When it comes to building real success, it takes more than just dreaming.
It requires hard work, vision, perseverance, clarity, strong partnerships—but most importantly, it starts with accepting who you are and where you are. Without that foundation, all you're doing is building for the sake of building. And one day, you'll look around and think, “Damn. Now what?”.
On this episode of The Big Dawgs, Manning Sumner sits down with Lex Borrero—President & Co-Founder of NEON16 and Ntertain, executive producer, artist manager, host of the You VS You podcast, 2x Latin Grammy nominee, and a Billboard 40 Under 40 honoree.
They dive into Lex’s journey of disrupting the status quo in hip-hop and Latin music, while simultaneously discovering his true self. This episode is a powerful look at what it really takes to build lasting success—from the inside out, without dimming your light.
Lex also shares what it’s been like to manage Will Smith as a music artist, and the mutual lessons they’ve shared—like this reminder: “We’re all superheroes. We just forget we are.”
All of it is rooted in rediscovering the childlike essence we all possess.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
A lot of people, while they build success, they're driven by
this idea of the accomplishment.And I can't wait until I get
like whatever, the $1,000,000 and I get the check or I have
the massive whatever it is. I didn't see a company that
embodied the culture. All the companies that were in
Latin music were just really focused on giving my money.
Let me get my money. Nobody had this idea of like,
(00:21):
let's do things just for the sake of building brand value of
Latin music. So I created Neon 16.
So it's always been driven by like this.
I see an issue, I see a problem and I get the OCD to solve it
and then I get a clear vision. So what was your process in
terms of putting them in the right position to carry your
vision and getting them to buy into what was clearly yours?
(00:43):
It's not easy for to get people to buy into something that is on
your heart and in your head and in your mind and you know, I
mean. I think the biggest thing that I
realized is in order to align people, you have to understand
their need. People want to follow someone
who's pushing themselves and who's leading by example.
And so I'll be the same guy that's like sitting in the nice
office, but I'll also be the guypainting the wall.
(01:04):
I was literally texting my father and I was like, could you
believe I'm watching Bad Boys with Will Smith?
And he just acted in front of me.
That's it, I've made it. I've made it.
I'm Manning Sumner. I've lived my life by 1 motto No
days off. No Days Off has never taken a
day off on you. It's a commitment to becoming
your best self. Get ready to be inspired to do
(01:26):
the same. This is the Big Dogs with
Manning Sumner watch you wearingtoday.
Got a AP perpetual skeleton. Nothing's sick.
Dude, this was my dream watch. Like because this is the watch
that Kanye and Pharrell wore like when we were growing up.
(01:47):
This is the watch, right? So if there was one watch I was
like, I'm making, I got to get it.
And I I finally got it. And you know, I wore this thing
so much that I'd beat the like, it has so many scratches, but
that's kind of, I'll never sell this.
But I feel like, you know, that's like what makes it.
Yeah, that's the story. You know what I mean?
(02:07):
It's like because it's your watch.
Exactly. Of course it's it's like cars,
you know, when you take them outand you get that first, like
little nick and you're like, youknow, and when you have kids,
like I just got the new Shelby Rlike Raptor and there's like
they only made forty of them. And my son was eating a cookie
the other day in the backseat and he like, you know, spilt it.
(02:28):
And I was just like. But then at the same time I was
like. Yeah, that's kind of the, IT is
what it is. It's like dad life, you just
learn to like, you're like, I feel like being a parent, like
it gives you so much more patience.
Oh, it does, because you realizethere's nothing you're going to
be able to do. Like my place is spot clean.
(02:49):
I have things that are white andthese like very expensive rugs
and things. You think my daughter cares?
The other day I'm walking, I'm like, is that Cheeto hands on
my? And then I was like, you know
what? It's OK.
Are you are you do you do you come from a background of being
OCD? Are we live?
All right, Good. I normally just like, go and
I'll. We'll do that, you know?
(03:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, we weren't we. I feel like we're just picking
up where we left. Yeah, no, 100%.
I was telling my wife on the wayover here.
I was like, I was like we did a podcast after the podcast and
this is another podcast. Like, you know, we're doing a
whole lot of stuff. Like we just, we just we
talking. We should just kept the cameras
rolling. But do you find like your
personality is it, is it OCDA little bit a?
(03:31):
100%. So it's interesting because I
was the same way until I met my wife and I met my wife and she's
completely opposite. And so it, it forced me.
It was like, if you really want to be with this woman, then
you're going to have to chill out.
And then what's cool about it though, is that it prepared me
for kids because this damn near impossible to be OCD with kids.
(03:54):
Like you know what I mean? I realized like that's my
daughter was really the what changed that because dude, I was
the type of guy I come from the club and I don't drink anymore.
But when I used to drink, I would come wasted, start fixing
my library. That's how I was sober up.
I'd be like. The very first time I got high.
The very first time I got high, I cleaned my college everything
(04:17):
like like I'm talking like organize.
My closet was color coordinated.And then everybody was like, you
know, what'd you do when you gotout?
And I was like, I cleaned. I was like, that's, that's what
I did. That's me and it's, but you know
what? It's it's almost organized chaos
in my brain. I think that's part of my key to
success and my, my, my gift is that I need to feel like there's
(04:44):
a lot going on. And even creatively, if you come
to my office while you were there, like I have a lot of a
lot of things like, right, but it's that creative, like looking
into that that says, OK, here's these colours, here's these
things and my brain being challenged by so much or like,
but in an organized way. So I can fragment my
conversations, my business and still get to execute and be
(05:04):
super OCD about it while being kind of messy in somebody
else's. Like my assistants say I'm, I'm
an organized hoarder because I collect a lot of things.
So it's like, you know, I'll collect toys and I'll collect
cars and I'll collect watches and I'll collect sneakers And
like, it's like, at some point I'm like ham.
I got a lot of a lot of stuff. But it, it is part of like that
creative process that just inspires me.
(05:27):
And then my brain finds a way toorganize it.
So even in my house, I have a way to like hear all the art
toys and hear all the coffee table books in here.
And it's just, it's literally mybrain goes through this motion
all the time. And then at some point I'll be
like, I just want to get tired of this, clear everything and
then go something new, you know?But I do that all the time.
I'll like, have you seen me staring at something?
Like I stared at your wall and Isaw it from down there.
(05:48):
And I'm like, huh, I kind of want a wall like that with all
the jerseys I got. Now I'm going to go home and OCD
about getting the wall. Done well, what's what inspired
me about this and I had this at my other gym, but a really close
friend of mine, Gunnar Peterson,he like he's a like world
renowned trainer to the stars train Sylvester Stallone, the
Kardashians. You know, he's very well known
(06:10):
and worked with Kobe Bryant. And when you go to well, when
you used to go to his gym, and Ithink he did it in Nashville, he
used to have a gym in Beverly Hills and the ceiling, the
entire ceiling was jerseys. It was the dopest thing I've
ever seen. And I didn't want to copy him.
So I was like, well, let me do aversion of my version of that.
And then what's really funny too, is that, and Alex will tell
(06:31):
you is that not everybody made the wall.
You know, like I trained thousands of athletes and it and
it's interesting that like I've been given certain jerseys that,
you know, I was like, you don't make, you didn't make the wall.
So what? What?
Qualifies you to make the wall. It goes way beyond their career.
It goes it's a personal like what happened to us personally
(06:54):
and like how they treated me, how we grew together current
relationship, if there is even one, which all these guys are
pretty much have a great relationship with.
But it just it went beyond sports and went beyond training
and it was something that like left a mark on my life too.
(07:14):
So it so it reminds me because Idon't train professional
athlete. Well, I mean, I'm, I came out of
retirement recently, but I don'tdo it like, you know, like I
used to do it where it was 16 hour days of doing it.
And so it's nice to have a reminder.
It takes you back to like where you started, you know, like
where, where, how I ended up with this is the is literally
(07:37):
the training. I mean, there was times I
trained from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PMwithout a break, you know, like
just non-stop. That's nice.
Athlete after athlete and then, you know, you throw in a nurse
or a doctor or the student, likeyou throw in regular people in
there too. So it was crazy.
I mean, look at this though. Holy.
(07:57):
Yeah, you know well, I told. Somebody in the sauna this
morning that that this was in myhead in 2017.
I like saw this way before it actually happened.
And I think that's why I like, you know, people don't really
like every time someone gave me flowers for doing for making an
(08:18):
achievement on the inside, I waslike, I haven't really made what
you know, and I'm still that way.
Like I'm still like, you know, well, and let's talk about that
a little bit because we kind of got into a little bit when I was
on your podcast. But like, I kind of want to take
it back to when you were in thatplace because I feel like
you're, you've, you're way about, you're way further than I
(08:42):
am in my career. And but like, take me back to
when you were in it and you werebuilding.
And I would love to hear 'cause you, you strike me as someone
that is extremely team oriented and pouring into other people
and, but still remaining the visionary and the one on top.
(09:02):
So explain to me your process oflike how you did that and ended
up to where you are today. You know, it's crazy because a
lot of people while they build success, they think of, you
know, or they're driven by this idea of the accomplishment,
right? Like, man, I can't wait until I
(09:23):
get like whatever the $1,000,000and I get the check or I have
the massive whatever it is. And for me at the beginning, it
was driven by just people. Like I had this, this necessity,
the OCD of like seeing a problemand being like, OK, how do I
solve? How do I put my creativity to
solve this issue? So when I first, first started
(09:46):
and, and I got the music bug, I was, I was growing up in church.
I was a pastor's kid, my mom's apastor and I was studying
theology and I was, you know, I've got ordained to be a youth
pastor and I would go to school and listen to hip hop, But then
I would come into youth group, right?
And, and we were having conversations about Christian
(10:06):
hip hop and Christian rap and you know, Christian rock.
And then when I would compare the music, I'd just be like,
man, why is this? So like behind the beats are so
like thinned out and the sounds sound weak.
And then like the song is super repetitive.
It doesn't use any of like the other things that that are going
on in hip hop, like they're not taking inspiration from it.
(10:29):
And I just saw like a a problem.I said, you know, I think if you
can take the idea and the creative behind what makes hip
hop, secular hip hop so good andimplement it into just having
positive music, you can not onlygive a blessing to the
community, but you can actually grow and become a major
(10:50):
superstar. And that became my mission.
I created a company called Crossover Entertainment 'cause
it was that it was like my idea to cross it over.
Now, when I started, I, I calledevery Christian rapper in Miami
and I had a meeting in my house,my mom's house by the way,
'cause I was a kid. Well, by the way, how many
Christian rappers were in Miami?More than you realize that.
(11:11):
'D be like 20. Yeah.
There was like, there was like alittle movement here going on.
OK. What year was this?
This might have been like 2000, I don't know, maybe 2004, 2003.
And I had a whole meeting and I had a plan and I, OK, I had a
(11:31):
whole presentation. I put it on a board and I said,
here's how we're going to do this.
We're going to, this is the things that are wrong.
Here's the things we're going tofix.
And I would love to have all youguys like, we should do a
project together so the community gets all together.
Everybody ate the food. I had my mom order food.
Like, yeah, I thought I was, youknow, I was legit.
Yeah. Everybody left like, no, like
(11:52):
Loki. I felt like they probably
laughed. But two guys, this guy named
Prophecy and this guy named Blessed, stayed.
And they're like, that sounds interesting.
Like, what do you have in mind? And I was like, well, you know,
we got to figure out a studio. I love the names that stayed
though. Oh yeah, yeah, right.
Prophecy and blessed. Now that I've.
(12:13):
Yeah, now it's crazy. And I told them I said like we
should, we should get this going.
And Prophecy said, well, look, Ihave a lecture room in my
apartment. I said great.
So I went and I like had foodie loops and I downloaded this
other program and we went to Home Depot and we built with
wood our own little booth as ghettos as ghetto can be.
(12:35):
And I just downloaded from Limewire like all the hottest
beats at that time. And I just started writing the
rhymes with him, right? And so we did this whole Little
Mix tape and we sold it at churches and all this stuff.
And then like, the momentum we got was like real.
And we got called from this Christian label and they left
and signed with the Christian label and like left me hanging.
(12:58):
You know, it's, it's, it's, it'sfunny because I saw prophecy
maybe maybe six months months ago when I started the podcast,
because I did this kind of artist Invitational and he came
in and he was like, and I'm, I'm, I'm so sorry.
Like you were totally right. And I, I interviewed Lecrae in
the podcast and I was telling Lecrae, I'm like, I remember
being on the phone with you guysand saying, Hey, like I have
(13:20):
this idea and you and the truth telling me like, we can't work
with secular producers, So we, we can't work with you.
