
these were just like cultural moments and sneakers in which
I had the opportunity to be around and be around Matt,
who is very much like an O G sneaker head
(10:26):
if you will, uh in the space. And so a
lot of that came from the fact that I just
knew what I was talking about, that had worked at
Finish Line for four years and just got all that
like knowledge and experience and being around shoes day in
and day out. That's awesome, so that you really had
like the behind the scenes kind of look of like
how the whole shoe game works. Yeah, I mean it
really helped me to basically launch a little like buying
(10:50):
flip thing in college to just have extra money to
do whatever I wanted. And so I would look to
see what was going to drop and then I would
just say, like, that's what I'm gonna go after and
put a little bit of markup on it, and people
were buying before it was like the stock X and
go present day, you would just do like in person transactions,
like you would buy a shoe turn around in the
same line you had just waded in sell it to
(11:12):
the person a few back because they had already sold out,
but they were willing to pay a premium on it.
And I'd make a hundred bucks for just buying a
pair of shoes. Yeah, that's crazy. So many people have
had like a very very similar beginning to how they
got into shoes. Like Draf one of his friends told him,
I forgot which Jordans was, but like, um, he had
a pair of Jordan's and somebody offered him over how
(11:33):
much he paid and He's like, what the hell? So
the next drop he got like four pairs and then
basically sold the three and then his end up being free.
So you know you said before you worked to finish
on you were into sneakers, right right? What got you
into it? Was it because it was a basketball? Was
it fashion? Was it? Like I would say basketball? And
then I mean for me, Michael Jordan's right, he was
(11:54):
the hottest player in the nineties. I was a kid
during the nineties, so I saw him growing up with
you know, Shock Penny and like the crazy rebox shoes
and Iverson had like the Bulldog and the insul, but
like specifically Michael Jordan's. I remember my first pair of
Jordan's was the Jordan's fourteen. It was the black and
red one. I think it's called the Ferrari or whatever
the color way is. But that was my first vivid
(12:15):
memory that I can remember of having of name brand shoe,
because before that, I was very much into like the
Ninja Turtle. You know, you step on the ground and
they like light up. I don't even know what the
brand is, but you like ten dollars shoes, twenty dollars shoes.
That's what I wanted. But then as I started seeing
more basketball and essentially this icon and Michael Jordan's of
(12:36):
like he's more than just a basketball player, I'm like,
I want to be like Mike right, which is catchy phrase,
but like that's like what people wanted to do, wanted
to be. And I'm like, how can I be like him?
If I'm never going to play basketball like him, I
can at least try to dress like him or have
his shoes, right, And so that kind of sparked a
lot of the interest for me, and I just started
collecting even further. As a kid, I want to say
(12:56):
I was I might have been five when I had
my first pair of Jordan's and wow, yeah, since then,
so you know, twenty plus years since, Um, I haven't
really slowed down. What's up? So and you know I've
seen you, You've You've come to the warehouse a few times.
You pick you know, you know what I mean, like
you got you got the heat. Yeah, it's uh, it's
(13:16):
it's just a collection. Man. I try and like pay
homage to things that I enjoy, but also just like
moments in time that I just want to like remember,
and I remember that through sneakers, right, So like one
of my my my guarded pairs that I wear here
and there so often. It's like the Kobe Grinch, right,
So that shoes from Yeah, that that shoes from two
thousand ten, nine years going on ten years old this year.
(13:39):
And when I first saw that shoe when Kobe was
playing on on Christmas Day and I saw George Lopez
sitting courtside with it, I'm like, I need those that
shoe took me four years to hunt down in my
size in a condition that would not crumble when I
wear it. Wow, because I cared so much about that
moment and I need that association to the shoes. It's
more than just sneaker. Of course, for me, at least
(14:02):
and uh, yeah, you know, I mean that's that's one
of them. I still have some like O G stuff
that I picked up when I was at Nice Kick,
some O G stuff that I picked up when I
was working at Finish Line like years ago. Um, some
stuff I still have that doesn't even fit me and
never did, but I just bought it anyways just to have,
which is completely real. Um and like I still don't
understand why I did that, but I don't disagree with
(14:24):
my decision, even though I know that doesn't sound logical,
but it's just something that it's like the journey, you know,
the chase or the hunt down of whatever it is
you're trying to get and you finally get it, at
least you have it. You can say you have it,
or it's like a trophy to some extent absolutely like
bro like even like the sneakers I'm wearing right now,
the Jedies. Man, I probably have another five weares of
(14:45):
these and that's it because they will fall apart right
because their sold I think these are two thousand four,
I want to say, so, Like, uh, you know the
original ray guns, So I got those pretty much brand
like they were worn once and I wore them at
Art Basel three times and now like literally the soul's
coming off, like that's it. Those are my three wear
It's a sad feeling, it is, but at the same time,
(15:08):
like I'll always remember those three times I wore that shoe.
