Paul Caldwell; Charlie Walk; Brandon Dawson; Yat Siu; Nikki Giavasis; McKenzie Westmore

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The following is a paid podcast.iHeartRadio's hosting of this podcast constitutes neither an
endorsement of the products offered or theideas expressed. Welcome to a moment of
Zen. Time to sit back andrelax. As model, actress, mentor
and supermom Zen Sam's takes you ona sexy and wild ride, covering the

(00:20):
latest in film, fashion, popculture, cryptocurrency, fintech, cannabis,
and entertainment from the millennial mom's perspective. Here's your host, Zen Sam's.
Hello, my beautiful Tristate area.Welcome to our one hundred and ninth episode.
That's two and a half years onthe air and going very strong.
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Please make sure to follow me atZen Sam's That's Zen with an X,
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and of course all episodes of AMoment of Zen are now streaming twenty
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find us on our YouTube channel atZen Sam's. We have a great show
lined up for you today, veryvery exciting stuff. In our Innovation and
Tech segment brought to you by CaldwellSolms, were joined by our regular contributor,
Paul Caldwell, Chairman and CEO ofCaldwell Solms, and today he's joined

(01:26):
by my good friend Charlie Walk,CEO of Aspen Artist Group, host of
the top rated Walk this Way podcast. Today, we're chatting about how artificial
intelligence will affect the music industry andwhat this means for artists, labels and
streamers. In our financial literacy segment, brought to you by Dominaire Financial,
today we're featuring the awesome Brandon Dawson, co founder and CEO of Cardon Ventures.

(01:51):
Today we're chatting about exactly how Brandonexited his last business for one hundred
and fifty one million dollars and tipsfor you so you can turn your finances
around. In our Hello Open Metaversesegment by Animoca Brands, we have a
real treat right from our very ownFintech TV studios live from the iconic New
York Stock Exchange. Will be joinedby Yat Sue, co founder and executive

(02:14):
chairman of Animoka Brands, which isa leader in blockchain games now. Anamoka
is a private company focused on digitalentertainment, blockchain, gamification, and artificial
intelligence. Today, Yet joins meto chat gamification, blockchain and NFTs as
we head into the world of Webthree point zero. In our beautiful segment

(02:35):
brought to you by Navy Travel,we're featuring my good friend, actress McKenzie
Westmore and founder of a Westmore Beauty, which can be found on QVC,
and she's joined by Nikki Giabasis,our dear friend, beauty and wellness advocate,
author and mega influencer. Today we'rechatting Mother's Day gift ideas with the
influencer mamas themselves. Stay tuned forour innovation and Tech segment, brought to

(02:58):
you by Called Wallsom's chatting with PaulCaldwell, chairman and CEO of Caldwell Psalms
and Charlie walk host of the toprated Walk This Way podcast. You're listening
to a moment of zen right hereon seven ten WORE the Voice of New
York iHeartRadio. We're chatting how AIis revolutionizing the music industry and why some
music execs are not happy about it. We'll be right back after this.

(03:21):
A Moment of Zen is brought toyou by Caldwell Psalms Incorporated, investing globally
and transformative businesses like Original Digital Corporationor ODC. ODC develops advanced consumer and
commercial fintech solutions such as Ogpa,which will transform the way you manage your
money from sending or receiving money globallyfor free, paying for goods and services
in person and online, pay bills, buy and sell digital currencies, all

(03:44):
while earning interest. Ogpa is easyto set up, FDIC ensured, and
your information is secured. Check outogpay dot com. Welcome back, beautiful
Tristate area. You're listening to aMoment of Zen right here on seven ten
w R the Voice of New YorkiHeartRadio. Your host Zen Sam's up next
in our Innovation and Tech segment broughtto you by Caldwell Solms. Today,

(04:05):
we're joined by our regular contributor,Paul Caldwell, Chairman and CEO of Caldwell
Solms and today he's joined by mygood friend Charlie Walk, CEO of Aspen
Artist Group, former president of Epicand Republic Records, host of the top
rated Walk This Way podcast. Todaywe're chatting about how artificial intelligence will affect

(04:26):
the music industry and what this meansfor artists, labels, and streamers.
Now, music producers are still dividedon how to use artificial intelligence in the
industry. With rapid developments in AIand the implementation of the technology unilaterally across
business sectors, there is heated debatein Hollywood music scene over whether AI should

(04:47):
be used in music production and towhat extent. Now. The debate intensified
recently when a TikTok user by thehandle of Ghostwriter nine seven seven posted a
two minute video that sounded a lotlike Drake in the weekend. Now the
clip went viral, with more thanfifteen million views on TikTok and upwards of
six hundred thousand streams on various streamingplatforms before, of course, it was

(05:12):
taken down. Now, the songcalled Heart on My Sleeve so closely resembled
something that the two artists would haveproduced themselves that it starkly highlighted a much
larger issue in the music industry.Now, on the flip side, AI
technology does provide with many helpful applications, such as systems being used for composition
through machine learning, which can generatemusical ideas that can then be refined,

(05:36):
of course by a human touch.And one of my favorite use cases AI
algorithms are now being used to createtailored playlists on streaming services like Spotify,
Apple Music, and Pandora. Hereto chat artificial intelligence impacting the music industry
are Charlie Walk and Paul Caldwell.Welcome, gentlemen, Thank you, thank
you for having us in. Paul, your legend so blessed to being your

(05:59):
brilliant Wall Street mindset, So thanksfor coming on. Hey, thanks for
being here. Charlie. All right, Charlie, let's start with you now
the golden question, what is theplace of artificial intelligence in the creative processes
that encompass music making? Meaning someartists embraced the technology, noting the creative
and time saving benefits of AI,while others, generally Hollywood's veterans, as

(06:20):
certain it has no place in themusic industry. What do you say to
this? While running a major recordcompany and Drake was one of my artists.
I would be very upset that AIcame in and made a great song
that hundreds of thousands of people lovedthat I didn't have a piece of.
So I would go to the streamingplatforms to say, take this off.