And I was like, it's crazy to see the growth and the
development of what happened, but that's really what, what
drove my passion across the board there.
And then that became like, oh, there's no producer managers.
Let me start managing producers and kind of create that going.
(13:41):
And then even when I came to Miami and I saw Latin music, I
just, I didn't see a company that embodied the culture.
Like, and I knew that if Latin music would grow again,
corporate America, like, like they always do anything that's
hot culturally they want to attach themselves to, right?
But there was no Roc Nation of Latin.
And all the companies that were in Latin music were just really
(14:04):
focused on giving my money. Let me get my money.
Nobody had this idea of like, let's do things just for the
sake of building the brand valueof Latin music.
So I created Neon 16. So it's always been driven by
like these. I see an issue or I see a
problem and I get the OCD to solve it and then I get a clear
vision. Like I get this tunnel vision
where I just see it. I see the chess pieces and
(14:28):
that's really been the key or one of the keys to my success is
just really when I see the vision, I see it clearly because
I see the problem. I see the chess pieces moving in
my head and then the outcome of it, because it was never driven
by it until recently. I just never actually enjoyed
the outcome because it was just never the reason why I did it.
(14:50):
So like I would get the award orget the money and stuff and
yeah, I would live it and it felt good, but it wasn't
something that I like SAT and appreciated.
I didn't even celebrate it. I like my first awards.
I was like, cool. Yeah.
Like, like, you know, it's like,I was more worried.
I was more like passionate aboutseeing the artist reach his
dream or seeing the the problem being solved and being like,
(15:12):
wow, we solved the issue. Not because Neon did this.
All of a sudden all the artists started following and the
aesthetic and people started looking at American culture and
saying and other companies copied the kind of our idea of
it, which is great, and started replicating the brand concept
idea into into the way they werebuilding their company.
(15:33):
So yeah, that's kind of been thethe driving force behind it.
But it's all back to that OCD oflike I got to solve it.
But when it's when it's your vision, because that's something
that I have to deal with now is like, you know, it's, it's our
vision, right? It's in our head.
And when you have people that have to carry the vision because
(15:54):
you can't do it by yourself, right?
And you've mentioned that like your partners have been very
vital to your to your growth. So what was your process in
terms of putting them in the right position to carry your
vision and getting them to buy into what, what was clearly
yours? You know what I mean?
(16:15):
Because that's, that's not, that's not easy.
It's not easy for to get people to buy into something that is on
your heart and in your head and in your mind.
And you know what I mean. I think the biggest thing that I
realized is in order to align people, you, you have to
understand their need, right? And so I, I, we were talking
(16:36):
about this in the podcast, whichis society historically feeds us
the information that as humans, there's something missing,
right? So because if they tell you that
there's something missing and I give you what you're missing, I
have control over you, whether that's I have control over how
you, you know, what you buy and into.
Because if I think, hey, you, you know, if you want hair here
(17:01):
is a hair product, right? Or in the case of, of a
dictator, you know, in the case of Hitler, it was, Hey,
Germany's destroyed. But I, we can go back into it.
So that needing of it. And it's an interesting way of
looking at leadership, but it's how you look at leadership,
right? So whenever I entered, whether
it's been my business or in thiscase where I've worked at, you
know, Rock or Universal, when I've entered a company and I've
(17:23):
seen like, OK, I'll give you an example.
Universal Canada, they were a company that were essentially a
marketing hub that supported thefive American labels signed in
Universal, Republic Island, Interscope, etcetera.
So they would market American product in Canada and they would
sign some Canadian things, but for the most part, their bottom
(17:43):
line was covered by that. But what started to happen when
I got there is the Canadian music started to blow up, right?
You have Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara, you had the weekend, you
have all these Canadian artists that were from the area where
the office was. And then the pressure started
coming. And it's like, why is us as
Canadians, we can't even sign our own artists.
They all go to the US. And when I went walked into the
(18:08):
building and I was given the responsibility to turn this
company around, I realized that the main thing is they don't
understand how to win because the team and the morale of the
team was always based on just like, you're safe, buddy, you're
making money no matter what, do your job halfway.
(18:28):
So when I started to walk in andlet go of people to try to
change, at first, everybody, I was the most hated person, the
HR, the person in charge of HR would always come into my office
and say, ha, how's the most hated person in this office
doing today? Because it was a company where
most people had been there 1520 years, right?
They were comfortable, they werecomfortable.
(18:49):
They were older. And here comes an American.
Imagine that to a Canadian, likelike the the stigmas there, an
American 30 year old to tell them how to do things.
And I am the kind of person that's like, Oh, no, we're
changing. Like I'm not like a soft like I
don't no, no, no, I'm like, no sugar coat.
I don't sugar coat and I'm superblack and white with that.
(19:10):
So in coming in, at first it wasturmoil.
Those people were like, Oh, if we're and then they started to
realize as we started to win, aswe started to sign artists, as I
started to do deals with Timberland and other things and
change the way that the the office dynamic worked.
The morale was people wanted to win.
They wanted to feel proud about their job.
Nobody entered the music industry to sit in an office
(19:32):
doing nothing. Do you enter because you wanted
to be like, oh, I met Manning where he was nobody and like
he's a world superstar and I wasa part of that.
That's the feeling. So I understood if I can get
that feeling out of people, theywill get behind the vision and
everybody will give their best job.
So I made that the main goal. I changed the way we
(19:53):
communicated as a group and saideverybody here now has a role in
getting us here. I can't do this alone.
But in order to get here, I needto understand what your strength
is and what your weakness is. And I need you just to focus on
your strength. Like don't try to overcompensate
for your weakness. And in doing that, I started to
say, OK, here's the best people on marketing.
(20:14):
There's people that, the person that was leading marketing, I
moved them to publicity because they were not actually good at
marketing. And so I started a maneuver and,
and, and, you know, essentially we, we reached our goal and
everybody was super happy and, and then I left.
But, but it was like the, the question of it.
So I say a lot of my kind of role in leadership is always
just trying to understand that, like, what do people want out of
(20:35):
this opportunity? Because it takes the same amount
of effort to do something you love or do something you hate
and the same amount of percentage of chances of
winning. So if I can maneuver people into
a position of doing something they love to do and then also
be, allow them to sit in there when they're uncomfortable.
Cause a lot of people too, it's like you put them to do what
they want, but they, they, they just want everything flowers and
(20:57):
especially this generation nowadays, they want everything,
you know, in beautiful. It's like, no, no, no, you're
going to sit in the uncomfortableness of that.
But this is what you want, right?
OK, here's how we're going to doit.
And I would say the biggest mistake I've made as a leader
sometimes has been just hiring people with a lot of potential,
but with a huge learning curve. And no, you could do that and
(21:20):
bet on one person, but when it'sa large part of your
organization, it starts creatinga high level of, of, of wasting
money, a high level of time, andyou end up having to do
everyone's job because you're mentoring, right.
You're like micromanaging. Yeah, you're micromanaging,
right. So, but yeah, I would say those
those two things were kind of pedal in my leadership and and
(21:43):
getting the team to roll up behind.
And then people like to do cool stuff.
People want to follow someone who's pushing themselves and
who's leading by example. And so I'll be the same guy
that's like sitting in the nice office, but I'll also be the guy
painting the wall. Like in our office that you went
to when we were, like, put in and I was there painting, I was
like hammering things and putting it because I generally
(22:05):
enjoy it. But for people, it was like,
what the heck? Yeah.
Yeah. Why is Lex with this?
Yeah. But there's something about
that, like when people see you doing what you're asking them to
do, like if they see you and you're willing to do the same
thing that you're asking them of, you know, what are they
going to say? Like, So I like that a lot.
So when when Neon 16 came to life, where did Neon 16 come
(22:29):
from? So I was working with Tiny, who,
you know, had asked me if I could help with his career.
And we were thinking at the timeI was working at Rock, so I was
at Roc Nation and we were thinking about starting a
company because. It's after Canada.
(22:50):
It's after Canada, OK? After Canada, I come to Miami, I
gave my health gives in and I come here to kind of recovered.
I was not planning to get back into music, but I was dating a
girl and she was a Latin songwriter.
And even though I told her to not talk to me about music, she
did the complete opposite and said, oh, but look at this song.
(23:11):
But here's this record. And I was like, oh, God.
But one day she wrote a record Iliked.
And I said, OK, I'm going to do one thing for you.
I know a friend of mine who works at Sony, Aladdin.
I'm going to go see him. I'll play your music.
If he likes it good, I'll connect you guys.
You guys can do it, please. After that, just, you know, like
respect my decision, yeah. Leave me alone, I.
(23:32):
Don't want to do music? Well, when I went there and I
played the music for this A&R, the NR literally told me it's
good, but, you know, she's a female writer, and we don't
really think female writers get it.
That's wild. I said, excuse me?
He said yeah, yeah, like, OK. So I left the meeting and I
called her on the phone and I said the best thing just
(23:52):
happened. The guy said the girls can't
write and now have a mission to prove him wrong.
So you got yourself a man I. Love it.
And I was like. And does that fuel you like
those moments? 100.
Percent, like as soon as you hear some ridiculous, because
that is an absurd comment. Yeah, to make.
Like it's absurd. 100% You want to fuel me, tell me something
(24:15):
can be done. Yeah.
And. That's all I am to that's please
tell me something. Just please.
Yeah, you. You tell me like, oh, somebody
did. OK, cool bro.
I don't, I don't care. I don't fill the deal.
Tell me something can be done. And it's like the full drive
goes on and, and the full drive went on and I started to problem
solve. I started to see the chess
pieces and I started to, you know, figure out how I was going
(24:37):
to get the biggest songwriters in Aladdin to want to work with
a brand new writer. I and I quickly realized that
Sony was not going to help. The Aladdin managers were not
going to help because there was just a stigma.
It is what it is, you know, And the truth is songwriter
producers at that time were not being respected the way they're
respected today. And I think we we had a huge
part in changing that. But I knew that any Latin writer
(25:01):
would want to work with Americanproducers because everybody
wants to work with American artists.
So I called Danger Hands and I told Danger.
I said, hey, man, I know you hada studio in Hollywood.
Would you be interested in doinga Latin camp?
And he's like, what do you have in mind?
I said, bro, Latin music is super hot.
You could be the first hip hop producer to get into.
He's like, oh, OK, I did it. And then I called all the
(25:22):
publishers and I said, hey, I got this, I got danger hands,
can you send me? Boom, boom, boom.
Like I went down the list of allthe top ones that this girl was
obsessing with. And I ended up getting all of
them. And Sony got super pissed and
all this thing because they were, they had this Sony secret
session things. But Long story short, she ended
up going on to write massive hits.
Like she wrote the breakout hit for Kaliuchi Telepathia and she
(25:43):
wrote a bunch of other records. And through that process, all of
a sudden I was in Latin music. Roc Nation at the time asked me
to come be the EVP and help run the music company.
And then Romeo Santos leaves RocNation and I'm stuck with Roc
Nation Latin. And they were like, ah, you're
Latin, here you go. And I was like.
(26:05):
But in that process, I ended up meeting Tiny.
And when I met Tiny and I went to Puerto Rico with him, I
started to see what was happening.
Then I had a call with Balvin and I saw that Balvin had the
understanding of culture. He understood the actually we
went to your gym the first time together, me and Balvin.
(26:27):
But he understood the the way that we as American consumers
consume music and why we consumeit and why we follow hip hop.
And, and I was like, if this guygets it this way and he
continues to grow, all it's going to take is someone with
more urban credibility because he was a little pop leaning to
come behind. And this thing is a game over.
(26:47):
And that just clicked until I was in Tokyo with with Tiny.
And I said, I think I'm going toleave my job and we should start
a company. And I always like to do things
with numbers because it poses the question, why a number?
So my company before that was called 1916 because September
(27:10):
1st, 1916 was the year Rockefeller became the first,
the world's first billionaire. But I've made hats, and
everybody in LA was wearing hats.
And there's this funny picture of Justin Bieber with Scooter
wearing a hat of my management company, not knowing what it
was, but it was the concept. SO16 is the year both he and I
started in the music business. We started when we were 16 years
(27:31):
old and then neon was because ofTokyo, the neon signs in Tokyo.
So we put Neon 16 together and that's where that.
And did you come up with that inTokyo?
Yeah, in Tokyo. I love it.
Yeah, that's awesome. And we from Tokyo, I called my
real estate agent and I had her find us a house.
And she's shown me the video andI visualize how the rooms were
separated, how we were going to use it as studios and offices.
(27:52):
And I rented it from Tokyo. And then we came here and we're
like, well, we're going to starta company.
We have no money. So I put, you know, I put my
salary and everything, and I quit.
