Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Jason Kelly. I'm Alex Rodriguez, and welcome to
Speaker 2: the deal. Coming up today, Josh Richards. Alex, you're pretty influential.
Speaker 2: I would argue this guy is more influential millions and
Speaker 2: millions of followers on social media. He's going to talk
Speaker 2: to us all about how to build an audience.
Speaker 3: It's incredible.
Speaker 4: I mean you talk about not only is he more influential,
Speaker 4: he's probably like seven eight times more.
Speaker 3: This is how the new stars are going to look like.
Speaker 4: And I would not be surprised if NFL and will
Speaker 4: be based ball NBA hires someone like Josh to help
Speaker 4: them understand what the audience wants.
Speaker 3: He knows it as well as anyone.
Speaker 2: He's been incredibly aggressive as an entrepreneur and as a partner.
Speaker 2: He's partnered with Dave Portnoy, He's partner with Mark Wahlberg. He,
Speaker 2: like you, has gone out and found incredible mentors. He's
Speaker 2: going to tell us how he is building an empire.
Speaker 3: Can't wait?
Speaker 2: All right, coming up, Josh Richards. All right, so introduce
Speaker 2: yourself and tell us what you do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, my name is Josh Richards. And I do social media,
Speaker 5: and I'm also an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: That undersells it, grossly undersells it. You're highly influential, you know.
Speaker 2: We like to talk about signature deals on this show.
Speaker 2: A lot of people know you through your Barstool podcast.
Speaker 2: Let's start there, because that is a deal that, at
Speaker 2: least for a lot of us, kind of comes out
Speaker 2: of nowhere. I think we have a little bit of
Speaker 2: knowledge of the backstory. You got to share that with us.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So that really started when I had made
Speaker 5: a disc track on past friend of mine on social media,
Speaker 5: so we were just playing fun, made this song and
Speaker 5: it accumulated like one hundred million streams across platforms. Blew
Speaker 5: up was treading on Twitter, and that was the first
Speaker 5: time Dave Portnoy had seen TikTokers on social media. So
Speaker 5: he tweets out and he goes, why these wiggled showing
Speaker 5: up on my feet and so instantly, being a fan
Speaker 5: of Dave previously, like growing up watching his content and
Speaker 5: watching Barstool, I was like, Okay, I got to get
Speaker 5: into contact with this guy, like I know he'll like
Speaker 5: keep going with it if like I can get him
Speaker 5: on a live or do something so we end up
Speaker 5: getting in contact with him. We go live on Instagram.
Speaker 5: We end up having I want to say, ninety to
Speaker 5: one hundred thousand concurrens watching this stream of me and
Speaker 5: Dave because just like you guys said, it's like this
Speaker 5: is out of nowhere. Why is Josh Richards and Dave
Speaker 5: Portnoy making content together? And we did that live. I
Speaker 5: explained all the drama to him, and me and him
Speaker 5: were going back and forth, cracking jokes. We were charismatic,
Speaker 5: we were able to flow with each other. We were
Speaker 5: able to go back and forth. And we started getting
Speaker 5: hit up by different companies about putting on a show,
Speaker 5: and Snapchat was one that reached out and they were like, oh,
Speaker 5: would you and Dave want to do like a segmented
Speaker 5: show every single week? So I get on a call
Speaker 5: with Dave.
Speaker 3: We have.
Speaker 5: An hour call scheduled. I believe we're about two minutes
Speaker 5: into this call, and I've pitched on, oh, Snapchat wants
Speaker 5: to do show, and he's like, all right, I don't
Speaker 5: want to do a show with Snapchat. We're like, okay, well,
Speaker 5: we got fifty eight minutes left here. And the whole
Speaker 5: pitch of this call is already toast, right, so we
Speaker 5: kind of start just spitballing random ideas and we're like,
Speaker 5: all right. I had a show at the time called
Speaker 5: Tea Talk where on my YouTube I would go through
Speaker 5: all the drama that was online and I'd kind of
Speaker 5: like poke light at it and make fun of it.
Speaker 5: So I thought, why not just kind of take what
Speaker 5: we did with the live stream and combine that with
Speaker 5: the Tea Talk, and let's just make a podcast where
Speaker 5: we talk about all the drama going on in gen
Speaker 5: z and social media and I'll explain it to you.
Speaker 5: It'll be this really cool co viewing opportunity where kids
Speaker 5: can watch with their parents. Right, kids are always trying
Speaker 5: to explain what's going on social media their parents. Their
Speaker 5: parents aren't quite getting it. They get to watch Dave
Speaker 5: and be like, I relate to that guy, and then
Speaker 5: people that are my age and younger you get to
Speaker 5: watch me and Brie and be like, oh, well, I
Speaker 5: relate to them. So it created this really cool experience
Speaker 5: and it made a lot of people say like, what,
Speaker 5: why are these two together? And I think that's a
Speaker 5: reaction that myself and my company have really looked at
Speaker 5: as that means you're doing something right when people are
Speaker 5: asking why, when people are starting to get intrigued. I
Speaker 5: mean that means you're on the forefront of something really special.
Speaker 2: I think so and you and Brie remind us who
Speaker 2: Brie is? How you guys got together?
Speaker 5: Yes, so Breed Chicken Fry. She is the other host
Speaker 5: of the podcast, and we had come across her. She
Speaker 5: was already an employee at Barstool. She had been doing
Speaker 5: her own podcast, and we had felt like me and
Speaker 5: Dave had a good dynamic, but there was something missing.
Speaker 5: We needed another point of view. We needed someone else.
Speaker 5: I was gonna kind of bringing an imposing side because
Speaker 5: a lot of times me and Dave would agree with
Speaker 5: each other. So we cycled through a couple of the
Speaker 5: people at Barstool, trying out different talent, seeing who would
Speaker 5: work out, and when Breed came on, it just fit.
Speaker 5: I think having that female perspective is huge, especially because
Speaker 5: a lot of my audience is female. I think having
Speaker 5: someone that was quick and witty and was able to,
Speaker 5: you know, hang with us at the same time. She
Speaker 5: was really the perfect fit. And I think that's what
Speaker 5: truly made BFFs a really, really good show, is having
Speaker 5: all of us four years in.
Speaker 3: That's amazing four years in. Yeah. Did you say her
Speaker 3: name is Breed Chicken Fry.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's great man. Yeah, she had liked the
Speaker 5: chicken fry snacks, so she had called her usally Breonna
Speaker 5: Chicken Fry. And it's kind of just there you go. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it stuck, all right.
Speaker 2: So let's go back even further because before you get
Speaker 2: to BFFs, as you mentioned, you're creating highly successful YouTube channel,
Speaker 2: you're also building an empire from a pretty early age.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, I've said this a little bit before, but
Speaker 5: I've been touched on a lot. Ever since I was
Speaker 5: really young. I had always had this like calling or
Speaker 5: feeling where I was like, I know the name Josh
Speaker 5: Richards will be known, and I used to pray about
Speaker 5: it before I would go to bed every single night.