(06:41):
It sounds too much like an artistwe've paid millions of dollars for. So
there's really a lot of politics andcommerce conversations that go into this. If
you're an independent artist, no onereally cares. And what I say is
that song, the fake Drake record, was a really good song. That's
why it's streamed, That's why it'sdream. Maybe Drake should go make a
deal with whoever was the AI teamthat made that record, and you should

(07:03):
go sing on it and make it. You know. That's how I'm thinking,
because it's very hard to substantiate thefact that something sounds like something else
less it's an exact rip off ofa copyright, right, and that's not
what this is. It's a brandnew song. I'm with the independent AI
side of things on this. Ithink it's a free world and you can

(07:26):
do whatever you want, and andthere's gonna be I don't think the answer
is just to pull it off justbecause you're you know, you're a big,
massive music machine, and you're notgetting compensated for something that you didn't
make. That great point and definitely, you know AIS is you have a
front running argument for using AI andmusic production is that you know, further's
the creative process, like you justsaid, But of course it does come

(07:46):
with major issues. Now, Paul, AI is a hot topic in so
many industries right now, but inmusic or the arts in general, it's
an especially sensitive conversation, like we'rejust talking about, and some people fear
that they'll lose their jobs. Othersworry that the value of human creativity is
going to be diminished even more thanit already has been, and many are
concerned that they'll be left behind astechnology once again makes entire business models obsolete.

(08:11):
So AI raises questions about things likework ethic and authenticity, especially in
the music industry, and one mightstart to question how artists are even making
music and if it's even them actuallymaking it. Now, as an avid
investor in media, what are yourconcerns for AI driven investment? Well,
I think AI just in general,it's like anything else. It depends on

(08:33):
you know, any every transaction isa good one, It depends on which
side of the table you're sitting on. And I think with an AI environment,
it's quite similar to that. Imean, you have now kids right
their papers there, their term papersin high school are being written by AI
platforms. You know, you canget in the chat gs as I call

(08:56):
them, because they're more than onethat go out and do these kinds of
things. And and so from thatperspective, it's interesting. You've seen AI
in the arts, in the visualarts for a couple of years now,
creating wonderful new artwork, paintings.Some of that moved into the NFT craze
and we're actually digitized in NFTs,but it was all created by AI technology.

(09:22):
I fall I'm sort of in align. I'm in alignment with Charlie with
regard to the entertainment business and AIbecause I really think that there are basically
in the music business you have threepillars. Essentially, you have production,
you have publishing, and you havedistribution and you have publishing. And if

(09:43):
you really look at who's making thecomplaining here about these about these kinds of
things, it's it's like, yeah, you know your big record labels,
these people that make these investments inthese big production budgets. But you know,
if you ever read one of thosecontracts, the way they recoup from
those artists is very interesting too,not always in the best interest of the
artist. Tom Petty, I thinkwould be the first to tell you that

(10:03):
if you were here. I mean, at the end of the day,
though, I think it's great opportunityfor collaboration because if one could think about
an AI written composition, What ifa writer, What if a songwriter could
upload their song into an AI platformthat could then build a new composition around
it, around that newly written song, so the writer gets to he doesn't

(10:26):
need to bring in a studio bandor whatever to do this. So AI
has a place here. I don'tthere you go, And to your point,
actually, I want to get Charlieto react on this because I want
to be mindful of the time Charlie. Recently, Grimes was quoted saying,
hey, listen, I'll split fiftypercent royalties on any successful AI generated song
that uses my voice, same dealas I would with any artist I collaborate

(10:50):
with. Feel free to use myvoice without penalty. I have no label
and no legal bindings. What doyou say to this, Well, it's
what I said before. She hasno label, so she is open for
business, right, And so Ithink it does come down to really similar
to what Paul was saying, it'sgoing to have a place. They're going
to be rights holders that create this, especially on an independent level, And

(11:15):
what I would say is try tobe less obvious. I think doing a
fake Drake or the Weekend is sortof some copy cat stuff that's a little
bit unfair and a little bit oftrick a little bit of trickiness, right.
It adds trickiness to the consumer andthe social aspect of it. So
that's where my heart sort of goesthere. But but how do you foresee

(11:35):
ai impacting the way these artists createtheir music and the way fans consume it?
So I think, you know,music is audio for the most part,
right, and they'll be video andwhatever else. But you hear a
song in a melody and you singit. I think it's gonna compete with
songwriters, and I think there's ahappy place where both can sort of meet
up and get there faster. Froman idea perspective, I think ai UM

(12:00):
will be important but I still thinkyou can't replace human emotion and tricky,
amazing melodies and lyrics that touch theheart and soul. I think they'll I
think there'll be some cases where maybeI'm wrong, But the truth of the
matter is it'll be a combination ofof of art and science, and I
think they can live together um withinharmony, and the rules will be you

(12:22):
sort of figured out right now.It's a little bit of an awkward time
when you think of like when youwhen you think of fake Drake and fake
Weekend, that's someone trying to bea wise guy, right, And then
what happened in that situation was peopleliked it. So in the streaming world,
it's not like radio where a programmerdecide what's going to go into rotation
and there's repetition. Right, Soyou know, a typical pop stations plays

(12:43):
twelve songs really over and over andover as it relates to arbitron, right,
you know, for for diary purposes. Streaming is a record store.
So if one of these AI songsgets hundreds and hundreds of thousands of streams,
it's because somebody liked it. Itcan summer, yeah, So you
can either embrace and it's very hardto get hundreds of thousands of streams across

(13:07):
the world. And so if you'redoing that, by the way, certain
Drake songs don't get that because notevery Drake song everyone loves. So I
say, embrace it, and Iwould say, before you know you take
it out the platform. I wantto find out who made it, who
did it, what tech was itand if I were, you know,
on Drake's team, let's have ameeting. Yeah, exactly, and now

