Speaker 1: Sean Combs is a great entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: He is I will go down in history as one
Speaker 2: of the greatest entrepreneurs in American history from my standpoint.
Speaker 1: And he's a great entrepreneur. First, a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know he started as a businessman.
Speaker 2: He you know, the people know him as an artist
Speaker 2: and a fashion icon and so on and so forth,
Speaker 2: but his first role in the entertainment business was as
Speaker 2: an owner, you know, first as an an r at
Speaker 2: Uptown Records, but then you know, ultimately as an owner
Speaker 2: of Bad Boy Records. He was not an artist when
Speaker 2: he first owned bad Boy Records. So from there, from
Speaker 2: you know, where he took that company alone as a
Speaker 2: as an entrepreneur was incredible and would go down in
Speaker 2: history in and of itself. But then too, one of
Speaker 2: the things I said, I was really super fortunate to experience,
Speaker 2: and this is something that you know, is part of
Speaker 2: the American dream experience is to see businesses go from
Speaker 2: an idea from like sketches on a table to like
Speaker 2: a real business with hundreds of employees with hundreds of
Speaker 2: million dollars in sales, and like not just once like
Speaker 2: I started like three four times over literally like things
Speaker 2: being sketched. We're gonna do this, We're gonna do this.
Speaker 2: How the cloth is gonna look? What's the TV network
Speaker 2: gonna look like? You know how, what are the segments
Speaker 2: we want you know, on on a twenty four hour day,
Speaker 2: and what's that gonna look like?
Speaker 1: Going from that, you know, from an idea to actually happening.
Speaker 2: And that's a phenomenal, incredible thing, really difficult to do,
Speaker 2: and to do it, you know, three or four times
Speaker 2: over in a big way, like uh, you know Sean
Speaker 2: Combs did is really unprecedented. And we're not talking about
Speaker 2: a huge.
Speaker 3: Time for what's on, like twenty years, he's done this
Speaker 3: full time.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you've still got to still going to come too, right,
Speaker 2: So this is these are the years where most executives
Speaker 2: are really just getting into groove and and creating great,
Speaker 2: great ideas.
Speaker 1: So here here's what's so.
Speaker 2: I will say he is rarefied air as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: So you have to understand that first. So it's not
Speaker 2: it's not by accident, it's not you know luck, it's
Speaker 2: you know, he has great instincts. He has great instincts,
Speaker 2: he has great negotiating instincts, he has great instincts of
Speaker 2: the marketplace.
Speaker 1: Right. So essentially what.
Speaker 2: Puff purposefully created was a whole new category, which you
Speaker 2: know I call and we call urban aspirational.
Speaker 1: That category really.
Speaker 2: Didn't exist, right, so and off of that category if
Speaker 2: you really think about everything he created. So it started
Speaker 2: with the music and everybody was talking about the shiny suits, this,
Speaker 2: that and the other. But he showed you lifestyle that
Speaker 2: no one ever thought about other than in a comedic way,
Speaker 2: showing you know, for the hip hop community. He showed
Speaker 2: you private jet lifestyle, jet ski lifestyle, and it all
Speaker 2: was purposeful about this narrative around.
Speaker 1: You know, we can aspire to these great things.
Speaker 2: Sean John was totally about aspirations, like I want to clothes.
Speaker 1: That feel like you're rich that you're wearing.
Speaker 2: I want you know, at this time, he had, you know,
Speaker 2: he had felt you know, Gucci and all these other
Speaker 2: brand names on him, and he's like, I want Sewing
Speaker 2: John to feel like that on the consumer.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to fit them right, and they're going
Speaker 1: to feel like, you know, a million bucks when they
Speaker 1: put it on.
Speaker 2: So he created a whole category once again just a
Speaker 2: rare thing for anybody to do. And he parlayed that
Speaker 2: category into different consumer products groups from from clothing to
Speaker 2: uh to then spirits you know, to to even how
Speaker 2: he approached his television work and uh, you know, and
Speaker 2: and and many other different consumer products categories that he
Speaker 2: got it involved in, including water and and and other things.
Speaker 2: So aquar aquadre. So I started on cameras so you
Speaker 2: can see it. Uh so uh yeah so that so.
Speaker 2: But but a couple of things I would say, this
Speaker 2: is really I think unique about someone like myself working
Speaker 2: with him. I'm there to be the analytical person and
Speaker 2: to do everything I learned, right, is like do valuation models.
Speaker 1: And for all of my fellow.
