Polo Molina - Music Industry Insider on Fame, Ego & Finding True Worth - You vs You w/ Lex Borrero

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Like I'm a competitive person. I'm trained to go compete.
I'm trained to beat like a arder. But sometimes that
mentality stops you from stopping and smelling the flowers in
your own gardens.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
It is wrong to want more.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I ain't scared of shit. No one could fuck with me.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I always had his attitude, but deep down inside, I
don't care who you are.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Everybody's scared of something.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to you versus you. I'm your host, Lex Burero,
and on this podcast, I'll be talking to some of
the most successful people in the world, but not about
what you think. We're going to be exploring the deepest
part of our weaknesses and our strengths as we revisit
our human condition. My goal is that our honest conversations

(00:41):
inspire you to look at the deepest part of who
you are, therefore setting you free to live the life
of your dreams. A manager, entrepreneur, and philanthropists, he has
spent the last couple of decades helping build some of
the most successful artists and brands of our generation, from
Will I Am in the Black Eyed Peas to Tie
Dollar Sign yg and. But here's the thing. His story

(01:02):
isn't just about hit records and sold out stadiums. It's
about a kid from the streets who turned backyard parties
into a music empire, and now he's using his success
to send kids from East LA to Ivy League schools.
Paula Molina, welcome to you, versus you thank you when
you make the intro and then you name off the artists.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
I always had a problem when people introduced me as like, oh,
this is Polo, the manager of so and so or whatever,
because I kind of always felt like they're only respecting
me because of the title they're giving me and not
because of the person. So after time, you know, when
you represent a band as big as a Black Eyed Peas,

(01:48):
it's hard to get out of that shadow of the
manager of such a big brand. And right now, when
you made the intro and you read off that list,
I'm like, you know, that's a list from Google, which
is which is awesome. I respect it and I'm very
humble to be here and that you guys would even
choose to have a conversation with me, but as my friend,

(02:08):
because you're my brother, and this.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Is why I want to have this conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
It's like, yeah, I respect that We've done amazing things
with all the different artists and brands that I work with.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
But I'm also a human and I'm also.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
A person that brings a lot of value to the table,
and that's why I'm able to work with so many
different artists from different genres.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know. Yeah, I just have to tell you that.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, it's crazy that it's crazy that you say that,
because literally my first question for you was who we've
heard the accolades? Who is Polo Molina?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
And I was going to ask that without even knowing
that you were going to answer this, because I find
myself in the same struggles sometimes. Right. You are so
used to identifying yourself and especially in this business as
here's who I am because of what I'm doing, that
I find myself a lot of times catching myself where

(03:07):
I'm going to something that has nothing to do with music, uh,
you know, the music business or entertainment related. But I'll
be at a car meet up and somebody it's like, oh, man,
what's south that you know? Hey, I'm Lex Ferrero, And
then it's like I'm about to get myself ready to
say and I was like, wait, wait, wait, I don't know
what I'm a human high that's to meet you, you know.
But but it happens, you know, it happens because we

(03:29):
build a lot of our self worth, especially career worth,
on the names of our work, because that's how people
recognize us here. That's why.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
And also you get treated differently. I'll give you an
immediate example.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
My wife calls me on Valentine's Day and she's like, hey,
you know, we got a table at this place. And
I was like, okay, cool, how did you get a
table there? She's like, well, I called and I basically
said it was for Polo Molina, the manager of and
I was like, you know, in my mind, I felt like,
you know what I mean, But.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
She actually got the table.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
So it's like, people treat you different because of the
title you have. And unfortunately, we live in a business
where people really believe and the drink their juice about
the title they have.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Now, don't get.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Me wrong, in my early in my early when I
was in my twenties and thirties, and you know, we
were the biggest band in the world. I'm not going
to act like I didn't wear that proudly, you know.
And eventually you have to go through the whole process,
and it realized like, Yo, you got to check your ego. Yeah,

(04:36):
check your ego because your ego is not your amigo.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I remember you told me once we were talking and
we were talking about bad Bunny, right, and you say
to me, he said, likes, we were bat Bunny. We
were selling stadiums. Yeah, And now it's like to understand
that you go from selling stadiums and being the biggest
band in the world to all of a sudden, you're

(05:02):
an accomplished artist, but the fame is different. This new
generation might not you know, see Will the way that
I saw Will or you know the experience. Do you
feel like that transition between managing somebody at that level
having the complete openness of anything you want, because especially
at that time, it was like, you know, they were
the biggest band in the world, You could ask for anything,

(05:24):
everybody do it to all of a sudden, not only
for yourself but for the band having to adjust to
a life after major success. When now you drop a
song and it's not an automatic like before. What was
that adjustment like? Or do you think that's inspiring the
conversation we're even having about like owning your self worth right.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, with the peace it's been you know, thank God
the Black Eyed Peas have been you know, that gift
that keeps giving.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
And to be honest, they're still very successful.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
They're still getting close to what they were getting when
they were at there, you know, and they're at their
hated they were getting like two million dollars a show.
They're still very c I mean it's not two million,
but even if it's a million, it's still very good
for a band that lost a member. And the one
thing I could say about them is that you can
never count them out because you know, in Black Eyed

(06:16):
Peace they took a nine year hiatus, but when they
came back, they came back with a song called Riedmo
and that's a billion streams.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
It was with Jay Valvin, Jay Balvin. You know, it
was for the soundtrack of a Bad.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Voice, and and that performed really, really really performed.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
We were over a billion streams on that, more than
the songs that they had when they were the all time,
you know, biggest band in the world, like Where's the Love?
I Got a feeling, things of that nature. So one
thing you can't do is count certain people out and
that's Will I Am. You can you can never count
if Will I Am just wanted to make music today.
Obviously his mind is trying to make, you know, doing

(06:58):
things with AI and IP and all kinds of tech stuff,
and he's super intelligent. But if all he did is
focus on making music, you best believe he'd be hitting.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Them out the park because he knows how to do that.
You know. It's just that his.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Aspirations have changed over the years because he already did that.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
I understand what you're trying to ask.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
You're trying to ask, like, when you're a band, you're
the biggest band in the world, and then what's the transition? Like,
we never really felt it because there was a hiatus.
They were so big. The Black Eyed Peas were everywhere
Saturday Night Live, every commercial, every brand.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Deal, you know, and they were everywhere.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
And it came to a point where they wanted to
take a hiatus, and so they took a hiatus and
it ended up being a nine year hiatus. But when
they came back, they came back with a smash hit
and it was almost like nobody asked what.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Do you feel like? For example, in their case, right
when they're now having to launch a residency or maybe
that you know, they do an event, and even as
a manager right where you understand, whether it's how hiatus
or whatever reason, you're just not selling the same, right, So,
so the expectation is not as big anymore. Right, So
it's like, while you're still Will I AM's manager, and

(08:11):
while he's still Will i Am and he's still black
eyed peas to a general public of who's looking the
book the you know, the what do you think is
the emotional toll that it takes on an artist? Uh?
And maybe not Will but maybe the rest of the
band members or even like managers, right, like, but when
you are when when the calls are not picked up
the same way, right, because it's not you're not the

(08:33):
hottest artist of the time, and the opportunities will trickle
to you at some point, but they're not coming at
the way that they were coming. The fame is not
the same, right, Like not people will walk down the street.
It's not the same fame as before. Do you feel
like that emotional toll or was there a moment especially
for you guys, that that you felt the shift and
you were like, okay, well now we've got to work

(08:54):
harder to actually sell out a show. It's not just
like oh, put it up on air and blindly do it,
Like does that have affect how the artists and how
your relationship and I mean your own emotion. Knowing that,
you know, you got to make those hard calls of
like now we've got to do promo to really try
to sell five thousand seats, when before we could just
put it out on selling it would sell.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
With the Black Eyed Peas in particular, the phone is
always rang for shows. I mean Black Eyed Peaces go
and do a show and they'll do a two hour
set of all hits. So we've always had it's to
the point where they're like, we want to work half
the year. We'll go work half the year and then
that's it, you know, and the other half of the
year so they can go do all their parents their entrepreneurs.