Speaker 5: And you know, when I was three or four, I
Speaker 5: thought I was going to be a superhero. I thought
Speaker 5: I was gonna be Ben ten Right. That same notion
Speaker 5: of like the name Josh Richers will we know never
Speaker 5: left me. Went from that to being oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: be a pro hockey player. I'm gonna be an NHL player,
Speaker 5: and then oh, I'm going to be a professional across
Speaker 5: player and then oh, I'm going to use my love
Speaker 5: for hockey and create a hockey shirt company and I'll
Speaker 5: have the biggest apparel brand in hockey and that will
Speaker 5: bring my name, Josh Richards around, And it just kind
Speaker 5: of kept going and going and going into one day,
Speaker 5: my sister had asked me to go in a video
Speaker 5: with her on this app called Musically, and so she
Speaker 5: has this little like dance rou team we're gonna do
Speaker 5: and I was like, okay, cool, let's do this. And
Speaker 5: I'm thirteen, I just finished my eighth grade of school
Speaker 5: and she's twelve, and so we do this little video
Speaker 5: into us. It blows up, running around the house, We're
Speaker 5: yelling and screaming. It got like fifty likes, I think,
Speaker 5: but to us that was viue. We were like, oh
Speaker 5: my goodness, we don't even know fifty people. So we
Speaker 5: go and I look at the comments and there's like
Speaker 5: two or three of the comments that are like, hey,
Speaker 5: what's his username? And they're from girls, and I'm like
Speaker 5: kind of feeling myself now, I'm like, all right, I
Speaker 5: got to make myself one of these accounts. So I
Speaker 5: make one and very quickly kind of go about it
Speaker 5: in an entrepreneurial spirit. I had started a couple different
Speaker 5: brands in my neighborhood. If that was like a lacrosse
Speaker 5: brand where I would string sticks and dye the mesh
Speaker 5: and wax coate it so is waterproof and when you
Speaker 5: were playing in the rain, your pocket consistency stayed the same.
Speaker 5: Or I had a hockey shirt company with different slogans
Speaker 5: where we'd go to tournaments. So right away I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: is there a way to make money off this? Like
Speaker 5: how can I turn this into a business? And so
Speaker 5: me and my sister found the live component of the
Speaker 5: app where you could go live, and much like Twitch today,
Speaker 5: that's like one of the biggest platforms. You'll go live
Speaker 5: and people will subscribe or send donos. And not only
Speaker 5: were they able to do that on this platform when
Speaker 5: I was going live as well, but there was actually
Speaker 5: a list that showed you the top two hundred spending
Speaker 5: customers every single day, so the people that were donating
Speaker 5: the most. So I was sitting there at thirteen, like,
Speaker 5: well this is silly, Like why do I need ten
Speaker 5: million followers when I can have the top two hundred
Speaker 5: spenders every single day, just kind of go direct to consumer.
Speaker 5: So I had my sister bring out the iPad. She'd
Speaker 5: sit beside me, and I put on our fifteen percent
Speaker 5: commission based salary, and she'd sit beside me and she'd
Speaker 5: go through that list of two hundred people logged into
Speaker 5: my account, follow every single one of them, like fifteen
Speaker 5: other videos. They'd get sixteen notifications from a random Josh
Speaker 5: Richard's kid. They'd see him live because my profile would
Speaker 5: be blinking. They'd be like, oh, all right, let me
Speaker 5: go check it out. They'd come into the live. I'd
Speaker 5: know it was one of them because their user names
Speaker 5: were highlighted and read because I just followed them, so
Speaker 5: I would give him actual attention, be like, Yo, what's up.
Speaker 3: What's up.
Speaker 5: They'd end up sending gifts and me and myself would
Speaker 5: be like nice, got him. And so then we kept
Speaker 5: doing that, and we like did that in my parents'
Speaker 5: basement for a year or two years, just starting to
Speaker 5: make like really good money and.
Speaker 3: What's real money.
Speaker 5: We were at probably after the first month, we were
Speaker 5: doing like six hundred dollars a week. I'm like thirteen
Speaker 5: years old, right, So we were sitting there like Wow,
Speaker 5: we're we are raking it in. We're set for life,
Speaker 5: like we were blown away. And I remember my dad
Speaker 5: comes to me one day because all this money is
Speaker 5: going from the app, threw his PayPal into my bank account,
Speaker 5: so he's getting a notification every time, and you know,
Speaker 5: it happens a couple of times. I think it was
Speaker 5: probably the third week we're doing it, and he comes
Speaker 5: up and he's like, all right, I get it, you're
Speaker 5: in high school, but drugs and selling drugs, that's just
Speaker 5: not the end. I'm like that, no, no, no, no, that's
Speaker 5: not what it is. That's not what it is. So
Speaker 5: I have to explain him what social media is and
Speaker 5: going live and he's like, all right, I'm not sure
Speaker 5: I really understand, but they're making great money, so keep
Speaker 5: it up, you know. And so then he started diving
Speaker 5: deep into social media. And I always credit my parents
Speaker 5: because I wouldn't be here without them. They were my
Speaker 5: biggest supporters through everything from the early companies I tried
Speaker 5: to do. They would, you know, buy the blank T
Speaker 5: shirts and give me one hundred yard mess school for
Speaker 5: the cross thing. And then as soon as I started
Speaker 5: doing social media, my dad was and mom We're both like,
Speaker 5: all right, we need to know everything we can about this.
Speaker 5: We need to learn as much as we can. Oh,
Speaker 5: I'll take a day off of work, Josh to fly
Speaker 5: you to this event in Washington so that you can
Speaker 5: go and collab with other creators. And there were all
Speaker 5: these little things that you know, they didn't really have
Speaker 5: to do, but they were just the most supportive parents
Speaker 5: in the world and allowed me to follow the stream
Speaker 5: at a young age and go to the United States,
Speaker 5: go to different countries when I was younger and should
Speaker 5: be in school. Like they believed in me and believed
Speaker 5: in what I was doing. So yeah, really really huge props.
Speaker 2: So then how soon into that journey are you like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm in it. This is going to be my life.
Speaker 2: I am devoting myself to this. I am following candidly
Speaker 2: a pretty well tried path, like I'm moving to LA
Speaker 2: like I'm doing it. Like when did it sort of
Speaker 2: flip for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: After two years of being on social media is really
Speaker 5: when I think I decided like, no, I can. I
Speaker 5: could turn this into something full time. I could really
Speaker 5: turn this into a media empire, build companies off of
Speaker 5: this and continue to grow and grow in my own
Speaker 5: social as well. So after those two years I started
Speaker 5: to make some friends in the social media world. We
Speaker 5: decided we were going to go on a tour, so
Speaker 5: we had gotten altogether, had this person that was repping
Speaker 5: the tour and kind of managing it. We did I believe,
Speaker 5: thirty cities across the United States, and that was the
Speaker 5: moment I think I was first able to see you know,
Speaker 5: I come from a small town fifteen thousand and sixteen
Speaker 5: thousand people, and everyone already knew me before I did
Speaker 5: social media, So there wasn't this like rise to fame
Speaker 5: I felt or anything like that in my town. If anything,
Speaker 5: it was the opposite, because I was doing something different
Speaker 5: and new, right. It was more like, oh, this loser
Speaker 5: doing social media. So that was the first time I'd
Speaker 5: ever seen faces to these people commenting and liking my content.