I literally quit while I was in Tokyo, which was, you know,
scary. But yeah, especially as I was
getting paid a buck load of money.
Yeah. But it you know, it all worked.
(28:13):
Out look at you now. Yeah, exactly.
I think that that gives me the, the, I don't know, It's like
when you sacrifice success whereyou are to get a, a success that
you want for yourself, not what the everybody else says is
success and you're like willing to sacrifice that and bet it all
(28:38):
on you. I think there's something to be
said about that. Like that's that, that to me is
like, what makes you, you, you know, like I, I had a
comfortable situation and I gaveit up, You know, all of it.
You know, the the guaranteed money that to go pursue what I
wanted for me, you know, so I love that.
(28:58):
You know, what's the thing? And we were having this
conversation when we did our podcast.
But it's interesting because I've, I've been able to always
do that as long as the reason isexternal, right?
So like, I knew I wanted to build and fix this thing in
Latin music and I knew I wanted to help Tiny become a world
superstar. You know, I knew that I wanted
(29:20):
to change the way Latin music or, or this particular as ANRS
were looking because it was not a lot of music was looking at
this female writer, but I was doing it for the benefit of the
female writer more than my benefit.
So any time that it's been attached to the external person,
I've been super like quick, likeliterally don't think about it.
(29:40):
I'm driving, I'm going. I see it clearly, but it's been
probably, well, it's been 23 years of my career since I
started as a producer to coming now where I sit today, where I
can say for the first time in mylife, I'm doing something for
actually just myself, where I said I generally want to speak
(30:02):
about this internal work. I'm going to go do this podcast.
I'm. I'm going to not be.
Oh, that's Lex, the manager of so and so or, or, you know, the
CEO. But no, I'm just Lex.
Yeah, You know what I mean? As a matter of fact, I'm
Alejandro. How about that?
So I'm just about to say, you know, I'm gonna go do these
things that are passionate to myself and I'm gonna risk
(30:24):
myself. So I'm gonna go talk about
watches and start a whole channel about watches and be
funny because I actually just love watches.
Yeah, I'm going to start a coffee shop because like those
kind of things that I had never done in my entire career in
life. I'm literally for the first time
going out on that limp. I'm like, OK, I'm doing this,
(30:46):
you know? Do you think it's though,
because you did give so much? Yeah, You know what I mean?
That's when you're giving and you're pouring into other
people. Other people.
I mean, I feel like it actually was working internally on you,
it just at the time your gift was to for them at the time.
(31:07):
It's like, cuz to me, like timing in life is everything is
everything. Like I don't think that, like
maybe you wouldn't be where you are today if you would have made
it about you, then you know whatI mean?
So I think it's a mixture of learning through process and
timing and fear. You know, I generally knew I had
(31:30):
this fear, right? Like I, I remember kind of like
the moment of making the decision of stepping from the
limeline to put someone else because it was the moment that I
realized I had something to lose.
I was like, I start as a producer, I started being the
artist and I started to open doors and have success as that.
And then I panicked. I was like, oh, wait, like this.
(31:53):
Doing this, you get criticism, you get this.
And then what if I make one mistake and I don't feel really
good about myself and I don't feel like I'm enough?
So no, no, let me bet on somebody else because if they
mess up, I can blame them. It's not me.
And I remember you. Remember that that was really
your motivation. I remember making the shift of
saying like, you know, like I'm going to step and I'm going to
help this, which is always my, my, my foundation was always
(32:16):
helping people. But but the transition of like
I'm going to put out. And I think historically,
actually with all my clients andin, I would say most of my job
positions, what the rift startedto happen at some point was the
star in me started to fight the transition.
So, you know, most clients who are stars want their managers to
(32:36):
sit in the back and my personality traits, I walk in a
room and I'm owning that room and that doesn't always go hand
in hand. And so it, it, it can shock a
client to feel like, wow, my, mymore people ask my manager to
get interviewed than me. That like, why is that?
Like, you know, and, and so I saw that creating even even in,
(32:58):
in ultimately in some of the corporate jobs I took, which is
too, I think some of the bigger griefs was like, I can get a lot
more than the person that was incharge of me or was my boss or
was whoever. And that for a lot of people
just was like, whoa, you know, it, it scares them because of
that. And and it was I saw it
(33:18):
throughout all the years, but I always wondered, I was like, I
got to be everybody else. Why, Why everybody feeling like
this? But I never recognized like,
hey, no, like there's some sign the life is trying to show you
this because this is consistently happening that
there's this thing inside of youthat that wants to come out and
you have it logged in. And so as I'm noticing even now,
like the letting go of that. And every time historically in
(33:42):
my career that I let go of that for a moment, like there was
this big blessing that happened or this big moment.
And then I would be like, like doing the show on Netflix,
right? Like that was the perfect
example. I created ATV show, music
competition show had these four major superstars was not
planning to be on the show. Netflix decides that they the
(34:05):
four judges are two nice and they want me on the show now.
I come on, become the star of the show.
So I was just in Ibiza 2 days ago and a 45 year old British
guy where his wife in the middleof the club go.
We've been trying to figure out where we know you're from.
(34:26):
We finally hit it. We love your show on FS.
Can we take a picture? And I was like, wow.
But while I was sitting in that seat doing it and while it was
happening, after when it was released, I was fighting all
these internal, you know, like conflicts because it was
literally sitting in my fear. And and at that time, it was so
(34:46):
much so that I didn't do season 2.
I was like, no, no, no, I'm good, you know, but the blessing
happened. That was the universe again.
Show me. So the intuition of that now has
come to the forefront of my consciousness to where I'm like,
OK, I'm full force with this, but it's the first time in my
whole life and career that I'm doing this.
So I'm sitting here with you as I'm like, you know, but it's, I
(35:08):
love it because now I'm feeling what, what I would push my
clients to for myself. And it feels like rewarding and
also this kind of release of this energy that I, you know, I
think I was born with. How did How did Will Smith come
about? Bro, life is life, life be life,
(35:29):
you know? So I don't think I've ever
shared this story publicly, but Miguel, Will's long time manager
happened to be in Miami. Actually, I'll back up.
We launched our production film and television production
company. As part of that, our agents CA
settles with a bunch of meetingswith every production company in
(35:51):
town. One of those companies was
Westbrook. Westbrook, the head of content
at Westbrook, this guy named Lucas, He, you know, pitched me
a couple ideas. We worked on a couple of things.
Like two months later, he textedme, hey, can I connect you to
Will's manager? He's going to be in Miami.
He's also Aladdin. He would love to meet you.
So he connected me with Miguel. And he goes, oh, bro, I've heard
(36:13):
so much about you. I can't believe we haven't
connected. And Miguel ended up coming to
the office the day of my daughter's birthday.
Starts when I got 30 minutes brother and we we started
talking and it it started from business to just life.
And then we just connected as people.
And right behind them was Avhs tape of bad boys that tiny had
given me for my birthday, because that's how much I love
the movie. The first one, the first one
(36:34):
like growing up, the posters on my wall were bad boys.
Like I stole them from the theater.
Like the the the big ass vinyls.I took it late night.
I was a a troublemaker. So I went late night to the
theater and literally ripped thefreaking vinyl and put it on my
wall. I still have that actually my
mom's. I got a good day.
Long story short, we connected and at the end of the meeting, I
(36:54):
said, man, like, I really, I really want to do the music on
the new Bad Boys film. And we're the hottest Latin
company. The movie's based in Miami.
You got to let me do the music. And he's like, but have you
heard? Have you seen the movie?
And I said, no, I mean, I've been talking to Sylvia over at
Sony and I and. This is the new Bad Boys.
(37:15):
Yeah, the new one and Spring over at Sony Pictures, I've been
talking to the label to them. We just haven't been able to
link up with it. And he's like, well, look, it's
not done. You know, COVID, everything.
Stop the production and the strikes stop the production.
But if you're in LA next, I'll have Will show you the film.
Yeah. So we go to the Grammys with
Tiny. He was nominated for his first
(37:36):
American Grammy as an artist. And I'm like, I hit Miguel.
I'm like, hey, I'm in town. It's great.
Come by. So many pictures.
I'll have Will show you the film.
And I told Tiny Will's not goingto show up, right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, they're not players, don'twe?
Sure enough, as soon as we get their, Will is there and I'm
like, wow. And he's wearing orange.
(37:57):
How fun is that? They're like the things you
notice. So I'm like, I started talking.
He's like, yeah, you know, orange is the color of
Westbrook, my Overbrook, my highschool.
So I like orange. And that was the name of my old
company. What are?
So we started talking and we're about to go into the theatre and
I'm like yeah I'm going to go tothe restroom and he goes to the
restroom too. So my first 5 minutes of
conversation with Will were like.
So talk about surreal. Surreal, right?
(38:20):
And then he played, he, he showed us the movie and, and
acted the scenes that were missing.
And I was like, I was literally texting my father and I was
like, could you believe I'm watching Bad Boys with Will
Smith? And he just acted in front of
me. That's it.
Yeah. Well, I've made it.
I've made it. But when we were coming out, I
told Will, has anybody done the theme song to Bad Boys?
(38:42):
Like like into a song? He's like, Nah, like I'm going
to do it. So I got on the phone that
night. I called my producers here, say
I got this idea, put this, give it the bounce of Jack Harlow,
let's go over there. And then I sent him the record
and he's like, I like it when I'm in Miami, I'll cut it.
So then he came down to Miami. He cut it and, and in that
(39:03):
conversation, one thing led to the next.
We started talking about music, We started talking about his
career, his future. He's like, Sup man, it's yours
if you want it. And I was like, what's mine?
He's like, you know, like come help me out with this.
And I was like, OK. And I thought they were joking
around. So for like 2 weeks I didn't
really hear back. And then one day they call me
(39:23):
and they're like, and it was perfect timing too, because I
was sitting with the chairman ofthe Co chair of the board of
directors of my company, my leadinvestor.
And we were going over like business things and they called
the right way. He was there.
I was like perfect timing because I was like fighting him
on the financial age. And then it went and then I was,
you know, given the challenge ofbreaking a brand new artist who
(39:47):
also happens to be one of the world's most famous humans.
And I think we did a great job with him.
We've, you know, it's, it's beenan amazing journey with him and
incredible human being. It's taught me so much about
life and other things. And so, you know, one of those
things of life that you said lifey, lifey, but in, in the
(40:08):
most unexpected ways. And but it's taught me a lot
about I used to call it, I used to call God, the fourth quarter
God. I was like, he's my Tom Brady,
right? And I literally used to say that
all the time, like right when things seem like they're going
to go, it just get the hell, Mary, we win the Super Bowl.
And then I started to like, realize maybe I'm just not
(40:30):
playing the 1st 3/4 the right way and God has to save me
because you got so much grace infavor.
But, and so I started to look athow I was playing the 1st 3/4 of
anything I was doing and, and changing that.
And, and part of that is, you know, kind of the, the leading
purpose of, of having something like having a relationship with
Will and, and working with him and Miguel and that whole team.
(40:53):
It's been a huge learning experience, but it's been
amazing. What would you say that?
And I'm sure there's a lot because you just mentioned it,
but like what would be your, thenumber one thing you've learned
from Will and then also what do you think he's learned from you?
That's a really good question. So from Will, I think that the
(41:14):
same drive that you have for everything that's external, so
to work, to kill, to like make it in business, to take over the
world, the same dedication to put into yourself and to that
internal part into chasing, you know, the the deepest part of
who you are to find peace, to find comfort in who you are, to
(41:35):
find acceptance in who you are. You know, I think he's never
said this, but I really always looked at it because he was my
hero growing up, right? I think he was heroes for a lot
of us. And what I realized is that we
all are that superhero. We just forget we are.
And so the more that you can remember that the best version
(41:55):
of yourself is just the full on 100% original version of
yourself, not the one that has to pretend to be someone to his
friends or pretend to be educated for business people.
Like the true original, the Lex that's funny, that dances in his
pajamas, that sings in the shower, like that's the
superhero. And that reflection of that to
(42:16):
me has been a huge lesson. And I think for me, I spend the
freedom, right? Like kind of this idea that I,
I, I just don't sit in boxes very well, right?
So I don't, I, I just kind of let things go for what they are
and I let my mind flow and my freedom flow and I say yes to
things. And I kind of just live in that
(42:37):
wildness of outside the box because he's Will Smith and you
know, he's been on like any other major superstar.
You're, you're in boxes all the time.
So we had amazing summer last year where we got to experience
like things and you know, he hadnever really he, he says it's an
interview, so I'll share. But like he had never really
(42:58):
experienced a summer because he always had summer movies or he
was always filming. It was like his first time
experiencing a summer in Europe.And it was.