(09:36):
You know, Apple has an empire happening in the Philippines.
He's got all kinds of like he's very enterprise there,
from hardware stores to Jolly Be's to you know, he's
got an empire happening there, Taboo's. You know, he's a present,
super good father, drives his kids to school, and Will's
you know, taking over the world. You know, Will and

(09:56):
his mind still hasn't arrived. You know, he's he's in
his mind. He's already done everything he has to do
in music. He's still going to continue to do that,
but he's got something to prove in tech, and he's
doing a very very good job in tech. And luckily
with the band, we've always been the phone continues to ring.
Were always still getting the big looks at the biggest festivals.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Headlining this, headlining that. You know, they're about to go
on a tour in Europe.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
So I can honestly say with the band, I never
felt that where we had to compromise anything, because as
you get older, you also want different things, and your
values change and your goals change. And when you already
made the money, you know, it's not about just going
and being the most popular and competing with the twenty
year old.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
You know, you're approaching fifty.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
You already made your money and if you were smart
with your money, you invested it right, and now you
just want to pick and.

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Choose what you want to do.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Oh, that corporate gate came in, How much is it
for Okay, cool, We'll take that. That festival came in. Okay,
how much is that? How much is this tour run?
You know, there's there's offers coming in all the time,
and it's because of the hard work that we did
when we were younger and the consistent hits that we
had in our career.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
So now going away from the clients and back to you, Okay, right,
who is I'm a guy that grew up in Los Angeles.
My mom and my dad.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Were very, very strict, very together, Catholic parents.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
They worked three jobs. They threw newspaper.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Routes to put us through Catholic school, and you know,
we were able to go to private school, but we
didn't have anything extra after that. And you know, I
grew up in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a very
rich city to grow up in. As a young kid,
I started working at the age of seven. My grandpa

(11:51):
was an upposter. He came from Yukatan, Mexico, from Media
Yukatan and nineteen like sixty something like that, nineteen sixty
five around there.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
Came to La with seven kids and he was working
out of his garage and.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
He was doing a postry with a poster cars, furniture like,
and he was hustling and he was able to come
up start his own business and.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
Put his seven kids through private school.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
And he migrated from Mexico at the age of fifty
that's my age.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
I'm fifty right now. And he made it big.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
And so at the age of seven, I stud you know,
my grandpa and my dad and my mom, they always,
you know, showed me to work hard. So I started working.
And my grandpa's a postry shop. And when I was
seven years old, and my grandpa would pay me twenty
dollars on Saturday and twenty dollars on Sunday. And my

(12:48):
grandpa used to work seven days a week, and on
the weekends I had to go work with him and
I'd make forty bucks. At seven years old, I was
making forty bucks in one weekend. But I was there
with my grandpa from eight am to like three o'clock,
four o'clock on the weekends, and I would sweep.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
And my grandpa was the type of grandfather would.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Be like, okay, barra kiho, like, you know, he had
all the scraps from a little postys. So then I
had to sweep and he goes, yeah, tell me, I says.
He goes, yeah, he goes, nobody this, and then he
moved the tables, move everything, and he goes, when you're
gonna do something, do it right, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
And then he teach me how.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
To how to sweep, and he goes, okay, put all
the trash in the bag, tie it up, and then
I tie the bag. He's like, no, that's not how
you tie a trash bag.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Tie it like this.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
If you're gonna work, work like a man worked right,
you know. And so he taught me the details of
working hard. And then after he would pay me, he goes, okay,
what are you gonna do with your money?

Speaker 3 (13:37):
You got forty dollars? What are you gonna do? I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
I'm gonna go, you know, buy some ice cream. Go
if I get some candy at the candy star.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
I'm a ball out at the candy store, you know.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
He said, no, you're not gonna do that. You're gonna
save it. I'm gonna teach you how to save your money.
So he taught me the value him and my father
taught me the value of the dollar.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
So at an early age.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
I was stacking bread and I was saving money, and
I was learning the values and and you know, my
parents just just really like set me up the foundation
that I had growing up.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
My parents really set me up right.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
And it was like the result of two parents being
on the same page and being strict. Because my mom,
my mom's side of the family, my mom came from
a very like upscale, bougie like la so that they
were like super upscale. Then my dad came from the ranch.
He was at Lanceeto, grew up in the farm.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
Like he would, you know, in the morning.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
They would wake up about five in the morning so
he could go milk the cows, you know, and his
dad was.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
Like get up, you know.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
He was like one of those dads I was kind
of a little bit borderline abusive and would wake up
this kid that's like underage to go milk the cows,
and then he had to go deliver the milk to
the neighborhood.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
So I had a little bit of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I had a mom that came from like a bougie,
you know, side of the Mexico and then a dad
that came from like like the porous of the porous,
you know, and a little bit of abuse going on
in the in the household, you know. But when my
mom and dad got together, And it's funny because my
mom and dad met in Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
They met on the dance floor.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Basically, my dad was a good ass dancer, you know,
and and and my mom fell in love with him
because he could dance, you know, rock and roll so good.
And my mom saw me and she's like, oh my god,
he could dance, you know. And that's that's kind of
was my dad's swag. And it's funny because fast forward
like dancing was what like we were bred like dancing.
My kids dance. I danced like I grew up to

(15:41):
a house where like on Saturday mornings, they're cooking eggs
and bacon and they're playing side side and people are.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
Dancing sons in the living room.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
And and that's how I grew up, you know, very rich,
you know, very rich upbringing from the parents side and
from my grandpa's side. And when I say rich, I
don't mean rich money wise, because we didn't and have money.
It was rich from a kultura valories.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
You know, a hemplows.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
The things that your parents are supposed to do is
instill those values in the kid so that kid could
go and do what he's got to do in life.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
So how does it feel do you feel conflicted knowing that,
like you grew up in this household and I got
the opportunity to meet your family, which is amazing, by
the way, during Thanksgiving and I heard all the crazy
stories about your life and all the you know, the
menace to society that you were doing. But I loved
the family because I felt that like, even without knowing everything,

(16:37):
you felt that warmth. But were you conflicted by their idea,
you know, of success, which was very much you know,
family unity, togetherness. We then entering this business where back
to our original conversation and how we started the talk
is success goes with the title with the recoplex, with

(17:00):
how much money you have in the bank account? With
you know? What car do you drive with? How do
you present yourself? With? What watch you have? With what
you know? Did that conflict of those two worlds coming
in from somewhere where you felt like, you know, it
was wholesome to now, well, I got to get the dollar,
and the dollar is really the most important thing because
I find myself as I grew in in success or

(17:23):
what the world sees a success. You know, I had
to sacrifice sometimes of all the things that your parents
touch it, right, have all the wholesome of the unity
of coming together because I had to be on the road.
I had just had to do like and my my focus,
which has now changed, but at that time was like
my worth was based on the value of being able

(17:44):
to do something nobody else had done. Right. And we
were having this conversation earlier because we're talking about the
different type of managers or the different type of personalities
that it takes to manage right, and I said, you're
an incredible manager because you generally have this, uh, and
I think your upbringing, you could say, maybe help that

