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Speaker 2: See it there.

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Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 7: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United

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Speaker 7: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal

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Speaker 7: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 8: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 1: All right, guys, welcome back, Eyl. We have special guest.

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Speaker 1: This is always good comm stations when we get to

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Speaker 1: talk to people in the media space and cultural space

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Speaker 1: in the business world, because that's kind of our niche

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Speaker 1: as far as you know, looking at the business behind

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Speaker 1: what people actually see. So everybody's familiar with Complex. You've

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Speaker 1: built a tremendous brand in the world of culture, sports, entertainment,

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Speaker 1: anything that really does with media, New age media. They

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Speaker 1: definitely have led the charge for a long time. So

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Speaker 1: Marksha Fitzgibbons.

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Speaker 2: That's me, Yes, for like you build it a you know,

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Speaker 2: Indian name, and I learned maybe a year ago that

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Speaker 2: in India it's a woman's name. So like I've been

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Speaker 2: running around, you know, my whole life. You know, at

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Speaker 2: least I'm the only one, right, I've never met in

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Speaker 2: business another Marsha. So this is the first, the thankful

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Speaker 2: part of it.

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Speaker 1: But I always think, what does it mean?

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Speaker 2: It would be smilar to like Elijah, like you know,

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Speaker 2: sort of.

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Speaker 1: A freedom the woman version of Elijah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, or Emmanuel or something like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very none of these people that your name are women.

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Speaker 1: Emanuel Elijah.

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Speaker 5: Correct.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't say. I'm you know, huge on Indian culture,

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Speaker 2: no expert, but uh, you know that that's what I've

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Speaker 2: been told that it's you know, not traditionally used as

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Speaker 2: a man's name. So anyway, what kind of makes it interesting?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, the first Mosca we've had on the show.

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Speaker 2: Probably the last, depending on how this goes. No press

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Speaker 2: me too incendiary.

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Speaker 1: So President of Complex, Yeah, so you're I'm sure you

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Speaker 1: have a lot on your plate now you guys are

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Speaker 1: gearing up for a Complex car. Yeah that that's always

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Speaker 1: a good time. I think we've been to at least

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Speaker 1: one we've been.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we went to Long Each Long Beast two years ago.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that was cool. Who was there at that time?

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Speaker 3: I feel like Asap might have been there. He's always there,

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Speaker 3: He's always no you know what it was kit Cutty.

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Speaker 2: Kit Cutty, He's also done in a couple of Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Kit Cutty was was one a headliners, the headliner. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 3: I just remember the sneaker of the year because that's

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Speaker 3: important to me.

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Speaker 5: I was actually I actually had it on as they announced.

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Speaker 3: It and Gary Vee was Yeah, but I think I

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Speaker 3: should came through to it was big.

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Speaker 5: It was big.

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Speaker 2: I mean every time, it's going to be a lot,

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Speaker 2: a lot bigger this year. We As you guys know,

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Speaker 2: Complex was sold to BuzzFeed a few years ago. I

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Speaker 2: think it didn't sort of fit within their ecosystem and

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Speaker 2: as a result, you know, I would say the business

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Speaker 2: side of Complex eroded a bit or wasn't nurtured to

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Speaker 2: its best degree. Fortunately, they they did a good job

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Speaker 2: keeping up the audience and growing that side of things.

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Speaker 2: But one thing that I think like kind of suffered

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Speaker 2: was Complex con They just didn't put the investment into it,

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Speaker 2: and we are putting a huge investment into it this

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Speaker 2: year really with sort of the thought that like we

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Speaker 2: need to really like kind of establish to the community,

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Speaker 2: to the fans, to the creators, to the brands that

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Speaker 2: like Complex is back, It's back to its core. And

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Speaker 2: you know that's where you see like this investment, Like

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Speaker 2: Travis is creative directing it. He and playwhere doing sort

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Speaker 2: of headlining nights. He's doing this whole sort of like

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Speaker 2: micro con within it called Cactus Con, and you know

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Speaker 2: it's just like you know, obviously a lot of complications

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Speaker 2: and sort of pulling that all together, but we really

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Speaker 2: think it's like the biggest marketing moment for the brand

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Speaker 2: and sort of sets the halo effect for the brand overall.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty unique when a media company can get sixty

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Speaker 2: sixty five thousand young people to buy tickets, fly out,

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Speaker 2: commute to this physical destination. You know, there's there's really

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Speaker 2: very in my mind, very few media brands that can

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Speaker 2: do it. So it's a it's a special relationship we

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Speaker 2: have with the audience. And you know, just based on

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Speaker 2: the sort of the historicals with BuzzFeed, it's you guys

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Speaker 2: should come out it's going to be much more impactful

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Speaker 2: and meaningful than years before.

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Speaker 3: And the yeah we went it was in a long beach,

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Speaker 3: but this year it's actually moving to Vegas.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, what was the idea thought process behind all?

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Speaker 1: Right?

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Speaker 3: We one of the things we see in events is

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Speaker 3: you have something that's established in one place and it's

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Speaker 3: working there, keep it there, but you're moving it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So it was, you know, it was based on the

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Speaker 2: investment the BuzzFeed was making in it. It was you know,

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Speaker 2: it was shrinking, right, it was it needed an invigoration,

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Speaker 2: and Vegas being like the entertainment capital of America, we

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Speaker 2: felt like, you know, all the clubs, Live, Zook, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Everyone the city will program around it as well, like

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Speaker 2: they'll really embrace it. I think there's like eighty or

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Speaker 2: ninety thousand young people that travel to Vegas every day.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's very close proximity to southern California, and

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Speaker 2: we just felt like we needed to make a big,

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Speaker 2: bold statement. It's in the new Convention Center, which is

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Speaker 2: attached to the Fountain Blue. You know, you've got Live

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Speaker 2: in there and whatever, Poppy Steak and all these things

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Speaker 2: that are creating energy, and we felt like, you know,

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Speaker 2: just we could also excite the artist community, and I

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Speaker 2: think that was like part of like, you know, sort

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Speaker 2: of getting Travis involved. Was like, hey, it's new, it's fresh,

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Speaker 2: it's never been done before. That generally excites people, but

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Speaker 2: it's definitely a risk. I was, you know, I won't lie.

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Speaker 2: I was concerned about it. I was like like our

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Speaker 2: you know, brands don't usually say that Vegas is a

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Speaker 2: priority market, but like to you know, my sort of

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Speaker 2: I guess delight. Everyone's been really supportive of it, embracing it,

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Speaker 2: and if you look at you know, we put the

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Speaker 2: flyer out the other day. It's a mix of amazing

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Speaker 2: artists and great brands, and we're we're super excited about it.

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Speaker 2: I think it's going to be very impactful.

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Speaker 1: So okay, so let's talk about complex What you did

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Speaker 1: at the beginning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was there from my first job out of college.

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Speaker 2: I worked at this magazine called The Source, which you

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Speaker 2: guys obviously now of course, So you know, I started out, like,

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Speaker 2: you know, getting coffee and all like the administrative stuff

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Speaker 2: that you would do back then. And you know, I like,

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Speaker 2: you know, I grew up like single mom. She never

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Speaker 2: made very much money. So, like, I was very hungry

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Speaker 2: to like make money. And I would see all like

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Speaker 2: the sales guys, the ad sales guys, like you know,

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Speaker 2: they all had like benzes and roll exes, and you know,

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Speaker 2: Dave gave them like source chains that Jacob the jeweler

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Speaker 2: made if they hit their number. And I was like, man,

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Speaker 2: you know, like twenty three, twenty two years old, I'm like,

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Speaker 2: you know, I want that. So I begged them every day,

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Speaker 2: give me accounts, give me accounts, give me accounts. So

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Speaker 2: like maybe a year after working there, they started giving

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Speaker 2: me like streetwear accounts. And that's how I met Mark

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Speaker 2: and Seth who owned Echo and Limited. Yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 2: selling them ads essentially, and they're like, hey, we're going

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Speaker 2: to like create this magazine, you know, but it's gonna

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Speaker 2: be a digital magazine and we're going to distribute it

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Speaker 2: on Sony mini discs if you remember those on the

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Speaker 2: hangtags of the apparel, like super bad idea in hindsight.