You know, on tour. No, that time we were just like
just hanging out. We, yeah, we went to, we went to
do a song camp. And then that turned into
another event, another thing. And we just like hopped around
Europe doing like this really cool out-of-the-box things like
(43:18):
going to concerts, you know, like we went to go see Coldplay
together and that was like superamazing.
And so I, I think that that's one thing that I can say that in
our relationship, it's, it's been really great where there's
that sense of freedom, that sense of disorganization, a bit
like we were talking about like in a, in a person whose life is
(43:39):
super structure and I'm super structured, but with mess.
So I would I would probably say those are the two things we.
We learned that's all. And then what would be the place
that you went to where you were surprised by how people reacted
to Will? Like, you know what I mean?
Because he's such a worldwide, but I'm sure there's certain
(44:00):
places where he's more celebrated than others.
Or was it like he was celebratedeverywhere?
Yeah, everywhere. Everywhere.
Yeah, I I think internationally more than here, I would say OK,
like people internationally still feel like.
Oh my God, that's Will Smith, a major superstar.
You know, I think we here in America, we're like, oh, we see
them all the time. I saw Leo last night at the club
(44:22):
or whatever, you know, like so anywhere outside still Will.
And, and I'm just surprised. I mean, someone who has like
been so successful in so many different things over many
generations, like he speaks to our generation, he speaks to our
parents generation. So it's, it's really
interesting, but an incredible human being.
(44:43):
Like honestly, I've been around a lot of famous people my whole
life and I I've never met someone who handles it all in
the way he does. And he's had a rough like last,
I mean, I don't know what it wastwo or three years, but it's
yeah, you know, from the outsidelooking in.
So the way he's handled it seemslike it's pretty top notch, so.
(45:04):
Yeah, and his team is top notch.Those guys, you know,
incredible, incredible family, which I think has been nice to
see. And I don't know if, I mean, I'm
sure you have, but he dropped like a badass freestyle too the
other day. I only saw that.
Yeah, yeah, everybody was talking about it, it.
Was all part of the and lyrical lemonade.
It was all part of the release strategy.
And so OK, you know, he's getting into bro.
(45:26):
I mean like he's he's in music full on so.
Is there a tour like planning? Yeah.
He starts tour June 27th, he's doing all of Europe and then
he's planning to do the US, South America next year.
And then will you have any role in in that?
Yeah, that was part of the wholething, planning of getting all
done. You know, we were just in Ibiza
together for the opening of Universe, which is insane club
(45:51):
so. Yeah.
Jan, who owns like high and all the biggest clubs in in Ibiza,
he took the old Palladium, whichwas at one time the biggest club
in the world, and he turned intouniverse and incredible like on
sunrise. Like imagine these three windows
that the DJ is facing this way and you know they have curtains
(46:11):
and they have a see through screen.
So like during the night, it's just like regular huge visuals.
Amazing, right? Somewhere on that 78 AM, they
start lifting the curtains from the back and turn off the screen
and you see the full sunrise coming as everybody's in the
club. Oh wow.
It's. It's pretty sick.
It's pretty sick. You know, I got to give it up to
him and and we had a great, a great experience with those
(46:35):
guys. Another great guy, Jan, who's
building amazing business while being like such like one of us,
you know, like you just a great human being.
But that's a, you know, Alex knows the club business is a
club business. That thing is not a joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a full time job that is.
And like no sleep. Exactly.
(46:55):
Like I don't see how they do it.Yeah, yeah, no.
I can't Oscar had to we had to do some some filming for the
Water and the Club 11 and the call time was 3:30 AM We were
like what? Like it was with DJ Crespo.
He's he's one of our investors and we were trying to get the
right shot and he was like, yeah, be there at 3:30.
(47:16):
We're like, that's when I wake up.
Like what? Are you talking about?
Yeah, I can't do that anymore, man.
I can't like. I don't think I ever did.
Like maybe back when I met Alex,like way back in the day, way
back in the day. But I've always been an early
riser, so staying out late is just not something I've been
good at. Yeah, me neither.
I I think as I get bored, I likethere's only so much I could be
(47:39):
doing at a club and all of a sudden it's just like I have
that that click where I'm like and then I'm out.
Yeah, like it's just, it's like a song.
About you But I used to go out with people and then I was the
guy that just kind of disappeared.
I didn't say bye to anybody, just disappeared.
I'm the king of that. And no one ever cares ever.
You never got a text like where are you?
Or the next day, like are you OK?
(48:00):
No, no one said a word. And people.
Already, because they understoodit, they knew that you just did
that like. People know, like even at
industry events now, people knowlike, oh, Lex is coming and
leaving. He's not sitting here trying to
like do a whole lot of no, no, no, no, I'm coming in.
I did my job and I'm out. And what's next for Lex?
Honestly man, I am. I'm in a beautiful state of self
(48:25):
discovery and it's made me the most excited I've been my entire
life and entire career. The challenge of pushing myself
towards my fear of just doing things I genuinely love for
myself, right? Like for for the intention of
(48:45):
just having the pleasure of doing something that I actually
enjoy. And so, you know, I'm super
thrilled about you versus you. Thank you for coming on that.
Like I'm super excited on that on that podcast.
I'm excited about the conversations and guests and
kind of the, the visual presentation that we we put
together for that. I'm excited about zero to 60,
(49:07):
which is where my channel where I speak about watches and I I've
like full on gone in this is that YouTube?
Yeah, it's on YouTube. I'm full on on this, like I have
a blast every time we shoot them, we get to talk about
watches and we critique them andwe, you know, so I'm really
excited about that as well. And, and you know, I'm like
(49:28):
slowly gearing towards retirement from the
entertainment business and like focusing on other things.
And so I'm excited for that. I'm excited for what life would
look like when it's not driven by, you know, running a machine
all day and right, right, you know, 40 employees here and 60
clients over here. Some I'm really thrilled about
(49:50):
that. And, and, and honestly, I'm
enjoying being a father. Like I didn't think I was going
to enjoy it this much but I genuinely love.
It it's the greatest joy ever. I love it.
My my daughter fell asleep yesterday hugging me and it was
the first time like she like she's falling asleep in my arms
but this was like we were in thebed and she happened to turn
(50:11):
around and just wanted to genuinely just put her arms and
hug me. You can imagine me last night, I
was like this. Yeah, you don't want to move I.
Was like so happy. That's the best when they fall
asleep. Yeah, I know.
My daughter fell asleep on my lap with her head just like, you
know, right here and you're justlike come back.
And I had to pee so bad. I'm just.
(50:32):
Sitting there. I'm not ruining this moment, you
know, but I tell people, I mean,we talked about this on your
podcast like kids are what we should strive to be.
And it's like it's sad that that's kind of stripped for from
(50:52):
us from for 20 something years. And then it does seem like when
you do find yourself, then you realize that that that authentic
childlike behavior is who you'resupposed to be.
You know, it's like, I love whatyou said earlier, just that that
(51:13):
the the absolute core of who youare.
Like, if you can be that person,then most of the time you're
gonna be attracted to the right people.
But when you're not, then oftentimes you find yourself
around the wrong people. Yeah.
You know, I think that's success, right?
(51:35):
Like when somebody asks me and I, whatever place I'm speaking
out about success, I, you know, I always say there's two,
there's two keys. One is acceptance and it starts
there. Like work on that first.
Work on just accepting 110% who you are, 110% of your
(51:55):
circumstance, 110% of your situation.
Like acceptance. So you could understand where
you're sitting and where you're standing and the level of the
game at Mario Bros that you're playing.
Like once you understand and you're fully in awareness of
that, then you can put into a function everything else that,
you know, we, we, we teach aboutsuccess, clear vision and
(52:18):
process and, you know, networking and perseverance.
And but like it, it starts with that because The thing is, while
having a clear vision, while persevering, while, you know,
journaling, while working hard, while doing all these other
things, while building relationships will get you
external success. You'll end up empty in the
(52:42):
inside because you're still searching for this.
And so you'll always have the one sided level of success,
which is that it looks really pretty to everybody else.
It looks amazing. You are building things, but
you're in this despair of emotion all the time and this
term all, all the time. And, and you're still trying to
(53:04):
figure out why. And So what I've realized in my
own experience is the more that I am accepting, the more
everything else, success or failure of things just feels
better. It's like, ah, OK, that didn't
go as planned. What was my lesson?
Because it's not because I'm notgood enough or it's not because
(53:26):
I'm not like, you know, like you, you settle into that.
Then when you have success, you're enjoying it and not
pretending to be like, Oh, I gotto be all.
No, you're enjoying it as the kid is when you take your
daughter to A to a playground and she's like, you'll be like
rogue Gratz, I'm going off like you have it like that because
you are in complete like presence of who you are.
(53:49):
So you can enjoy, you can laugh,you could be corny, like you
could, you know, throw your jokes.
You could be whoever you wanted to be without having to pretend
to be someone in order to fit into the success that you built
for yourself, which happens to all of us.
It happened to me where it's like, you become Lex.
And so now I'm expected to be a certain way.
I'm expected for my social mediaand my videos and the composure
(54:13):
of how I handled myself. And it's like, if you really
know me, I'm a kid. I get excited.
I collect cars and I get super excited about the car and I look
at the wheels and I'm like, I'm so excited.
I go, I get like so thrilled to open packages.
Like my assistants make fun of me because they're like, dude,
you, I've never seen somebody soexcited open a package.
(54:34):
But it's like because I like that feeling of feeling kids.
I wake up in the morning and I sing in the shower and I make up
songs. You know, I just like be making
songs for them. That's just the truest version
of who I am. And as I've gotten more close to
that, everything else feels better.
My spirituality feels better, myrelationship with people feels
(54:54):
better. The way that I approach success,
the the the enjoyment of the things success has brought me,
the enjoyment of my home, the enjoyment of my cars, the
enjoyment of my watches, the enjoyment of whatever.
It just feels more fulfilled. So I would say like accepting of
who you are and the circumstances you're in is the
first most crucial step to building real success.
(55:20):
And then the rest, it's all the things we talked about.
This didn't get billed by just dreaming.
You worked hard, you did all that, you persevered, you had
vision, you had clarity, you know, you had great
partnerships. All those are still needed.
But without this, it's just a building because you'll sit here
and be like them. Now what?
Yeah. Well, I think too, it's that
(55:42):
combination though of acceptanceand awareness.
You know, you said it really well there amongst all that that
you said, but there was a momentthere.
There was a moment there. You connected the acceptance and
awareness because I think sometimes people accept
themselves as they are without awareness that they need to
expand who they are like or growor whatever, or, or change
(56:07):
certain things and not change the core, not your personality,
not the fact that you wake up and want to sing in the shower.
But maybe you're, you know, not disciplined or not, you know,
doing things that are actually good for you.
So I, I think that's really likeit's, it's the, it's the
combination of those two that can take you for.
Yeah, I know. And I and I think it's the more
(56:28):
you accept yourself, the and thecircumstances, you also you you
get clarity on that awareness aswell, because you start seeing
the boxes that you're stuck in. You start seeing the the fears
and the the good, the bad and the ugly, right.
Like I I think that that's that's the version you got to
get. You got to love the good, the
bad and the ugly. And we all have it.
(56:49):
We all have amazing things that people and we also have like
this little demons in which are and then we also have the fear
and we have the things and thoseare just part of humanity.
But in tuning with that, it gives you at least a pathway on,
on where you got to put in the work, right?
Like where, where that awarenesshas to come into fruition to
say, OK, well, maybe I am lazy or maybe I'm not lazy at all.
(57:11):
I'm just afraid to take a risk. And so like, OK, so I got to
work on taking more risk or whatever it is.
As we wrap up, I typically end with this, this thing which is
kind of like probably you just answered it, but it's a, it's a
question I ask people. So it's if you had one thing
(57:31):
that you wish people knew about you, but they don't, what would
that be? I'm generally a child at heart.
The reflection of that energy isthe true verse form of horn.
So I generally like childlike things like I like collecting
(57:52):
cars and I like laughing and I don't know, I like those things
make me more exciting to me. I would say that even like going
to an award show or a concert like.
That's why you're going to be anamazing dad, you know?
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm loving that.I'm loving playing that with
her. And she loves cars like me.
(58:14):
So like, that's awesome. I like Ron.
I do the whole thing and crash, which I used to do as a kid.
Yeah. That was my first memory of
envisioning something was that Iwould really make this whole
world with my cars because my dad, my grandmother worked at at
Matchbox, the the car company. And so my dad collected Matchbox
(58:35):
cars his whole life. So we have a collection of like,
I don't know, 5000 little cars, but I would take them out and
like, it'll be like the war and be like, you know, I'll do all
that. And that just that memory of
that, it's something I'll get, I'm sharing with, with my
daughter now. And it's just, it's amazing.