Speaker 2: MBAs and so on, like when you get around someone
Speaker 2: like as Sean Combs or Sean Carter or whatever, don't
Speaker 2: think you have to lose the skill set that you're
Speaker 2: supposed to be bringing to the table. In fact, trust
Speaker 2: that skill set because it's really important and it's important
Speaker 2: for you to bring that to the table.
Speaker 1: But I would say what I learned is that.
Speaker 2: There is something important about instinct, there is something important
Speaker 2: about celebrity, and there is something important about you knowing.
Speaker 1: Your value and being able to walk away from a deal.
Speaker 1: So I would say.
Speaker 2: One of the great things that Sean was able to
Speaker 2: always do it almost any deal I was involved in
Speaker 2: him with is I would set the range and say, Okay,
Speaker 2: we're going to the room. If we get this deal
Speaker 2: to around this level. You know, if we get it
Speaker 2: too like fifteen million, that's a really good deal.
Speaker 1: We really should do it right.
Speaker 2: If it's below that, we can, you know, maybe we
Speaker 2: want to keep negotiating, you know whatever. So many times
Speaker 2: I've been in the room and we get to the
Speaker 2: fifteen and I'm like, I'm smiling, I'm happy, like smiling
Speaker 2: on the inside, and he's and you know, he's just
Speaker 2: he'll look at him like, yeah, all right, well I
Speaker 2: don't think we're gonna have a deal today. You know,
Speaker 2: y'all just don't really know my value. Thanks very much.
Speaker 2: I talked to you and I'm like kicking them, like
Speaker 2: what are you doing? We got we got to our number.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But he was like I could look in their eyes
Speaker 2: and know they wanted to do more.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. I knew, I know they
Speaker 1: are not leaving here without doing this deal. But like
Speaker 1: I said, everyone's down.
Speaker 2: An entrepreneur that takes guts and to walk away from
Speaker 2: some of the numbers we would walk away from and
Speaker 2: say no to that he would walk away from and
Speaker 2: say no to. Takes a lot of guts and belief
Speaker 2: in yourself and he and that was part of how
Speaker 2: he approached deals.
Speaker 1: He never went into a deal like I gotta have it.
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Speaker 5: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
Speaker 5: in Massachusetts. MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador accused
Speaker 5: of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with filming
Speaker 5: and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some
Speaker 5: of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J.
Speaker 5: Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States Secretary of
Speaker 5: Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are
Speaker 5: at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred
Speaker 5: thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally,
Speaker 5: your next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars
Speaker 5: a day, imprisoned and deported, you will never return. But
Speaker 5: if you register using our CBP home app and leave now,
Speaker 5: you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right.
Speaker 5: Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families
Speaker 5: will be protected.
Speaker 1: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security too.
Speaker 2: He never went as anything with desperation, and some of
Speaker 2: that is about planning.
Speaker 1: When you saw Sean Combs and Bad Boy Do, it
Speaker 1: had been in the works for years.
Speaker 2: I wasn't involved in anything that didn't take twelve to
Speaker 2: twenty four months.
Speaker 1: It had been in the work for years.
Speaker 2: So none of these are like knee jerk, like one
Speaker 2: of the better places to be as an athlete or
Speaker 2: an entertainer. Is where you have to make decisions to survive,
Speaker 2: right survival decisions versus you've mapped out. Of course, Like
Speaker 2: you know, Sean was very strategic about when am I
Speaker 2: going to be in the spirits business. I know I'm
Speaker 2: going to be there at a certain point, but I
Speaker 2: want to build my brand of celebration and I want
Speaker 2: to build my brand of aspiration enough so that when
Speaker 2: I get to the spirits business, I could create a
Speaker 2: brand that sits at a certain price point, that stands
Speaker 2: for a certain thing, and that will be presented the
Speaker 2: right way. So these things were orchestrated, you know, years
Speaker 2: in advance before we got into the businesses. And then
Speaker 2: negotiating the deals. To negotiate the deal you really want
Speaker 2: sometimes takes a long time and means you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to have a lot of patients, a lot of faith
Speaker 2: in yourself. People are gonna come to you many times
Speaker 2: to say all right, do this deal. Now we're walking away,
Speaker 2: and you may have to say, all right, walk away, No,
Speaker 2: You're worth right, And I mean that was him. He
Speaker 2: was great at that, but also great at just identifying opportunities.
Speaker 2: We talked about it earlier, identifying white space in the
Speaker 2: spirits industry that the success of Sarak was all about identifying.
Speaker 1: The white space.
Speaker 2: There was no premium alcohol that our community could call
Speaker 2: it rome. They were like running to the Great Gooses
Speaker 2: all these other brands that really didn't want.
Speaker 1: Us as customers.
Speaker 2: And he knew there was just a huge white space.