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Speaker 2: That failed quickly and then it pivoted to physical magazine,

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Speaker 2: which you know published for quite a long time. So

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Speaker 2: I was, yeah, I was one of the very first employees.

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Speaker 2: I was the first salesperson, and I was there from

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Speaker 2: two thousand and two through twenty seventeen. We sold it

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Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen and then I stayed through a sort

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Speaker 2: of a transition period. But yeah, it was a great

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Speaker 2: ride and a lot of you know, sort of like

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Speaker 2: figuring out print magazine businesses and making that work. And

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Speaker 2: then we had was two thousand and eight, two thousand

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Speaker 2: and nine, you had the recession which literally like killed

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Speaker 2: our print business, like went from twenty something million in

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Speaker 2: revenue down to like six in like eighteen months. But

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Speaker 2: fortunately we had really started to work on digital, and

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Speaker 2: digital went from like six one hundred thousand to twelve million,

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Speaker 2: and we were like, oh, we need to you know.

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Speaker 2: And also the friction with the audience, which we didn't

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Speaker 2: really because we have been sort of like print magazine people.

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Speaker 2: We didn't really realize that we're like, make a beautiful thing,

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Speaker 2: put it out every month, put it on newsstands, send

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Speaker 2: it to subscribers. Like that was like the model where

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Speaker 2: digital the internet is so much more democratic. There's no friction.

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Speaker 2: You can reach consumers like almost instantly. Maybe more challenging

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Speaker 2: to make that sort of like physical like long term

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Speaker 2: impact with them, but there's so much more of an

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Speaker 2: ease to scale audience. So that was super exciting for us.

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Speaker 2: We were like, oh wait a minute, Like there's such

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Speaker 2: a bigger audience on the Internet versus a print magazine

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Speaker 2: which has all these distribution limitations. And so that was

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Speaker 2: a super trying time. Like, you know, Echo's core business

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Speaker 2: also had a lot of financial issues at that time,

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Speaker 2: so we had to go independent and raise some capital

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Speaker 2: and then you know, sort of the blog era happened

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Speaker 2: and we were monetizing that way, and then sort of

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Speaker 2: that is a consumer behavior changed and we pivoted into

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Speaker 2: digital video and social and now the pivot into e

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Speaker 2: comm experiences and you know, sort of premium content, having

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Speaker 2: them all come together to make a more durable, long

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Speaker 2: term business because being solely ad dependent, if there's a

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Speaker 2: big recession moment, you know, it's so.

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Speaker 1: Those talking about that thing. So Okay, you guys have

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Speaker 1: a media company, right, You produce content, You have shows.

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Speaker 1: You had Joe Biden was every day struggle, every day

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Speaker 1: struggle and academics, right, and.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, she's amazing.

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Speaker 1: So you guys produced content, you do shows, you have

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Speaker 1: the Instagram thing. You got a sneaker situation but all right,

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Speaker 1: so the business, how does the business make money? You

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Speaker 1: make money through advertisers. Yeah, what you're saying that you

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Speaker 1: don't want to be solely with depending on it. So

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Speaker 1: you're talking about the verticals.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's how that actually makes money. So there's

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Speaker 2: three verticals currently that we're focused on. So you think

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Speaker 2: about premium content, and largely there the monetization is ads

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Speaker 2: or sponsorship or integration.

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Speaker 1: What's there? What is the premium content with you guys?

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Speaker 2: It shows like three sixty with Speedy, Mormon idea Generation

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Speaker 2: sneaker shopping, and a whole host of other shows. Like

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Speaker 2: I would say we probably launch pilot somewhere around twenty

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Speaker 2: shows a year with the hopes that you know, ten

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Speaker 2: to twenty percent will become successful and become like another

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Speaker 2: three sixty with Speedy, Like I don't know if you

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Speaker 2: saw the episode last week he had Go Go you know,

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Speaker 2: two days did fifty million views, crazy.

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Speaker 5: Fifty million two days wow, across.

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Speaker 2: TikTok reels and YouTube, you know, mainly in the shorter firm.

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Speaker 2: That's why I was asking you, guys, abook sort of

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Speaker 2: your strategy there before. But you know, there's a couple

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Speaker 2: of days there you went on reels or TikTok and

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Speaker 2: like fan pages are picking it up, commentary pages. I

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Speaker 2: just saw her on I think Angel Reese's podcast or

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Speaker 2: somebody else podcast. She asked her about that, like, Oh,

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Speaker 2: what's your type of guy? Like, Oh, it's not speedy,

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Speaker 2: and like it's like it was like a whole thing,

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Speaker 2: you know, So that kind of content that you know,

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Speaker 2: it's high production value. It's episodic, like it's programmed like

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Speaker 2: Sneapker Shopping comes out every Monday at noon, so fans

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Speaker 2: can expect it. It's also good for the advertising community

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Speaker 2: because they can like sort of similar to like linear

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Speaker 2: cable TV, they know it's coming. That's one part of

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Speaker 2: the business. The other part of the business is e commerce,

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Speaker 2: so Complex through all of its channels, has just over

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Speaker 2: one hundred million followers.

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Speaker 1: And just get back to the first part of the business.

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Speaker 1: That's part of the business. How do you monetize that.

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Speaker 1: You monetize that through ads.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's traditional ads and then the probably forty percent

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Speaker 2: of traditional ads, and then sixty percent is what I

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Speaker 2: would call bespoke advertising. So integrations like you have this

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Speaker 2: you know, water bottle on the table now it could

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Speaker 2: be Sprite, and then Sprite would present this episode and

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Speaker 2: there might be a Sprite I don't know, hot take

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Speaker 2: moment or whatever that kind of moment is. It's like

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Speaker 2: an integration yep. And then a smaller subset of that

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Speaker 2: is more in depth creative development, where let's just say

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Speaker 2: another Coke brands, say just Coke zero. We might work

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Speaker 2: with them on creating content that's totally new to the

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Speaker 2: world that has our hosts in it, but like they

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Speaker 2: sort of like co create the IP with us.

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Speaker 1: So you're getting the sponsors before you greenlight the show,

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Speaker 1: as opposed to green lighting the show and trying to

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Speaker 1: pitch the show to sponsors.

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Speaker 2: We go both routes. So we are constantly launching shows

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Speaker 2: with the intention of getting another you know, sneaker shopping

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Speaker 2: and other speedy and other hot ones, like shows that

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Speaker 2: do tens of millions of views with every episode. But

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Speaker 2: sometimes we're getting you know, requests or briefs from you

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Speaker 2: know whatever, Apple, Samsung, et cetera. They're like, Hey, we

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Speaker 2: have something so specific we want to achieve that it

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Speaker 2: can't fit creatively within one of our shows, So we

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Speaker 2: will work with our development team to build something totally

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Speaker 2: new to world that fits their business goals. Those shows

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Speaker 2: are obviously much harder to go viral and be organic,

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Speaker 2: but they satiate, you know, the brand's needs to be

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Speaker 2: like you know, uber specific around I don't know what

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Speaker 2: financial literacy or whatever they would want to be talking about.

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Speaker 3: So when you're creating a strategy to approach to brands,

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Speaker 3: obviously you have mega brands now, but go back to

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Speaker 3: the beginning stages, even from the source up until this point,

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Speaker 3: what was your strategy when approaching a brand from a

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Speaker 3: I guess from an ad standpoint, from I guess, integration

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Speaker 3: and until you just spoke about.