And, and my wife shares that with, with us.
So she's very childlike in that way.
So she'll like, you know, get, she'll build the tent and we'll
(58:58):
all go under the tent and stuff.You know what?
It's it's great experience. That's the best one.
Yeah. Well, thank you bro.
I appreciate for having now listen, I love this.
No, you're the best we. Got to do it more often.
I know we could talk for forever, so yeah.
A lot of people, while they build success, they're driven by
this idea of the accomplishment.And I can't wait until I get
like whatever, the $1,000,000 and I get the check or I have
the massive whatever it is. I didn't see a company that
embodied the culture. All the companies that were in
Latin music were just really focused on giving my money.
Let me get my money. Nobody had this idea of like,
(00:21):
let's do things just for the sake of building brand value of
Latin music. So I created Neon 16.
So it's always been driven by like this.
I see an issue, I see a problem and I get the OCD to solve it
and then I get a clear vision. So what was your process in
terms of putting them in the right position to carry your
vision and getting them to buy into what was clearly yours?
(00:43):
It's not easy for to get people to buy into something that is on
your heart and in your head and in your mind and you know, I
mean. I think the biggest thing that I
realized is in order to align people, you have to understand
their need. People want to follow someone
who's pushing themselves and who's leading by example.
And so I'll be the same guy that's like sitting in the nice
office, but I'll also be the guypainting the wall.
(01:04):
I was literally texting my father and I was like, could you
believe I'm watching Bad Boys with Will Smith?
And he just acted in front of me.
That's it, I've made it. I've made it.
I'm Manning Sumner. I've lived my life by 1 motto No
days off. No Days Off has never taken a
day off on you. It's a commitment to becoming
your best self. Get ready to be inspired to do
(01:26):
the same. This is the Big Dogs with
Manning Sumner watch you wearingtoday.
Got a AP perpetual skeleton. Nothing's sick.
Dude, this was my dream watch. Like because this is the watch
that Kanye and Pharrell wore like when we were growing up.
(01:47):
This is the watch, right? So if there was one watch I was
like, I'm making, I got to get it.
And I I finally got it. And you know, I wore this thing
so much that I'd beat the like, it has so many scratches, but
that's kind of, I'll never sell this.
But I feel like, you know, that's like what makes it.
Yeah, that's the story. You know what I mean?
(02:07):
It's like because it's your watch.
Exactly. Of course it's it's like cars,
you know, when you take them outand you get that first, like
little nick and you're like, youknow, and when you have kids,
like I just got the new Shelby Rlike Raptor and there's like
they only made forty of them. And my son was eating a cookie
the other day in the backseat and he like, you know, spilt it.
(02:28):
And I was just like. But then at the same time I was
like. Yeah, that's kind of the, IT is
what it is. It's like dad life, you just
learn to like, you're like, I feel like being a parent, like
it gives you so much more patience.
Oh, it does, because you realizethere's nothing you're going to
be able to do. Like my place is spot clean.
(02:49):
I have things that are white andthese like very expensive rugs
and things. You think my daughter cares?
The other day I'm walking, I'm like, is that Cheeto hands on
my? And then I was like, you know
what? It's OK.
Are you are you do you do you come from a background of being
OCD? Are we live?
All right, Good. I normally just like, go and
I'll. We'll do that, you know?
(03:10):
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, we weren't we. I feel like we're just picking
up where we left. Yeah, no, 100%.
I was telling my wife on the wayover here.
I was like, I was like we did a podcast after the podcast and
this is another podcast. Like, you know, we're doing a
whole lot of stuff. Like we just, we just we
talking. We should just kept the cameras
rolling. But do you find like your
personality is it, is it OCDA little bit a?
(03:31):
100%. So it's interesting because I
was the same way until I met my wife and I met my wife and she's
completely opposite. And so it, it forced me.
It was like, if you really want to be with this woman, then
you're going to have to chill out.
And then what's cool about it though, is that it prepared me
for kids because this damn near impossible to be OCD with kids.
(03:54):
Like you know what I mean? I realized like that's my
daughter was really the what changed that because dude, I was
the type of guy I come from the club and I don't drink anymore.
But when I used to drink, I would come wasted, start fixing
my library. That's how I was sober up.
I'd be like. The very first time I got high.
The very first time I got high, I cleaned my college everything
(04:17):
like like I'm talking like organize.
My closet was color coordinated.And then everybody was like, you
know, what'd you do when you gotout?
And I was like, I cleaned. I was like, that's, that's what
I did. That's me and it's, but you know
what? It's it's almost organized chaos
in my brain. I think that's part of my key to
success and my, my, my gift is that I need to feel like there's
(04:44):
a lot going on. And even creatively, if you come
to my office while you were there, like I have a lot of a
lot of things like, right, but it's that creative, like looking
into that that says, OK, here's these colours, here's these
things and my brain being challenged by so much or like,
but in an organized way. So I can fragment my
conversations, my business and still get to execute and be
(05:04):
super OCD about it while being kind of messy in somebody
else's. Like my assistants say I'm, I'm
an organized hoarder because I collect a lot of things.
So it's like, you know, I'll collect toys and I'll collect
cars and I'll collect watches and I'll collect sneakers And
like, it's like, at some point I'm like ham.
I got a lot of a lot of stuff. But it, it is part of like that
creative process that just inspires me.
(05:27):
And then my brain finds a way toorganize it.
So even in my house, I have a way to like hear all the art
toys and hear all the coffee table books in here.
And it's just, it's literally mybrain goes through this motion
all the time. And then at some point I'll be
like, I just want to get tired of this, clear everything and
then go something new, you know?But I do that all the time.
I'll like, have you seen me staring at something?
Like I stared at your wall and Isaw it from down there.
(05:48):
And I'm like, huh, I kind of want a wall like that with all
the jerseys I got. Now I'm going to go home and OCD
about getting the wall. Done well, what's what inspired
me about this and I had this at my other gym, but a really close
friend of mine, Gunnar Peterson,he like he's a like world
renowned trainer to the stars train Sylvester Stallone, the
Kardashians. You know, he's very well known
(06:10):
and worked with Kobe Bryant. And when you go to well, when
you used to go to his gym, and Ithink he did it in Nashville, he
used to have a gym in Beverly Hills and the ceiling, the
entire ceiling was jerseys. It was the dopest thing I've
ever seen. And I didn't want to copy him.
So I was like, well, let me do aversion of my version of that.
And then what's really funny too, is that, and Alex will tell
(06:31):
you is that not everybody made the wall.
You know, like I trained thousands of athletes and it and
it's interesting that like I've been given certain jerseys that,
you know, I was like, you don't make, you didn't make the wall.
So what? What?
Qualifies you to make the wall. It goes way beyond their career.
It goes it's a personal like what happened to us personally
(06:54):
and like how they treated me, how we grew together current
relationship, if there is even one, which all these guys are
pretty much have a great relationship with.
But it just it went beyond sports and went beyond training
and it was something that like left a mark on my life too.
(07:14):
So it so it reminds me because Idon't train professional
athlete. Well, I mean, I'm, I came out of
retirement recently, but I don'tdo it like, you know, like I
used to do it where it was 16 hour days of doing it.
And so it's nice to have a reminder.
It takes you back to like where you started, you know, like
where, where, how I ended up with this is the is literally
(07:37):
the training. I mean, there was times I
trained from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PMwithout a break, you know, like
just non-stop. That's nice.
Athlete after athlete and then, you know, you throw in a nurse
or a doctor or the student, likeyou throw in regular people in
there too. So it was crazy.
I mean, look at this though. Holy.
(07:57):
Yeah, you know well, I told. Somebody in the sauna this
morning that that this was in myhead in 2017.
I like saw this way before it actually happened.
And I think that's why I like, you know, people don't really
like every time someone gave me flowers for doing for making an
(08:18):
achievement on the inside, I waslike, I haven't really made what
you know, and I'm still that way.
Like I'm still like, you know, well, and let's talk about that
a little bit because we kind of got into a little bit when I was
on your podcast. But like, I kind of want to take
it back to when you were in thatplace because I feel like
you're, you've, you're way about, you're way further than I
(08:42):
am in my career. And but like, take me back to
when you were in it and you werebuilding.
And I would love to hear 'cause you, you strike me as someone
that is extremely team oriented and pouring into other people
and, but still remaining the visionary and the one on top.
(09:02):
So explain to me your process oflike how you did that and ended
up to where you are today. You know, it's crazy because a
lot of people while they build success, they think of, you
know, or they're driven by this idea of the accomplishment,
right? Like, man, I can't wait until I
(09:23):
get like whatever the $1,000,000and I get the check or I have
the massive whatever it is. And for me at the beginning, it
was driven by just people. Like I had this, this necessity,
the OCD of like seeing a problemand being like, OK, how do I
solve? How do I put my creativity to
solve this issue? So when I first, first started
(09:46):
and, and I got the music bug, I was, I was growing up in church.
I was a pastor's kid, my mom's apastor and I was studying
theology and I was, you know, I've got ordained to be a youth
pastor and I would go to school and listen to hip hop, But then
I would come into youth group, right?
And, and we were having conversations about Christian
(10:06):
hip hop and Christian rap and you know, Christian rock.
And then when I would compare the music, I'd just be like,
man, why is this? So like behind the beats are so
like thinned out and the sounds sound weak.
And then like the song is super repetitive.
It doesn't use any of like the other things that that are going
on in hip hop, like they're not taking inspiration from it.
(10:29):
And I just saw like a a problem.I said, you know, I think if you
can take the idea and the creative behind what makes hip
hop, secular hip hop so good andimplement it into just having
positive music, you can not onlygive a blessing to the
community, but you can actually grow and become a major
(10:50):
superstar. And that became my mission.
I created a company called Crossover Entertainment 'cause
it was that it was like my idea to cross it over.
Now, when I started, I, I calledevery Christian rapper in Miami
and I had a meeting in my house,my mom's house by the way,
'cause I was a kid. Well, by the way, how many
Christian rappers were in Miami?More than you realize that.
(11:11):
'D be like 20. Yeah.
There was like, there was like alittle movement here going on.
OK. What year was this?
This might have been like 2000, I don't know, maybe 2004, 2003.
And I had a whole meeting and I had a plan and I, OK, I had a
(11:31):
whole presentation. I put it on a board and I said,
here's how we're going to do this.
We're going to, this is the things that are wrong.
Here's the things we're going tofix.
And I would love to have all youguys like, we should do a
project together so the community gets all together.
Everybody ate the food. I had my mom order food.
Like, yeah, I thought I was, youknow, I was legit.
Yeah. Everybody left like, no, like
(11:52):
Loki. I felt like they probably
laughed. But two guys, this guy named
Prophecy and this guy named Blessed, stayed.
And they're like, that sounds interesting.
Like, what do you have in mind? And I was like, well, you know,
we got to figure out a studio. I love the names that stayed
though. Oh yeah, yeah, right.
Prophecy and blessed. Now that I've.
(12:13):
Yeah, now it's crazy. And I told them I said like we
should, we should get this going.
And Prophecy said, well, look, Ihave a lecture room in my
apartment. I said great.
So I went and I like had foodie loops and I downloaded this
other program and we went to Home Depot and we built with
wood our own little booth as ghettos as ghetto can be.
(12:35):
And I just downloaded from Limewire like all the hottest
beats at that time. And I just started writing the
rhymes with him, right? And so we did this whole Little
Mix tape and we sold it at churches and all this stuff.
And then like, the momentum we got was like real.
And we got called from this Christian label and they left
and signed with the Christian label and like left me hanging.
(12:58):
You know, it's, it's, it's, it'sfunny because I saw prophecy
maybe maybe six months months ago when I started the podcast,
because I did this kind of artist Invitational and he came
in and he was like, and I'm, I'm, I'm so sorry.
Like you were totally right. And I, I interviewed Lecrae in
the podcast and I was telling Lecrae, I'm like, I remember
being on the phone with you guysand saying, Hey, like I have
(13:20):
this idea and you and the truth telling me like, we can't work
with secular producers, So we, we can't work with you.
And I was like, it's crazy to see the growth and the
development of what happened, but that's really what, what
drove my passion across the board there.
And then that became like, oh, there's no producer managers.
Let me start managing producers and kind of create that going.
(13:41):
And then even when I came to Miami and I saw Latin music, I
just, I didn't see a company that embodied the culture.
Like, and I knew that if Latin music would grow again,
corporate America, like, like they always do anything that's
hot culturally they want to attach themselves to, right?
But there was no Roc Nation of Latin.
And all the companies that were in Latin music were just really
(14:04):
focused on giving my money. Let me get my money.