Speaker 5: And that's really when I was like, holy cow, there's
Speaker 5: really something here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So we finished the tour. We end up in a
Speaker 5: pretty tough situation where us as kids, we hadn't signed anything.
Speaker 5: We had kind of done all these handshake deals with
Speaker 5: these people running the tour, and we all get screwed
Speaker 5: out of a bunch of money. The tour did really
Speaker 5: well for them. We were doing like two thousand people,
Speaker 5: sold out shows every single place we went. On top
Speaker 5: of that, we do dinners and VIP things and all
Speaker 5: these different things where people would select to their favorite
Speaker 5: fans or their favorite person to see what was So
Speaker 5: you were supposed to get that cut and I think
Speaker 5: I got seven hundred dollars by the end of it.
Speaker 5: Like it was like it didn't even cover the hotels,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, like or the food that
Speaker 5: we had to go and get. So it was a
Speaker 5: tough situation and it was a learning one that I
Speaker 5: you know, I'm glad happened early, because right then I
Speaker 5: was like, all right, this is a wild West. Social
Speaker 5: media is new. No one's paying attention, like in the
Speaker 5: sense of protecting the creator. There's no at this point,
Speaker 5: there's no w MECAA. They're not coming to sign kids yet.
Speaker 5: They they're not even like looking at what TikTok could be.
Speaker 2: And this is only what four or five years ago?
Speaker 5: Yeah, this is twenty nineteen, ye like, so it's not
Speaker 5: that long ago, right, And that was the moment where
Speaker 5: I was like, Okay, I need to start something that's
Speaker 5: going to be by the creator for the creator. So
Speaker 5: I started a management company. That's when I moved to
Speaker 5: LA That's when me and all my friends start the
Speaker 5: Sway House. That's when I get looped in with Chris
Speaker 5: Sautel is my business partner now with Crosscheck. He was
Speaker 5: at ICM. We had to sign to an agency, our
Speaker 5: management company because we didn't have a license so for
Speaker 5: them to be repped like we needed that. So we
Speaker 5: went and met with ICM. Chris had started the digital
Speaker 5: division over there, so that was a person we were
Speaker 5: put in contact with and we worked out a deal
Speaker 5: with them, started working with them. Chris became also my
Speaker 5: manager at the time or my agent, and then as
Speaker 5: time moves forward, I ended up leaving Talent X sell
Speaker 5: my shares there and that's when I was like, all right,
Speaker 5: I want to make a production company. I want to
Speaker 5: start being able to bring together the worlds of social
Speaker 5: and traditional media, start bridging those as they are getting
Speaker 5: closer and closer together. And we all see our favorite
Speaker 5: actors and athletes now doing social media, and now we
Speaker 5: see social media influencers stepping into music and movies, and
Speaker 5: as these worlds are colliding, like, how can I be
Speaker 5: at the forefront of that and producing all that content.
Speaker 5: So started Crosscheck. Chris was sitting in his comfy job
Speaker 5: at ICM, and I was like, why don't you just
Speaker 5: listen to me, this nineteen year old kid, and leave
Speaker 5: your job and come and work with me, and we'll
Speaker 5: start crosscheck together. So after a few months of you know,
Speaker 5: continuously knocking on Chris's door and asking him, I convince uh,
Speaker 5: and so he listened to me, came over, and then
Speaker 5: we started cross Check and we've been doing that for
Speaker 5: the last three years now.
Speaker 4: When it comes to like two middle aged dudes like
Speaker 4: Jason and I, right, what content can we learn from
Speaker 4: you that actually performs the best and which content performs
Speaker 4: the worst?
Speaker 5: I mean content that performs the best versus worse. I
Speaker 5: think that's very dependent on the creator and all the
Speaker 5: person that's creating the content, right, because you already have
Speaker 5: a built an audience. You know your audience. You're you've
Speaker 5: been from the world of sports. You know anytime you're
Speaker 5: gonna be talking about sports, that's gonna play to your audience.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: So I think more about like knowing what content's going
Speaker 5: to do bad or knowing what content's going to do good,
Speaker 5: It's about knowing your audience because that's gonna lead you
Speaker 5: to the right path. So I know, for example, my
Speaker 5: audience and my demographic. If I go on my TikTok,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be seventy seventy five percent women, twenty twenty
Speaker 5: five percent men, right. And I also know that the
Speaker 5: age demo there is going to really range from sixteen
Speaker 5: to probably twenty four, is really where my age demo sits.
Speaker 5: So I go and think, Okay, what are people in
Speaker 5: that age group gonna like? What content are this gonna
Speaker 5: be fun for them? Okay, what's something relatable that we're
Speaker 5: all doing?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 5: Everyone's dating at that age, right, So how do I
Speaker 5: bring in a really funny conversation or debate that me
Speaker 5: and my girlfriend are going through? And I bring that
Speaker 5: to TikTok and we're able to share it. And now
Speaker 5: all these kids that are sixteen or twenty four are
Speaker 5: sending you to their boyfriends, are sending me to their girlfriends,
Speaker 5: and they're like, we literally had the exact same argument.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, this is so crazy. My favorite creator
Speaker 5: is going That is to me, what builds good content
Speaker 5: when you're able to show to your audience that you
Speaker 5: know you're going through the same things they're going through.
Speaker 5: You're able to play that relatable card with them that
Speaker 5: not only is gonna make good content, but continue your
Speaker 5: building community.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the things you have been so
Speaker 2: successful at and you've demonstrated even in the past few minutes,
Speaker 2: is identifying and cultivating an audience. So you know you've
Speaker 2: talked about sort of the creator side. How do you
Speaker 2: essentially make a business out of those insights? Because it
Speaker 2: feels like, I mean, if we're looking at your business ventures,
Speaker 2: that's your I mean, this is an overuse term, that's
Speaker 2: your superpower is understanding the audience. You're clearly an entrepreneur
Speaker 2: as well. So how do you build something that leverages
Speaker 2: those insights?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean today every company is trying to find
Speaker 5: a way to communicate with gen Z. How can I
Speaker 5: help a company by investing or if I really enjoy
Speaker 5: this brand and I want to be a part of it,
Speaker 5: how can I leverage myself who knows how to communicate
Speaker 5: to gen Z, who knows what they're interested in, knows
Speaker 5: what they're likes and dislikes are. How can I leverage
Speaker 5: that for this company? So I think that's really how
Speaker 5: I look at like my following in and I'm able
Speaker 5: to turn it into a business because the cable TV commercials,
Speaker 5: they're not where these companies are wanting to go anymore.
Speaker 5: They're wanting to go to social How can we bring
Speaker 5: our stuff to TikTok unless it's like a Super Bowl commercial,
Speaker 5: It makes way more sense to go on social. So
Speaker 5: I think it's just about leveraging my knowledge and my
Speaker 5: ability of knowing how to grow on social media and
Speaker 5: knowing how to bring those companies and their products to
Speaker 5: a younger audience.