(18:05):
wholesome you real relationship with your artists. You understand that
how to play the role. I approach it in a
way where I'm a creative So I approach managing very
much so as like and you said it perfectly, which
is like, hey, you do music really well better than me,
but I do everything else really good. And that approach

(18:28):
to it, while has made me really successful and led
my clients to be really successful, has has effective the
way that I relate to them right, because I don't
have because you're creative because I'm a hundred percent Yeah,
you're creative.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
And uh and when you're it's I mean, it's it's hard.
I mean I see it when we do collapse with
other artists. It's always hard when you have two creative
people and there's also ego. You know, there's there's a
there's a creative and however you want to look at it.
We're in an ego based business, you know, this business,
however you look.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
At it, is ego.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
Even like I try to always check my ego, but
there's times when you walk in a room and there's
other people that have their ego this big that you
got to flex with an ego too, you know, Like
I don't like to flex with an ego or not
like with someone like you. I like to keep it
one hundred. Like we went to a big barrier, you know, drinking,
having fun in the jacuzzi, and our family, our girls,
our kids are running around and it's like the ego

(19:21):
was left back in la you know. But you know,
when you're in the business, you know, I think ego
comes from insecurity and I think for you, well, you're
a creative and most artists they're creatives, you know, Like
let's take for instance, Tiny, that kid is like a
hit maker, like machine, you know, and and creatively, no

(19:45):
one's going to tell him how to make a song
because he has a proven formula that works for him,
you know.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
But you might bring.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Other creative ideas to the table that don't have to
do with making a song.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
And together you guys create at a powerhouse.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
So last year when I saw you guys at CHOI
Sale is it Charlie Sail and I saw you guys
do that show, I was like, and I told you that.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
I don't know if you remember.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
In November we were together for Thanksgiving and I said, hey, man,
the thing you did with a producer where you made
this producer's brand. He wasn't just a producer, he was
an artist, you know. And that was one thing that
I always said, because you know, I told David Ghetta
early on, because he was a DJ. David Ghetto was
so big. And when we did, I got a feeling

(20:41):
and I told David Ghetta, your problem is that you're
positioning yourself as a DJ, position yourself like an artist,
you know, and he we did. I got a feeling
and then all of a sudden, David Ghetto was an
artist and now he's one of the top ten biggest
artists in the world, you know, And kudos.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
To David Ghetta. Shout out David Ghetta, you know.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
And that's where that's where I see the clash between
the hundred creatives, the creatives. For creatives will always because
you're the best at what you do, the other creative
is the best at what he does. And when you
get creatives together, there's always a there's always a defense
mechanism that goes up.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
But do you feel in your personal life, regardless of clients,
do you feel that the swift the change from the
you know, the foundation of what your family taught to
to now having to be in an ego based business
right where where the opposite happens, right where, Like you know,
I think all of us no one saved from this,

(21:46):
right Like there's that's just humanity. But no one saves,
especially in our business, from the fact that at some
point in the career you are faced with the looking
to left, looking to the right, and understanding that you're
in circumstances where you got to say, hey, I'm polo,
I'm well, I am as manager by the way, you know, So,
was that shift for you or that was that ever

(22:08):
conflqu mentally for you to have to like figure out, well,
I got to have this duality right, because it's it's
it's what to me, it's the hardest part of our
business is we're not the manager of so and so,
and we're not necessarily it's a part of who we are,
is what we do is the career, but it's not
necessarily the man that I am right like, And to me,

(22:31):
that's the part that I find that it's been the
biggest breakthrough in my life was saying, Okay, well there's legs,
this character that you create in order to protect yourself,
in order to kind of create a brand and all that,
and then there's a handle. And as much as I
want to say they're similar, they're completely night and day different,

(22:52):
like in my approach to life and my approach to
emotional life and my approach to the desires of what
I want. But because I got in to the business
and I understood what the business needed, right, it's kind
of the creative part. I understood what Tiny needed to
be successful, and I was able to execute that because
I had it clear well, the same thing I had
it clear iness, but the struggle, and I think this

(23:13):
is the struggle even for artists, right, It's like you
are so and so, but you're also this other human
And once you build your image to be say perfect,
then you struggle to show the unperfect part of yourself
because the world thinks you're perfect, and you're scared of
the world's going to deny you, and so much of
your self worth is around that image. So for me,

(23:36):
I find that the breakthrough in my life has come
from the being able to accept that. Actually, the more
I let go of les and become a handle, the
better quality of life and internal life I have, which
is something we talk about. Do you feel like in
your career you've had to juggle with that, and if so,

(23:57):
how have you juggled with it?

Speaker 1 (23:59):
I don't struggle that, And I'll tell you why. It's
harder for me to be a present father, go show
up to school, deal with the kids.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
It's harder.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
That's harder for me than to deal with the business.
So that's where I like, because of the foundation I've had,
I've been able to be a good father because I
had a good mother and a good father, So it's
easy for me to be a good father. The problem
that I have is that I love this business so much,
and that like closing deals and you know, networking and

(24:31):
playing the whole part and all that that that's part
of my DNA. That's what I've done for thirty two years.
I've been this game thirty two years.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
You know, Like we started in the business in high school,
so we've seen every version of the business. We've seen
the business.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Go from from you know, vinyl to the CDs to
you know, digital downloads to what have you. You know,
and handling the business is kind of like my passion.
I really really like it, even knowing how to deal with.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
The psychology part of it, because part.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Of being a manager is also being a good listener
and being able to help these artists when they're going
through different things like drug addiction and things of that nature,
and being able to come down to their level and
helping them. You know, I think the fact that I
come from a very solid foundation, I've been able to
help them in that manner and take that on the road.

(25:29):
You know, a lot of the artists that I work
with don't come from the same type of solid environment
that I have, So I think that's what I can
also bring to them, you know, but I don't.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
I don't have a problem differentiating.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
So you struggle with as a human? What do you
struggle with as a human? Yeah? Man, what are the
things that you struggle with? Right? Because the the reason
why I title university just because I extremely have learned
them spoke about this, right that our life is in
divine order, right, like the universe is in divine ors,

(26:06):
like a thousand things have to happen for all these
people to be here today, for you and the night
to talk. We're gonna fight with ourselves, right, and we
talk about this that I was just gonna be. Yeah,
we talked about this, and we have calls about this
right when whenever we were going through things. But what
would you say you struggle? What would you say is
the thing that you are fighting?

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Things like time management, things like diet, you know, eating
the right, things like working out. Where before I was
like I ran fourteen marathons. I wake up in the
morning to run five miles like nothing, and eat well
and all that, and then as you get busier and
you know.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
You go out.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Last night we were at a Gecko's I could have
ordered a salad instead.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I ord that that that.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Steak that they import from Japan and you know the
wagou and you know.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
You eat all that, So that that's what I struggle with,
things like that and also keeping I'll be honest, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
The pressure of being as good of an executive that
I am in what I do in music and everything
that we do to make songs successful because we're in
the song business. The struggle that being that good for
as far as being a husband and a father and
a son and a brother. You know, my dad died

(27:30):
two years ago. And do I check in with my
sisters enough? Do I check in with my mother enough?
Even though she lives around the corner For me, you know,
when I travel, do I check in with my kids enough?
So personally too, just be honest, like balance.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Do you feel like the do you feel like the
need of balance or the need of stability internally could
just be a story you're telling yourself, Like, yes, what
if everything is just okay?

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Yes, because yes it could be. But it's just part
of my nature of always pushing myself.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Why are you so hard on yourself?