And also it's like it's it's almost like an art
piece now you know it is? Yeah, I mean you,
I think personally, my view is that you say a
lot about people. Yeah, you know, I I believe that,
and those who are fortunate to be able to to
get their own and select their own like totally. And
(15:29):
I'm not saying one way or the other that if
you don't have shoes it doesn't say much about your whatever.
But of course I just think that like for me, um,
at least when I'm building my like outfit and whatnot,
like I started with the shoes and then I match
everything else to the shoes. I don't do it the
other way around. You go from the bottom to the top. Well,
that's the thing about shoes is like my dad always
told me that your shoes are the most important thing
(15:49):
that you're wearing no matter what. And it's funny because
I wear sneakers and my dad was like super fancy
looking loafers. Yeah, exact loafers. But I couldn't agree more.
And everybody has their own swag, you know what I mean, Like,
I wouldn't judge someone based on the fact that they're
not wearing. Like you know, our friend Xander, right, he's
(16:10):
a big boots guy. But his boots are always from Texas,
you know. But but his boots are fresh and they
look good on him, and he rocks them, and he
probably has fifty pairs of boots. Just how me and
you people might think that we're stick in the head
because we have fifty pairs of sneakers or like, however
many so Yeah, but I think for whatever reason, I
don't know why, like it always I was always curious,
(16:32):
like why the sneakers? Why why is it always the
shoes have to be like the most important part of
the outfit. Yeah, you know, I make shoe contact before
I make I look down then look up, Isn't it
Isn't that interesting though, Like I swear, like at sneaker
cons and stuff, like you just see people just their
first interaction. You just see their heads just going like this,
Oh dude, those are dope. You're you're basically like evaluating
(16:54):
people based on their feet and what they have on
them isn't that interesting? But also I feel like misconception
is like you look at someone's feeling like, oh, those
are expensive, so you're cool. Like, Nah, I don't think
it's about that. I think it's about how you put
it together more so. Is that like you could wear
all black pair of vans and still make it look dope. Yeah, absolutely,
you know, as long as it's presentable, as long as
(17:14):
they don't have sixteen thousand holes in them. But I
mean everybody, everybody has their own. Like I never judge anyone,
but like, I just feel like I have friends who
have like super dope outfits, like very expensive clothes, and
their shoes are just trash and like it just makes
their whole outfit look whack, you know what I mean.
And I'm like, dude, like come on, bro, let me
(17:35):
get you right, like you know what I mean. Um,
but yeah, the shoes are so so important, you know,
so like you from a young age were always into
it kind of like you know, yeah, and and the
opportunity to be around that, um both by choice really
like going in weekly to purchase the Shoe and then
me working there at Finish Line, and then me being
around shoes again, working at a Nice Kicks for a
(17:57):
bit of time when I was at school was just
it was you know, it was just like a perfect
storm of everything to be around what I what I
really enjoyed wanting to be around, and like it's it's
something I care about. So for me, it's always like
entertaining and interesting to be able to like see things
in person that I've only heard about or read about
or seen on Internet or magazine from way back when,
(18:19):
and to actually see it as a tangible thing in
front of me. It's like a special moment. After you
worked in Nice Kicks, what kind of took you away
from working in like the sneaker industry. Yeah, opportunities, man,
Like I originally went to school because my goal was
to work for the FBI. Wow. And I wanted to
(18:41):
fight white collar crime. Wow. I basically wanted to catch
bad people doing bad things with money. Yeah. So originally
I wanted, Yeah, I wanted to be like Batman in
the suit, right. And originally I wanted to study accounting
because I was going to basically do forensic accounting to
see what sort of money laundering was happening and where
(19:03):
and how can I track it down? But I want
to do for the FBI because I've seen a show
when I was growing up, and I'm like, I want
to do that. And so I started doing that when
I entered college, to like get on track and get
on path to have that degree and have those opportunities.
And I remember being in touch with the FBI and
being in touch with the CIA for recruiting purposes. And
then shortly after I just decided, like it's not for me.