(13:28):
interestingly enough and this leads meet.We have about two minutes left. But
Paul, depending on the genre,of course, I think we're going to
see a lot of AI generated musicoccupying spaces in the streaming industry. For
example, lo fi music is agood candidate, but for music you want
to properly listen to, as opposedto music you play in the background while
you do something else. I don'tthink artificial intelligence will really become relevant per

(13:48):
se, but i'd like to getyour opinion. How do you think AI
will impact streaming services. I thinkit will impact streaming services dramatically because I
think AI can also be integrated ina real time environment to adapt to a
particular environment. So if you thinkabout that, and you think it's a
rainy day, and the music andthe elevator and in the office building can
adapt automatically and create new tunes thatmake people more happy and upbeat. And

(14:13):
that's in real time that doesn't necessarilyhappen through a streaming service. Also,
I would say that the U Andfinally I would say that I believe that
AI will will certainly will find itsway into the space. There will be
a place and an answer to yourquestion about security, how do you securitize?
I just envision something like marrying anAIM let's say, an AI music

(14:39):
machine to a to a tokenization platformthat creates fungible or non fungible tokenized assets
out of these out of this music, and then the smart contracts identify who
the real contributors are. So maybean executive producer from now on is even
a different thing. Yeah, Ijust think there's a whole new space and

(15:00):
play here, and I'm very enthusiasticabout it. We're trying to find our
way around in the fund here tofind the opportunities that might exist that are
meaningful, and that's basically where I'mat with it. I think that the
jury's out, but I'm not sureit won't always be out with AI,
because it's going to reinvent itself ofcourse, just like everything reinvents itself.
Well, listen, we're gonna cutto a commercial break. For those of

(15:24):
you that want to listen to theextended segment, do check it out on
YouTube. Charlie, Paul, thankyou so much for coming on. It
was such a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you, thank you, my
pleasure. Guys. That was ourinnovation and Tech segment brought to you by
Caldwell Salms. That was the awesomeBut Charlie Walk, CEO of Aspen Music
Company, and that was Paul Caldwell, Chairman and CEO of Caldwell Psalms.
Now, I have a concern thatpeople will begin relying way too much on

(15:45):
this technology rather than going fully throughthe ups and downs of a creative process,
which is usually what can be feltthrough the works once released, and
keeping the human element, to Charlie'spoint and touch is extremely, extremely essential
and hopefully will never finish. Myconcerns regarding AI are that this software could
begin to be used in a waythat promotes full replacement of any human element

(16:07):
creating music. Marketing plans and rolloutsrequire cohesiveness, but also a human experience.
Finding ways to connect with fans,family and friends through music is one
of the most important factors of whywe all love and listen to music.
It influences and inspires us with afeeling of love and compassion. I'm not
sure a machine can ever truly learnthat. No matter what level of sophistication,

(16:32):
You're listening to a Moment of Zen. Right here on seven ten WR,
the voice of New York iHeartRadio willbe right back after this. A
Moment of Zen is brought to youby Caldwell Solmes Incorporated, Investing globally in
transformative businesses like Original Digital Corporation orODC. ODC develops advanced consumer and commercial
fintech solutions such as Ogpa, whichwill transform the way you manage your money

(16:52):
from sending or receiving money globally forfree, paying for goods and services in
person and online pay bills, buyand sell digital currencies, all while earning
interest. Ogpa is easy to setup, FDIC ensured and your information is
secured. Check out ogpa dot com. Welcome back, Beautiful Tristate Area you're
listening to a moment of Zen righthere on seven ten WR, the voice

(17:15):
of New york iHeartRadio. I'm yourhost, Zen. Sam's up next in
our financial literacy segment brought to youby Dominari Financial. Today we're featuring the
awesome Brandon Dawson, co founder andCEO of Cardon Ventures. Now. Brandon
is a leadership and scaling expert withyears of experience in building, growing,
and exiting businesses. Having sold hislast business at an astonishing seventy seven x

(17:41):
ibadah, he now helps business ownersacross the world achieve all of their personal,
professional, and financial goals. Hispartnership with Grant Cardon has allowed him
to cofound and run Cardon Ventures,which grew from startup to one hundred million
dollars and two hundred employees in justforty eight months. Is a to take
the stage, help businesses owners succeed, and inspire his team to move things

(18:04):
forward in true ten X fashion.Is what really makes Brandon such a remarkable
mentor and leader. Today we're chattingabout how Brandon exited his last business for
one hundred and fifty one million dollarsand tipped for you so you can turn
your finances around. Welcoming now tothe show is the awesome Brandon Dawson.
Welcome superstar. Yeah, thank youfor having me on your show. Absolutely,

(18:27):
so let's jump right in. So. You expanded your new business Audigy
at an astounding seventy seven x fromthe beginning to one hundred and fifty one
million in sales in twenty sixteen withoutborrowing or seeking outside capital, and then
teamed up with the iconic Grant cardoneglobal entrepreneur and business tycoon, to form

(18:47):
Cardon Ventures, which guarantees to assistcompanies in transforming and scaling to ten X
levels and businesses have been increased bythirty percent to fifty percent simply by following
your lead. What is your secret? Well, my secret is a lot
of experience. And when I startedmy career as an entrepreneur in my late

(19:07):
twenties, I acquired one hundred andthirty six businesses and took a public on
the American Stock Exchange by twenty nineyears old. Made a lot of mistakes,
and when that business sold, Iwanted to reformat how to find,
buy or partner with businesses and growthem, not making the mistakes I made.