Speaker 3 (28:10):
That's the way I was raised.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
And the people that were hard on me are not
here no more so I hard on me on myself.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
You don't make me cry, Yeah, give it.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Give it up. It's hard to be up here being emotions.

Speaker 3 (28:33):
Yeah. And honestly, I've never real even thought about that too,
you asked me.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
You know, it's a beautiful thing because, uh, part of
the work internally has has has shown me, part of
my own work has shown me. It's so much of
the stories we tell ourselves and the the needing to
be perfect right, like ah, come from these things and

(29:00):
these traumas in our life where we feel like we
owe somebody the perfection, we owe somebody the pushes of it,
and we owe it to ourselves because we feel and
this business will do that to you too, where it
feels like if you don't have a hit record, a
lot of artists start feeling like they're a little less
than and enjoying it. But it's a beautiful thing to

(29:25):
go through the journey of life and get to a
place so you also understand that everything's actually okay.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
You know, like you know, I mean and and and
and also sometimes when you say that, that's something that
I struggle with going outside and smelling the flowers.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
You know, you're you're trained, so.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
You're like, I'm a competitive person. I'm trained to go compete.
I'm training to like go harder, do it better, and
go bigger, go home all that stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
But sometimes that mentality.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Stops you from stopping and smelling the flowers in your
own gardens, Like stop and smell the flowers. And that's
where I struggle with And I didn't think about it
until you set.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
It right now, do you think I'll ever be enough?

Speaker 3 (30:21):
And that's that's the way I'm wired. I don't I don't,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
I love what I do and I'm always working, Like
when I reach a goal, there's another goal set already
to go to the next goal.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
And I've been going like that my whole life, ever
since I was a kid.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
And I'm not chasing money. That's not when I'm chasing
I'm not chasing money. I'm just going through the journey
reaching goals that I know that I can achieve, Like
if something doesn't inspire me anymore.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
I love music.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
I love you know, being part of the creative process
and make a record and then also being part of
the creative process to roll out a record and to
come up with strategies to make the record successful, or
strategies to make collapse or whatever. You know, playing the game.
I love doing that, but I'm already know I'm good

(31:23):
at that. Now I want to do how you're doing.
I want to do now. I'm like, my whole new
thing is like film and TV. So I'm like four
projects into film and TV. You know, like like this
is my new thing, and I'm doing film and TV
like I was doing music thirty years ago, and.

Speaker 3 (31:44):
I feel like I was thirty years ago. Is that wrong?
Is that wrong?

Speaker 1 (31:51):
I mean, I'm a little bit unapologetic, but I'm also
Another thing that happened to me that just popped into
my head is that when my dad died two years ago,
for some reason, I feel like your parents, when they're alive,
they hover you, and so they blanket the fear that
humans have. But humans all have fear. Every single person

(32:12):
in this room has fear of something. I don't know
what it is.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
Everybody has their own traumas.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
That they went through in life. The traumas are sometimes big,
sometimes little. Sometimes that trauma could be a kid that
yelled at you or whatever there's traumas. We all have traumas,
and your parents, when they're around, they blanket your traumas
because even though you're a grown adult, you're just like, oh,
my mom's there.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
You know, you can make a phone call, call your
mom and.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
She'd be like.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
And just that that voice takes you back to being
the young South, to your young self, you know what
I'm saying. And then when one of those parents die,
and then you're just like, oh shit, my dad just died,
and then you go into this like, Okay, I guess
I'm going to be him now.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
I'm going to be that position.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
Now, I'm gonna take that position in the hierarchy of
the family.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
What would my dad? Would my dad.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Tell me right now if he was alive, and he
would tell me, don't be scared of anything and for something.
And that was just me having a conversation with myself.
And I've always had that approach, but I always felt
like I was saying, I ain't scared of shit. Fuck
that I'll go into a board meeting and talk with

(33:27):
the fucking number one A list CEO, president, chairman of
the companies and then I'll fucking have a good meeting
and then I can also go and have a meeting
with the fucking most ghetto, fucking leader of a gang
and still be good. And I always had this attitude
like no one can fuck with me. I always had

(33:50):
this attitude, and that attitude is kind of like what
helped us also get to where we needed to go.
But deep down inside, I don't care who you are.
Everybody's scared of something, and a lot of times there's
those traumas that you have when you're a child.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
One hundred percent, I you know you asked the question
is like am I wrong right for wanting more? And
I think the the million dollar question for humanity is
is it wrong to want more? The struggle is the
wanting more creates a void because nothing feels enough, nothing

(34:28):
makes you smell the flowers in front of you, right.
And So there's this story that I loved about a
fisherman where the fisherman he didn't have a boat, he
didn't have nothing, So he created a net that would
allow him to go once out on the water and
have enough fish to feed his family for the whole week.
So one day he goes and he puts it out

(34:51):
and an American businessman sees him and he goes, sir,
excuse me, how are you catching all that fish? And well,
it's like I created this net. So he's like, so
why don't you go out every day? And the fisherman goes,
I hadn't thought about it, But then what would happen?
And he's like, well, if you go out every day,
in a month, you'll buy a boat. And the fisherman

(35:11):
was like, like, my own boat. Yeah, boat, Oh amazing.
And then what well, He's like, now you have the boat,
so you can have your nets, and you can have
fishermen go out on the boat all day long and
cash fish. Amazing. And then what well, in a couple
of months, you'll have a fleet. Amazing. And then what then?

(35:31):
And in a year's time you'll be able to buy
yourself your own port. And the fisherman was like, my
own port, like this whole thing will be mine? Yes,
And then well, then you're gonna work really hard for
five years and I'm gonna help you take your company
public and you get to go to New York City
and ring the belt. He goes, New York City, Yes,
and then what well, then you got to spend twenty

(35:52):
years of your life, making your shareholders really really happy
so that they don't fire you. And he's like great,
and then well then one day you'll sell your shares
and you'll get to move to an island and live
with your family happily ever after. And the fisherman said,
thank you. That's how I live right now. And that story,

(36:16):
to me, it's the definition of the human struggle. Right.
We're in a race to acquire more, right. I always
think about, like, think about how many things are in
this office, how many little things, how many things you
acquire acquire aquirement? Where does all this crap go to?
And you need it? And then you're chasing that all
day long because your worth is so tied to accomplishing more.

(36:40):
But the race of it is also part of the
humanity of motivating, knowing that you have a purpose and
you could do more, so why do less? Right? But
someone told me the other day the key is understanding
that you don't have to suffer to succeed. Suffering is
a state of mind. And I was sharing this, you
and I share. They're about the wave like you have

(37:04):
you we've been programmed to be wasts. We've been programmed
that if we're not like hard, hitting and struggling and
hitting the wave. Blah blah, We're never going to be
successful because nobody likes a lazy person. And so we
we think that if we work hard twenty four hours
a day, if we don't do all these things, if
we don't sacrifice, then we are not successful. We're not
reaching our goal. But the problem is the wave always
knows is going to break. Yeah, and so it grows

(37:28):
with anxiety. Yeah. And uh, my spiritual and I was
talking about this in the last episode said that's when
you when you have to remember you're the ocean and
you can make another wave. And so to me, I
think the greatest challenge for overachievers, for people like ourselves,
who are you know, driven by this hustle or this

(37:50):
necessity to create more, is to understand first why and
to to understand what stories we're telling us so that
we can stop the suffering. Because one day your name
will be spoken for the last time, right, Like, think
about that concept. In one hundred years, two hundred years