(19:26):
I spent some time in New York City, UM doing
a program at Goldman sachs In and realized, like this,
this is not for me, and I needed to be
honest with myself of what I really wanted to do,
and that just wasn't didn't feel a line, didn't feel
like me right UM. And so then I had the
opportunity to join Google. And so I spent over the
(19:48):
course of three years some time with Google, living in
New York, San Francisco Bay area, and then yeah, I
mean this, these experiences an exposure to tech world, tech life,
and I'm still in tech to this day, more so
like entertainment with talent management um with digital creators. It's
just kind of like trial and Eric, trial by fire,
trial by error, where I kind of just ran with
(20:11):
it and was sort of taken away from what I
originally want to do, which was you know, this FBI
thing forensic accounting to what I do today, which is
probably the furthest thing I could probably do from what
I originally want to do. And that's fine. That's fine. Um.
And it's kind of funny because I still have a degree.
I have a degree in finance, um, but I don't
really do much financial stuff outside of like personal investing. Um.
(20:36):
But yeah, I'm very removed from like Wall Street and uh,
the FBI and CIA and and all the things I
originally wanted to do. Isn't life crazy with it is?
And anything that I've taken from it is just the
fact that, like it's okay if you have the plan
and the plan doesn't work out. Dude, I was supposed
to be a doctor. I remember telling, yeah, so do it.
(20:57):
And it's crazy because like you go through your whole
life king like this is it, this is what I'm
gonna do, and then you start doing it. And don't
get me wrong, like I I still loved it. I
love anatomy. I think the human body is the most
interesting thing on this planet and how it functions. Like
I know it sounds really creepy, but like it's I
enjoyed going to anatomy class. I know a lot of
people probably think I'm a psychopath for saying that, but like,
(21:19):
literally that was like the most interesting thing in the
world for me. Like I sucked a chemistry, I hated it.
Physics I was okay because I was good at math,
but like biology and like anatomy, that was like my ship.
I loved it, Like I thought, it was just so fascinating.
So that's why I was like, you know what, maybe
I want to be a doctor, and that's why I went.
And then you know, this opportunity came up kind of
like how you were saying, how it was the opportunity, right,
(21:41):
and you know, now I'm here, so you just gotta
roll in ride the wave. And you know, for me,
I've always been a big believer of that while it
is important to know what you want to do, I
think it's equally, if not potentially even more important to
know what you don't want to do. Of course, and
you get that through experience and exposure of those things. Um,
most definitely because I think had I not been fortunate
(22:03):
enough to land these opportunities with again, I also realized,
like my trajectory is like crazy where you know, top
tier university in Texas or in the US, basically one
of the best schools in Europe when I was living
in Barcelona. And then you look at down the track
record of Goldman, Sachs, Google, Oracle and present day Facebook,
(22:24):
like you know that that's like hitting the lotto. Um,
I feel right, and it's something that I don't think,
like me, Yeah, it's but it's because I've just kind
of I've gone with it, but I've also gone with
intention and purpose to like get me where I feel
like I belong. Absolutely, And it seems like you love
what you do man, from like every interaction that I've
ever had with you around like where you work now,
(22:46):
I just I feel like you love it man, And
I feel like you're having a blast. I am. I
mean it's and I love seeing that. Yeah, it's it's
it's a fun um opportunity that I'm I'm very fortunate
for it. And don't forget about that, and and and
stay grounded in it and have fun with it because
life's too short, man, So I want to just enjoy
as much as I'm able to buy as many shoes
as I'm able, to help as many people as I can,
(23:08):
absolutely and and have fun along the way more importantly,
and just not take anything too seriously. Well, man, you're
such a humble guy when it comes to everything. And
it's it's funny, like like I can always sense people's
like energy and like the type of people there, and
I knew off the rip. I was like, I was like,
this guy is a good dude. Like I feel like
I have a pretty good read on people. I've been wrong,
(23:28):
but it was funny, like the way we met was yeah,
I mean, well, first off, thank you for sharing that
and u venmou later for that compliment. But I'll send
you an invoice please do um. Yeah, I mean it's
reciprocated man like that. The reason I'm here is is, uh,
it's not for me, it's for you, right, like appreciate
(23:48):
you know. I'll come through l a traffic and deal
with it all. But doesn't matter, right, And I think
how we met and sort of like by happenstance or
chance of being at the same event a year and
a half ago, when when you're running the first people
I met actually randomly in l A, right, and uh,
we've stayed friends, and it's kind of just goes to
show like it's it's reciprocated both ways and umbly, yeah,
(24:10):
it's it's it's it's been a pleasure on my end.