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Speaker 2: So like the first part, I think what we were

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Speaker 2: trying to communicate to advertisers around Complex and still do

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Speaker 2: is this notion of convergence consumers. You know, youngish people

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Speaker 2: that are just as interested in sort of traditional sports

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Speaker 2: as they are action sports. You know, they're just as

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Speaker 2: interested as in hip hop as they are reggaetone. They

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Speaker 2: like streetwear as much as they admire coutore, where most

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Speaker 2: of the media before Complex was like you like hip hop,

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Speaker 2: it's the source. You like men's wear, it's GQ, You

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Speaker 2: like action sports, it's thrasher and skateboarder. There wasn't like

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Speaker 2: a cross pollination. And you know, obviously Mark, you know,

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Speaker 2: sort of growing up the way he was like, you know,

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Speaker 2: he loved everything. You know, he's making shirts for a

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Speaker 2: tribe called Quest, and he was skateboarding, he was you know,

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Speaker 2: doing graffiti, and he was into gaming all these things.

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Speaker 2: So it's like, let's pull all these things together. And really,

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Speaker 2: you know what now is sort of very typical millennial

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Speaker 2: cultural and culture and gen Z culture, Like they're consuming

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Speaker 2: things from all different passion points. That wasn't so much

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Speaker 2: the case then, So we're really educating, Hey, there's this

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Speaker 2: new consumer who's interested in all of these things. And

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Speaker 2: then we also had you know, complex was always about

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Speaker 2: you remember the magazines was like half entertainment and then

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Speaker 2: half purchasing as a buyer's guide. So our argument was like, hey,

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Speaker 2: we are reaching a consumer who is literally wallet in

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Speaker 2: hand or credit card in hand, like there's a direct

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Speaker 2: connection to the lifestyle and to the products they purchased,

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Speaker 2: thus making the roi on marketing to them stronger. For

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Speaker 2: the brands.

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Speaker 3: Well, I mean the advantage point you speak of is

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Speaker 3: it's pretty interesting, right you start out the source you

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Speaker 3: watch double XL even vibe, those aren't here anymore.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, complex is still here. How does that?

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Speaker 3: I mean looking at back now, how did you learn

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Speaker 3: from the lessons from I guess not the failures of them,

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Speaker 3: But everything has its time span. How do you guys

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Speaker 3: create the longevity after watching what happened to done?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the one thing we're pretty obsessed about

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Speaker 2: is winning the youth. Like we're constantly challenging ourselves to

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Speaker 2: like not rest on the fact that, like we've won

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Speaker 2: the twenty five to thirty five year year old audience,

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Speaker 2: because pretty quick they're going to be forty five. So

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Speaker 2: if you're not winning fourteen to sixteen right now, who

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Speaker 2: admire the twenty one and twenty two year old, You're

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Speaker 2: going to have a really hard time as a media brand.

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Speaker 2: And I think you see that in other sectors too,

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Speaker 2: Like I think you have to be obsessed with youth

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Speaker 2: culture and what's next in reaching younger folks, otherwise you're

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Speaker 2: going to age out. And I think that perhaps is

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Speaker 2: what happened to those or maybe they're you know, like

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Speaker 2: also the print work, you know, they didn't adapt from

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Speaker 2: print where we pretty you know, not perfectly but we

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Speaker 2: pretty aggressively adopted digital than video, than social, you know,

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Speaker 2: now AI trying to figure out formats that we can

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Speaker 2: deliver you know in an AI universe. What does that

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Speaker 2: look like in the future. And if you're not aggressive

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Speaker 2: about that stuff, it's you're gonna get left behind.

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Speaker 1: So you didn't get a chance to finish what was

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Speaker 1: the second and third leg of monetization for you guys.

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Speaker 2: So the second leg is e commerce. So we are like,

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Speaker 2: if you go to Complex right now, there is a

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Speaker 2: shop Complex tab right now, it's a drop specific. So

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Speaker 2: we'll launch like a you know, a New Balance collaboration

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Speaker 2: or you know, Takashi Marakami artwork, whatever those kinds of

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Speaker 2: things are. It's all like a limited time only launch.

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Speaker 2: But next month it will become more of an omnipresent

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Speaker 2: e commerce marketplace where they will be not just these

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Speaker 2: limited time only drops, So that the ideas that we

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Speaker 2: basically leverage the scale those one hundred million plus consumers

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Speaker 2: we're reaching every month to not only super serve them

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Speaker 2: on the content side, but serve them up the products

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Speaker 2: and leverage our channels to serve up the products that

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Speaker 2: they want to buy, so that you know, adds is

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Speaker 2: one piece. E Commerce is the other piece, and then

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Speaker 2: the third piece is experiences. Complex Cone is now twice

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Speaker 2: a year Vegas and Hong Kong. We're doing other experiences,

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Speaker 2: so that within that becomes ticketing revenue and other merch revenue,

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Speaker 2: Like you know, the merch store around comp con is

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Speaker 2: A is a standalone pretty successful business. And then we've

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Speaker 2: got the store in La where you know, every weekend

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Speaker 2: we're doing pop up shops with different musicians and different athletes.

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Speaker 2: It's not a huge business, but it's successful and it's

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Speaker 2: something that we can roll out to other markets as

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Speaker 2: we grow.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so how vitally important is sponsorships to Complex car.

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Speaker 2: In terms of like the profitability or.

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Speaker 1: How profitability ability to actually throw the event? Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: you said, like you know, you didn't want to rely

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Speaker 1: too too much on that from the content perspective, because

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Speaker 1: you know you're thinking of yeah.

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Speaker 2: If yeah, it's super important. So if you didn't have

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Speaker 2: the mix of sponsorship revenues, merch like commerce revenues on

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Speaker 2: site and ticketing, it would be impossible to make it profitable,

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Speaker 2: like doing it on ticketing alone or merch. You know,

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Speaker 2: just the cost of production on this thing is in

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Speaker 2: the tens of millions. You couldn't. It's not like you know,

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Speaker 2: rolling out great business. But it's like a couple of stages.

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Speaker 2: They're not you know, it's not all these like super

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Speaker 2: hyper developed experiences that cost you know, millions of dollars

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Speaker 2: to build. And you know, without without the sponsors, it

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Speaker 2: would be you know, impossible to make it a profitable business.

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Speaker 2: And the same without the ticketing revenue or without the

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Speaker 2: merch revenue. So it has to all come together. And

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Speaker 2: that's sort of my point is like before Complex was

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Speaker 2: on one legged stool, just like ad revenue, and that's

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Speaker 2: why it you know, sold a couple of times, right,

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Speaker 2: And we really have a vision to making a three

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Speaker 2: legged stool with content, commerce and experiences feeding into that

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Speaker 2: three legged stool, thus making it more stable. And you know,

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Speaker 2: Complex I think twenty two ish or twenty one years

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Speaker 2: old now, but we want a future proof it for

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Speaker 2: the next fifty years. So it's a strong, vibrant, thriving brand.

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Speaker 1: Any subscription model in there.

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Speaker 2: Not currently, but down the road we want to do

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Speaker 2: we want to do. We want to build a business

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Speaker 2: for like the super fans of Complex around access, like

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Speaker 2: early access to e commerce drops special access to things

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Speaker 2: like complex con or activations we might do at art

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Speaker 2: Basel or f One. Also, you know, it could even

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Speaker 2: be things like, hey, if you're part of this membership cohort,

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Speaker 2: there's a special track of programming and special ticketing price

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Speaker 2: for invest Fest or things like that that we could

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Speaker 2: do with partners. But it'll all be about like we

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Speaker 2: were talking about before, access, Like this consumer thrives for

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Speaker 2: access either like they want to experience the content to

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Speaker 2: sort of get that like intellectual like ammunition, so they like, okay, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I know what's up with that? Or they want to

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Speaker 2: buy something, so it's like badging and it's like proof

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Speaker 2: that you experience something. And then in the in the

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Speaker 2: you know, in sort of the physical space, like they

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Speaker 2: don't want to wait online. As we were talking about before,

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Speaker 2: it like you want, you want to get you want

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Speaker 2: you know, you want the guy at Disney that's walking

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Speaker 2: you in front of the whole lines, right and you know,

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Speaker 2: and that also creates social ammunition for you. I feel like, oh,

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00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:05,959
Speaker 2: like I got in right away, I had this amazing

433
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 2: thing and I got the merge. Like then you return

434
00:23:08,440 --> 00:23:10,920
Speaker 2: to the you know, working around the water cool or

435
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 2: at school or whatever you're doing, and you have like

436
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:15,200
Speaker 2: the story that you can tell about it. You've got

437
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,280
Speaker 2: the physical badging, and you had a great experience. That's

438
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 2: the wind for consobers.