(19:29):
So I created my own business formatsystem, launched that in two thousand
and four. In that company wascalled Autogy Group. You are quite quite
epics. So scaling your business isreally more complicated than it sounds. I
mean, in fact, about seventypercent of corporate transformation efforts fail, and
scaling is really more complicated than itsounds. Of course, you know this
better than anyone else, because nomatter how many get rich quick books and

(19:52):
articles people read, you still needthe right infrastructure, processes and talent before
you can go big time. Imean, otherwise scaling effort could end up
fizzling. And according to mckinseian company, about seven out of ten corporate transformation
efforts fail short of expectations, andscaling certainly falls into the transformative category.
Now, once a company is throughthe startup phase and has gained its footing,

(20:15):
of course, the next natural stepis scaling the business, and this
means reaching higher echelons of development andof course increasing profits. However, leaders
of small and medium sized businesses tendto make the same mistakes when attempting to
scale their businesses. What are themost common mistakes that you have seen and
are currently seeing? Yeah, soI started a research project in two thousand

(20:37):
and nine that ran all the waythrough two nineteen ten years where we reverse
engineered over four thousand small to midsized businesses. Now what we found is
there's these natural breakpoints, and theyhappen between three million. Top end of
breakpoint one is three million, topend of breakpoint two is eight million,
top end of breakpoint three is fifteen, four is twenty five, five is
forty five six seventy five, andseven is one hundred and twenty five million

(21:02):
revenue. And what happens is veryspecific things need to be in each place.
If you're three million or under,you need to have a certain structure
in place. If you're three toeight, that structure changes. And so
what happens is most business owners andremember ninety seven percent of all businesses under
one hundred million, they go outof business every ten years, and two
thirds of them go out cyclically everyfive years. So it's very difficult to

(21:26):
extend the life cycle of a businessbeyond ten years. And the other scary
part is ninety eight percent of allbusinesses under one hundred million are trapped at
three million or less, So breakpointone is a very difficult one. To
overcome, which is three million inrevenue. So entrepreneurs tend to make the
same mistakes over and over and overin each breakpoint. It becomes very predictable.

(21:48):
So the thing is and the mostimportant thing is scaling through other people.
Most business owners started their business becausethey didn't want a boss. They
didn't want to be told what theydo, they didn't want a limitation on
their earnings, and they didn't wantto be held accountable. And I call
that the entrepreneurial dilemma because they hireemployees and assume they're like they are,
so they don't have accountability. Theydon't. They try to abdicate. They's

(22:08):
like, I'm going to hire you, you'd go do a good job.
I know you're going to do agood job, because that's what they did,
and it doesn't work. And sothe single largest implication for business owners
how to find a tract, aline, develop and retain remarkable people who
can work together as a team.And that's just not a core talent of
most business owners because they start smalland they stay small, so they never

(22:30):
actually learn how to develop into beinga remarkable leader and through the business.
They're right because when you think aboutgrowing a business. I mean, growing
a business is one thing, butscaling it up is a whole other undertaking.
And while businesses might have experienced somegrowth, it won't you know,
they won't be able to handle increasedvolumes with existing systems and infrastructures sort of
speaking. Cracks are going to startto appear whence growth reaches a certain level

(22:52):
to your point, and then confusionand miscommunication between business units might arise.
Staffing levels might become difficult to maintain, manufacturing or distribution capabilities might fall behind,
and customer satisfaction definitely is going todraw. And then at that point,
the business has outgrown itself or atleast outgrown its current systems to your
point, and partners and processes andstaff and technology. So the question is

(23:15):
when has a business outgrown itself andneeds to scale and what are those indicators
that it's time. Yeah, it'sa great question, and I'll tell you
at each top end of each breakpoint, that's the starting point to where they're
out scaling themselves. And the implicationswhen you get to three million, it's
going to be about the people you'vesurrounded yourself with. So when you think

(23:37):
about the business cycle, the whathas to work? Ninety seven percent of
businesses fail, and the chief threecomplaints for failure is no demand for product
or service. So when's a goodtime to scale is when you've been able
to prove that there's demand for productor service. The second chief complaint for
going out of businesses can't find anygood people. When's a good time to
scale when you've actually learned how tofind, attract the line, develop and
retain great people, or otherwise you'rejust because you can sell a lot doesn't

(24:00):
mean you can deliver and service andmove to scaling scales maximizing what you have.
By the way, it's optimizing.Scaling is a rapid expansion of what
you can prove works. And ifyou don't prove what works and you try
to just rapidly expand you'll you'll breakon top of yourself. The third chief
complaints can't get financing your money.So that's another area for scaling. Until

(24:21):
you get the discipline in the businessand you learn your margins and you understand
how to build a profitable business,you shouldn't try to rapidly expand it.
So if you look at the chiefthree complaints for why failure occurs no demand
for product or service. Don't scaleuntil you've proven demand for product or service,
can't find any good people, don'tdare scale until you know how to
attract great people and get them alignedwith the business. And third, can't

(24:44):
get financing. Don't go to scalinguntil you can prove that you have the
abilities the discipline to run your businessprofitably. And you know, the marketplace
tells people, oh, it's okayto deficit finance, it's okay to lose
money in the first few years,it's okay. It's all nonsense. Because
that's may be true for people whoare accessing public money and have tons of
resources and trying to have a unicorncompany, but for the average, everyday

(25:07):
small to midsize business, their familiesare involved, their friends are involved,
their communities involved, and there's nosuch things as outscaling a broken business system
and going broke. If you tryto do that, you will go broke.
Those are some great tips, andactually that's a great perspective, and
you know, whether you're working withbusiness with businesses to build the teams,
the processes and systems that they needto scale and survive their growth, or

(25:33):
turning a larger organization. What areasin business truly determine success? Well,
I try to show business owners fromstartup all the way until they achieve one
hundred and twenty five million, butour research and science goes out to a
billion dollars. And that's why Isold my business for seventy seven times even
now, because I presented to eightbillion dollar companies, that eight individual companies

(25:56):
that were over a billion in revenue, that if they acquired me and I
deployed my systems into their customer base, all their customers would grow, and
if their customers would grow, theirbusiness would grow. And that's how we
are required for one hundred and fiftyone million, seventy seven times ebitdab by
a billion dollar company that thirty sixmonths later was worth four and a half
billion, because we deployed into eightcountries and into their business units here in

(26:19):
North America. So this science iswe've been proving it out every single day.
I launched this business with Grant Cardowned thirty six months ago. We
have one point six billion in businessesunder management, and we've helped businesses go
from three million to thirty million andfrom five million to fifty million. And
from thirty million to one hundred andfifty million, and it's just like gravity.