(38:12):
is going to remember us, someone will say, And we
tend to think that we have tomorrow. Oh no, no,
it's okay, because tomorrow I'm going to spend time with
my daughter or my son or tomorrow, I'm not gonna
work more because today, and it's like you, that's not promised.
That's part of knowing that the universe is in divine orities,
that you don't control anything. So I find that because

(38:33):
I think we all struggle. I think humanity struggles with
especially now when we have Instagram and everything's you know,
you're seeing everybody else's life.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
But people only post the good stuff. It's not even
it's own bullshit.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
But but I think we all think of the things
we want only as good stuff.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
We've been scared, We've been taught to be scared of
hard time, so we run right. That's why I always
tell you, hey, man, don't worry. You'll see the light
at the end of the tunnel. Everything's going to be okay.
And the question is like, why are you looking for
the light at the end of the tunnel. Why are
you just not comfortable with the hard time? Understanding that

(39:18):
if life is the curriculum, life is a lesson. Like
in the hard times we learn more. I've learned more
from my I put a video up on Instagram the
other day. It's like I've learned more from my losses
than my wins. Yeah, because the losses is what has
allowed me to be like, oh okay, oh okay, got
it now, this is now how I figured out the
formula to get there. And I spoke about it in

(39:39):
the context of when we used to play Mario Brothers.
How many times do you have to fail one level
before you figured out the code to break it? But
if you wouldn't have it's not you know, how many
people actually play Mario their first time and all of
a sudden beat all the levels. That's that's not realistic.
Most people struggle and have to find all the flowers
you got, And that's the thing I think the beauty is.

(40:04):
And by the way, this is something I've learned over
the past year as we were talking, as I've started
to really understand that success as I had imagined it
was not the same thing. Was what if I have
looked at life in a completely opposite way. What if
running away and trying to find the light is not

(40:25):
the thing? Right? Because we sometimes and you were saying
that this about ego and creatives, we sometimes we think

(40:46):
that we're sol right, and that's the problem with how
we build relationships because we say, oh, here's how I
see this. And because I see this, this is law
and you are breaking the laws, sir, I don't have
to go to jail, right, And it's like, huh, but
you've been brought with for bro, So how you know

(41:07):
you're right right now?

Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (41:08):
Like, and I'm a completely different human than you, and
I feelter information. So what makes you more right than me?
You know? And it is that settling in part that
I think it's been. It has been interesting. But you
talked about fear, and I think a lot of it
comes from fear.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yeah, and also and also to know why we're that way,
because we are that way.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Let's be honest, we both of us share.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
That is, you have to understand how we got here, right,
if you think about it, we migrated, Our family migrated here.
I'm like second generation. My parents came from Mexico. My
grandfa came when he was fifty, my mom was like seventeen.
So they came to a whole different country, right. So
their mentality was come to America, the land of you know, opportunity,

(41:53):
come here, do good, getro to familia by a house,
you know, and that is the foundation of this that
we're going through because we're like, Okay, that's the that's
the that's the game plan. Okay, cool, let me take
that to the next level doing what I do, hustling

(42:14):
or music or whatever. Because if you look at why I,
at least for me, you'll know yours and I know
a little bit about yours because you come from Columbia, right,
and then you went to New York.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
And then you just went to Canada and then you
were in.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
La and it's like you're international, like going and coming
from Columbia.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
So that's if you really look at what's.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Happened with us, that was the type of energy that
was that was the foundation of how we started and
that and we just took that and took it.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
To another level.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
And and and part of it is us want to
make our family proud, because I guarantee if you go
ask Lex's mom, are you proud of Lex, She's gonna
be like, oh my god, me e cao, you know,
like you like like my pride enjoy that's no ands

(43:10):
and versus too perky, you know Mahin Musica Pelliculas television,
I mean it's the know the Colombia miss As the
Columbia calis you get to eh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
To as the exito is algok is.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
Looky pasa yeah yeah tennis exitos us to the after
to mismo commed persona you coming to spirital and lookay
that was looky look at that problem for lexito. Yes, yeah,
spirit today the lombre, you know, the matterminal and the
spirit the th tenmos last traumas chicos.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Yeah, this is last Trauma's Nama.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Says being pisma extra hero y nilasles and then all.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Of a sudden you become a Lexperrero bro.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
But then at some point, you know, it's a luxury
to be able to be at a point where you
can evaluate yourself.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
But you know, I wanted to touch that because somebody
I was talking to somebody about the way I look
at the world now, and they said, yeah, well it's
easy for you to say you're Lexperrero, you're this parent,
and I said, you go to the restaurant the same way.
Well yeah, one hundred. But but what I think that
person missed and what I told them was like, what

(44:44):
you don't understand is that I spent twenty two of
my twenty two of my years suffering, Yeah, to try
to find the truth because I thought that my truth
wasn't the success. But when I each success, the only
reason why it opened the door for self work was
because I understood it wasn't feeling my void, right, which

(45:08):
is that's the biggest thing is really successful people Historically
we value the hustle and the thing, and we sacrifice
and we do all these extra things, and we work
extra hours and we're not home and we don't do
all these other things, and then we get to this
point of success and at some point something just starts
feeling off, like you start getting a little uncomfortable, like

(45:31):
but I got the cars, I got the women, and
I got the family, or I got the success, I
got the plaques. Why am I feeling like this today?
Why is something not working?

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Like?

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Why is no matter how big the deal is, the
void feels. So I don't even celebrated anymore. I go
home and go to sleep and like tomorrow's another day.
When it's like sixteen year old me, was that guy? Right?

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Tell you something that helped me?

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Yeah, in my career or I like to say I
don't like to say mine because it's always been a
team effort. If you ask me, like, do you feel successful,
it'd be like kind of like asshole ish to say, Nah,
I'm not successful.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
I don't feel like I've arrived yet. Blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
That's ego right there.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
But the truth is, you know, yeah, we've been successful
from what we do in music, and also we've made
good money.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Yes, that's cool. But even like when we first won
our first Grammy.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
That was cool, but it wasn't like, Oh, I feel
fulfilled in my spirit, you know. But I can tell
you one thing that helped me feel fulfilled in my spirit,
and I think it also helped Will I Am.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
And this is why I hold Will I Am in
such a high regard. When we were able to go.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Back to we were, we started doing philanthropy right at
an early age. When when when we started having success,
and even when we were still a group that only
sold a thousand tickets at the House of Blue, it
was always important for us to give back. And I
remember Will and I always having a conversation, Hey, we're

(47:07):
gonna always do some We're always going to do like,
you know, philanthropy. You know, Let's do this food drive
for the homeless. Let's do this toy drive for the
kids that don't have parents and we can give them
toys and blah blah blah, and as our when our
philanthropy grew with our success, and we were in South
Africa opening up after school program that brought the arts

(47:28):
back into schools in Soweto, which was Nelson Mandela's hometown,
and we were doing it with the Nelson Mandela Foundation,
and that was like the first wild moment where I
was like, oh wow, because of the work we've done
over the years, we're able to open a foundation with
Nelson Mandela in his hometown where he's from.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
And I remember being.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Will was Will and I were at the top of
Table Mountain in South Africa, and Will's like, hey, Polo,
like we're doing everything's going good with the music.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
Our career is going good.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
We're doing awesome in philanthropy and we're helping everyone all
around the world.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
But we haven't done anything in our inner city. You know.
I was born in East La.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
Wills from the only African American family in all Mexican projects,
the strata courts in East La.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
He's all, we need to go back to the inner.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
City where we're from, and we need to open a
school and we need to like.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Give scholarships to these kids. So we got with Louring Jobs.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
She has a program called College Track, and we opened
a school called I Am College Track, and her program
tracks the kids so there's GPAs, don't drop and our
program gives kids a full ride through college, books, paid.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
For boarding, paid for food, paid for everything right.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
And when we started giving these scholarship to these kids,
and we're getting like forty kids. So we're looking for
kids in the inner cities that had the GPA to
go to college. There were straight students, they just didn't
have the support financially to.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Go to college. So we went, we found, we.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
Sifted and found all the smartest kids from the from
the inner cities in East LA and we started sending
kids to college. And we've sent about two thousand kids
of college. And when you have like immigrant mother that's
here from Mexico or from Elsadralod or Wakemla or whatever,
and she's at the graduation of her daughter that's going
to Yale and she's in the country illegally and she's like, eho,