Speaker 1: So how did the Sarrock deal even come about? Right?
Speaker 1: Because at that time we saw a lot of.
Speaker 6: People, well mostly I felt like that boy in Rockefell
Speaker 6: were going back and forth, right, they had Rock a Wiz,
Speaker 6: Seawan John Uh, the shouts John, I loved the fifth
Speaker 6: that was like, I'll fade the crolling line, like we
Speaker 6: don't want that fifth ass to all the time, right,
Speaker 6: But you know they were coming out with Armordale and
Speaker 6: I remember Ludacris had came out with an alcohol and
Speaker 6: was what was the idea to create your own or
Speaker 6: partner with a company that was already existed.
Speaker 1: How did that deal come though?
Speaker 2: So the deal was with the I Joe and they
Speaker 2: had done a couple of things with bad Boy and
Speaker 2: Sean and just loved the results. I think I'm not
Speaker 2: even sure what the lords list of things were, but
Speaker 2: whether they were events, parties, everything, they did you know, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, puff just over delivered to you know in
Speaker 2: a way that they were like, we really want to
Speaker 2: be in business with So Honestly, the initial conversations were
Speaker 2: a range of things. You know, we could start our
Speaker 2: own products, could develop something from scratch and.
Speaker 7: And or anything like what do you want to do
Speaker 7: the type of thing right which need to So I
Speaker 7: think the biggest thing that happened was they had this
Speaker 7: product this uh, this product that they said, you know,
Speaker 7: look we just launched.
Speaker 2: This is not it really hasn't done much, you know,
Speaker 2: what do you think about it? And he thought it
Speaker 2: could work for him basically, So we ended up going going.
Speaker 1: Down that path and that was the first product.
Speaker 2: The next product was he always didn't want to create
Speaker 2: something from scratch, and the next product was a Tekilla product,
Speaker 2: which was an acquisition, but again was totally driven by
Speaker 2: something he wanted to do and something he had vetted
Speaker 2: out and wanted to launch.
Speaker 3: What I read like the history of like soraka names
Speaker 3: like Nick Stoor him come up and I know he
Speaker 3: was part of the hypnotic movement?
Speaker 1: Yes, and then was is he part of it?
Speaker 3: Was he part of the team originally that was the
Speaker 3: acquisition part with us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was in day one at the acquisition level.
Speaker 2: But I think immediately, you know, he was on that
Speaker 2: list of people we need like day two to go,
Speaker 2: you know, promote the brain, And I mean I picked that.
Speaker 2: Another thing, I'm not going to give all the secrets
Speaker 2: because I know the book is coming.
Speaker 1: The book is coming. The book is coming for sure.
Speaker 2: But another thing, you know, uh, you know, Showing was
Speaker 2: always focused on was.
Speaker 1: Not playing fair.
Speaker 2: So how do I use my celebrity to catapult something
Speaker 2: in a unique way? How do I do things that
Speaker 2: other people can't do to catapult my brands uniquely? And
Speaker 2: that was the approach with you know, with Sorak, is
Speaker 2: that I have to really own the lifestyle and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna do it, you know, unfairly. I'm gonna go get
Speaker 2: every celebrity friend I have every but not only that,
Speaker 2: but every lifestyle person in each market. You know, who's
Speaker 2: the person on the radio, who's the receptionist that just
Speaker 2: knows everybody? Who are the party throwers in each market.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go lock all of them down. Create ambassadors,
Speaker 2: you know, just a rock DJs, you know, creates boys,
Speaker 2: rock girls.
Speaker 1: How am I going to lock down the lifestyle.
Speaker 3: It's like that they turned from the nineties era of
Speaker 3: making the million dollar video to the sixty second commercial
Speaker 3: that feels like the million dollar video.
Speaker 1: So he's in the helicopters. He's like James Bondo, like Shot.
Speaker 1: He likes to call him Black Season. Well most of
Speaker 1: these conversions, we're.
Speaker 6: Like, yeah, if we drinks so Rack, we can have
Speaker 6: that lifestyle too.
Speaker 1: So like he's a genius man man. That's why call
Speaker 1: him black Season. He used embodies down whole VI.
Speaker 5: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
Speaker 5: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
Speaker 5: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
Speaker 5: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
Speaker 5: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
Speaker 5: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
Speaker 5: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
Speaker 5: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
Speaker 5: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
Speaker 5: are here illegally, your next you will be fine. Nearly
Speaker 5: one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you will
Speaker 5: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
Speaker 5: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
Speaker 5: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump America's laws,
Speaker 5: border and families will be protected.
Speaker 1: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,