439
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 3: You brought up two great words, sponsors and partners. And

440
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,120
Speaker 3: to me, when I think sponsors, I think short term

441
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,159
Speaker 3: relationship partners. I feel like this longevity whether you're going

442
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 3: to be at complex con or wherever event it is, three, five,

443
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 3: ten years. How do you guys approach brands when you're

444
00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 3: thinking about that, Like, this company is up and coming,

445
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:39,959
Speaker 3: this might be a good sponsor as opposed to that

446
00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 3: brand has been here, We need to partner with them

447
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 3: to figure out how to build this.

448
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 2: I would say that we I think we look at

449
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 2: it along those lines. Right there there, there's a group

450
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 2: of brands and people that buy advertising that what they're

451
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 2: doing is very tactical. You know, they're trying to promote

452
00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:05,440
Speaker 2: tune in for their TV show or their streaming show

453
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 2: this Friday.

454
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 1: Right.

455
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 2: Like those people, I would say, are like more in

456
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,120
Speaker 2: the sponsor arena.

457
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:09,400
Speaker 8: Right.

458
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:14,960
Speaker 2: And then there's brands that you know have you know,

459
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 2: they share a similar consumer they're trying to target. They're

460
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 2: trying to do interesting things in the space, something like

461
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 2: a Nike or Adidas, where you know, you can take

462
00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 2: it a bit deeper and you can become real partners,

463
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 2: and you know they're not They're not coming and saying, hey, guys,

464
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 2: we need to do this thing in the next ninety days.

465
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:36,120
Speaker 2: Here it is go execute for us. They're actually bringing

466
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 2: us and say like, hey, this is our product roadmap

467
00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 2: for the next three years. What do you think can

468
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:44,919
Speaker 2: you help us with consumer insights? Can you help us

469
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 2: build out a plan to make you know, air Force

470
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,879
Speaker 2: one vibrant again, or whatever that case might be. So

471
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,679
Speaker 2: I think it's you know, some brands will never be

472
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,200
Speaker 2: in the space that they share like a com and

473
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 2: kind of DNA as you and I mean, obviously they're

474
00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,479
Speaker 2: very different. But like brands that want, like I would say,

475
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 2: like Sprite back in the day was a brand that

476
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 2: really wanted to participate in our space. So like that

477
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 2: was a brand that made a lot of sense to

478
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 2: be a partner with and be long term with. Where

479
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: you know, maybe like some of the water brands are

480
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:21,400
Speaker 2: just coming in and out of the market. It's that's

481
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:23,680
Speaker 2: that's not going to be a long term partnership.

482
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:28,639
Speaker 1: So okay, so complex. It's an interesting timeline here. It

483
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:33,439
Speaker 1: starts in two thousand and two too, and then it

484
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: sells in twenty sixteen with three hundred and.

485
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 2: Four million twenty eight three.

486
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:45,600
Speaker 1: Hundred and twenty eight million in twenty sixteen. Then in

487
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:48,359
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one it sells for two hundred and ninety

488
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: four million, BuzzFeed buys it, then it sells for one

489
00:25:54,520 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: hundred and nine million, and twenty twenty four intw network,

490
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:07,840
Speaker 1: you network. Okay, so from three hundred from twenty to

491
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:11,400
Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety four to one hundred, and what's

492
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: happening here? It's selling from drastically lower every couple of years.

493
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:17,120
Speaker 8: Yeah.

494
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,919
Speaker 2: So when the first exit in twenty sixteen was definitely

495
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 2: top of the market in terms of media company valuations.

496
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 2: You know, there was a ton of hype around like

497
00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 2: brands like Vice raising crazy amounts of money. And you know,

498
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 2: fortunately for us, as you know shareholders in the business

499
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:38,119
Speaker 2: were you're able to exit because I think if your

500
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 2: exit later it would have been really challenging. We're kind

501
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,160
Speaker 2: of the last media brand to exit. In that era,

502
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:49,880
Speaker 2: the business was pretty strong and stable, but you could

503
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,159
Speaker 2: see when BuzzFeed bought it. It did buy it, you know,

504
00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 2: relatively similar revenues, but the multiples had compressed because the

505
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:04,119
Speaker 2: marketplace changed. And then when BuzzFeed owned it, I don't believe.

506
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 2: I think their model of approaching audiences and approaching advertisers

507
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:16,639
Speaker 2: and monetization is just so dynamically different than complexes approach,

508
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 2: like they are super mass, super transactional, where complex is

509
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 2: about like depth of connection, depth of conversation, creating real

510
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 2: partnerships with brands. And it just didn't fit. So they

511
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 2: didn't nurture it super well. They then spacked. They got

512
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 2: caught up in all that that didn't go well and

513
00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 2: widely reported. You know, there was I think they're on

514
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 2: the NASDAC. I'm not totally sure on that, but whatever

515
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 2: exchange they're on that they were. There was like the

516
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 2: issues around potentially getting delisted and all of this stuff.

517
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:54,440
Speaker 2: And you know, we were just super persistent about like, hey,

518
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 2: if there's an opportunity and you're in a cash need environment,

519
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,119
Speaker 2: you know, we are interested in and e merging it

520
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 2: with network. And at first they weren't interested, and I

521
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 2: think as their conditions didn't improve, that presented an opportunity

522
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,920
Speaker 2: and we bought the brand back in February. And Who's

523
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 2: Network Network or what is it? Or who Both Network

524
00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:23,360
Speaker 2: is a live streaming e commerce platform where the world's

525
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,920
Speaker 2: best creators and brands come to sell their most highly

526
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:33,159
Speaker 2: coveted products in a livestream e commerce environment. It was

527
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 2: started by Jimmy I Bean and a couple other folks

528
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 2: that were sort of associated with Complex. I joined there,

529
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,160
Speaker 2: I think late twenty eighteen, early twenty nineteen something like that.

530
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 2: We built it up pretty successful business. Livestream shopping didn't

531
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 2: scale quite as quickly as we thought it would. We

532
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 2: were looking to how amazing it's doing in China and Brazil,

533
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 2: and we thought like, hey, like this is going to

534
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 2: be like you know, the Echo boom in North America,

535
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,040
Speaker 2: and you know, so as we were looking to like, okay,

536
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,960
Speaker 2: how do we make this business stronger? You know, we're

537
00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,479
Speaker 2: looking at things like our CAC and we're spending you know,

538
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 2: multimillion dollars a year on meta to drive downloads and

539
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,959
Speaker 2: drive engagement. And you know, we all of us were

540
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:21,800
Speaker 2: kind of like ex Complex people, So we're trying to

541
00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 2: super serve that same audience, but just through a commerce perspective.

542
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 2: And when this opportunity, it just totally made sense. It's like, hey,

543
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 2: we the audience is there, the brand strength is there.

544
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 2: We can transition from network to shop complex. It's a

545
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,719
Speaker 2: much stronger name, it's a it's a bigger name, more reputable.

546
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:44,640
Speaker 2: The audience is there, so we don't have to invest

547
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 2: as much into like all the digital ads on Meta

548
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 2: and you know, we thought we could make a much

549
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:53,240
Speaker 2: stronger business solve for the issues on the complex side

550
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 2: and then solve for the issues on the network side.