Speaker 4: So, Josh, when you think about you and your partner Chris,
Speaker 4: when you think about engaging businesses, are you guys sitting
Speaker 4: back on your heels and waiting for these great companies
Speaker 4: to reach out to you or do you proactively go
Speaker 4: out and engage with them?
Speaker 3: Yeah? And how do you do it?
Speaker 5: Yeah? No, we're very proactive. One of the first things
Speaker 5: I learned from coming out to LA was how often
Speaker 5: agencies and agents are in the get called business. Instead
Speaker 5: of making calls, right, they kind of sit there and
Speaker 5: they kind of wait around and if one of their
Speaker 5: ten fifteen clients is someone that's getting a lot of
Speaker 5: inbound and people are all They're like, perfect, I can
Speaker 5: do this. I can answer the phone all day and
Speaker 5: say yeah, sure, we'll take your money. Like me and
Speaker 5: Chris will have these weekly meetings where we talk to
Speaker 5: each other and I'm telling him about different brands I'm
Speaker 5: enjoying right now, or different campaigns I see brands doing
Speaker 5: that I'm really interested in. Or oh I see this
Speaker 5: company kind of rising. Maybe there's an investment player equity
Speaker 5: play there, and we talk about that and then we'll
Speaker 5: go out and reach out to the company. This I
Speaker 5: think shows a company. Okay, this is an authentic relationship.
Speaker 5: This is the creator who is actually reaching out to us.
Speaker 5: They really must enjoy our brand. This is something they
Speaker 5: want more than just oh, we're gonna offer them a
Speaker 5: paycheck and they want the money. So for us being proactive,
Speaker 5: it gives us more ability to do what we want
Speaker 5: with the campaign because we're usually able to not only
Speaker 5: come with them with hey, we're really interested in working
Speaker 5: with you guys. But here's three different tiers of what
Speaker 5: the deal could look like. Here's you know that tier
Speaker 5: one that's going to cost a little bit more, but
Speaker 5: look at all these really cool different videos we can do,
Speaker 5: or high production valued stuff we can do like we
Speaker 5: did with Fallout where we made a whole trailer and
Speaker 5: people were like, holy is Josh in the Fallout show
Speaker 5: coming on probaty?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: So, then like you can have these different tiered things
Speaker 5: and that allows us to feel like we get more
Speaker 5: of that creative control, which my audience is going to
Speaker 5: enjoy that more doesn't feel like a billboard. They watch
Speaker 5: that ad and they actually consume it and they enjoy it.
Speaker 5: They're like, this is how ads shouldn't be done. This
Speaker 5: is instead of a Okay, here's another brand post.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So, and Josh, is that through like social media, text
Speaker 4: email or do you and Chris try to set up
Speaker 4: a zoom or a meeting in person?
Speaker 5: Yeah? So it typically starts off with an email. I
Speaker 5: think people really undervalue the cold email. That's what I did,
Speaker 5: even when I was like seventeen eighteen, just to meet people.
Speaker 5: It was Hey, I'm really interested in just getting to
Speaker 5: pick your ear for thirty minutes. Would you like to
Speaker 5: hop on a call? And that's how I was able
Speaker 5: to make a lot of connections in the venture world,
Speaker 5: and that's how I was able to meet people like
Speaker 5: Mark Wahlberg when we started the production company, who helped
Speaker 5: a ton Like, I think the cold email is so valuable.
Speaker 5: So we'll start off typically with that.
Speaker 2: So what do you say in that email?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it varies depending on you know, who
Speaker 5: I'm talking to.
Speaker 2: But the Mark Wahlberg, Yeah, Mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 5: I mean, for Mark, I'd looked up to him when
Speaker 5: I was younger. I had always looked at him as
Speaker 5: somebody that was able to transition from career to career
Speaker 5: really really seamlessly, and well, you know, starts off and
Speaker 5: he's Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, right, And I'd
Speaker 5: always thought like that is pretty similar to the social
Speaker 5: media creator, the person that makes like it's like a
Speaker 5: one hit wonder kind of vibe. Today, you never know
Speaker 5: how long that lifespan is going to be. If they
Speaker 5: don't keep making really good content, they're going to disappear,
Speaker 5: right the same way like musicians back then, they make
Speaker 5: one good song, a couple of good songs, if that
Speaker 5: was it, then they like fell off and no one
Speaker 5: really heard from them again. So he was able to
Speaker 5: transition and then go into acting and start doing his
Speaker 5: acting and then he you know, becomes an entrepreneur and
Speaker 5: is opening up different companies. It's like he might have
Speaker 5: done steps in a different way, but I always had
Speaker 5: looked at that and been like, oh, that's really inspiring.
Speaker 5: I kind of want to follow those footsteps. So I
Speaker 5: pretty much said that in the email, right, I looked
Speaker 5: up to you. I've seen how you've had an ability
Speaker 5: to transition from career to career. I'm someone that really
Speaker 5: aspires to do that and wants my career to kind
Speaker 5: of follow in your footsteps. And I'm starting this production company,
Speaker 5: so I would love to be able to pick your
Speaker 5: ear on just advice and how I can navigate Hollywood.
Speaker 5: So I sent that email. It ended up getting received
Speaker 5: by the head of his production company, Archie Gibbs, got
Speaker 5: on the phone with him, talked with him for a while.
Speaker 5: He was like, you really do remind me of Mark.
Speaker 5: Let me get you in contact with Mark. And then
Speaker 5: I got in contact with Mark and that's when we
Speaker 5: started the joint venture for the production company. So that's
Speaker 5: where my production company was for the first year with
Speaker 5: his unscripted company, and he was able to, you know,
Speaker 5: do the whole parade me around Hollywood and be able
Speaker 5: to introduce me to certain people, and that really helped
Speaker 5: kind of get us going at the beginning and allow
Speaker 5: me to sit in rooms as a nineteen eighteen year
Speaker 5: old and have people take me seriously because Mark had said, no,
Speaker 5: I trust them.
Speaker 2: When you're approaching different deals, whether it's a brand, whether
Speaker 2: it's a company. You've hit on something that Alex talks
Speaker 2: about a lot, and we've talked about a lot on
Speaker 2: this show, which is moving from sort of asset to principle,
Speaker 2: and a lot of what is embedded in that is
Speaker 2: getting a stake, getting equity. How much do you think
Speaker 2: about sort of the ownership piece, because clearly the entrepreneurial
Speaker 2: side of you wants to be an owner. It sounds
Speaker 2: like is that fair?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, I mean I think I'm always thinking about that,
Speaker 5: if that's from when I'm working with a brand or
Speaker 5: a company, or even when I'm creating my own IP
Speaker 5: as content, because you're building a library, right and that
Speaker 5: can then go and sell and day. I mean, I
Speaker 5: think it's something I always think about, especially because I
Speaker 5: always want to be able to be a part of
Speaker 5: the present in the future and keep my finger on
Speaker 5: that pulse. And I think there's no better way than
Speaker 5: investing in a company that's going to be massive in
Speaker 5: the next five to seven years. Right, That allows me
Speaker 5: in five to seven years to still be a part
Speaker 5: of the conversation. So for me, it's something that's really important.