Really your privileged to like just kind of be in
the stands and watch you go to appreciate like this
wasn't a thing. This podcasting wasn't a thing when I
now it is. But it's just like the progression I
think is really important because it's not it's not just
me watching or your parents watching. It's like there's a
(24:31):
big following that you have across the world, right, that
I think is like it comes with responsibility, but it's
also like, because you've earned it, I appreciate it's really amazing.
Thank you, thank you. I genuinely appreciate that. And it's
crazy like the way because like when we first met UM,
obviously just even just being at that event at the
same time was just funny, but like the UM for me,
(24:53):
it's crazy how I've met so many people through sneakers
because I remember you were wearing blue tints, right yeah,
the easy yeah. And I was like, I was like, yo,
it was good broth, nice shoes, like literally, that's it,
and then started that started whole conversation absolutely and um,
you know you actually I don't know if it was
at that event or at a different one where you
where you made this comment, but it got engraved into
(25:16):
my brain and it really made me look at things
differently because you were like, because obviously you know what
you do, I'm sure there's people hitting you up seven
like yo, do this for me, do this for me,
do this for me, because everybody always wants something. And
when somebody asked you for your phone number, I think
you were like why yeah, and and like yeah, I
(25:36):
still I still do that sometime. And dude, when I
heard that, I was like, holy sh it. I was
like I would be petrified if someone said that to me,
because I'm like, oh uh, like you know what, but like,
I feel like I would never put myself into position
to where like if I asked for someone's that where
was specifically for wanting something, because I always thought that
(25:58):
was whacked. Like there's a difference between becoming friends with
someone and sharing each other's connections, you know what I mean, Like, like, dude,
if you want to accomplish something and I know someone
who can help you, bro all day vice versas. You
know what I'm saying. And but there's a difference between oh,
oh you work with so and so yo, let me
(26:18):
get your number real quick or that person or whatever
it's and that's whack. But there's but there's like a
much bigger difference, you know. And and that's why I
think it's so important to have like friends around you
who are successful and who are like doing ship not
only makes you want to work harder and work more.
I feel like it's like, I don't know, like when
I see my friends doing well, it just makes me happy,
(26:39):
you know what I mean. And I'm like, fuck, yeah,
you know, and if there's anything that I can do
to make you look better or do better or anything
like all day. So I don't know, I think I
think it's so important. Yeah, thanks for thanks for sharing that. Yeah,
it's it's a it's just something I started doing, um,
you know, a couple of years ago, where I care
more about quality of relationship quantity to and um that
(27:03):
question makes people uneasy because it puts the person that's
asking for something on the spot. Dude, I would have
shipped myself if you said that, right, and because because
that's that's the thing, like I would, you know, I
would tell you why, but I would just be so
taken back. I'd be like, you're not used to it,
or you're used to you know. And the reason I
do it is because I wanted, like more times than not.
(27:24):
The comment there is that so so we can connect.
And my response is like, well aren't we connecting now? Like,
why don't we just do it now? There's no need
to like unless there is a need to do it later, right,
because we've continued something to to then continue later, but
to just like, hey, what's up. I'm justin, Oh, I'm whoever.
Let me get your number. And it's like I don't
(27:46):
even know you, you don't even know me, you know, like,
and that that's the thing where I'm just like, that's
really interesting. It's it's almost a test of people, right
and understanding and seeing how like by asking a simple
question of why I can really like help you filter
people that either you should be around or shouldn't. And
(28:06):
that's my sort of litmus tests if you will of that,
and so if you if you've never done it, I
encourage you'd at least try it once. It's it's uncomfortable.
It used to be uncomfortable for me because I don't
want to come off as like brash or rude because
I'm that's very far from who I am. I can
vouch for that, but also will send you a venlo
chrestro comp thank you. Um. But it's also just understanding
of like others. And I think that's the thing that
(28:28):
I always think back to. It's just like I rather
honestly have a few good, no, a few great friends,
and I'll optimize for that as opposed to a lot
of good friends. I've rather have like a few great
friends to just keep me ground, to keep me honest
and make sure I stay who I I'm trying to become. Yeah, definitely,
man Like the way I view life is so black
(28:49):
and white. To me, it's either like your family or
I really don't care. I know that sounds terrible, but
like I let people into my life to be hum family,
you know what I mean? Because I meet people all
the time, and some people become my best friend. Some
people I mean, essentially, some people become family and some
people don't. And that's just kind of how it is
(29:10):
with me. So like you said, like you'd rather have
a few just a couple great friends and like a
jillion good friends, right, dude, I'm I'm literally on that.