551
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:57,040
Speaker 1: And Mark Ecko was a part of the network.

552
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,720
Speaker 2: He was not originally known, but Mark is on the

553
00:30:01,720 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 2: board of the new company.

554
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you guys, you guys, you exited in sixteen, Yeah,

555
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 3: stayed on eighteen. You joined there when you guys, when

556
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 3: the team is trying to team building and maybe we'll

557
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 3: get into that a little bit, but it's vitally important

558
00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 3: to this. But as you're watching it, it's almost something

559
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 3: that you helped create and you're starting to watch your.

560
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 5: Devalue devalued value.

561
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:24,479
Speaker 3: How long or how long would the discussions to say

562
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 3: we need to go back and try to acquire this thing.

563
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:28,120
Speaker 1: Well, you left, you left for a point in.

564
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 3: Time, right, from Complex.

565
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:30,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, eighteen.

566
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,240
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, I left in eighteen. Yeah, I left

567
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 2: at the top of eighteen. I think I joined Network

568
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 2: and the top of nineteen. I might have the dates

569
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 2: off a little bit there, but it was definitely early

570
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 2: days for Network. But you know, like we were on fire,

571
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 2: especially during COVID e commerce, Like we were like we

572
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 2: thought we could do no wrong. We were, you know,

573
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 2: raising money like it was you know, things were good.

574
00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 2: And then you know, as everyone sort of got out

575
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 2: of COVID, things started to turn back to normal from

576
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,640
Speaker 2: an e commerce perspective, from an experienced perspective, so you know,

577
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 2: we faced some of those headwinds and we were navigating

578
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 2: them and you know we I mean just quite frankly,

579
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 2: we always had an admiration for Complex, Like, you know,

580
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 2: we built the brand, we loved the brand, we admire it,

581
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 2: you know, we we love the audience, and we felt like,

582
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 2: you know, it's so hard building a new consumer brand.

583
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 2: If we could just merge the sort of innovation, the technology,

584
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 2: the e commerce, the spirit of entrepreneurialism with Complex that

585
00:31:36,360 --> 00:31:39,600
Speaker 2: had the audience and the cachet and the credibility, we

586
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:43,760
Speaker 2: could make, you know, a media company of the future,

587
00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 2: a marketplace and e commerce business of the future that

588
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 2: looked like no other. So that was really the aspiration.

589
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 2: And to answer your other question, I think it took

590
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 2: about a yearish to convince them to do it, uh

591
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 2: meaning BuzzFeed to sell it.

592
00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's very rare that you do exit

593
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,280
Speaker 3: a business and get the bus back and at.

594
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 5: A lower evaluation.

595
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 2: So well, there's a lot of examples of that. Like

596
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:10,959
Speaker 2: Dan Gilbert sold Quicken Loans, he bought it back, you know,

597
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 2: made it multi billion dollar business. Alan Shapiro I think

598
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 2: bought and sold Dick Clark Productions like three times, and

599
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 2: each time he sold it for a billion dollars and

600
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 2: then bought it back for like one hundred million or something.

601
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 2: I mean, those numbers might not be exactly right, but like,

602
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 2: you know, his thing was like I know how to

603
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:27,800
Speaker 2: run that business. I'm gonna sell it to these guys

604
00:32:27,840 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 2: that they don't know how to run it. They're gonna

605
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 2: mess it up. I'm gonna come back and.

606
00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:35,640
Speaker 1: So buy so sell high by law, you.

607
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 5: Earners, what's up?

608
00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 3: You have a walk into a small business and everything

609
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,840
Speaker 3: just works, like the checkout is fast, the receipts are

610
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 3: digital tipping is a breeze and you're out the door

611
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 3: before the line even builds odds are they're using Square.

612
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 3: We love supporting businesses that run on Square because it

613
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,560
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614
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:59,920
Speaker 3: vendor at a pop up market, or even one of

615
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:03,200
Speaker 3: our merch partners, Square makes it easy for them to

616
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:07,080
Speaker 3: take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence,

617
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Speaker 3: all from one simple system. If you're a business owner

618
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Speaker 3: or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is

619
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Speaker 3: hands down one of the best tools out there to

620
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621
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622
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Speaker 5: What matters most ready.

623
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624
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625
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626
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627
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649
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 7: were here illegally, your next you will be fine. Nearly

650
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 7: one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you will

651
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,759
Speaker 7: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

652
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 7: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

653
00:35:18,560 --> 00:35:19,279
Speaker 7: Do what's right.

654
00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:20,720
Speaker 6: Leave now.

655
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:25,880
Speaker 7: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.

656
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 8: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

657
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: Was that, Yeah, you guys sold it for three hundred

658
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,360
Speaker 1: and twenty four million and then brought it back for

659
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: one hundred million.

660
00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:34,960
Speaker 8: Yeah.

661
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it was intentional, but it worked out

662
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 2: that way. Yeah.

663
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: Right, So but that's some level of foresight, right, Like,

664
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 1: was there any foresight or that was just that was

665
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:48,880
Speaker 1: just a coincidence. You kind of knew that they was

666
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 1: going to ruin it.

667
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,880
Speaker 2: I would say that, you know, you all wouldn't know

668
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:56,680
Speaker 2: this better than me. But there's a there's always a

669
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 2: stat out there about like murders and acquisitions failed majority

670
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:05,520
Speaker 2: of time, right, So, you know, selling Complex to the

671
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 2: first to like a Verizon and Aharst. I mean, we

672
00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:10,240
Speaker 2: were independent, so it's like okay, like we're operating separately,

673
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:15,000
Speaker 2: but still things got a little weirdish. And then you

674
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 2: know BuzzFeed just I mean, like just think about it

675
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 2: on paper, does that make any sense. There's no intersectionality

676
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:22,719
Speaker 2: of those audiences, Like they're not even interested in the

677
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 2: same thing. Like BuzzFeed's making videos about like exploding water

678
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 2: melons by putting rubber bands around them, and cats on

679
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 2: roller skates, and like Complex is talking about like nuances

680
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,960
Speaker 2: within streetwear and hip hop and art culture. It's just like,

681
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:38,800
Speaker 2: I don't know, it just didn't make a lot of sense.

682
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:44,000
Speaker 3: How about retention of talent twenty sixteen, you have every

683
00:36:44,040 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 3: day struggle. Yeah, Joe Budden obviously now one of the

684
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:49,959
Speaker 3: leaders in media. You have academics and another guy who's

685
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,719
Speaker 3: leading in the media. The lessons that's learned from them

686
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,640
Speaker 3: not being part of Complex anymore, but having a guy

687
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:58,800
Speaker 3: like Speeding who has been super creative and great for

688
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,760
Speaker 3: the brand, Joe with with with Stekers shopping obviously hot Ones.

689
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 3: The lessons that's learned from losing talent but retaining in

690
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 3: the future, retaining talent that it's going to be able

691
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:09,200
Speaker 3: for to bring.

692
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:13,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, it's a that is uh, you know,

693
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 2: an everyday focus. You know, it's it. I wish I

694
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 2: could say it's super easy. You know, Complex is I

695
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:26,240
Speaker 2: think super I would say we are. We're really happy

696
00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 2: that we've been able to like incubate a lot of

697
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 2: talent and give people, you know, a lot of younger people,

698
00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:34,759
Speaker 2: like a Speedy coming up like their initial platform, or

699
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:38,720
Speaker 2: Emily Oberg who now has like a super successful fashion brand.

700
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,400
Speaker 2: She was like one of the first you know, anchors

701
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:44,759
Speaker 2: on Complex News. And sometimes those people are so entrepreneurial,

702
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,160
Speaker 2: you know, they're so motivated, you're you're never going to

703
00:37:48,280 --> 00:37:51,520
Speaker 2: keep them. And then some people are like Complex Family,

704
00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,960
Speaker 2: like Joe and Speedy, who like they really value being

705
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 2: associated with Complex. They want to be in the mix.