Speaker 5: It's something that has been given to me as advice
Speaker 5: when talking to people like Ashton Kutcher, and he said,
Speaker 5: you know, if I had taken equity in every single
Speaker 5: one of the deals that I had done for commercials
Speaker 5: when I was younger, and instead of the paycheck, even
Speaker 5: if I cut the paycheck in half and took it
Speaker 5: as equity instead, I would be one hundred extracher than
Speaker 5: I am today. So there's just been a lot of
Speaker 5: people that you know, from me doing those calls and
Speaker 5: cold emails, like that's the lessons that have been taught
Speaker 5: to me and those people have been through it. And
Speaker 5: I always like to pride myself from knowing what I
Speaker 5: know and knowing what I don't. So I'm going to
Speaker 5: listen to the people that do know it and hopefully
Speaker 5: make the right decisions.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's interesting too. I mean, just to proud
Speaker 2: to you a little bit. There are a lot I mean,
Speaker 2: you talk about the echoes and the similarities with Mark Wahlberg,
Speaker 2: And you said it earlier, Josh, there are a lot
Speaker 2: of similarities between what's happened with athletes and what's happened
Speaker 2: with creators. Don't you think I mean this whole notion
Speaker 2: of not just endorsing a brand, but being I mean,
Speaker 2: this is something you've talked about a lot also from
Speaker 2: your early days as a player.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And look, I think that the real power is in
Speaker 4: the talent, right and I think we've seen this in
Speaker 4: college sports. We've seen this on entrepreneurship where at one point,
Speaker 4: probably Mark Wahlberg and I started, a talent was just
Speaker 4: a talent. You get a fee and you stay in
Speaker 4: your corner. Today the pendulum is shifting anile with the
Speaker 4: actual players and the students have more power than the
Speaker 4: NC DOUBLEA. I guess for me, you know, I entered
Speaker 4: the Big Leads at eighteen years old, and I was
Speaker 4: an All Star at nineteen years old. So by nature,
Speaker 4: the power came to me because I was able to
Speaker 4: make an impact. And I think the same is. You
Speaker 4: know for you guys, companies where there's AREMANI new balance.
Speaker 4: Whoever you work with they want you to bring, you know,
Speaker 4: enterprise value to them revenue, eyeballs, and you're doing that
Speaker 4: as well as anybody. Do you do you see that
Speaker 4: as well?
Speaker 5: Yeah? No, I mean for sure, I think that's what
Speaker 5: they look at when they're deciding who they want to
Speaker 5: align with. Who do we want to have back our brand,
Speaker 5: Who do we want to have be the modern day?
Speaker 5: You know, you don't put the brand logo up on
Speaker 5: a billboard anymore. You can stick it on someone's back
Speaker 5: and they can walk around and wear it, right, So
Speaker 5: I think that's exactly what they're.
Speaker 3: Looking at all. Right.
Speaker 4: So, Josh, if you were a part owner of the
Speaker 4: Minnesota Timbules and the Links, two or three things that
Speaker 4: you would be thinking about to position those brands ahead
Speaker 4: of the rest of the other teams.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think one thing that I've
Speaker 5: noticed a couple teams step in and really start focusing
Speaker 5: on is, you know, their social play, and I think
Speaker 5: that does build a massive community. Like when I I'm
Speaker 5: a big Buffalo Bills fan, and I think they are
Speaker 5: one of the teams that I've noticed through sports that
Speaker 5: are doing an incredible job from their social side, Like
Speaker 5: when you look at their TikTok, when you look at
Speaker 5: the videos they're posting and how much they're posting. Their
Speaker 5: social team is in on every single trend that's going
Speaker 5: on as soon it's as it's happening, and they're getting
Speaker 5: their players to get involved in it every single week
Speaker 5: when they're in practice and you know, coming off of
Speaker 5: practice or going in to start like, they're always getting
Speaker 5: these really cool clips, and I think that does going
Speaker 5: back to like building community, it does really get the
Speaker 5: fan to get to know more about the you know,
Speaker 5: their favorite quarterback Josh Allen Right, to get to know
Speaker 5: more about the new wide receiver coming into the team,
Speaker 5: Keon Coleman. It's the same thing we've almost seen with
Speaker 5: the people getting obsessed with watching the Hard Knocks stuff
Speaker 5: and then all of a sudden, people are like, oh,
Speaker 5: well they're one of my new favorite teams now just
Speaker 5: because they've just gotten this Hard Knocks and you really
Speaker 5: get to see, you know, how much these guys are
Speaker 5: putting into this. It's not just oh, we're going out
Speaker 5: and we're playing a fun sport today. This is their
Speaker 5: lives and they are putting every single ounce of like blood,
Speaker 5: sweat and tears into it every single day, and you
Speaker 5: get to start to have that same feeling like transcend
Speaker 5: through you by watching the content. So for me, I
Speaker 5: think social obviously is a massive play to get the
Speaker 5: fans just to ride even more and more for your team.
Speaker 5: But I mean with Minnesota, you got some new guys
Speaker 5: coming in this year, so getting to film that dynamic
Speaker 5: and how you guys are building off of, you know,
Speaker 5: a great year last year, Anthony Edwards absolutely ball and
Speaker 5: out in the playoffs. Like getting to film this journey
Speaker 5: as this new team comes together with a huge trade,
Speaker 5: to me, that's something I would really want to watch,
Speaker 5: and I think separates like there's not people doing their
Speaker 5: own videos of these big trades and how this new
Speaker 5: dynamic is coming into work together and how these two
Speaker 5: superstars are gonna blend and mesh. Like that's something as
Speaker 5: a fan of just sports, I'd want to see all
Speaker 5: the time and I would consume.
Speaker 2: So let's stick with sports if we can, because you know,
Speaker 2: one of the things you're clearly a passionate fan. It
Speaker 2: is fascinating. Just as an aside that the Buffalo Bills,
Speaker 2: with all apologies to Bill's Mafi, is the most forward
Speaker 2: thing when you think Buffalo, you.
Speaker 5: Know, the way you would think yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 2: But as you look across the sports world, like from
Speaker 2: a league or from a sports perspective, like who understands
Speaker 2: their audience the best. I mean, you've done some work
Speaker 2: with the NHL, I know, like who is sort of
Speaker 2: getting it out there.
Speaker 5: I do think that NFL is probably at the top.
Speaker 5: I would say, I think the NBA is doing really
Speaker 5: cool things as well. Like I think a lot of
Speaker 5: people were quick to hate on like the play in tournament,
Speaker 5: but I think it gave us incredible basketball. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 5: I just think that the NFL has done a good
Speaker 5: job of not only knowing their audience but knowing how
Speaker 5: to expand their audience as well. And even the stuff
Speaker 5: with you know, Taylor Swift, like them playing into that.
Speaker 5: There was a lot of people at the beginning that
Speaker 5: were like kind of getting mad about it, but when
Speaker 5: you look at the growth and how many you know, guys,
Speaker 5: girlfriends now aren't just you know, Oh, I cheer for
Speaker 5: the Kansas City Chiefs because of Taylor Swift. They actually
Speaker 5: have become fans of the game. It's it's done something
Speaker 5: that that wouldn't have happened if they didn't start showing
Speaker 5: Taylor Swift at those games, right like that, that type
Speaker 5: of community wouldn't have been as big into football if
Speaker 5: that didn't happen. So I think they saw that and
Speaker 5: they ran with it, and that was a really smart play.