Nobody had this idea of like, let's do things just for the
sake of building the brand valueof Latin music.
So I created Neon 16. So it's always been driven by
like these. I see an issue or I see a
problem and I get the OCD to solve it and then I get a clear
vision. Like I get this tunnel vision
where I just see it. I see the chess pieces and
(14:28):
that's really been the key or one of the keys to my success is
just really when I see the vision, I see it clearly because
I see the problem. I see the chess pieces moving in
my head and then the outcome of it, because it was never driven
by it until recently. I just never actually enjoyed
the outcome because it was just never the reason why I did it.
(14:50):
So like I would get the award orget the money and stuff and
yeah, I would live it and it felt good, but it wasn't
something that I like SAT and appreciated.
I didn't even celebrate it. I like my first awards.
I was like, cool. Yeah.
Like, like, you know, it's like,I was more worried.
I was more like passionate aboutseeing the artist reach his
dream or seeing the the problem being solved and being like,
(15:12):
wow, we solved the issue. Not because Neon did this.
All of a sudden all the artists started following and the
aesthetic and people started looking at American culture and
saying and other companies copied the kind of our idea of
it, which is great, and started replicating the brand concept
idea into into the way they werebuilding their company.
(15:33):
So yeah, that's kind of been thethe driving force behind it.
But it's all back to that OCD oflike I got to solve it.
But when it's when it's your vision, because that's something
that I have to deal with now is like, you know, it's, it's our
vision, right? It's in our head.
And when you have people that have to carry the vision because
(15:54):
you can't do it by yourself, right?
And you've mentioned that like your partners have been very
vital to your to your growth. So what was your process in
terms of putting them in the right position to carry your
vision and getting them to buy into what, what was clearly
yours? You know what I mean?
(16:15):
Because that's, that's not, that's not easy.
It's not easy for to get people to buy into something that is on
your heart and in your head and in your mind.
And you know what I mean. I think the biggest thing that I
realized is in order to align people, you, you have to
understand their need, right? And so I, I, we were talking
(16:36):
about this in the podcast, whichis society historically feeds us
the information that as humans, there's something missing,
right? So because if they tell you that
there's something missing and I give you what you're missing, I
have control over you, whether that's I have control over how
you, you know, what you buy and into.
Because if I think, hey, you, you know, if you want hair here
(17:01):
is a hair product, right? Or in the case of, of a
dictator, you know, in the case of Hitler, it was, Hey,
Germany's destroyed. But I, we can go back into it.
So that needing of it. And it's an interesting way of
looking at leadership, but it's how you look at leadership,
right? So whenever I entered, whether
it's been my business or in thiscase where I've worked at, you
know, Rock or Universal, when I've entered a company and I've
(17:23):
seen like, OK, I'll give you an example.
Universal Canada, they were a company that were essentially a
marketing hub that supported thefive American labels signed in
Universal, Republic Island, Interscope, etcetera.
So they would market American product in Canada and they would
sign some Canadian things, but for the most part, their bottom
(17:43):
line was covered by that. But what started to happen when
I got there is the Canadian music started to blow up, right?
You have Shawn Mendes, Alessia Cara, you had the weekend, you
have all these Canadian artists that were from the area where
the office was. And then the pressure started
coming. And it's like, why is us as
Canadians, we can't even sign our own artists.
They all go to the US. And when I went walked into the
(18:08):
building and I was given the responsibility to turn this
company around, I realized that the main thing is they don't
understand how to win because the team and the morale of the
team was always based on just like, you're safe, buddy, you're
making money no matter what, do your job halfway.
(18:28):
So when I started to walk in andlet go of people to try to
change, at first, everybody, I was the most hated person, the
HR, the person in charge of HR would always come into my office
and say, ha, how's the most hated person in this office
doing today? Because it was a company where
most people had been there 1520 years, right?
They were comfortable, they werecomfortable.
(18:49):
They were older. And here comes an American.
Imagine that to a Canadian, likelike the the stigmas there, an
American 30 year old to tell them how to do things.
And I am the kind of person that's like, Oh, no, we're
changing. Like I'm not like a soft like I
don't no, no, no, I'm like, no sugar coat.
I don't sugar coat and I'm superblack and white with that.
(19:10):
So in coming in, at first it wasturmoil.
Those people were like, Oh, if we're and then they started to
realize as we started to win, aswe started to sign artists, as I
started to do deals with Timberland and other things and
change the way that the the office dynamic worked.
The morale was people wanted to win.
They wanted to feel proud about their job.
Nobody entered the music industry to sit in an office
(19:32):
doing nothing. Do you enter because you wanted
to be like, oh, I met Manning where he was nobody and like
he's a world superstar and I wasa part of that.
That's the feeling. So I understood if I can get
that feeling out of people, theywill get behind the vision and
everybody will give their best job.
So I made that the main goal. I changed the way we
(19:53):
communicated as a group and saideverybody here now has a role in
getting us here. I can't do this alone.
But in order to get here, I needto understand what your strength
is and what your weakness is. And I need you just to focus on
your strength. Like don't try to overcompensate
for your weakness. And in doing that, I started to
say, OK, here's the best people on marketing.
(20:14):
There's people that, the person that was leading marketing, I
moved them to publicity because they were not actually good at
marketing. And so I started a maneuver and,
and, and, you know, essentially we, we reached our goal and
everybody was super happy and, and then I left.
But, but it was like the, the question of it.
So I say a lot of my kind of role in leadership is always
just trying to understand that, like, what do people want out of
(20:35):
this opportunity? Because it takes the same amount
of effort to do something you love or do something you hate
and the same amount of percentage of chances of
winning. So if I can maneuver people into
a position of doing something they love to do and then also
be, allow them to sit in there when they're uncomfortable.
Cause a lot of people too, it's like you put them to do what
they want, but they, they, they just want everything flowers and
(20:57):
especially this generation nowadays, they want everything,
you know, in beautiful. It's like, no, no, no, you're
going to sit in the uncomfortableness of that.
But this is what you want, right?
OK, here's how we're going to doit.
And I would say the biggest mistake I've made as a leader
sometimes has been just hiring people with a lot of potential,
but with a huge learning curve. And no, you could do that and
(21:20):
bet on one person, but when it'sa large part of your
organization, it starts creatinga high level of, of, of wasting
money, a high level of time, andyou end up having to do
everyone's job because you're mentoring, right.
You're like micromanaging. Yeah, you're micromanaging,
right. So, but yeah, I would say those
those two things were kind of pedal in my leadership and and
(21:43):
getting the team to roll up behind.
And then people like to do cool stuff.
People want to follow someone who's pushing themselves and
who's leading by example. And so I'll be the same guy
that's like sitting in the nice office, but I'll also be the guy
painting the wall. Like in our office that you went
to when we were, like, put in and I was there painting, I was
like hammering things and putting it because I generally
(22:05):
enjoy it. But for people, it was like,
what the heck? Yeah.
Yeah. Why is Lex with this?
Yeah. But there's something about
that, like when people see you doing what you're asking them to
do, like if they see you and you're willing to do the same
thing that you're asking them of, you know, what are they
going to say? Like, So I like that a lot.
So when when Neon 16 came to life, where did Neon 16 come
(22:29):
from? So I was working with Tiny, who,
you know, had asked me if I could help with his career.
And we were thinking at the timeI was working at Rock, so I was
at Roc Nation and we were thinking about starting a
company because. It's after Canada.
(22:50):
It's after Canada, OK? After Canada, I come to Miami, I
gave my health gives in and I come here to kind of recovered.
I was not planning to get back into music, but I was dating a
girl and she was a Latin songwriter.
And even though I told her to not talk to me about music, she
did the complete opposite and said, oh, but look at this song.
(23:11):
But here's this record. And I was like, oh, God.
But one day she wrote a record Iliked.
And I said, OK, I'm going to do one thing for you.
I know a friend of mine who works at Sony, Aladdin.
I'm going to go see him. I'll play your music.
If he likes it good, I'll connect you guys.
You guys can do it, please. After that, just, you know, like
respect my decision, yeah. Leave me alone, I.
(23:32):
Don't want to do music? Well, when I went there and I
played the music for this A&R, the NR literally told me it's
good, but, you know, she's a female writer, and we don't
really think female writers get it.
That's wild. I said, excuse me?
He said yeah, yeah, like, OK. So I left the meeting and I
called her on the phone and I said the best thing just
(23:52):
happened. The guy said the girls can't
write and now have a mission to prove him wrong.
So you got yourself a man I. Love it.
And I was like. And does that fuel you like
those moments? 100.
Percent, like as soon as you hear some ridiculous, because
that is an absurd comment. Yeah, to make.
Like it's absurd. 100% You want to fuel me, tell me something
(24:15):
can be done. Yeah.
And. That's all I am to that's please
tell me something. Just please.
Yeah, you. You tell me like, oh, somebody
did. OK, cool bro.
I don't, I don't care. I don't fill the deal.
Tell me something can be done. And it's like the full drive
goes on and, and the full drive went on and I started to problem
solve. I started to see the chess
pieces and I started to, you know, figure out how I was going
(24:37):
to get the biggest songwriters in Aladdin to want to work with
a brand new writer. I and I quickly realized that
Sony was not going to help. The Aladdin managers were not
going to help because there was just a stigma.
It is what it is, you know, And the truth is songwriter
producers at that time were not being respected the way they're
respected today. And I think we we had a huge
part in changing that. But I knew that any Latin writer
(25:01):
would want to work with Americanproducers because everybody
wants to work with American artists.
So I called Danger Hands and I told Danger.
I said, hey, man, I know you hada studio in Hollywood.
Would you be interested in doinga Latin camp?
And he's like, what do you have in mind?
I said, bro, Latin music is super hot.
You could be the first hip hop producer to get into.
He's like, oh, OK, I did it. And then I called all the
(25:22):
publishers and I said, hey, I got this, I got danger hands,
can you send me? Boom, boom, boom.
Like I went down the list of allthe top ones that this girl was
obsessing with. And I ended up getting all of
them. And Sony got super pissed and
all this thing because they were, they had this Sony secret
session things. But Long story short, she ended
up going on to write massive hits.
Like she wrote the breakout hit for Kaliuchi Telepathia and she
(25:43):
wrote a bunch of other records. And through that process, all of
a sudden I was in Latin music. Roc Nation at the time asked me
to come be the EVP and help run the music company.
And then Romeo Santos leaves RocNation and I'm stuck with Roc
Nation Latin. And they were like, ah, you're
Latin, here you go. And I was like.
(26:05):
But in that process, I ended up meeting Tiny.
And when I met Tiny and I went to Puerto Rico with him, I
started to see what was happening.
Then I had a call with Balvin and I saw that Balvin had the
understanding of culture. He understood the actually we
went to your gym the first time together, me and Balvin.
(26:27):
But he understood the the way that we as American consumers
consume music and why we consumeit and why we follow hip hop.
And, and I was like, if this guygets it this way and he
continues to grow, all it's going to take is someone with
more urban credibility because he was a little pop leaning to
come behind. And this thing is a game over.
(26:47):
And that just clicked until I was in Tokyo with with Tiny.
And I said, I think I'm going toleave my job and we should start
a company. And I always like to do things
with numbers because it poses the question, why a number?
So my company before that was called 1916 because September
(27:10):
1st, 1916 was the year Rockefeller became the first,
the world's first billionaire. But I've made hats, and
everybody in LA was wearing hats.
And there's this funny picture of Justin Bieber with Scooter
wearing a hat of my management company, not knowing what it
was, but it was the concept. SO16 is the year both he and I
started in the music business. We started when we were 16 years
(27:31):
old and then neon was because ofTokyo, the neon signs in Tokyo.
So we put Neon 16 together and that's where that.
And did you come up with that inTokyo?
Yeah, in Tokyo. I love it.
Yeah, that's awesome. And we from Tokyo, I called my
real estate agent and I had her find us a house.
And she's shown me the video andI visualize how the rooms were
separated, how we were going to use it as studios and offices.
(27:52):
And I rented it from Tokyo. And then we came here and we're
like, well, we're going to starta company.
We have no money. So I put, you know, I put my
salary and everything, and I quit.
I literally quit while I was in Tokyo, which was, you know,
scary. But yeah, especially as I was
getting paid a buck load of money.
Yeah. But it you know, it all worked.
(28:13):
Out look at you now. Yeah, exactly.
I think that that gives me the, the, I don't know, It's like
when you sacrifice success whereyou are to get a, a success that
you want for yourself, not what the everybody else says is
success and you're like willing to sacrifice that and bet it all
(28:38):
on you. I think there's something to be
said about that. Like that's that, that to me is
like, what makes you, you, you know, like I, I had a
comfortable situation and I gaveit up, You know, all of it.