706
00:37:57,239 --> 00:37:59,000
Speaker 2: They want to build new shows, Like we just built

707
00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,960
Speaker 2: a new show with Joe called On Display where he

708
00:38:03,080 --> 00:38:07,920
Speaker 2: goes into celebrities homes and then he basically interviews them

709
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 2: about like their collections and a sort of like their obsession.

710
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,040
Speaker 2: So like you went to Dapatista's house and he collects

711
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:17,640
Speaker 2: lunch boxes and bicycles, and like the big insight was

712
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 2: like theves like I couldn't afford any of this, can

713
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:22,000
Speaker 2: I swear or no? Of course He's like, I can't

714
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:23,399
Speaker 2: afford any of this shit when I was a kid,

715
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 2: So now I'm buying it now. And he's like you know,

716
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,279
Speaker 2: it's like and it kind of dawned HI me. He

717
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:29,799
Speaker 2: was like, Wow, it's like, you know, sort of all

718
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 2: about this fandom culture. But I was like, what, like

719
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 2: kind of a powerful message, right, like that like once

720
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 2: he obtained prosperity, he could unlock all these things that

721
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 2: he couldn't get as a kid. And I thought, like,

722
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 2: you know, I was kind of uplifting sort of subtexts there,

723
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:47,439
Speaker 2: But you got to give my little bit of a

724
00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 2: pivot here. But you have to give the talent new opportunities, right,

725
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,200
Speaker 2: You have to invest into them. You have to say, like,

726
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:59,600
Speaker 2: you know, hey, Joe, like you've got sneaker shopping bona

727
00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:01,799
Speaker 2: fide it, you've got the sneaker podcast.

728
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:02,120
Speaker 5: Hit.

729
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 2: What else are you interested in? Oh, I'm interested in

730
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:09,439
Speaker 2: collectibles and uh sort of like architectural digest type content. Okay,

731
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:11,359
Speaker 2: let's build something around that. You have to give them

732
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:16,560
Speaker 2: the opportunity to be creative and flourish, you know, otherwise

733
00:39:16,680 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 2: they're gonna go do their own things. And sometimes they're

734
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:21,439
Speaker 2: you know with like you know, you know other people

735
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,440
Speaker 2: you mentioned before, they're so entrepreneurial that like that's just

736
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 2: a force. You're never going to be able to like,

737
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:31,200
Speaker 2: you know, keep it, keep it inside the building, and

738
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 2: I think that's great, Like, you know, arguably they have

739
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 2: the number one podcast in the world amazing or you know,

740
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:40,920
Speaker 2: in the space and that that's that's great. So I

741
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 2: think and then you know, the other part is like

742
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 2: we always should be an incubation engine for new talent.

743
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:48,239
Speaker 2: And that gets back to my point about like really

744
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:54,200
Speaker 2: being obsessed with winning the younger audience, because oftentimes these creators,

745
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,879
Speaker 2: they find their audience and then they super serve them.

746
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,120
Speaker 2: Like the sneaker shopping audience is a very specific male

747
00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,880
Speaker 2: consumer and they're super serving them. But you need to

748
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 2: bring in other talent to super serve other parts of

749
00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:08,919
Speaker 2: the audience as well.

750
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 1: So, okay, how important is the content creation side of

751
00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:19,279
Speaker 1: what you guys do as far as Instagram TikTok. It's

752
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: a very nuanced skill set and it changes a lot.

753
00:40:24,840 --> 00:40:26,800
Speaker 1: Like so at one point in time, you know, rails

754
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 1: was everything and then Instagram changed it to car ourselves

755
00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: and you need to have to stay up to date

756
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:35,279
Speaker 1: with this with these things, and you guys do a

757
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: good job as far as staying in the algorithm. So

758
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 1: how important is that to make sure that your content

759
00:40:42,239 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: team is up to date and uh well prepared to

760
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,439
Speaker 1: tackle the new challenges on social media every day.

761
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 2: It's it's everything. If we're not engaging and growing audiences,

762
00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 2: the rest of the business will suffer.

763
00:40:58,120 --> 00:40:58,279
Speaker 1: Right.

764
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 2: If we're not growing and engaging audiences, we can't put

765
00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 2: things on the e commerce side in front of that audience.

766
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 2: If we're not engaging audiences, the advertising business will suffer.

767
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 2: For not engaging audiences, ticket sales will be soft to

768
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,080
Speaker 2: complex cons So the most important thing we do and

769
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:18,840
Speaker 2: you know, led by Aria and Noah, like they just

770
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:25,800
Speaker 2: do a super good focused job. I'm continually to press

771
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 2: to grow the socials and having dedicated talent because you

772
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,279
Speaker 2: know a lot of people think like, Okay, I'll just

773
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 2: have my YouTube shorts person do tiktoks and they'll do reels. Well,

774
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:42,160
Speaker 2: they're completely different approaches, right, Like reels is feed based

775
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:46,640
Speaker 2: still algorithmic as well, TikTok is one hundred percent algorithmic.

776
00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,360
Speaker 2: I can't really figure out shorts yet, but like someone

777
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:51,800
Speaker 2: will figure that out. But like you need dedicated people

778
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 2: that are experts on that, and they just tend to

779
00:41:53,719 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 2: be like younger folks, right, Like you have to invest

780
00:41:56,239 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 2: in younger people who really understand those platforms, who understand

781
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,880
Speaker 2: and snap or whatever it is, and then tailor the

782
00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:06,800
Speaker 2: content in appropriate way to reach those audiences.

783
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,480
Speaker 1: People. Do you have on your content team.

784
00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 2: I don't know exactly, but over one hundred with freelancers.

785
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 5: Yeah. When Staying Fresh and Staying Youthful.

786
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:23,440
Speaker 3: You spoke about AI earlier, talk about how the ideas

787
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,279
Speaker 3: and the team around that. I know you had the

788
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 3: Slim Shady eminem cover incorporating that, So how you guys

789
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:30,000
Speaker 3: looking to implement that.

790
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 5: I would say, it's the way of the future, but

791
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 5: it's of the now.

792
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:36,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that was a good example. That was our

793
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 2: first piece of it. And for the listeners that don't know,

794
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 2: pretty smart idea by Noah and team. They programmed or

795
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 2: fed a large language model all of like the Slim

796
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 2: Shady lyrics and references over time to train it up

797
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:58,520
Speaker 2: on what that personality would look or act like. And

798
00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:03,640
Speaker 2: then they had Slim Shady interview Marshall Mathers and obviously

799
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:06,600
Speaker 2: it played into the whole theme of the album. And

800
00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,160
Speaker 2: then visually we brought that to life in them in

801
00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 2: like a Thelma and Louise moment on the cover. You know,

802
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 2: sort of like driving off a cliff kind of thing.

803
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,120
Speaker 2: But like, you know, at least as far as I know,

804
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 2: that was the first time ever sort of the antry

805
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:25,320
Speaker 2: personality of an artist interviewed them in an AI format.

806
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,600
Speaker 2: So like, you know, pretty pretty I think, you know,

807
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:32,760
Speaker 2: pretty good use of the technology, pretty innovative, definitely not cheap.

808
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,480
Speaker 2: But you know, other things we're looking at is like, okay,

809
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:42,600
Speaker 2: so as perplexity starts to disrupt Google, right and it's

810
00:43:42,640 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 2: sort of AI search, how do we create formats that

811
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:49,160
Speaker 2: show up in that area. We're looking at a lot

812
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 2: of things like how do we take things that are

813
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaker 2: super successful in the text format, like oftentimes like our

814
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 2: rankings and lists of you know whatever, top fifty sneaker

815
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:02,560
Speaker 2: or hip hop albums. They create a tremendous amount of

816
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,320
Speaker 2: virality and debate. It's very easy for AI to just

817
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:09,480
Speaker 2: steal that content and not give us any attribution. So

818
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:11,120
Speaker 2: we're thinking about, like, okay, how do we turn that

819
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 2: into vertical video? How do we turn that into long

820
00:44:14,080 --> 00:44:16,400
Speaker 2: form video? Because we think there's more of a mote

821
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,880
Speaker 2: with video than there you know, than there is with

822
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:22,560
Speaker 2: tech certainly, So it's I wouldn't say we have it solved.