Like my friends I'll do anything for, Like they're literally
family to me. Like I'm closer with some of my
friends that I am with blood blood relatives, you know. Um,
(29:30):
And I would do more for my certain friends than
I would for certain relatives. So I think that that's
so important. And like one thing that I learned is
like building a relationship is so important with everyone, doesn't
matter who the funk they are, right, And obviously it's
super important to be around people who are doing good
and because you want to surround because you are who
(29:50):
you hang out with, No, yeah, there a reflection of
who you are. So I mean, bro, even this year,
like there's a few people I really had to like
cut out of my life and if you of them,
I didn't want to, you know, and it was really difficult,
And to this day it's still still kind of bothers
me a little bit, but it's all a part of growth.
You know. I mean, there's there's no growth without challenge
(30:12):
or pain, man. And it's the hard things that you
learn from and grow from, not the easy things. You
kind of those just happen and you forget that they happen. Definitely, definitely,
and like, yeah, to this day, man, that that was
just ingrained in my brain out I was like, damn, dude,
that's crazy because I caught myself after that, like some
people just randomly asked for my number and I'd be like, like, okay,
(30:34):
just so you can have my number saved on your
phone so you can randomly text me in six months
asking me for shoes, because that's typically what happens, like
you know what I mean? Or is this person genuinely
interested in like making a connection and becoming friends and
then sharing each other's further connections, because that's just how
relationships work, you know what I mean. But but it's
not all about like like, oh, I can do this
(30:56):
for you, but if you can't do this for me,
then we can't be friends. Yeah, if it's a trans
actional friendship or relationship, it's not I mean that that's
not what I invest in. You know. If that's this,
you should never keep taps. No, not at all. It's
my view absolutely, absolutely, And like you know, I feel
like everyone who you've brought my way has been an
amazing person as the reflection of me. Man, I have
(31:20):
to vet these people through time, and you know, it's
it's just important for me to just not only say
this stuff, but live this stuff, to say, those people
represent who I justin represent right, So I'd hope that
there is alignment and representation of like what those people
stand for and believe in. And I'm I'm again I'm
(31:41):
not saying everyone needs to be similar, because that's not
how I learned from I learned through diverse perspective and
opinion and whatnot. But I'm just saying, for like, morally,
being a good person doing the right things, that's just
something that I try to look for and someone that
keeps their word. Do you think that you being from
Texas and having like a certain morale coming to l
(32:04):
A shaped you as a person. Do you think if
you grew up in l A you'd be, like to say,
I wouldn't be who I am today. I know that
for sure. M sure answer to your question around the
Texas thing, absolutely, I mean, for me, my word is everything, right,
My my word and my time is everything. And so
(32:25):
whoever I tell something to, I do. And I know
that sounds so trivial and simple, but like some people
don't and to have a reputation of being that person
that it's like, oh, yeah, I'll see you there, and
in your mind you're like, I'm not going to see you.
That you're lying. I never want that to be me.
So if I'm not going to go, I won't. I'm
not gonna go. I'm gonna go. And if I'm gonna
(32:46):
be there, you're not gonna be surprised you're seeing me
there because I told you I was gonna be there.
So just these things that I think about in my
life day in and day out, just to be as
much of a consistent person as I can possibly be. Yeah,
absolutely remember that event that you had on the on
the rooftop through hell and back to Yeah, I mean
you had it took you like what six hours to
(33:08):
get from San Diego to l A. But you said
you were coming and you did and you got there
towards the end, and that's fine. But you were there, right,
And I think that that speaks volumes of yourself. But like,
I think the lesson there for others to to just
take away would be like, if if you're going to
do something, do it and let your action lead lead
your words. You don't need to be announcing every single
(33:30):
thing you're gonna do, right, And I think by doing
so that builds your brand, builds your credibility more importantly,
and builds your reputation, so people know what to expect
when they're dealing with you or me or whoever the
person may be. Yeah. Absolutely, And then also another takeaway
from that situation is never take the train when you're
in a rush. Yeah, we'll leave out the details of
(33:51):
what happened, but yeah, yeah, I mean when you're on
someone when someone else is driving you and you're on
their time, you're not on yours. That's the lesson. There's
no more, no less. You dealt with a very anomally
scenario that hopefully that never happens to anyone. The most
anomaly scenario, I would have to say unbelievable things, but
like it clearly happened because there was news on it. Dude,
(34:14):
It's funny because everyone's like, who's listening, Like what happened? Yeah? There,
we gotta tune into the next episode, and that's where
you give the big reveal. Yeah that you know, you
get people to come back and listen to exactly, So
make sure you listen to the next episode. And it
definitely was not an alien that was on the tracks. No,
definitely not not an alien or a spaceship could have
been next episode. So with everything, like with all your
(34:38):
life experiences and like all the various places that you've
that you've worked and like the people you work with,
what would you what would you take away as like
a life lesson from like everything? Is there one thing
that you've been like, damn, like, like I really learned
this one thing. I mean again, I go back to
(34:59):
just staying ground it and being the fact that, like
I've worked my ass off to get to what I've
had and where I'm at and where I'm going. So
I don't forget that, um, because nothing comes easy, right,
and I'm glad that it doesn't, because I don't think
I appreciate it as much as I do now. Um.