Speaker 5: I think, I don't know if i'd necessarily call this
Speaker 5: the league doing it. I think Caitlyn Clark is doing
Speaker 5: it for the WNBA and being like the biggest talked
Speaker 5: about athlete this past year and bringing such a massive audience.
Speaker 5: Me personally, I never watched WNBA really before I watched
Speaker 5: Kaitlyn Clark in the WNBA, and I had watched you know,
Speaker 5: girls college March Madness a bunch, but I'd never been
Speaker 5: in to the WNBA and she and Angel Reese had
Speaker 5: come together and they have absolutely blown that thing up.
Speaker 5: So for me, I think, you know, those are the
Speaker 5: three leagues that I look at that like get their fans.
Speaker 5: I think the NHL has a long way to go.
Speaker 5: I think that, you know, they still in a lot
Speaker 5: of ways are an old or like elder states Men
Speaker 5: kind of ran league and they don't think about changing
Speaker 5: it and they kind of want to stay traditional. It
Speaker 5: seems so for me, I think they're one that I
Speaker 5: would love to see start to make some changes because
Speaker 5: I love hockey and yeah, is a sport that I
Speaker 5: want to have grown. And I know it's a hard
Speaker 5: barrier to entry because it's expensive to get the equipment
Speaker 5: and the ice and there's things that you need to
Speaker 5: pay for that's harder than you know, basketball, you can
Speaker 5: just go get a ball and play in a park.
Speaker 5: So you got to make the barrier to entry easier.
Speaker 2: So, Josh, I want to shift a little bit and
Speaker 2: talk about your investment thesis because you know, you start
Speaker 2: a venture capital firm. I believe what's the idea behind it?
Speaker 2: I mean clearly from the beginning. You know you talked
Speaker 2: about even the tour that you went on, you know,
Speaker 2: sort of gathering these you know, like minded creators around
Speaker 2: you to help sort of create sort of a super friends. Yeah,
Speaker 2: model talk to us about investments. How do you suss
Speaker 2: them out? How do they come to you? What's the process?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Yeah, So for me, when I'm looking at a
Speaker 5: company or I'm looking to invest, I think there's a
Speaker 5: couple of things I go down.
Speaker 3: First.
Speaker 5: It's always looking at the founder, right, like what is
Speaker 5: their history? What have they done before? Because if I
Speaker 5: believe in a founder then I'm going to invest in them,
Speaker 5: right more than the company. Oh great founders going to
Speaker 5: find a way to make it work, if that's pivoting
Speaker 5: their company, if that's you know, figuring out how do
Speaker 5: they go from here to doing something else? Like I
Speaker 5: a lot of the time love to invest in the
Speaker 5: founder themselves. Past that, it's looking at how can I
Speaker 5: Josh Richards as a talent or I Josh Richards as
Speaker 5: you know, the owner of cross check, Like, how can
Speaker 5: I actually help this company? What am I going to
Speaker 5: be able to provide?
Speaker 2: How am I going to be able to boost them?
Speaker 5: So a little bit to what we were talking about
Speaker 5: earlier is are they somebody that needs to get into
Speaker 5: the conversation with gen Z? Is that an audience that
Speaker 5: they want to acquire? Well, you know, I'm somebody that
Speaker 5: has grown an audience of forty million plus online, so
Speaker 5: I know how to do that. I can help them
Speaker 5: with acquiring that audience, with getting to gen Z. So
Speaker 5: for me, I think those are like the two things
Speaker 5: that I look at most when investing is you know,
Speaker 5: what am I going to be able to provide to
Speaker 5: them to be a good partner? And then as a
Speaker 5: founder themselves, how much do I actruly believe in that
Speaker 5: founder because I love being able to invest in the
Speaker 5: founder more than the company a lot at the time.
Speaker 4: So, Josh, I'm sure one of the challenges and part
Speaker 4: of the gift and curse of being so young as
Speaker 4: you think about raising capital outside capital limited partners, whether
Speaker 4: it's institution or family offices, walk us through if Jason
Speaker 4: is a founder of a company and you like it
Speaker 4: and you want to make a big bet or a
Speaker 4: medium sized bet, are you thinking about it from your
Speaker 4: balance sheet? Are you thinking about it from investors? And
Speaker 4: how do you think about raising capital?
Speaker 5: So when we raise capital for Animal Capital, we really
Speaker 5: were trying to make a splash in the space with
Speaker 5: the people that were attached to it, right, So the
Speaker 5: people that we were bringing it was all about when
Speaker 5: we're going to go to a company and we're talking
Speaker 5: about investing, look at all the people that are also
Speaker 5: under this list that are willing to also you know,
Speaker 5: help in some way.
Speaker 2: So for us, remind us who those people are.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So for us, it was you know, getting people
Speaker 5: in like Thomas Tull who absolute killer, getting in people
Speaker 5: like the Winkleboss Twins, getting in people like Mark Wahlberg
Speaker 5: getting in those people that have leverage and have built
Speaker 5: in audience as well in a plethor of different spaces, right, Like,
Speaker 5: those people are all coming from different areas of entertainment
Speaker 5: and this industry, so we're able to get advice from
Speaker 5: many different lanes and people that have dealt with different
Speaker 5: companies before in different lanes. So that's kind of like
Speaker 5: how we were going to raise. We were going to
Speaker 5: have the max amount of partners we could and really
Speaker 5: try to make us splash. This was also something that
Speaker 5: I was doing at a young age, and I wanted
Speaker 5: people to be able to look past the fact that
Speaker 5: I was just you know, nineteen twenty years old when
Speaker 5: I was starting this. So then going to you know,
Speaker 5: make this bet. I'm always looking at it as other
Speaker 5: people's money, you know, this is this isn't something where
Speaker 5: I can go and have fun. It's not gambling. I'm
Speaker 5: not out here like playing with my own money. It's
Speaker 5: a very serious responsibility when you're you know, investing other
Speaker 5: people's money. And I always hold it in that faster
Speaker 5: than in that light. I always think about it that
Speaker 5: way because I want to be able to go and
Speaker 5: raise fun too and have all those people want to
Speaker 5: come back in and invest again when we go and
Speaker 5: raise you know, thirty, So it's it's yeah.
Speaker 4: And Josh, you talked about founders and the key of it.
Speaker 4: I always refer to investing the jockey at the horse.
Speaker 4: So what are some of those qualities that you're looking
Speaker 4: for specifically that you turn to Chris and say, you
Speaker 4: know what, we have to back this guy, Jason, He's
Speaker 4: really got it.
Speaker 3: What are those things look like?
Speaker 5: One that's always the easiest is like looking at the
Speaker 5: person's like track record, right, being able to see things
Speaker 5: that they've done in the past. Is this their second
Speaker 5: or third time doing something? What have their other companies
Speaker 5: look like? And then it's also the team around them
Speaker 5: and how the team I think acts with that founder.