(49:28):
then me familia, and she's like crying to you.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
And that's when I felt like fulfilled.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
It's when you give back with your the power that
we have from the work we've done, that that helps us.
Because honestly, after that, I was just like, I want
to do more of that. It didn't even feel like
that when I won, When my my groups or the
artists that I've worked with have won Grammys or played.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
The super Bowl or did all these other.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
The big things that you do at the as a
music executive, none of that plaques, all that that's cool,
all that's cool, But what are you doing with your power?
And that's why I have a different regard and a
different respect for someone like Will I Am because he
never forgot where he comes from, and even with the

(50:20):
with the success he's had, he's always given back, especially
to the inner city where we're from.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Which is Boyle Heights.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Come on, we put two thousand kids and these are
like Ivy League schools. They're going to Stanford, they're going
to Yale, they're going to like USC they're going to
you know, it's like you're changing, you're really changing the
hood where you're from.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
And and that's what I.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Challenge, you know, other executives that are successful musicians, that
are successful, what are you doing to give back from
where you know, to the neighborhoods you come from, the
community you come from.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
What are you doing to give back? You know?

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Because you know, Okay, cool, you got a number one hit, Cool,
you got plaques, cool, you got Grammy cool, you got
all the things you get.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
When you're successful in music. But what are you doing
with that power? You know?

Speaker 1 (51:08):
And and and that's like really like food for the
soul for me, and and and and and that's helped me,
you know, like okay, cool, like and also like the
information you have as an executive, like I love like
teaching the next executives, like I want everybody that I
mentor to be bigger than me.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Well, it's it's interesting that that concept, right, because it
shows you how much power you really have. Right. The
other day, I was having a conversation with with someone
I work with, and I was sharing the experience of

(51:53):
uh of the work that I had been doing, right,
and we're having a real emotional conversation. We're both crying,
and he said, I just want to say thank you,
I said for what I said, because you're suffering, so
I don't have to. And I was like, what do
you mean, he goes the fact that you spend time

(52:16):
working on yourself affects every person in your life. And
you're going through lessons and you're fighting them internally, and
you're fighting your own demons, and you're putting in the work,
and you're putting it in the hours, and you're reading,
and you're going through the things that you're going through
so that I don't have to because you are paving

(52:37):
the way to be able to say, Okay, you know what, Yeah,
I did all this, but here I'll keep you the pain.
And it talks about the power of humanity. I always say,
we're in an ecosystem. Yes, we're intended to be in unity.
We're intended to be in this divine order, right, And

(52:58):
when you start understanding the response that you have there,
you start understanding why personal internal work, or why facing
the greatest battle of your life, which is you versus you,
is the most important work to do. Right. Sometimes we
put the money, sometimes we put the out wors, sometimes
we need to do this, but it really is just you.

(53:21):
Yesterday we were having an event for Will and the
friend of mine, Alex, who was hosting the event, he
told the story about this video that he watched where
Will said where he said, is no one's responsibility to
make you happy. A relationship is you being happy and
given that happiness to the other person as a gift.

(53:44):
And I found that story so impactful because it continues
to tell you it is all you versus you. The
better you are, the better son, you will be, the
better you are, the better mother, you'll be, the better
you are, the better executive, you'll be the better manager,
you'll be the better friend, You'll be Like that is
the work, It's the most important. That's why I decided

(54:04):
to call this podcast you Versus You, because we have
learned to judge others. Yeah, so when something makes me uncomfortable,
oh yeah, when something makes me uncomfortable, when something that's
it's like, but it's you. You are the reason that
I'm mad and upset. It's like, no, bro, Like, why

(54:26):
is that even making you upset? What is it triggering
in you? And in that internal work? As I've started, right,
because I don't think anybody ever arrives completely. What I
found myself is that it's not that you stop being
triggered by the emotional things that were triggering you before.

(54:48):
Is that you start realizing them, and you start catching
yourself and saying okay, wait, and I sharing the story
with someone today, a couple of weeks ago. Someone so
for me, you know, thousands of dollars worth of watches?

Speaker 3 (55:04):
What?

Speaker 2 (55:06):
And my immediate reaction was what end up? I got
angry and I was upset, and I quickly caught myself.
And if this would have been a year ago, that
would have been the rest of my week. I would
have been scrub But I caught myself and I said, Okay,

(55:29):
if everything in the universe is in divine order, if
I am not in control, what's the lesson? And I
sat there and said, Creator, what's the lesson? Because it's
a certain kind of energy when someone steals something from
you that's very different than I lost it. It's a
different kind of energy. There's a lesson in there, right.

(55:53):
But stoping that moment allowed me to be like, okay,
what's the lesson? And the moment I opened myself to
that energy, I can see clearly and I saw the lesson.
I said, oh, oh my god, you saved me from this,
thank you. And so it was a lesson shirt, so

(56:17):
I'll share with you. I was in true lex Burrero form,
not out the hand of the form. I saw a
building that I wanted to buy for this project I'm doing,
and because my necessity of always I got to get
things done, I went and I was like, I'm ready
to put an offer. Put all these things, all listening

(56:39):
to a listings, let just put this offer in right.
It was a really in the million dollars building. And
when I went put the police report that my watches
had been stolen. In the middle of the conversation, I
just happened to ask the cop man, let me ask
you something, what do you think? And this is like

(57:02):
bro I was ready to close the next day. I said,
what do you think about that building over there? You
know that corner there, I'm looking to buy it. And
I said, run. It's like we attend more murder cases
in those two streets than in the rest of the
area that we patrol. That business will fail. We can

(57:24):
promise you that you will get breakings, you will get
all these things. Don't do it. And the lesson wasn't
just saving me from the investment. Is that my necessity
to rush into the building came from fear, because it
came from if I don't do it now, and if
I don't have it my way, and if I'm not
driving the freaking car, then I'm not going to be successful.