(26:41):
Those breakpoints are just like gravity.I always talk about entrepreneurs. They
know what they know, they knowwhat they don't know, and that's about
four percent, and then there's ninetyninety six percent that they don't even know
they should know until they've experienced somebreak and it's only in reflection looking back
what decisions they made and what actionsthey took that caused that break. So

(27:04):
building a business is to trial andair. It's very painful. And if
you have the resilience to break through, to learn from your mistakes, and
you're willing to push through, whichremember, ninety eight percent of all businesses
are stuck under three million if they'reunder one hundred, so not a lot
of people have the tenacity and desireand resilience to bust through to get to

(27:26):
ten million or twenty million or fiftymillion. And it takes a lot of
courage, and it takes a lotof perspective, and it requires a different
human being at each one of thosebreak points to show up to work every
day. And this is why JohnMaxwell talks about law the lid. It's
a cap. If you're not intentionallyexpanding your belief LID, your leadership,
lead, your operational effectiveness, LIADyou and your team, your business will

(27:48):
get stuck and get trapped and stayat or below and then your costs creep
over time. So eventually it's arecipe for a disaster if you're not intentionally
growing and doing it the right way. Well, you are quite the expert,
my friend. Thank you so muchfor coming on. This is fantastic
advice. Very excited that we gotto chat with you and definitely would love
to have you come back on.Awesome. Well, I'm so thankful that

(28:10):
you had me on your show.That was our financial literacy segment brought to
you by Dominari Financial, and thatwas the amazing Brandon Dawson. Do check
him out on the web at bDawson dot com, or you could head
directly on the ground and check himout at Brandon M. Dawson. You
can also head to cardone Ventures dotcom. You're listening to a Moment of

(28:30):
Zen right here on seven ten WR, the Voice of New york iHeartRadio.
We'll be right back after this.A Moment of Zen is brought to you
by Anamoca Brands as a worldwide industryleader and digital entertainment, blockchain and digital
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(28:53):
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(29:14):
Open Metaverse. For more information andto become part of the excitement, go
to Anamoca Brands dot com. That'sAnamoca brands dot com. Welcome my beautiful
New York City area. I'm yourhost, zen Sands live from the iconic
New York Stock Exchange right here indowntown Manhattan. Today we're featuring a Yatsue,
co founder and executive chairman of AnamocaBrands, a global leader in blockchain

(29:37):
games. Anamoca Brands is a privatecompany focused on digital entertainment, blockchain gamification,
and artificial intelligence They develop and publisha broad portfolio of products, including
the rev and sand Tooken, alongwith original games including The Sandbox, Crazy
Kings and Crazy Defense Heroes. Today, Yat joins me to chat Gamification,

(29:57):
Blockchain, and nf tease as wehead into the world of web three point
zero. Welcome to New York StockExchanged, my friend, Thank you,
so a real pressure to be here? Absolutely, okay, so let's jump
right in. So yeah. Therapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank s VP
as we know and Signature Bank,of course, has highlighted the fragility of

(30:18):
the traditional banking sector, all whileof course depriving a crypto of its primary
fiat on ramps, and both wereleading financial institutions of course providing banking services
to crypto companies in the United States, and following the shutdowns, one would
think that it would be far morechallenging for crypto companies to interact with a
dollar based financial system. Yet cryptois certainly paving its way as of recent

(30:41):
market reports. Why do you thinkthat crypto is holding strong right now amidst
this banking crisis, Well, Imean, I think, first of all,
you know, I think a lotof people, especially in last year
so, have been wondering why isit that crypto is correlating with a market
the way that it has, Afterall, it's supposed to be sort of
you know, a different theme.And in many ways it was because I

(31:02):
think many people who had purchased cryptobefore we weren't looking at it as much
as a hedge as really for speculativepurposes. They were thinking, Okay,
we need to get into the game, we don't have some exposure, but
didn't think of it as quite thehedge as to think of it right now
because a lot of people realize theweaknesses of fractional reserve banking that we're seeing
currently right now. And it's alsointeresting that it wasn't something like silver Gate,
but it was actually SEB that reallycaused sort of this sort of lost

(31:23):
in trust in the banking sector,and many calls that I've been receiving is
you know, even from people whoare sort of skeptical, saying, so,
how do I buy a bitcoin again? How do I get into ethereum
what I need to do? Andwhat we're also seeing is that they're not
trading it, that's holding it.So this has really sort of moved from
a sort of hedging strategy, SoI think that's that's one one big area

(31:44):
that's changed as well. And theother thing is awareness. Whereas maybe three
or four years ago, when peoplewere sort of more speculative in this area,
they were sort of getting into itfor you know, hoping to obviously
have good gains from this, versusright now they actually think of just holding
really holding it for a small percentageof the net worth, just making sure
that you know, that's basically somethingthat sort of is there in case the

(32:04):
markets do what they do. AndI think the other thing is that the
sort of running joke a little bitin our industry, which is now sort
of spreading a little bit around,which is, you know, printer is
coming, right, and so youknow whether it's coming or not, it's
just a matter of well, howdo we head yourselves against this? And
it's not exactly a global currency thatyou can head yourselves against. And then
the other thing, of course isthe fact that everyone is now sort of
looking at interest rates and understanding howthat's probably going to play out. Lots