Speaker 5: Like I like being able to see how the team
Speaker 5: around the founder it feels. How are they like on
Speaker 5: the call when I'm having a meeting with all of them,
Speaker 5: are they people that seem like they want to ride
Speaker 5: and die for this founder? Like? Is this a place
Speaker 5: where people are going to, you know, go to the
Speaker 5: trenches for each other or is it a place that
Speaker 5: you can see, man, you guys are like just holding
Speaker 5: together here? You know what I mean, Like one small
Speaker 5: little separation or one off put comment and this whole
Speaker 5: thing can come crumbling down. Right, So I think it's
Speaker 5: really important to go and look past not only how
Speaker 5: the founder cares about, you know, business or when they're
Speaker 5: looking at you know, what school do they go to
Speaker 5: or anything, but how are they interacting with the employees
Speaker 5: and their partners and the people that they're working with.
Speaker 5: Because the last thing you want is to invest into
Speaker 5: a company that ends up having a partner feud and
Speaker 5: you don't want to be in that. So I think
Speaker 5: that's really important to me. But yeah, I think those
Speaker 5: are those are the ones that I feel like I
Speaker 5: find myself looking at the most when I'm in those meetings.
Speaker 2: And so, you know, as we look at the media landscape,
Speaker 2: obviously we've talked a lot about social media. You said
Speaker 2: earlier something I think really important, which is you're trying
Speaker 2: to bridge all of the media together. You've done some
Speaker 2: work with Amazon. How does that come about? And what
Speaker 2: is it about Amazon that appealed to you and how
Speaker 2: does that work?
Speaker 5: I think amazon Is mission is quite similar to mine
Speaker 5: with what they're doing with Prime Video, bringing in Thursday
Speaker 5: night football in the unscripted and scripted content that they're
Speaker 5: bringing into Prime Video. So for me, it's I'm able
Speaker 5: to go to a home that has the same mission
Speaker 5: and I feel like, Okay, we're both now working together
Speaker 5: in a more in a better fashion to both complete
Speaker 5: our goals. I'm able to go to Amazon and I'm
Speaker 5: able to get plugged in with athletes, and I'm able
Speaker 5: to get plugged in with the NFL, and I'm able
Speaker 5: to do those things that I want to do on
Speaker 5: the sports side. But then as well, I'm able to
Speaker 5: bring in my scripted content. I'm able to bring in
Speaker 5: my unscripted content to a home where they're able to
Speaker 5: kind of take everything I have. So for me, it
Speaker 5: was just it was a it was a perfect like relationship.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So given that we're sitting here, you know, with the
Speaker 2: guy who used to play baseball, you obviously have a
Speaker 2: lot of insights into the sports world, like who were
Speaker 2: the present company excluded? Because he doesn't need to he
Speaker 2: doesn't need the attention. I mean, who are the athletes
Speaker 2: who pay attention to in terms of their social following,
Speaker 2: in terms of you know, their sophistication when it comes
Speaker 2: to building an audience.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I think jenen Brunson's done a good job
Speaker 5: with his podcast. I think them opening that up and
Speaker 5: believing in it after a rough start, Like they opened
Speaker 5: that podcast and they went oh and four right after
Speaker 5: their team lost the next four games right after doing
Speaker 5: that podcast, so people were on them pretty heavy, like
Speaker 5: don't do this anymore. Stop the podcast, like this isn't working,
Speaker 5: and it's just one of those like unfortunate coincidences I think,
Speaker 5: where you know they're doing the podcast and they start
Speaker 5: to lose, so then you know, fans aren't gonna be
Speaker 5: happy about that. They're like, oh, what you're You're not
Speaker 5: able to practically do the podcast, when in all reality,
Speaker 5: you know they're super patience. Everybody knows that they're just
Speaker 5: like they're laid. So they got a tough, tough go
Speaker 5: at the beginning, but they kept with it and I
Speaker 5: think it's an really enjoyable watch and I do like
Speaker 5: what they're doing with that. Paul Rabel is somebody that
Speaker 5: has done a great job. It isn't obviously playing right now,
Speaker 5: but a former la crosse athlete that's been able to
Speaker 5: pivot and build an entire empire, and he has his
Speaker 5: stuff with the PLO. He's working on a movie right now.
Speaker 5: Like the things he's been able to pivot towards and do,
Speaker 5: I've always found really impressive in respect and grew up
Speaker 5: watching him and calling him the million dollar Man, the
Speaker 5: first guy to make a million dollars from lacrosse, Like
Speaker 5: that was always a huge thing for us as kids
Speaker 5: when we wanted to go and become professional cross players,
Speaker 5: because it was like, oh my gosh, he was able
Speaker 5: to do it and he didn't need to also go
Speaker 5: be a teacher or do something else as well. This
Speaker 5: is crazy. So yeah, I think those are a couple
Speaker 5: of guys that I look at a lot. I'm hoping
Speaker 5: to see more and more in the NHL of guys
Speaker 5: starting to come out. Like I did a video with
Speaker 5: Mitch Marner and a couple other guys. Dean Dawkins was
Speaker 5: one of them and then a cross player as well,
Speaker 5: And when we did that video, it was great to
Speaker 5: see like Mitch Marner just being himself on camera and
Speaker 5: joking around and having that and like, you don't get
Speaker 5: to see that from NHL guys ever, Like McDavid doesn't
Speaker 5: even have a social media right and he's like the
Speaker 5: number one guy in the league. So that becomes a
Speaker 5: massive problem for a league when like your best players
Speaker 5: don't even care to post. Yeah. Right, So for me,
Speaker 5: I want to see, like I want to see Austin
Speaker 5: Matthews giving his take on situations in the NHL. I
Speaker 5: want to see those guys getting to talk more. Like
Speaker 5: for me, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, because it's interesting, you know your point earlier about
Speaker 2: the NFL sort of coming on strong. The NBA was
Speaker 2: on that corner for a long time, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: you saw, you know, such a player driven league, and
Speaker 2: the NFL, as it often does, it's like, okay, we
Speaker 2: got this now, I mean, and you really have seen
Speaker 2: just a really concerted effort on the parts of teams
Speaker 2: and the parts of players to just get out there more.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating that it's happening.
Speaker 5: Even from like them having like the postgame interviews, like
Speaker 5: the way they joke around in the postgame interviews and
Speaker 5: they have fun sometimes in them. You know, Like that's
Speaker 5: something that I see in the NBA and I see
Speaker 5: in the NFL that I don't see in the NHL whatsoever.
Speaker 5: Like guys are up there and they might have just
Speaker 5: had the best performance of all time and scored like
Speaker 5: four goals and had two assists, and they'll be like,
Speaker 5: so like talk about it, and the guy will be like, yeah, no,
Speaker 5: I just coaches in the team and that's really why
Speaker 5: I was able to do that, doing it for the boy.
Speaker 5: And it's like, no, dude, you did it. You had
Speaker 5: four goals and two assists. You did everything toeah like
Speaker 5: have a little like yeah, no, I'm that guy. Like
Speaker 5: people want to see that a little bit, right, and
Speaker 5: they don't. That's just not how you're taught to play,
Speaker 5: like dressing rooms from when you're three years old. It's
Speaker 5: always like, no, it's the team, it's the team. It's
Speaker 5: the team.