823
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:26,479
Speaker 2: I think it's super complicated. Uh, you know, the AI

824
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:29,680
Speaker 2: tools are going to continue to progress and make probably

825
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:33,360
Speaker 2: business more challenging for content publishers and definitely not less.

826
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 2: So you know, it's like, you know, you can't bet

827
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 2: against youth culture and you can't bet against technology, right,

828
00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 2: those things will always win, so you better lean into

829
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 2: them where you're fucked.

830
00:44:44,719 --> 00:44:47,120
Speaker 1: How important is data collection to you guys?

831
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 2: Business on the e commerce side, super important, you know,

832
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:56,840
Speaker 2: because that you know, you're you're doing the drip campaigns

833
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:00,520
Speaker 2: and you know, recidivism campaigns and you know, all kinds

834
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 2: of things to get consumers back into the store. It'll

835
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 2: be super important when we launch membership. Obviously on the

836
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 2: advertising side, it depends on the brand. Like some people

837
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 2: are super interested in that, like who they're reaching, how

838
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:18,839
Speaker 2: they're reaching them, and then others are like, like they're

839
00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,680
Speaker 2: pretty familiar with complex and they're like, okay, yeah, got it,

840
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:25,839
Speaker 2: eighteen to thirty four multicultural, you know that's what you're

841
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:26,440
Speaker 2: super serving.

842
00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 3: Well, one of the things that you're passionate about. We

843
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,640
Speaker 3: talked about culture. We talked about music is art and

844
00:45:31,719 --> 00:45:34,360
Speaker 3: I know everything complex and comiss all of it.

845
00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:36,880
Speaker 5: But on a personal side. They're an art collector.

846
00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:40,879
Speaker 3: Ish, I mean, did the passion come from the work

847
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 3: or was that something that you already had passion for?

848
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:47,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, like, you know, I was thinking about

849
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 2: on the right up here. Like when I was a

850
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 2: kid in Tennessee, we lived on like a commune. So

851
00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 2: I like had like very like hippie parents that commune,

852
00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 2: like you know, communists in a true form, right, So

853
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 2: it made me really like appreciate art and individuality. And

854
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:06,799
Speaker 2: there's a lot of musicians in that space, and it

855
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:08,719
Speaker 2: just gave me an appreciation of that. But it also gave

856
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:12,400
Speaker 2: me like a staunch appreciation for capitalism, right, So I

857
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:15,239
Speaker 2: like ran away from it, but still kept those things.

858
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 2: I think part of that, like you know, we'd like

859
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 2: share houses with musicians and all these things and artists,

860
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 2: Like my home space always reflects that. And I like

861
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:28,520
Speaker 2: to support the art community, you know. I'm I'm you know,

862
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,800
Speaker 2: I'm part of a group at the pres Art Museum

863
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:34,399
Speaker 2: that that helps you know, sort of new artists get

864
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 2: exposure in the museum and we fund that and it's

865
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 2: more of you know, kind of I don't know, it's

866
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,320
Speaker 2: it's an interesting space for me. It's it's a space

867
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,719
Speaker 2: I you know, I admire artists because I'm not one,

868
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:52,160
Speaker 2: so it kind of gives me like an entryway into

869
00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 2: like their thinking and their creativity. And I think that

870
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 2: that kind of like different friends almost like healthy tension,

871
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,960
Speaker 2: makes me better in business because I'm able to like

872
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:07,240
Speaker 2: sort of see things from their perspective and then apply

873
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 2: it if I'm working with a brand or working internally.

874
00:47:11,840 --> 00:47:14,600
Speaker 2: And you know, to your point, complex has always been

875
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,680
Speaker 2: you know, had an admiration for our you know, whether

876
00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 2: it's like Cause doing covers or us doing you know,

877
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:25,640
Speaker 2: work with Marakami. You know, there are a number of

878
00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:32,319
Speaker 2: artists that really break through from a consumer perspective, both

879
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 2: on the music side and the traditional you know, sort

880
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:38,600
Speaker 2: of fine art side, and working with those folks makes

881
00:47:38,640 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 2: for a much more interesting media product consumer product. And

882
00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 2: then you know, if there's like a physical product that

883
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:46,719
Speaker 2: comes out of.

884
00:47:46,640 --> 00:47:49,120
Speaker 3: It, is that how some of the verticals a building,

885
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 3: especially from the digital side, it was just complex and

886
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 3: we had complex sneakers, then we have complex sports. Yeah,

887
00:47:54,680 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 3: is there like all right, we have a group there's

888
00:47:57,000 --> 00:47:59,200
Speaker 3: a huge interest here. Maybe we need complex tech or

889
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:00,200
Speaker 3: we need complex.

890
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:04,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they probably were a little scattered under the

891
00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:08,400
Speaker 2: BuzzFeed regime, so we have retrenched it. So the categories

892
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:14,880
Speaker 2: are music, style, sport, pop culture which kind of catch movie, gaming,

893
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:19,960
Speaker 2: and food. So those are kind of the main verticals

894
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:24,960
Speaker 2: that we're focused on and really leaning deep into those.

895
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:30,000
Speaker 2: And to your point, there's very specific, dedicated teams that

896
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 2: work on each one of those verticals. So there's like

897
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 2: ahead of sneakers, ahead of style, ahead of music, and

898
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 2: they have teams under them that are both producing content

899
00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:42,680
Speaker 2: and working the socials to engage the audience.

900
00:48:44,160 --> 00:48:48,560
Speaker 1: So what's the future for Complex, Like what do you

901
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:51,320
Speaker 1: guys have envision for their ten year model?

902
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,840
Speaker 2: Ten year model in terms of so, I would say,

903
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,840
Speaker 2: we really want to continue to invige rate the brand

904
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 2: with you know, super interesting content like the Eminem piece

905
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 2: that we.

906
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 5: Just talked through.

907
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 2: We want to over the next few months, as you're

908
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 2: watching or reading, you know, pieces of content like the Eminem,

909
00:49:14,120 --> 00:49:16,799
Speaker 2: you're also able to shop it. You're also able to

910
00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:18,799
Speaker 2: go to an experience tied to it. So we want

911
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 2: to have that sort of like trifectave content, commerce and

912
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:25,800
Speaker 2: experience come to life around everything we want to build,

913
00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:28,759
Speaker 2: or we believe we can build a really big e

914
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:32,680
Speaker 2: commerce marketplace business. You know, this is the first year

915
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 2: we took Complex to eight or complex goneto Asia in

916
00:49:35,640 --> 00:49:37,840
Speaker 2: Hong Kong. That was super successful. So we want to

917
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:42,080
Speaker 2: continue to bring complex gon too other markets. You know,

918
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 2: we really just want to build a super strong, dynamic

919
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:50,960
Speaker 2: business that is not sort of dependent on one source

920
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,239
Speaker 2: of revenue, that can flourish for the next you know,

921
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,759
Speaker 2: fifty or seventy five years. You know, I don't want

922
00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:59,520
Speaker 2: it to sort of have the bumps and stumbles that

923
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:01,560
Speaker 2: it's had over the last five years. I think it's

924
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:06,080
Speaker 2: it's all about making you know, a super healthy, profitable,

925
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 2: current and sort of future looking business.