(32:28):
of shifts in the industry, lotsof shifts. While Animoca brands ranked second
in the Fortune Crypto forty and theFinancial Times has recognized Animoca Brands as a
high growth company in the Asia Pacificregion for twenty twenty three. Now you
have also won the Deloitte Tech FastAward. You tend to be very calculated
and strategic while investing. How areyou dealing with the current market downturn and

(32:52):
how does it affect your investment decisionsper se? Well, I mean,
I think, first of all,calling this a downturn in our spaces a
little bit sort of interesting because ifyou look at sort of where crypto and
pricing is right now, where ifyou're in bitcoin is, and where the
market even with the NFT industry,it's actually not as down as people might
think of it. And we thinkof the sort of real winter as twenty

(33:12):
eighteen, I mean that was reallybad right now, actually it's it's actually
not too bad. But it alsomeans less competition. So for instance,
a year ago, in sort ofthe height of the bull market, it
wasn't just from an investing perspective thatwe're just looking at a lot of deals
and the pace of deal making wasjust much faster. That's also the fact
that there was a lot more competitionfrom different investors. The quality of the
companies were actually sometimes harder to determinewhen there's so much money around, because

(33:35):
at the end of the day,when you make an investment, you also
think about risk, and so ifyou're able to raise twenty or thirty million
dollars for your you know, seedround fairly easily, then the risk assessment
is slightly different because you've got sufficientcapital to apparently run for many years,
versus right now you set round around, I'm not going to be twenty thirty
million, it might be single digitmillions, which means that the quality of
the companies, the product readiness andeverything has to be much stronger for them

(34:00):
to succeed in the market like this. Because there's also generally less venture capital
around now, there's another sort ofthing to consider as well, which is
venture capital in the US for Webthree is definitely dried up in comparison to
what it was before, but inAsia, for instance, it's actually not
really dried up. In fact,it continues to be quite active in the
investing scene. Right in this momentin time, there's a big Web three

(34:20):
conference in Hong Kong and it's absolutelybooming, and you know, six or
seven months ago that region actually wasn'treally promoting Web three, and now it's
all into that as well, Soyou know, we have to look at
it from a global perspective as well. That from an American lens it looks
pretty sort of negative, but froman Asian or maybe even Middle Eastern lens,
actually it's booming. It's booming.It's booming, and mass adoption is
happening in every crack, in everycrevice. And you know, I always

(34:43):
tell people either get on board ormiss the boat, because you have to
either adapt with the times and rollwith the punches. Or we don't say
punches in a bad way, wemean roll with the types that are changing,
the markets that are evolving, Andwhich brings us to another interesting point
from the paradigm of where NFTs startedversus where they are now. So let's
chat. Let's chat NFT royalties.Some say enforcing royalties contradicts permissionlessness. So

(35:10):
if you have to self if youwere to have self custody over an NFT
and have rights to its intellectual property, does the act of forcing you to
pay creator royalties go against the veryidea of permissionless infrastructure? A highly debatable
topic that makes a valid argument.So, for example, if you own
the rights to the IP of yourrare board ape and commercialize it by featuring

(35:36):
it in an advertisement, does theoriginal creator have the right to receive a
portion of the income generated from thisinteraction. Many argue that for NFTs to
be the key infrastructure to Web threepoint oh, creator royalties need to be
optional, as forcing holders to paycontradicts the whole idea of permissionlessness. So
what is your view on zero royaltiesfor NFT creators? First, we think

(36:00):
zero royals he's a really bad ideabecause you need a sort of you need
basically a sustainable revenue base in orderto maintain the ecosystem. And the way
we look at it is a littlebit like royalties to the NFT space is
a lot like gas to ethereal,because imagine what happens when if you're you
know, everyone talks about low gasfees or no gas fees, But then
how does the network actually sustain itselfand how does it actually work? And

(36:21):
then you go back into centralized systemsas we have seen in Web two,
that doesn't really work. And whatalso happens is that really when you think
about royalties. The other thing tolook at it is that it's distribution of
wealth, and distribution of wealth isbasically distribution of power. Decentralization isn't just
about sort of, you know,this sort of fragmenting the vote. Decentralization
is sort of fragmenting the power basesand giving people the appropriate governance around that.

(36:44):
So if, for instance, artistsand creators around the world have a
distributed sort of power influence on thisone, then they have a way in
which I have a true say init, versus princess centralizing everything towards something
they like Spotify. I think oneof the things that I find really funny
is that, you know, manyof the traders who are the main ones
who have criticizes actually say, youknow, well, we're creating the market,
we're creating the value. Why shouldwe have to pay for that?

(37:06):
But in reality, if it wasn'tfor the royalties, then that market would
have never existed. Exact people forgetthat. People who bought board apes,
for instance, you know some youlike two years ago or something, they
paid a couple hundred dollars for it, and if it wasn't for royalties,
the value accruel for board apes wouldnever have been possible, and instead what
had happened is that in order forthem to create that business, they'd have
to do what happens in you know, traditional world. They have to actually

(37:28):
price it forward. Right. Inother words, Okay, in order to
make board ap the ecosystem that itis, we have to charge not two
hundred dollars with to charge one hundredthousand dollars fifty thousand dollars for these assets
in order for a participatory network effectto begin, which means it becomes exclusive.
So what board apes and poolcats andthings like Mocalverse have done is,
through a very low enterprise, haveessentially created co participatory environments in which stakeholders

(37:52):
can actually participate in the growth ofnetwork sustained through royalties. I also think
it's contradictory amongst all those sort ofabertarian people who basically say, well,
it needs to be fully permission aswe night have all the rights attached to
it. But the thing about libertyis that you can enjoy all the liberties
that you want as long as youdon't impinge on the liberties of others,
right, And that's exactly what they'redoing. If you're a creator and you

(38:13):
say, hey, I need youto pay me five or ten percent royalties,
your choice as a trader is tosay I don't like it. Free
market says, don't buy it right, not take it right and do whatever
you want with it. Is thatisn't a sort of impingement on your rights.
And I think you know, whenyou think of it from that perspective
from Marlins, actually it makes totalsense. Now, there some numbers.