(57:46):
And what I've learned is that we don't control anything.
So every time we try to drive, even when we
drive right, and sometimes we feel like we get to
our destination, the destination ends up being so much smaller
than what the universe had for us. But we didn't
let ourselves be guided. And so that allowed me to
look at that where that fear was coming from, and

(58:07):
that necessity to fulfill that that it has allowed me
over the past two weeks to look at other areas
of my life where I'm like, yeah, still be still,
like wait for what it is, think about what's happening,
understand the why, and don't stress about if it's going

(58:30):
to happen. If it's for you, it's for you, right,
it's in divine order.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
And so a lot I needed to hear that because
I'm looking at a building, but.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
It took it, and that's again, it's it's the same
part we normally will take that happening to us, and
that would be the ruined of our day. I never
forget a couple of years ago someone told me, Actually
I was reading it in uh in the deepa The
Seven Keys to Success, and he said, when you wake

(59:04):
up in the morning and your tire got popped, and
all you do is cursing that you're in the middle
of the street, I'm gonna make la for work and
blah blah blah blah blah blah, bah blah blah blah blah.
You have now closed your vessel for the endless opportunities
because now your filter is only saying this is only negative.
But what if you popped your tire there and you're

(59:28):
a woman and the men of your life that you've
been waiting for is a guy that stops that helps you.
What if I stopped you because two blocks after there
was going to be a massive car accident. Like that's
how endless the opportunities are. But it's what we talked
about the other day. I really I'm under the belief
now that our main job is to learn to be still,

(59:50):
be still enough to listen, and then once you hear,
have the courage to go act. I have the courage
to say I'm okay, look telling somebody I'm sorry. That
takes courage, that beats your ego when it's like, listen,
I'm really sorry. And so that transformation to me personally

(01:00:11):
in my mind has been really interesting in the dynamic
of understanding the importance of the work that we need
to do internally, because to your point, it wasn't all
the Grammy awards, it wasn't the millions of records that
black eyed peace soul, it wasn't your massive management company.
It was giving back that comes natural. That you said that, right,

(01:00:36):
imagine that how much your internal work affects your staff,
your clients.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
But can I say something because I just want to
tell you thank you because one thing I learned, especially
when we went on the Thanksgiving and retreat with our
beautiful families and kids, one thing I learned about you
that I loved was we never talked about business. And
every time I talk to you, I just left the

(01:01:04):
conversation feeling good. And I want to say thank you
for that. And and that you have that on You're
you're a natural born leader. You have that that gift
that God has given you to be able to make
everyone around you feel good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
M h m hm.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
You know, and and and it's almost like.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
You're struggling with yourself but you're sharing the food for
everyone else's soul. Because dude, when I when I when
I when I left, I remember UH calling you and saying, Hey,
what book am I reading? And you're like, read this book?
You know, and you're like we could talk about it,
like let me know how you're doing, and and and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
That's what it's about. It's like, what do you what
do you? How are you teaching.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
The next person all your struggles, all your fears, all your.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
Good, the bad, the ugly. It doesn't always have to
be bad. It could be good too, but.

Speaker 1 (01:02:11):
You know, how are you taking those experiences and passing
it out to.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
The next person? And you do that a lot, and
and and people leave wanting to hang out with you more.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
When you called me and you said, hey, I want
to do this podcast, I was like, all right, cool,
I hope it's not about like I hope it's not
about the normal entertainment industry stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
We haven't even touched.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Really on the entertainerent stuff, you know what I mean, Like.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
We have what we haven't.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
But my point is like we're talking about like real life.
You know, it's hard to make it. It's really hard
to make it. It's even harder to sustain it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Yeah, especially when you're struggling with.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Your own spirit. And I think part of feeling good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Is having a relationship with God, God, God. You know,
those are.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
The los Chicosa Cosa or Connela. My grandma always like
blessed us, you know, like my grandma before she died,
she was cent cento papasauela med echo handles simply, you know.

(01:03:51):
And I always take it with you, Bro, I gotta
I gotta bling down, you know. I got it dipped
in gold, you know, Like I remember going to Columbia.
Actually am I am I My wife's cousin.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
She does gold or whatever. And I was like.

Speaker 1 (01:04:07):
And she's like yeah, and they made it in gold,
and I was like, this is just the rep you know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
So I got the one my grandma gave me, kept
it safe and then I made a wrap in gold.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
But but yeah, bro, it's like it's about having our
spirit right, you know, and and being right with our
children and our wives and you know, and and keeping
the balance. You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
That's what I and I think, you know, touching on
the on the word God right, and touching on religion
because it's it's a touchy subject for a lot of people.
But I think that the key is to love yourself
right because historically, you know, especially when you're Latino, you're

(01:04:51):
raised automatically in a place of fear. Right, if you
don't do this right, God's gonna punish you. If you
don't do this the it's gonna punish you if you
So you approach life from a place of like, am
I ever correct? Or bad things are going to happen
to me because I'm human, Like if I do this,
bad things are going to happen. And yes, there's consequences

(01:05:14):
to your actions.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
But.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
The judgment and the punishment is not given. It's self inflicted.
She's very different, right. It's like we were having when
our kids were playing together, and I said, like, you
can put your kid to a punishment, right, and she

(01:05:38):
will still when you're not around, go jump on that couch,
she fall on that couch or hit her head, she
gonna understand or real punishment. And a lot of the
time is self assilicted. We feel like, oh man, I'm
not eating right, I'm not eating right. I'm not eating right,
and then you start feeling bad about your body because
you're not eating right. And it's that thin line of like, Okay,

(01:06:02):
I've identified I have to change this habit because it's
not healthy to me. To I am now judging myself
to a place that is more unhealthy than the food
I'm needing, because now my self worth has gone to
shit because I think that I need to be a
certain way in my body in order to understand. So

(01:06:23):
again it's a thin line. You identify that there's a problem. Hey,
I got to be healthy. I carry three hundred and
fifty pounds. It's not healthy for anyone, right, But the
filter has to be from a place of love, because
if not, it becomes your worst enemy. If you approach
you know, for people who listen to us because we're

(01:06:44):
in the music industry, if you approach making music and
the frustration I'm not going to make it, Damn. If
I don't do this, then what happens is that your
happiness is tied to a result that you have no
control over it. You're trying to drive again, and so
your self worth goes to shit. You rather go to shit,

(01:07:05):
You get depressed, You give up on your dream because
you feel that that wasn't meant for me, just because
of your filter. And your perception. But if you take
that same a person said, no, I love what I do.
I know it's difficult, but that's what I love. I'm
not looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.

(01:07:25):
I'm learning how to sit in the fire and just
kumbayah exactly. And that notion, especially again as Latinos, because
we grew up historically from a church background that in
many ways not out of necessarily all the time bad,
but it's just the teaching of like there's a punishment

(01:07:45):
to this, and the punishment has put more emphasis than
the lesson. Got it, you know, So it's really interesting
to go into that. But you know, one, I love
this conversation. You know, I've love where it is gone
and where we've taken it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
Hey, you didn't ask any of your questions.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
I didn't, And it's funny because I knew that it
was going to flow in a way that was organic
to our friendship. And this is the reason why I
chose to do this with you, because we're having these
conversations weekend and wake out and I think are really important.

(01:08:26):
So I want to thank you for this conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Not only that, like I encourage everyone from the business
to have those conversations with their friends, you know, and
their loved ones. You know, I know it's hard to
find friends in this music industry.

Speaker 3 (01:08:41):
But like I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Said, and you said, you actually said to me, hey,
if we're friends, there's no gray area.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
We're either friends or we're not.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
And I respect that because that's a lot of people
don't talk to each other that way and don't hold
each other accountable.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
You know, we're in a business. We're in the entertainment industry.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
It's bullshit as far as not bullshit as far as
the business side, as far as what happens when you
have success and all that, but it's bullshit as far
as the stories that everyone tells themselves. You know, too
many people drink their own kool aid. You got managers
out here trying to be celebrities. You know, you got

(01:09:20):
you know, I'm not trying to be a celebrity. Let
the work speaks for itself. You know, a lot of
people get there quicker than others. Everyone has their own journey,
you know, don't hate congratulate. You know, I love seeing
young guys like Noah come out of nowhere and have
the biggest artists in the world and make a statement.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
You know, I applaud people like that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:44):
When you see the next young guy that's coming out
and he's having his moment and he's peeking and he's
taking over and he's conquering, you should encourage them. You
should let him know that you're there for them. You know, like,
we have too much hate happening in the industry, and
people in the industry need to.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
Just like.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Enjoy it while you have it and sustain it. When
you have to sustain it and keep going. It's really simple.
We're in the song business. Make good songs. You have
a good business. You don't make good songs, You're not
gonna have a good business. We figure that out early on.
But take a deeper dive into your soul and ask yourself.