But to your question, and this is something that I
think of and have thought over the last few years
(35:19):
and how I've chosen to operate right, And it's simple. Um,
And it's that I treat people like celebrities and I
treat celebrities like people. And that's what's really allowed me
to connect on a human level with all the people
I've ever been in touch with, in contact with and
met and whatnot. And I think that allows like my
(35:41):
best skills people, right. I know that. The reason I
know that is because I've come to realization with what
I just shared and have practiced it every single day
in all my interactions that I do, because that's me,
that's what you get. Yeah. So that's the big takeaway
is the treating people like celet breties and celebrities like people. Ceveryone.
(36:01):
It feels equal. I've never heard that before that. I
love that. Put on a shirt sell in the next
episode swipe of for the merch use Clode justin for
t Off. Yeah. I mean, dude, that's crazy because I
do try to definitely, like whenever I made a celebrity,
I try to really bring him down to earth. I've
like had some celebrities that I've come by blitz that
(36:23):
I have had to almost put in their place. Um,
I'm not gonna really say who, but like literally they'd
be like Oh, dude, come on, you're treating me like
a normal person. I'm like, because you're you're all human
at the end of the day, what are you fucking
the Martian or something like? How am I supposed to
treat you differently? Am I supposed to get you like
a silver pedestal when you walk in and lay out
a carpet and you know, and like they and like
(36:46):
I feel like that's why. I like, that's how a
celebrity will respect you or somebody who's like because I
get it. It's not easy being at the top and
having people constantly asking you for ship and like people
only want to photo with you and ship like that.
But like I feel like when you put yourself on
the same level as them, they're like, oh, ship, this
is a real person, Like this is a real, real
(37:07):
dude who like I can be cool with you know, yeah,
I mean for me, I'd rather, you know, open up
my mind or their mind before I opened up my phone, right,
Like that could come later, if anything, but that's the
least of my of course. And then I'm thinking about
dude definitely, like I think it's so important to like,
you know, really realize that there's just people too. You know,
before I, before I ever came to l A, I
(37:27):
had this like mindset about celebrities. I was like, holy
sh it, they're like untouchable. I've only seen them like
on TV or like whatever it might be, or have
only heard their voices through through music or whatever. And
I always used to think it was like this crazy
thing because where I grew up, I never saw any
And then when I came to l A and the
first time I ever saw a celebrity, which is funny
because he's not like anywhere remotely close to where he
(37:51):
used to be. But the first time, okay, i'll say it,
the first time I met um, the celebrity was I
love mcconan. I don't even know who that is, you know,
the club going up? Okay, that dude cool, right, And
the first time I met him was like, dude, holy shit.
I was like with with one of my old friends
and I was like like, holy sh it, like what's
(38:12):
happening here, Like dude, this this guy's this guy's celebrity,
like you know, And then I really felt like I
fucked up because I definitely did not act as if
he was just another person. I was just like oh, yeah, dude,
whatever you want, like, you know, just like and like
I remember they made me sit outside because we went
to their studio and they made me sit outside, and
I was like, damn, dude, this guy's a dickhead, you know.
(38:33):
But then I thought about it and I'm like, okay,
well there's a little respect, but whatever. My whole takeaway
I was like, oh my god, holy sh it, this
is insane now, Like I mean, it's cool to meet
these people, like people who I look up to, but
I never really view them as like, oh my god,
like I just met so and so, so I'm cool.
Now I'm like, I just met so and so. This
person worked their ass off and they're on top of
the world right now, and it's I'm blessed to even
(38:55):
like pick their brain about something, you know what I mean,
That's how I view it more so. Yeah. I mean
growing up in Texas too, like I wasn't exposed to
all the stars that I am here on a like
daily basis just completely Like living in l A's a
new norm, which is not the real norm, but it's
the l A norm that I get to live in.