You know, the the guaranteed money that to go pursue what I
wanted for me, you know, so I love that.
(28:58):
You know, what's the thing? And we were having this
conversation when we did our podcast.
But it's interesting because I've, I've been able to always
do that as long as the reason isexternal, right?
So like, I knew I wanted to build and fix this thing in
Latin music and I knew I wanted to help Tiny become a world
superstar. You know, I knew that I wanted
(29:20):
to change the way Latin music or, or this particular as ANRS
were looking because it was not a lot of music was looking at
this female writer, but I was doing it for the benefit of the
female writer more than my benefit.
So any time that it's been attached to the external person,
I've been super like quick, likeliterally don't think about it.
(29:40):
I'm driving, I'm going. I see it clearly, but it's been
probably, well, it's been 23 years of my career since I
started as a producer to coming now where I sit today, where I
can say for the first time in mylife, I'm doing something for
actually just myself, where I said I generally want to speak
(30:02):
about this internal work. I'm going to go do this podcast.
I'm. I'm going to not be.
Oh, that's Lex, the manager of so and so or, or, you know, the
CEO. But no, I'm just Lex.
Yeah, You know what I mean? As a matter of fact, I'm
Alejandro. How about that?
So I'm just about to say, you know, I'm gonna go do these
things that are passionate to myself and I'm gonna risk
(30:24):
myself. So I'm gonna go talk about
watches and start a whole channel about watches and be
funny because I actually just love watches.
Yeah, I'm going to start a coffee shop because like those
kind of things that I had never done in my entire career in
life. I'm literally for the first time
going out on that limp. I'm like, OK, I'm doing this,
(30:46):
you know? Do you think it's though,
because you did give so much? Yeah, You know what I mean?
That's when you're giving and you're pouring into other
people. Other people.
I mean, I feel like it actually was working internally on you,
it just at the time your gift was to for them at the time.
(31:07):
It's like, cuz to me, like timing in life is everything is
everything. Like I don't think that, like
maybe you wouldn't be where you are today if you would have made
it about you, then you know whatI mean?
So I think it's a mixture of learning through process and
timing and fear. You know, I generally knew I had
(31:30):
this fear, right? Like I, I remember kind of like
the moment of making the decision of stepping from the
limeline to put someone else because it was the moment that I
realized I had something to lose.
I was like, I start as a producer, I started being the
artist and I started to open doors and have success as that.
And then I panicked. I was like, oh, wait, like this.
(31:53):
Doing this, you get criticism, you get this.
And then what if I make one mistake and I don't feel really
good about myself and I don't feel like I'm enough?
So no, no, let me bet on somebody else because if they
mess up, I can blame them. It's not me.
And I remember you. Remember that that was really
your motivation. I remember making the shift of
saying like, you know, like I'm going to step and I'm going to
help this, which is always my, my, my foundation was always
(32:16):
helping people. But but the transition of like
I'm going to put out. And I think historically,
actually with all my clients andin, I would say most of my job
positions, what the rift startedto happen at some point was the
star in me started to fight the transition.
So, you know, most clients who are stars want their managers to
(32:36):
sit in the back and my personality traits, I walk in a
room and I'm owning that room and that doesn't always go hand
in hand. And so it, it, it can shock a
client to feel like, wow, my, mymore people ask my manager to
get interviewed than me. That like, why is that?
Like, you know, and, and so I saw that creating even even in,
(32:58):
in ultimately in some of the corporate jobs I took, which is
too, I think some of the bigger griefs was like, I can get a lot
more than the person that was incharge of me or was my boss or
was whoever. And that for a lot of people
just was like, whoa, you know, it, it scares them because of
that. And and it was I saw it
(33:18):
throughout all the years, but I always wondered, I was like, I
got to be everybody else. Why, Why everybody feeling like
this? But I never recognized like,
hey, no, like there's some sign the life is trying to show you
this because this is consistently happening that
there's this thing inside of youthat that wants to come out and
you have it logged in. And so as I'm noticing even now,
like the letting go of that. And every time historically in
(33:42):
my career that I let go of that for a moment, like there was
this big blessing that happened or this big moment.
And then I would be like, like doing the show on Netflix,
right? Like that was the perfect
example. I created ATV show, music
competition show had these four major superstars was not
planning to be on the show. Netflix decides that they the
(34:05):
four judges are two nice and they want me on the show now.
I come on, become the star of the show.
So I was just in Ibiza 2 days ago and a 45 year old British
guy where his wife in the middleof the club go.
We've been trying to figure out where we know you're from.
(34:26):
We finally hit it. We love your show on FS.
Can we take a picture? And I was like, wow.
But while I was sitting in that seat doing it and while it was
happening, after when it was released, I was fighting all
these internal, you know, like conflicts because it was
literally sitting in my fear. And and at that time, it was so
(34:46):
much so that I didn't do season 2.
I was like, no, no, no, I'm good, you know, but the blessing
happened. That was the universe again.
Show me. So the intuition of that now has
come to the forefront of my consciousness to where I'm like,
OK, I'm full force with this, but it's the first time in my
whole life and career that I'm doing this.
So I'm sitting here with you as I'm like, you know, but it's, I
(35:08):
love it because now I'm feeling what, what I would push my
clients to for myself. And it feels like rewarding and
also this kind of release of this energy that I, you know, I
think I was born with. How did How did Will Smith come
about? Bro, life is life, life be life,
(35:29):
you know? So I don't think I've ever
shared this story publicly, but Miguel, Will's long time manager
happened to be in Miami. Actually, I'll back up.
We launched our production film and television production
company. As part of that, our agents CA
settles with a bunch of meetingswith every production company in
(35:51):
town. One of those companies was
Westbrook. Westbrook, the head of content
at Westbrook, this guy named Lucas, He, you know, pitched me
a couple ideas. We worked on a couple of things.
Like two months later, he textedme, hey, can I connect you to
Will's manager? He's going to be in Miami.
He's also Aladdin. He would love to meet you.
So he connected me with Miguel. And he goes, oh, bro, I've heard
(36:13):
so much about you. I can't believe we haven't
connected. And Miguel ended up coming to
the office the day of my daughter's birthday.
Starts when I got 30 minutes brother and we we started
talking and it it started from business to just life.
And then we just connected as people.
And right behind them was Avhs tape of bad boys that tiny had
given me for my birthday, because that's how much I love
the movie. The first one, the first one
(36:34):
like growing up, the posters on my wall were bad boys.
Like I stole them from the theater.
Like the the the big ass vinyls.I took it late night.
I was a a troublemaker. So I went late night to the
theater and literally ripped thefreaking vinyl and put it on my
wall. I still have that actually my
mom's. I got a good day.
Long story short, we connected and at the end of the meeting, I
(36:54):
said, man, like, I really, I really want to do the music on
the new Bad Boys film. And we're the hottest Latin
company. The movie's based in Miami.
You got to let me do the music. And he's like, but have you
heard? Have you seen the movie?
And I said, no, I mean, I've been talking to Sylvia over at
Sony and I and. This is the new Bad Boys.
(37:15):
Yeah, the new one and Spring over at Sony Pictures, I've been
talking to the label to them. We just haven't been able to
link up with it. And he's like, well, look, it's
not done. You know, COVID, everything.
Stop the production and the strikes stop the production.
But if you're in LA next, I'll have Will show you the film.
Yeah. So we go to the Grammys with
Tiny. He was nominated for his first
(37:36):
American Grammy as an artist. And I'm like, I hit Miguel.
I'm like, hey, I'm in town. It's great.
Come by. So many pictures.
I'll have Will show you the film.
And I told Tiny Will's not goingto show up, right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, they're not players, don'twe?
Sure enough, as soon as we get their, Will is there and I'm
like, wow. And he's wearing orange.
(37:57):
How fun is that? They're like the things you
notice. So I'm like, I started talking.
He's like, yeah, you know, orange is the color of
Westbrook, my Overbrook, my highschool.
So I like orange. And that was the name of my old
company. What are?
So we started talking and we're about to go into the theatre and
I'm like yeah I'm going to go tothe restroom and he goes to the
restroom too. So my first 5 minutes of
conversation with Will were like.
So talk about surreal. Surreal, right?
(38:20):
And then he played, he, he showed us the movie and, and
acted the scenes that were missing.
And I was like, I was literally texting my father and I was
like, could you believe I'm watching Bad Boys with Will
Smith? And he just acted in front of
me. That's it.
Yeah. Well, I've made it.
I've made it. But when we were coming out, I
told Will, has anybody done the theme song to Bad Boys?
(38:42):
Like like into a song? He's like, Nah, like I'm going
to do it. So I got on the phone that
night. I called my producers here, say
I got this idea, put this, give it the bounce of Jack Harlow,
let's go over there. And then I sent him the record
and he's like, I like it when I'm in Miami, I'll cut it.
So then he came down to Miami. He cut it and, and in that
(39:03):
conversation, one thing led to the next.
We started talking about music, We started talking about his
career, his future. He's like, Sup man, it's yours
if you want it. And I was like, what's mine?
He's like, you know, like come help me out with this.
And I was like, OK. And I thought they were joking
around. So for like 2 weeks I didn't
really hear back. And then one day they call me
(39:23):
and they're like, and it was perfect timing too, because I
was sitting with the chairman ofthe Co chair of the board of
directors of my company, my leadinvestor.
And we were going over like business things and they called
the right way. He was there.
I was like perfect timing because I was like fighting him
on the financial age. And then it went and then I was,
you know, given the challenge ofbreaking a brand new artist who
(39:47):
also happens to be one of the world's most famous humans.
And I think we did a great job with him.
We've, you know, it's, it's beenan amazing journey with him and
incredible human being. It's taught me so much about
life and other things. And so, you know, one of those
things of life that you said lifey, lifey, but in, in the
(40:08):
most unexpected ways. And but it's taught me a lot
about I used to call it, I used to call God, the fourth quarter
God. I was like, he's my Tom Brady,
right? And I literally used to say that
all the time, like right when things seem like they're going
to go, it just get the hell, Mary, we win the Super Bowl.
And then I started to like, realize maybe I'm just not
(40:30):
playing the 1st 3/4 the right way and God has to save me
because you got so much grace infavor.
But, and so I started to look athow I was playing the 1st 3/4 of
anything I was doing and, and changing that.
And, and part of that is, you know, kind of the, the leading
purpose of, of having something like having a relationship with
Will and, and working with him and Miguel and that whole team.
(40:53):
It's been a huge learning experience, but it's been
amazing. What would you say that?
And I'm sure there's a lot because you just mentioned it,
but like what would be your, thenumber one thing you've learned
from Will and then also what do you think he's learned from you?
That's a really good question. So from Will, I think that the
(41:14):
same drive that you have for everything that's external, so
to work, to kill, to like make it in business, to take over the
world, the same dedication to put into yourself and to that
internal part into chasing, you know, the the deepest part of
who you are to find peace, to find comfort in who you are, to
(41:35):
find acceptance in who you are. You know, I think he's never
said this, but I really always looked at it because he was my
hero growing up, right? I think he was heroes for a lot
of us. And what I realized is that we
all are that superhero. We just forget we are.
And so the more that you can remember that the best version
(41:55):
of yourself is just the full on 100% original version of
yourself, not the one that has to pretend to be someone to his
friends or pretend to be educated for business people.
Like the true original, the Lex that's funny, that dances in his
pajamas, that sings in the shower, like that's the
superhero. And that reflection of that to
(42:16):
me has been a huge lesson. And I think for me, I spend the
freedom, right? Like kind of this idea that I,
I, I just don't sit in boxes very well, right?
So I don't, I, I just kind of let things go for what they are
and I let my mind flow and my freedom flow and I say yes to
things. And I kind of just live in that
(42:37):
wildness of outside the box because he's Will Smith and you
know, he's been on like any other major superstar.
You're, you're in boxes all the time.
So we had amazing summer last year where we got to experience
like things and you know, he hadnever really he, he says it's an
interview, so I'll share. But like he had never really
(42:58):
experienced a summer because he always had summer movies or he
was always filming. It was like his first time
experiencing a summer in Europe.And it was.
You know, on tour. No, that time we were just like
just hanging out. We, yeah, we went to, we went to
do a song camp. And then that turned into
another event, another thing. And we just like hopped around
Europe doing like this really cool out-of-the-box things like
(43:18):
going to concerts, you know, like we went to go see Coldplay
together and that was like superamazing.
And so I, I think that that's one thing that I can say that in
our relationship, it's, it's been really great where there's
that sense of freedom, that sense of disorganization, a bit
like we were talking about like in a, in a person whose life is
(43:39):
super structure and I'm super structured, but with mess.