(01:10:30):
You know, not everything's so transactional. Not everything is let's
go make a deal, let's go make how a we're
gonna make money.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
What are we gonna do is like relax, pause, breathe, pray.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Love them. So I called the podcast You Versus You because,
as I mentioned, I believe that the biggest battle we're
fighting is the one with ourselves. But I also believe
that our words are the most power tool we have,
and we're with ourselves more than we are with anybody else,

(01:11:06):
and we tend to tell ourselves stories that create the
pain and the good and the bad and the ugly
and everything in between ourselves. So I like to end
this podcast always by asking the guests and myself, what
is one sentence your inner self needs to hear this
week that will change the whole perspective of the rest

(01:11:30):
of the week.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
This is gonna be a little bit contradicting to everything
we just discussed, but I'm I'm in a place right
now where everything's just kind of like falling into place
and things are going well. And uh, what I would
tell myself right now is keep going because it's like

(01:11:59):
just is you could feel when you know and when
you ask the question like.

Speaker 3 (01:12:06):
When was the first time you had success, it's like
you felt success.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
It's like.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
That changes every day, success from yesterday's success from today.
And like when you're out there cultivating the soil, planting
the seeds, watering the soil, letting the sun hit it
and things start happening, and plants start flourishing and things

(01:12:33):
start happening, you actually start producing from the hard work
you're doing and you start catching a rhythm, that's when
you got to go harder. And right now I feel
that rhythm. And I'm not even talking about the music industry.
The music industry is going great. Management is going great,

(01:12:54):
My groups are doing great, labels doing great, She's doing great.
All that is doing great. I'm talking about the whole picture,
the work, you know, because we I don't only do
music industry.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
I do others.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
I have other silos of my you know what I
do as an an impresario, you know, and and everything
as a whole, my family, my kids, My daughter's doing gymnastics,
my other daughter's doing gymnastics, my other daughters playing the violin.
Like everything as a whole is in harmony. And I

(01:13:34):
just want to say thank you to the universe and
thank you to you for asking that question. So we
don't even do it, just keep going. It's a gut
feeling for me. It's always been a gut feeling, you
know what about for you?

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
Funny Enough is similar to you, And it's not because
everything is going right, but it's because I am leaning
in to everything that scares me. This podcast is me
leaning in to a fear of opening the Alejandro side

(01:14:10):
over the like side right, opening this other human component
to my life, the following of my passions with watches
and cars, and allowing myself to have a different level
of community beyond I need to be in the entertainment industry.
And this is what it is, is me leaning in.

(01:14:31):
I'm leaning into all the things that are afraid, like,
all the things that I would normally not do because
of that fear. I'm leaning in. So I would tell
myself the same exact thing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
Can I ask you a question, that's a good answer.
But can I ask a question, what's the most important
emotion for you?

Speaker 4 (01:14:50):
That's a good question. It has to be peace, peace, serenity.
But it's peace and emotion. Piece is not an emotion.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
It is in the sense that it's serenity. I guess
you could say this stableness is not I don't chase
a high level of joy. I don't regardless of what's
going on. I could say I'm not a person that
touches negative and depression and sadness. But in turnmoil, what

(01:15:27):
would you associate peace with. We're gonna have to save
love for another conversation, because I believe love to be
many many many things, But yes, peace. I would associate
peace with love. I would associate peace with understanding. I
associate peace with clarity.

Speaker 3 (01:15:46):
What's the highest form of love you have?

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
Oh, my daughter is up there for sure. My love
with re friend is up there. My love for families there,
my love for the passion of the things that I
do is there. And most important, the love for myself.

Speaker 3 (01:16:06):
Yeah, that's so. For me, it's my three daughters.

Speaker 1 (01:16:11):
And I love my woman like you know, I love
my woman, she's the mother of my children. But I
love myself and I love my three daughters, and I
love my woman, and like for me, that's why I
say I need more balance, because that's the best emotion,
the highest form of emotion love.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
The highest form of emotion for.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
Me is love, and I need to do more of
that to be able to balance the rest of it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
But you see, I struggle with that word balance because
I don't believe in it. The only reason for it
is because if I take this straw, I don't know
if it will come out of this. It's not coming out.
They struggle thoselves with this straw. But I'm going to
show you something exercise for that. So if I hold

(01:16:58):
this in the middle of this.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
Uh huh, right, you're balancing it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Yeah, look at this right, barely anything, it'll tip it over. Right,
if you blow it hard enough, I'll tip it over. Plus,
it's hardest to keep a balance. In order to keep
balancing your life, you would have to say that you
have the concept to have control, which you don't because
you can say, well, yeah, this week, I'm gonna have

(01:17:23):
three days with my daughters. I'm gonna have it, and
then tomorrow yg causes like yo, I gotta gig, you
gotta go. There goes your balance. I believe in rhythm
because I believe that unlike balance, nothing in our body,
our humanity, or our self is balanced right like your
your eyes are not perfectly centered, your legs, the way

(01:17:45):
you walk, their hands are not exactly the same. There's
no balance in the way that you do anything. There's
all rhythm. Your heart beats in rhythm. We talk in rhythm,
we walk in rhythm. So I believe in the concept
that the goal is to find your rhythm, not chase
a perfect balance, because you don't control. True, that's you driving,

(01:18:07):
it's just saying okay, great, some days they'll be like this,
and that's my rhythm for today and then the other day.
So then you learn how to like manage a way.
When you run a marathon right the first day, it's
like if you try to go, it's a rhythm, it's
like it's a balance. Once you find your balance, you
can make ten miles if you wanted to. But the
guys that think I gotta sprint it because I got

(01:18:29):
to make it by do it being a home or
my day is gonna be or my balance is messed up,
you're now again chasing the uncontrollable. So so I think
for me, you know, to answer your question, and I
love that you asked it. It really is this place of serenity,
and it starts with the universes you, It starts with
the starts with me, starts me, and then the love

(01:18:52):
for my daughter and my family and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
If you're not right to love yourself, you're not gonna
be able to love anything else.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
Yeah, well, Paulo, could I have said that any better?
I appreciate you. Thank you guys so much for joining this.
I really wanted to do this as an open forum
because while we could have filmed the podcast, you know

(01:19:24):
and privately in a studio. I think there's this beauty
about having the energy of like real people understanding and
communing and feeling. Because I believe in energy. I believe
that as you guys are as the words are hitting
your own heart, you're channeling that and that's allowing this
to be. And also with the understanding that my goal,

(01:19:47):
while it would be a blessing to be the biggest
podcast in the world, is to really just touch one
If I could touch one of you, one of you
guys left out of here with his story, with my
story transformed, if we left each other here, like I know,
I did transform and a lot of thoughts I hadn't
thought about before in the way that I saw the
business and other things out That's enough. That's the transfer.

(01:20:21):
The fact that you could change one person, one human
being that has like endless amount of value, and it's
probably the only thing in the world that you can
say is priceless. Thank you guys for tuning in to
You versus You. Please subscribe, like, and share as we
build this community and we help each other to live
the life of our dreams. You Versus You as a

(01:20:42):
production of Neon sixteen and entertained Studios in partnership with
the Iheartmichael to that podcast Network for more podcasts, Listen
to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

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Polo Molina - Music Industry Insider on Fame, Ego & Finding True Worth

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Polo Molina - Music Industry Insider on Fame, Ego & Finding True Worth