And I mean I think to that point before moving
out here, Like the biggest celebrity I've ever like interacted with,
(39:17):
actually drink tequila with, was Matthew McConaughey. Very I mean
obviously still like a very big star, but in Austin,
like he was the poster child Golden Boy still is
like like a figure for U T Austin, Right, is
that where he's from? Uh he makes a school there,
but I don't know where he's from actually, And then
(39:37):
now it's just like kind of crazy where you could
be at a restaurant and then like in walks you
Kate Beckinsale or you're leaving a restaurant and then you
know one of the Megos people are like getting their car.
Like it's just like it's a whole it's a whole thing. Right, So,
and I don't want to say the Megos people, but
someone from me Goes would be getting Offset Ryan you
(39:58):
know whatever, like take off and quite phone all the well. Um,
now my question is, did you drive a Lincoln before
you got paid to drive a Lincoln McConaughey is isn't
that commercial? I'm just making a joke, dude, I don't
even know what he drives to be honest, No, No,
he said he drives Lincoln before he got paid to
(40:19):
drive Lincoln. From what you've told me, I knew you
had like an insane story of like where you used
to work, like how you built up to where you
are now? What do you what do you see yourself
doing next? Is there is there a next chapter? Is
there somewhere else? Like is there a place where you've
always wanted to work or you've always wanted to start
something of your own? Or like what do you see next? Yeah? Um,
(40:45):
I haven't really given much thought to to the future. Um.
You know, I try to look at things in terms
of a yearly basis. Um is my view, like the
short slash long term. Um. I mean what's important for
me is like education, like that that gave me, Like
getting the scholarship that I received got me the golden
(41:06):
ticket to be where I'm at today. Right, So I
definitely want to do something with education to give back
to students to be able to have a similar or
better opportunity than than I was given. Whether that's some
sort of nonprofit or foundation that I'm able to don't
raise money or donate my own money or resources to help.
That's something I'm very much of interest in and then um,
(41:28):
other things I think about that that I still very
much enjoy would be like the youth, Right, so how
can I get back to the youth maybe visiting them,
coaching them if it's a basketball team or something like
that I think I care about deeply. And then you know,
on the personal side, you know, getting married last year
it was definitely like a big moment for me, and
(41:49):
so like looking through the future, I'm like, I want
to be able to have security and stability for my
own family right and have to provide that. And so
these are things, uh like lenses of of things I
got to think about as I consider decisions that I'm
gonna make that not only impact me, but others. Um,
it doesn't give you the the here's what I'm thinking, Like,
(42:10):
I'm gonna build this business and do this thing and
that and I'm okay not knowing that. And even for
all the success that I've had in my career and
personal life, there's been a lot of things where I've
been told no, and I've been um rejected for and
and I've haven't eve been given the time or day
to even be thought for. And that's what drives me
(42:34):
and so taking that and just kind of moving it
forward day by day and and having progression in that
is something that I really tried to like transpire, uh
in my life to figure out, like what is it
that I want to leave behind? And I think more
in terms of like not necessarily like money, but like legacy.
(42:54):
And that's the thing, like what are people saying about
me when I'm not in the room because I'm like
long gone. That's so that's then I really think about.
That's awesome, that's awesome. Well, that's that's a great thing
to like look towards in the future because I don't
even know what mine's going to be yet. And that's okay,
Like you know, you have time. Yeah, that's all we
have until we don't. That's all you have. That's true,
That's very true. And the only things that are guaranteed
(43:15):
in life or death in Texas. Yeah, and a little
bit of life whatever you're giving taxes, yeah, of course,
of course, of course. And maybe the Spurs winning another championship.
Probably not, but I'm hopeful. I don't know, I don't
know about that one chief that ain't it, especially this season,
But I know, I mean, no way, the local y
m C a team is playing better than them. Yeah,
(43:37):
and I'm a Spurs fan. Um. Yeah, we'll see if
they make the playoffs. If they don't, I'll be sad.
If they do, I'll still be sad because there's no
way they're going to compete in the West with with
what the West looks like an NBA. Man, they're too
good this year, man, I mean Superstar, it's the Monstars. Yeah,
that's true. Who you think is gonna take a Clippers
or Lakers? I'm gonna say that, And this this hurts
(43:58):
me to say because I'm not even a fan of
either the teams, the Lakers. Do you think the Lakers
are gonna take it? If they stay healthy and they're
playing the way they're playing, they're really hard to beat. Dude,
I mean me as a Lakers fan, I'm proudly saying
that I hope they win. Okay, Well, one of my
um obviously, one of my friends plays for the Clippers,
so I wouldn't mind if they want to be really
(44:18):
happy for him. But like growing up, I was always
a Kobe fan. Got it transferred translated to being a
Lakers fan too, So and I'm happy that they're finally
you know, winning again because it was they had to
buy half the NBA. But now it's working, right. Yeah. Basically,
like who's in the Western Conference All Stars? It's get
them to l A, dude, Like, yeah, I mean the
(44:40):
All Star team this year is gonna be what Lakers
and Clippers. Basically, Yeah, the starting the starting five for
the Western Conference I think is might be like Lebron,
Anthony Davis, Harden Hawaii and I'm missing one. I saw that.