(38:34):
Last year NFT sales was twenty fourbillion dollars and whether it's apparently a bear
market, and ninety percent of thatvalue went to creators and to owners.
Right, the creators made single digitbillions, but the owners basically made the
bulk of that. Yeah. Right, that is a very very fair distribution
if you think about it. Incontrast, something like Spotify, which is
a centralized environment. They paid sevenbillion dollars with it. You know,

(38:58):
it's a lot of money, butyou know they are servicing three to four
hundred million listeners, millions of artists, and they can only deliver that number
of royalties visa vd NFT space,which is much smaller and distributing value much
more fairly, and distributed. Iactually think it's a fair trade. I
think there's nothing wrong with you know, the creator receiving nine of the value
as the owner of creating a ninetypercent of value, sharing five percent to

(39:21):
you know, the original creator,you know, a couple of single digital
percentage of the clasfors. I couldn'tagree more. I act with a seglement.
In fact, in the recent monthsof in the recent months of varish
global market conditions, coupled with thezero royalty narrative that we've just been talking
about, many NFT projects have facedunfavorable consequences. Yet to your point and
is, more and more marketplaces enabletraders to easily bypass creator royalties. Project

(39:45):
owners are financially incentivized to either increase, to your point, their initial mint
prices to generate more revenue in thebeginning, or mint more of the collections
supply to the project's treasury to sellover time, which dilutes the value.
Over dilutes the value. So Itotally believe an IFO your sentiment that eliminating
creator royalties fundamentally harms the sustainability andgrowth of the NFD creator economy without a

(40:08):
doubt. So everything you're doing atAnamoka Brands. Congratulations, you guys are
amazing leaders in your field, andthank you so much for so much insight
and the entertainment that you're providing toan array of audience and gamers around the
world. And you guys are reallyreally working hard there on the entertainment side.
Yes, thank you so much.Aving the real pleasure. Guys,

(40:28):
that was the amazing, the incredible, yet so thank you for joining me
live from the New York Stock Exchange. That was Anamoca Brands founder yet to
check them out at Anamoca brands dotcom. I'm your host, Zen Sam's
will be right back after this.A moment of zan It's brought to you
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Welcome back, beautiful Tristate Area.You're listening to a moment of Zen right
here on seven ten wore the voiceof New York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen Sam's in our bu Utiful segmentbrought to you by Navvy Travel.

(42:02):
Today, we're featuring My Dear Friends. Actress Mackenzie Westmore, famously known for
her role on Passions and created herown cosmetic line. In fact, seven
years ago called Westmore Beauty, whichcan now be found on QVC and you
could head directly to Westmore Beauty dotcom. Now McKenzie got into the beauty
business to help women feel sexy andamazing. Today she's joined by the beautiful

(42:24):
Nikki giavasas beauty and wellness advocate,coach and entrepreneur, author and mega influencer.
Today we're chatting Mother's Day gift ideaswith ourt influencer mamas themselves. Now.
Interestingly enough, a new poll oftwo thousand moms commissioned by Lego Group
and Moon Pig and conducted by OnePoll, found that the thing moms want

(42:47):
more than anything else in the worldis time, just time, time to
rest, and quality time to spendwith their family. Specifically, The poll
found that fifty eight percent of momswant free time and to be able to
drop everything for Mother's Day. Fiftyone percent of moms say they'd love to
spend quality time, specifically time whenthey are relaxing and not managing everyone else's

(43:10):
needs with their families on their specialday too, and sixteen percent said that
making a new memory is also veryimportant to them. Welcoming now to the
show, or my dear friends,Nikki Giavasis and Mackenzie Westmore chatting motherhood,
Mother's Day gift ideas and what theyare most looking forward to doing on their
special day. Welcome, my beautifulladies. Hello, thank you for having

(43:35):
me and us. Thank you allright, ladies, it's that time of
year again. You're both moms andnicky, in your case a grandmom.
I can't even believe I said youare a grandmom. Guys, if you
can only see what she looks like, and if you do tune back in
Sunday at one pm Eastern, youwill in fact see her. Now,

(43:57):
Nikki, let us start with you. What would you like to receive from
your kids and grandkids on Mother's Day? More than anything this year? Well
hearing the thing about the time isI want the time with them. It's
like any quality time that's the bestgifts. So when they come and visit
or I visit them. And thenanything handmade, like a card, a

(44:20):
handwritten letter. I love anything likefrom the heart and flowers, and I
love stuffed animals because you can keepthat. But also like silk kimonos,
silk pajamas, um slippers, anythinglike that. I love them. Oh
oh wait, did you see howshe went from Teddy Bears and had written
notes to silk? I love that. It's a range. It's a range,

(44:46):
all right, I love I loveoptions. Options. Now, Mackenzie,
this has been one interesting year foryou, I mean, a new
characters so to speak. You confrontedyour weaknesses and fears and came out winning
in fact, all while balancing motherhoodvery gracefully and never missing a beat.
You dissolved your fillers and seek theright change. You started on a fresh,

(45:07):
new natural path. And of course, your family's at the core of
it all. What does Mother's Daymean to you? You know, it's
funny because I'm probably the first onein my family to kind of break the
mold on Mother's Day because I'm justsuch a believer that. You know,
if you, if you have achild, if you have a mother,
every day should be Mother's Day.You know, it shouldn't just be devoted

(45:28):
to only one day. However,we do, you know, we have
a little brunch. Our big thingis is focusing on my mom. You
know, like I said, Idon't care so much, but I love
to put the focus on my mother. You know, I do love when
my son although sixteen. Well,you know, like you said, Nikki,
you know, you know, thehandmaid stuff is always my favorite personally,
But just to have brunch with mymom, spend time with her,

(45:50):
that that's a big one for me. Although I'm probably going to be working
this this year or so. You'requite simple, very simple, and it's
the simple things that really do countnow, Nikki, this year you explanted
your breast implants that are causing yousevere symptoms. You suffered from breast implant
illness and decided to make the changefor the better, not only for your

(46:10):
body, but also for your mindand spirit and took control of your mental
health. What advice do you haveto moms out there trying to handle it
all but are just feeling overwhelmed.I think as moms we feel so much
guilt. We feel guilt at thetime for ourselves, and it's like if
you don't, it's like when you'reon the plane and you have to put

(46:30):
the mask on yourself first. Soa lot of moms have to embrace the
self love, the self care timebecause then you can be better, be
more present because you don't want tobe there but not there mentally, So
when you take the time for yourself, and it's not selfish because you're really
going to be more present and havemore energy mentally and physically for your kids.