Speaker 3: That's no way.
Speaker 4: That sounds exactly like major League Baseball, so similar to
Speaker 4: base I mean, I remember Josh's a rookie, Like I
Speaker 4: couldn't even go back to the back of the plane
Speaker 4: to use the restroom and you're supposed to get there
Speaker 4: early face in the locker room, if you know. Goose
Speaker 4: Gossage was awesome, but he was like twice my age.
Speaker 4: I was eighteen, he was forty four.
Speaker 5: I was so.
Speaker 3: Scared of him.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, and yes sir, yes, And then you look
Speaker 4: back and you know things are starting to change.
Speaker 3: But I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I mean, NFL, NBA, they're a lot more pop culture
Speaker 4: and they're.
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, I'm that guy.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we would never.
Speaker 3: Be able to say that in baseball.
Speaker 4: No, I do have a question about because Jason's mentioned
Speaker 4: a few times the Josh Richards Empire, and I'm always
Speaker 4: fascinated by entrepreneur's vision. So if you think about your
Speaker 4: vision for the next seven to ten years, I'm trying
Speaker 4: to think about what is a great example. Are you
Speaker 4: thinking about your empire that looks a little bit like
Speaker 4: Ryan Secret with a blend of Mark Wahlberg with a
Speaker 4: splash of Sequoia capital tell us what the vision looks like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think you did a pretty good
Speaker 5: job there, and that sounds like a pretty great next
Speaker 5: for me. But no, I think, yeah, I've always looked
Speaker 5: at it as I think Mark Wahlberg is the example
Speaker 5: that I've I've used a lot. Just his ability to
Speaker 5: be in so many different fields, I think, to me
Speaker 5: is something I always have enjoyed. I've never been somebody
Speaker 5: that just wants to kind of, you know, stick to
Speaker 5: one thing and do that one thing and that.
Speaker 3: That be it.
Speaker 5: So I really hope in the next five to seven
Speaker 5: were able to grow at Crosscheck and be at the
Speaker 5: forefront of creating content for gen Z and scripted and unscripted.
Speaker 5: I really hope to continue getting to not only be
Speaker 5: a part of content, but get more and more into
Speaker 5: acting and scripted content myself and being in front of
Speaker 5: the camera. So I think mark for me is definitely
Speaker 5: that I guess goal or kind of you know, path
Speaker 5: that I would really like to to go down.
Speaker 2: You know who I see a lot of Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 5: I will take that, yeah, every single.
Speaker 2: Day, especially because like when you because when you talk
Speaker 2: to Ryan, I mean he does such an amazing job
Speaker 2: of talking about essentially like putting it on his back, right,
Speaker 2: I mean with Deadpool being the example, right, I mean
Speaker 2: that's a movie that was essentially, as he tells it,
Speaker 2: kind of left for dead. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, do you know that he leaked the first
Speaker 5: the first trailer piece that was him?
Speaker 3: It was that smart.
Speaker 5: He I was so smart And.
Speaker 2: That's what got it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, That's what really got it done. Is like they
Speaker 5: had this little test shoot they had done and it
Speaker 5: somehow got leaked and no one knows, and like Ryan
Speaker 5: was able to leak and it got so much fan
Speaker 5: attention that they were like, we have to do this,
Speaker 5: we have to And that was him believing in himself
Speaker 5: and taking a risk and then look how it paid off.
Speaker 2: Right, And I believe the next part of that story
Speaker 2: is they shoot the movie and then he literally walks
Speaker 2: off the set in the suit and takes the suit
Speaker 2: home because he knows they're not going to market it
Speaker 2: the way that he wants it to be marketed, and
Speaker 2: he does all these like gorilla videos that then markets
Speaker 2: the markets the movie. I mean, it's also this this
Speaker 2: idea of working with brands in an authentic way, because
Speaker 2: that's what Maximum Effort has done so much of. And
Speaker 2: when I hear you talk about what you and Chris
Speaker 2: are doing, that sort of approach seems very So. You know,
Speaker 2: you're going to be a team owner, You're gonna have
Speaker 2: a billion dollars franchises. Yeah right, We're going to end
Speaker 2: this as we do, with a rapid fire, so we'll
Speaker 2: bounce it back and forth. What's one word to describe
Speaker 2: your deal making style?
Speaker 5: Proactive?
Speaker 3: What's more important your instincts or data instincts?
Speaker 2: Who's your dream deal making partner I'm.
Speaker 5: Gonna go Ryan Reynolds.
Speaker 3: Ah nice.
Speaker 4: What's the best piece of advice you ever received on
Speaker 4: deal making or business?
Speaker 5: Can I give two insertions? I think one being the
Speaker 5: invest in the founder and not necessarily the product. And
Speaker 5: then two, when you're creating a company or you're gonna
Speaker 5: be investing, or you're dealing with someone that's going to
Speaker 5: be a long term partner and you're making that decision
Speaker 5: on who that partner is going to be. I think
Speaker 5: it's really really important to know that's going to be
Speaker 5: someone that you can go to the trenches with, that
Speaker 5: you wake up in the morning and you're really excited
Speaker 5: to get to work with this person, because if not,
Speaker 5: it's not gonna be fun, it's not gonna feel great,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be such a tedious thing, and you're never
Speaker 5: gonna be able to put forth your best effort.
Speaker 2: What's the worst advice you've ever been given?
Speaker 5: There were people on the business side that I told
Speaker 5: me I should step away from content and focus more
Speaker 5: on the entrepreneurial side, and I think that's probably the
Speaker 5: silliest thing that has ever been said to me.
Speaker 3: What is your hype song before a big meeting or negotiation.
Speaker 5: Oh the song I was listening to on the way
Speaker 5: year was Sunday Morning by Maroon five, So I'll go
Speaker 5: with that.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 4: You can only watch one sport for the rest of
Speaker 4: your life. Which one is it?
Speaker 5: Gosh, this is so hard.
Speaker 3: Test to your Canadian roots.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 5: And if it was live, I go hockey and it's
Speaker 5: not even close. If it's live, it's hockey and it's
Speaker 5: not even close. And on TV TV.
Speaker 2: Football, Okay, what team do you want to see win
Speaker 2: a championship more than any male?
Speaker 5: Mayple leaves so badly. Please, just in my lifetime, make
Speaker 5: it pass for life. Please.
Speaker 4: One fun fact about you that some of your colleagues
Speaker 4: will be surprised that you have.
Speaker 5: I did dance growing up. I don't think people would
Speaker 5: expect that because I'm a terrible dancer. But I did
Speaker 5: do hip hop dance for like a year growing up.
Speaker 3: Do you want to show us a little I don't think.
Speaker 5: I think I just could. I think I could just
Speaker 5: do the worm when I was younger, so I thought
Speaker 5: I was going to be a really good dancer and
Speaker 5: it did not translate whatsoever.
Speaker 2: So all right, well, this has been really Thank you
Speaker 2: for doing this.
Speaker 5: No, Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
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