I saw the post recently have the starting five, but like, yeah,
it's it's pretty stacked. Leave them from l A. Yeah, absolutely, well,
(45:02):
we gotta play basketball Monday. Yeah, let's do it, dude.
I just just hoop the other day and I feel
so good. I gotta get back in Monday night, eight pm.
I'm down Santa Monica where I'm gonna be. So if
you could, like I know, I kind of pretty you
pretty much said this, but like would you say that,
Like if you could leave with something as almost like
(45:22):
I don't know, you could just say yo, go fallo
men on Instagram if you want. But I always at
the end, I always give my guests an opportunity to
kind of like have the floor. If you could leave
with saying something would you would you leave with like
treat people like celebrities and celebrities like people. Because that's
an amazing quote. I'm going to use that one and
use it, taking everyone who's listening to take it, but
practice it. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, So what would you like?
(45:44):
The floor is yours? Go ahead? Um? Yeah. I mean
I've been told a lot of things in life that
have worked for me and also that haven't worked for me.
So I'm just trying to think of like what what's
important to me and how I decided to live. It's
two words really and um this was told to me
by a healer in Bali when I was in Bally
(46:05):
this past summer. Um, and it's simple, but it's something
that I had. I'd been living like through through these
two words without really knowing un till it was like
made clear to me that this is what I need
to keep doing. And it's whatever it is, whatever you're pursuing,
just just keep going, just keep going. And so those
are two words that I keep in mind when I'm
(46:26):
at the gym doing the reps, or on the treadmill
or on the track doing the ship that I absolutely hate,
but I do because it's important for me and my health. Right,
just keep going, right, And yeah, I think that's whatever
it is that you're doing, want to do, thinking about doing,
people you want to reach out, work with, help, donate,
whatever it is, just keep going because at the end
(46:49):
of the day, that's really all you have, right, you
have the now, but then you just keep going. Just
keep and so that's what I tell myself every single day.
Just keep going because I'm not done yet. I'm running
my own race, which looks like a lot different from yours,
and that's fine because we're all different. But I'm not stopping.
I'm just I'm moving and I'm just I'm moving forward
(47:10):
and I'm I'll just keep going. I love it, man,
that's it. That's it. That's great. Those two words are
very powerful, even though like like I was expecting you
to say, like some like Harry Potter language like crazy
two words in some other language, but like, honestly, keep going.
It's actually extremely powerful if you think about it, because
I mean, we're all well, we're all doing is if
(47:31):
we're you know, were we all try to keep going
right because you know, I'm human too, So sometimes there's
things where I I doubt myself or I question it,
and you want to give up, you want to quit.
You you find a reason escapegoat to try and not
do something because it's easier to not do it because
you you don't have to do ship just stop. The
hard thing is is when you like you have to
(47:52):
keep going in order to get to what you want.
And that's the part that I appreciate most to be
able to look back and say, I did it all,
I got it all right, accomplished it all right. Help
this person, I did that and this and the other
um and that. That's literally the thing that I think
about every single day before I go to bed and
when I wake up, because that's what moves and pushes
me through. I love that. I love that. And you're
gonna be you gonna turn into the next Gary V.
(48:15):
I hope not. Man, I just want to stay myself now.
I'm just kidding. No, I love that. Well, justin, thank
you for coming on. Really appreciate you you having me.
Make sure you guys go follow Justin on Instagram. What's
your J J. Johnson t X. Yeah, go follow just
on Instagram and trust me, like you can learn a
lot from this guy and if you ever run into him,
don't ask for his phone number immediately. Wait one minute. Yeah, man,
(48:36):
thanks again for for coming on. Appreciate you. Thanks for
letting me pick your brain and I learned a lot.
So yeah, thank you man. Appreciate it again. I'm gonna
tell you like I told everyone, keep going, yes, sir, yes, sir.
I mean you know, we'll have Justin back on the
on the show one time. We'll have them again. So
appreciate you, guys. I'm gonna kid you guys next time
on Legit Check. I'm easy, best piece.
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