(46:52):
Mental health is extremely important and exactlyto your point, moms need that
mental checklist to be able to getthrough optimally. So we could I say
this service the family, because that'sexactly what we're doing. Now, let's
chat gift ideas. So, despiteour best intentions to slow down the passage

(47:14):
of time, somehow Mother's Day twentytwenty three is here Sunday, May fourteenth,
in case you all weren't aware.Yeah, that's right, another year,
another year has come and gone,and your mom is still as fabulous
and hard to shop for as ever, is what I always say. Unlike
birthdays and of course major holidays likeChristmas or Thanksgiving, well you know,
you know, one might not beable to pay Mom a visit in person

(47:37):
and cushion you know, the giftwith the extra bonus of your fabulous presence.
So you have to make Mother's Dayreally count. Now. If Mother's
Day has yet again crept up onyou, guys, no worries, because
right now Mackenzie Westmore is going togive you some gifting inspiration. Mackenzie,
what are your top Mother's Day gifts? All right, Well, the big

(48:00):
thing with Westmore Beauty, to behonest with you, is time giving you
time back. That's why we havea whole line of sixty second effects.
The first one, however, beingthe body coverage refector. It is a
self tanner. It is a bodycamouflage, an illuminator, waterproof, sweptproof,
transfer proof, will last three tofour days. I've had it last
up to seven days. We don'thave time for self tanner to set eight

(48:22):
hours. This is one of thosethings where all to see and put on
my hand and you can see itinstantaneously. Will give that coverage of anything.
I mean, I'm talking like spiderveins, blue veins, cellulite,
stretch marks. It will give coveragewhere self tanners don't. They emphasize a
lot of those things. So that'smy first one. My second one would
have to be the sixty second IEffects. This is like the perfect Mother's

(48:45):
Day gift. This is botox ina bottle. You just put a little
dab of this on and it willget rid of bags, wrinkles, dark
circles, elevens, crows, sweet. People are using it on their cheeks,
their neck. It is like spanksfor the face. Sucks it all
in for twenty four hours. Itwill not crack, it won't flake,
it won't turn white, and hasretinal hyaluronic acid vitamin E, so it's
very anti aging. My third oneI would say is the sixty second Blush

(49:07):
Effects. It's a fun gift becausethis is crazy me on yellow. But
when you apply it, it adjuststo the pH of your skin to give
you your own personal flush of color, so not any two people will have
the two same of blush. Andit can be used on the lips and
on the eyes to give that monochromaticlook which is very in right now.
And then if you want to finishoff the look, I would say the

(49:29):
Red Carpet mascara because it does curlyour lashes by one hundred and fifty percent
without an eyelash curler, and giveslength and volume and lasts all day long.
So those are my picks. Girl, you have it going on.
I want it all. But Iwill say the body coverage Perfector is truly
I've used it. It instantly,and I mean instantly transforms your skin and

(49:51):
all the products are infused with thingslike hble oil, camemeal oil, hyaluronic
acid, vitamin complexes, so it'syou're always doing something health for your skin
with wes marbut products. And thisis the perfect time because, like Nikki
you said, time, time isof the essence. You know, time
is what we all want. Andthese are the perfect Mother's Day gifts because
these are products that will work insixty seconds, give you the results you

(50:15):
want, go about your day,last twenty four hours, last a week.
Whatever product you're using, you're goingto have incredible transformations. Yeah and
there, and they're very fairly priced. They're actually they won't break the bank,
big deal for me. Yeah yeah, okay, So Nikki, ideally,
you know, maybe we can workon creating a world where moms have
so much support from their partners infamily year round that when it comes around

(50:37):
to this special day of celebration,they don't have to ask for time to
go to the bathroom or catch upon sleep. But you are always very
creative and end inspirational. What doyou recommend for mom? And again this
is not just for Mother's Day,but any any day you want her to
feel extra special? Well, Oneeasy thing is a get certificate to the

(50:58):
SPA. You could go together.My daughter did that for me last year,
so we had a SPA day.And that's giving yourself time as well,
and we could all use that ortravel. I have travel Navvy.
I use a lot of time.So if you give your mom a trip
or you do a family trip,then it's a win win and then everyone
can also have their separate time butstill have an adventure to a new location.

(51:22):
All right, well, I thinkwe have all these amazing gift ideas
all the moms out there, wishingyou the best. Thank you girls for
coming on and helping me celebrate HappyMother's Day, Happy Mother's Day, Happy
Mother's Day. That was our beautifulsegment brought to you by Navvy Travel.
That was my good friend, actressMcKenzie Westmore, founder of Westmore Beauty.

(51:44):
And that was Nikki Giavassis, influencer, entrepreneur, author and life coach.
You can check her out on theGram at Nikki Giovassis Official, and you
can also find mackenzie on the Gramat m Westmore. You're listening to a
moment of zen right here on seventen war The Voice of New York iHeartRadio
will be right back after this.A Moment of Zen is brought to you

(52:05):
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(52:25):
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(52:49):
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(53:09):
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(53:30):
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