So I would I would probably say those are the two things we.
We learned that's all. And then what would be the place
that you went to where you were surprised by how people reacted
to Will? Like, you know what I mean?
Because he's such a worldwide, but I'm sure there's certain
(44:00):
places where he's more celebrated than others.
Or was it like he was celebratedeverywhere?
Yeah, everywhere. Everywhere.
Yeah, I I think internationally more than here, I would say OK,
like people internationally still feel like.
Oh my God, that's Will Smith, a major superstar.
You know, I think we here in America, we're like, oh, we see
them all the time. I saw Leo last night at the club
(44:22):
or whatever, you know, like so anywhere outside still Will.
And, and I'm just surprised. I mean, someone who has like
been so successful in so many different things over many
generations, like he speaks to our generation, he speaks to our
parents generation. So it's, it's really
interesting, but an incredible human being.
(44:43):
Like honestly, I've been around a lot of famous people my whole
life and I I've never met someone who handles it all in
the way he does. And he's had a rough like last,
I mean, I don't know what it wastwo or three years, but it's
yeah, you know, from the outsidelooking in.
So the way he's handled it seemslike it's pretty top notch, so.
(45:04):
Yeah, and his team is top notch.Those guys, you know,
incredible, incredible family, which I think has been nice to
see. And I don't know if, I mean, I'm
sure you have, but he dropped like a badass freestyle too the
other day. I only saw that.
Yeah, yeah, everybody was talking about it, it.
Was all part of the and lyrical lemonade.
It was all part of the release strategy.
And so OK, you know, he's getting into bro.
(45:26):
I mean like he's he's in music full on so.
Is there a tour like planning? Yeah.
He starts tour June 27th, he's doing all of Europe and then
he's planning to do the US, South America next year.
And then will you have any role in in that?
Yeah, that was part of the wholething, planning of getting all
done. You know, we were just in Ibiza
together for the opening of Universe, which is insane club
(45:51):
so. Yeah.
Jan, who owns like high and all the biggest clubs in in Ibiza,
he took the old Palladium, whichwas at one time the biggest club
in the world, and he turned intouniverse and incredible like on
sunrise. Like imagine these three windows
that the DJ is facing this way and you know they have curtains
(46:11):
and they have a see through screen.
So like during the night, it's just like regular huge visuals.
Amazing, right? Somewhere on that 78 AM, they
start lifting the curtains from the back and turn off the screen
and you see the full sunrise coming as everybody's in the
club. Oh wow.
It's. It's pretty sick.
It's pretty sick. You know, I got to give it up to
him and and we had a great, a great experience with those
(46:35):
guys. Another great guy, Jan, who's
building amazing business while being like such like one of us,
you know, like you just a great human being.
But that's a, you know, Alex knows the club business is a
club business. That thing is not a joke.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a full time job that is.
And like no sleep. Exactly.
(46:55):
Like I don't see how they do it.Yeah, yeah, no.
I can't Oscar had to we had to do some some filming for the
Water and the Club 11 and the call time was 3:30 AM We were
like what? Like it was with DJ Crespo.
He's he's one of our investors and we were trying to get the
right shot and he was like, yeah, be there at 3:30.
(47:16):
We're like, that's when I wake up.
Like what? Are you talking about?
Yeah, I can't do that anymore, man.
I can't like. I don't think I ever did.
Like maybe back when I met Alex,like way back in the day, way
back in the day. But I've always been an early
riser, so staying out late is just not something I've been
good at. Yeah, me neither.
I I think as I get bored, I likethere's only so much I could be
(47:39):
doing at a club and all of a sudden it's just like I have
that that click where I'm like and then I'm out.
Yeah, like it's just, it's like a song.
About you But I used to go out with people and then I was the
guy that just kind of disappeared.
I didn't say bye to anybody, just disappeared.
I'm the king of that. And no one ever cares ever.
You never got a text like where are you?
Or the next day, like are you OK?
(48:00):
No, no one said a word. And people.
Already, because they understoodit, they knew that you just did
that like. People know, like even at
industry events now, people knowlike, oh, Lex is coming and
leaving. He's not sitting here trying to
like do a whole lot of no, no, no, no, I'm coming in.
I did my job and I'm out. And what's next for Lex?
Honestly man, I am. I'm in a beautiful state of self
(48:25):
discovery and it's made me the most excited I've been my entire
life and entire career. The challenge of pushing myself
towards my fear of just doing things I genuinely love for
myself, right? Like for for the intention of
(48:45):
just having the pleasure of doing something that I actually
enjoy. And so, you know, I'm super
thrilled about you versus you. Thank you for coming on that.
Like I'm super excited on that on that podcast.
I'm excited about the conversations and guests and
kind of the, the visual presentation that we we put
together for that. I'm excited about zero to 60,
(49:07):
which is where my channel where I speak about watches and I I've
like full on gone in this is that YouTube?
Yeah, it's on YouTube. I'm full on on this, like I have
a blast every time we shoot them, we get to talk about
watches and we critique them andwe, you know, so I'm really
excited about that as well. And, and you know, I'm like
(49:28):
slowly gearing towards retirement from the
entertainment business and like focusing on other things.
And so I'm excited for that. I'm excited for what life would
look like when it's not driven by, you know, running a machine
all day and right, right, you know, 40 employees here and 60
clients over here. Some I'm really thrilled about
(49:50):
that. And, and, and honestly, I'm
enjoying being a father. Like I didn't think I was going
to enjoy it this much but I genuinely love.
It it's the greatest joy ever. I love it.
My my daughter fell asleep yesterday hugging me and it was
the first time like she like she's falling asleep in my arms
but this was like we were in thebed and she happened to turn
(50:11):
around and just wanted to genuinely just put her arms and
hug me. You can imagine me last night, I
was like this. Yeah, you don't want to move I.
Was like so happy. That's the best when they fall
asleep. Yeah, I know.
My daughter fell asleep on my lap with her head just like, you
know, right here and you're justlike come back.
And I had to pee so bad. I'm just.
(50:32):
Sitting there. I'm not ruining this moment, you
know, but I tell people, I mean,we talked about this on your
podcast like kids are what we should strive to be.
And it's like it's sad that that's kind of stripped for from
(50:52):
us from for 20 something years. And then it does seem like when
you do find yourself, then you realize that that that authentic
childlike behavior is who you'resupposed to be.
You know, it's like, I love whatyou said earlier, just that that
(51:13):
the the absolute core of who youare.
Like, if you can be that person,then most of the time you're
gonna be attracted to the right people.
But when you're not, then oftentimes you find yourself
around the wrong people. Yeah.
You know, I think that's success, right?
(51:35):
Like when somebody asks me and I, whatever place I'm speaking
out about success, I, you know, I always say there's two,
there's two keys. One is acceptance and it starts
there. Like work on that first.
Work on just accepting 110% who you are, 110% of your
(51:55):
circumstance, 110% of your situation.
Like acceptance. So you could understand where
you're sitting and where you're standing and the level of the
game at Mario Bros that you're playing.
Like once you understand and you're fully in awareness of
that, then you can put into a function everything else that,
you know, we, we, we teach aboutsuccess, clear vision and
(52:18):
process and, you know, networking and perseverance.
And but like it, it starts with that because The thing is, while
having a clear vision, while persevering, while, you know,
journaling, while working hard, while doing all these other
things, while building relationships will get you
external success. You'll end up empty in the
(52:42):
inside because you're still searching for this.
And so you'll always have the one sided level of success,
which is that it looks really pretty to everybody else.
It looks amazing. You are building things, but
you're in this despair of emotion all the time and this
term all, all the time. And, and you're still trying to
(53:04):
figure out why. And So what I've realized in my
own experience is the more that I am accepting, the more
everything else, success or failure of things just feels
better. It's like, ah, OK, that didn't
go as planned. What was my lesson?
Because it's not because I'm notgood enough or it's not because
(53:26):
I'm not like, you know, like you, you settle into that.
Then when you have success, you're enjoying it and not
pretending to be like, Oh, I gotto be all.
No, you're enjoying it as the kid is when you take your
daughter to A to a playground and she's like, you'll be like
rogue Gratz, I'm going off like you have it like that because
you are in complete like presence of who you are.
(53:49):
So you can enjoy, you can laugh,you could be corny, like you
could, you know, throw your jokes.
You could be whoever you wanted to be without having to pretend
to be someone in order to fit into the success that you built
for yourself, which happens to all of us.
It happened to me where it's like, you become Lex.
And so now I'm expected to be a certain way.
I'm expected for my social mediaand my videos and the composure
(54:13):
of how I handled myself. And it's like, if you really
know me, I'm a kid. I get excited.
I collect cars and I get super excited about the car and I look
at the wheels and I'm like, I'm so excited.
I go, I get like so thrilled to open packages.
Like my assistants make fun of me because they're like, dude,
you, I've never seen somebody soexcited open a package.
(54:34):
But it's like because I like that feeling of feeling kids.
I wake up in the morning and I sing in the shower and I make up
songs. You know, I just like be making
songs for them. That's just the truest version
of who I am. And as I've gotten more close to
that, everything else feels better.
My spirituality feels better, myrelationship with people feels
(54:54):
better. The way that I approach success,
the the the enjoyment of the things success has brought me,
the enjoyment of my home, the enjoyment of my cars, the
enjoyment of my watches, the enjoyment of whatever.
It just feels more fulfilled. So I would say like accepting of
who you are and the circumstances you're in is the
first most crucial step to building real success.
(55:20):
And then the rest, it's all the things we talked about.
This didn't get billed by just dreaming.
You worked hard, you did all that, you persevered, you had
vision, you had clarity, you know, you had great
partnerships. All those are still needed.
But without this, it's just a building because you'll sit here
and be like them. Now what?
Yeah. Well, I think too, it's that
(55:42):
combination though of acceptanceand awareness.
You know, you said it really well there amongst all that that
you said, but there was a momentthere.
There was a moment there. You connected the acceptance and
awareness because I think sometimes people accept
themselves as they are without awareness that they need to
expand who they are like or growor whatever, or, or change
(56:07):
certain things and not change the core, not your personality,
not the fact that you wake up and want to sing in the shower.
But maybe you're, you know, not disciplined or not, you know,
doing things that are actually good for you.
So I, I think that's really likeit's, it's the, it's the
combination of those two that can take you for.
Yeah, I know. And I and I think it's the more
(56:28):
you accept yourself, the and thecircumstances, you also you you
get clarity on that awareness aswell, because you start seeing
the boxes that you're stuck in. You start seeing the the fears
and the the good, the bad and the ugly, right.
Like I I think that that's that's the version you got to
get. You got to love the good, the
bad and the ugly. And we all have it.
(56:49):
We all have amazing things that people and we also have like
this little demons in which are and then we also have the fear
and we have the things and thoseare just part of humanity.
But in tuning with that, it gives you at least a pathway on,
on where you got to put in the work, right?
Like where, where that awarenesshas to come into fruition to
say, OK, well, maybe I am lazy or maybe I'm not lazy at all.
(57:11):
I'm just afraid to take a risk. And so like, OK, so I got to
work on taking more risk or whatever it is.
As we wrap up, I typically end with this, this thing which is
kind of like probably you just answered it, but it's a, it's a
question I ask people. So it's if you had one thing
(57:31):
that you wish people knew about you, but they don't, what would
that be? I'm generally a child at heart.
The reflection of that energy isthe true verse form of horn.
So I generally like childlike things like I like collecting
(57:52):
cars and I like laughing and I don't know, I like those things
make me more exciting to me. I would say that even like going
to an award show or a concert like.
That's why you're going to be anamazing dad, you know?
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm loving that.I'm loving playing that with
her. And she loves cars like me.
(58:14):
So like, that's awesome. I like Ron.
I do the whole thing and crash, which I used to do as a kid.
Yeah. That was my first memory of
envisioning something was that Iwould really make this whole
world with my cars because my dad, my grandmother worked at at
Matchbox, the the car company. And so my dad collected Matchbox
(58:35):
cars his whole life. So we have a collection of like,
I don't know, 5000 little cars, but I would take them out and
like, it'll be like the war and be like, you know, I'll do all
that. And that just that memory of
that, it's something I'll get, I'm sharing with, with my
daughter now. And it's just, it's amazing.
And, and my wife shares that with, with us.
So she's very childlike in that way.
So she'll like, you know, get, she'll build the tent and we'll
(58:58):
all go under the tent and stuff.You know what?
It's it's great experience. That's the best one.
Yeah. Well, thank you bro.
I appreciate for having now listen, I love this.
No, you're the best we. Got to do it more often.
I know we could talk for forever, so yeah.
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