926
00:50:11,680 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad you brought up the expansion of complex

927
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:17,120
Speaker 3: con and especially going to Asia. What was experienced like

928
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:21,120
Speaker 3: because well you hear about obviously culture being exported, and

929
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 3: sometimes it feels like, you know, they appreciate it more

930
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:26,920
Speaker 3: because it's not specifically there with the expectations the same

931
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 3: in terms of successful the event when when you took

932
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 3: it international.

933
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:35,680
Speaker 2: You know, consumer, we didn't expect the same from like

934
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:38,600
Speaker 2: our consumer turnout perspective, but it was pretty good. I

935
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:40,919
Speaker 2: think it was thirty or thirty five thousand people bought

936
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:43,120
Speaker 2: tickets and intended over the two days, which which is

937
00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:47,840
Speaker 2: pretty good. It was a bit of a lower investment

938
00:50:47,880 --> 00:50:49,560
Speaker 2: than we would make in the US. It was our

939
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:53,160
Speaker 2: It was kind of very much a pilot, but we

940
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:56,440
Speaker 2: beat our expectations both in terms of attendance and the

941
00:50:56,520 --> 00:51:01,600
Speaker 2: revenues it produced. So we're steam ahead on doing it again.

942
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:05,239
Speaker 2: We've got a great partner in China and she wants

943
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:11,320
Speaker 2: to bring it to other markets like Singapore. It's pretty interesting.

944
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:13,319
Speaker 2: It's like she did it in Hong Kong, but like

945
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:16,200
Speaker 2: the majority of the people came from mainland China because

946
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:19,120
Speaker 2: of the access right, like Complex Com was giving them

947
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:22,040
Speaker 2: access sort of like in real life with the artists

948
00:51:22,080 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 2: and the creators, like sort of that community. But then

949
00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:29,880
Speaker 2: to the products where you know, people in Japan have

950
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,160
Speaker 2: access to that stuff so easily, right, So it's kind

951
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 2: of so it's it's kind of you're you're you're finding

952
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,359
Speaker 2: this need case for it, whether it be in Hong

953
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,680
Speaker 2: Kong or Singapore and popping up in those places, and

954
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 2: you know, we're I would say similar, like we're looking

955
00:51:43,040 --> 00:51:45,720
Speaker 2: to do one in Dubai. We want to do Paris

956
00:51:45,840 --> 00:51:48,400
Speaker 2: or maybe London. So I think it you know, there

957
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 2: will be a time where there will be you know,

958
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,840
Speaker 2: complex con is almost this like traveling circus model, and

959
00:51:53,880 --> 00:51:56,879
Speaker 2: it's popping up in these different places and doing really

960
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:00,759
Speaker 2: unique experiences and merch drops and live content and all

961
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 2: of that coming together.

962
00:52:02,200 --> 00:52:06,839
Speaker 1: What's what's your thoughts on the creator economy. A lot

963
00:52:06,880 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 1: of people are saying that it's like a recession for

964
00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:13,239
Speaker 1: creators and a lot you have a few people at

965
00:52:13,239 --> 00:52:15,360
Speaker 1: the top that's doing well and the vast majority of

966
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:19,439
Speaker 1: people that's making viral content never making any money. Yeah,

967
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 1: so is it sustainable? Like where do we go from

968
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:26,719
Speaker 1: here as far as what has been coined as the

969
00:52:26,840 --> 00:52:28,200
Speaker 1: creator economy?

970
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:28,919
Speaker 8: Yeah?

971
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:34,920
Speaker 2: Uh. I think you know, a lot of people flooded

972
00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:38,560
Speaker 2: the zone, right, so there's a there's a dearth of

973
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:44,279
Speaker 2: creators out there. I think, you know, the people that

974
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:47,440
Speaker 2: are doing super well there they are they've found a

975
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:49,920
Speaker 2: niche in a positive way, and they're super serving that

976
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,759
Speaker 2: consumer and they're adding value. I think those people, you know,

977
00:52:54,120 --> 00:52:56,839
Speaker 2: long term, will will flourish. They just have to figure

978
00:52:56,880 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 2: out how to monetize. I don't think the platforms, at

979
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 2: least in the current state, are going to be that

980
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:03,960
Speaker 2: path like that's just to get you the exposure so

981
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 2: that brands like you know, Samsung or whoever want to

982
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,279
Speaker 2: work with you. And then I think, you know, they

983
00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:13,080
Speaker 2: just need people that can help them get brand deals

984
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:17,799
Speaker 2: and like explain to Samsung or you know, Meta or

985
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:20,120
Speaker 2: ray Band whoever, it is, like, Hey, this is why

986
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:22,600
Speaker 2: she or he is super important. This is their audience,

987
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 2: and this is how you can activate them clearly at

988
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:29,400
Speaker 2: the top to your point, you know, like the mister

989
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:33,200
Speaker 2: beasts of the world Logan and Jake Paul, like, you know,

990
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:37,080
Speaker 2: they're you know, even Shannon Sharp. I think he's you know,

991
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:39,600
Speaker 2: on you know, on well on his way to really

992
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:44,440
Speaker 2: dominate in this new sort of like content paradigm. Those

993
00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:46,640
Speaker 2: people can branch out and do all other things, you know,

994
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:51,800
Speaker 2: launch CpG brands, launch candy bar brands, become professional fighters,

995
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:56,279
Speaker 2: like they really figured it out. The middle, I think

996
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:58,359
Speaker 2: is the hardest part, right, Like it's like you're not

997
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:00,880
Speaker 2: niche enough and specific enough to be seen as like

998
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:04,360
Speaker 2: really corer an expert to whatever that community is. And

999
00:54:04,400 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of people in that segment

1000
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:11,120
Speaker 2: of like you know, the boyfriend girlfriend videos. It's like

1001
00:54:11,120 --> 00:54:13,200
Speaker 2: like I don't know who wants to sponsor that I

1002
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:15,880
Speaker 2: don't can't figure out, like what's the value proposition?

1003
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:18,640
Speaker 1: Like how do you monetize that? Do you feel like

1004
00:54:18,640 --> 00:54:20,959
Speaker 1: it's too much content? Because I was just thinking about

1005
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 1: like even you know, previously you had sports and you

1006
00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 1: had news, and then you had like movies and stuff.

1007
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:30,400
Speaker 1: Right now now you have sports, you have news, you

1008
00:54:30,440 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: have movies, but you have twenty four hour content that's

1009
00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 1: being produced on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. It's it's an

1010
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:41,839
Speaker 1: unprecedented time in human history if you think.

1011
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:43,160
Speaker 2: About it, right, very democratic.

1012
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:49,120
Speaker 1: It's like a hurricane of content daily. Right, is this

1013
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 1: oversaturating the media market to where it's devaluing real, actual

1014
00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:00,680
Speaker 1: valuable content doesn't even mean thing anymore?

1015
00:55:03,800 --> 00:55:06,040
Speaker 2: You could make that argument. I wouldn't make that argument

1016
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:09,280
Speaker 2: because I think when you make really high quality content,

1017
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 2: it breaks through. Like we were talking about Speedy interviewing

1018
00:55:13,719 --> 00:55:16,920
Speaker 2: Gorilla last week. It broke through right like he designed

1019
00:55:17,080 --> 00:55:23,000
Speaker 2: that episode brilliantly creatively to have those moments where people

1020
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:26,839
Speaker 2: that know were like they flirting? Was he like embarrassed?

1021
00:55:26,960 --> 00:55:28,879
Speaker 2: Was he cracking up? Could he not understand her?

1022
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:29,000
Speaker 8: Like?

1023
00:55:29,040 --> 00:55:31,480
Speaker 2: He designed that whole thing to be a thing, right,

1024
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,359
Speaker 2: And it broke through, and like people that do that

1025
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:38,480
Speaker 2: I think will be successful. Is there a barrage of

1026
00:55:38,560 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 2: like just nonsense and your friends posting eighteen hundred stories

1027
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:45,239
Speaker 2: that you don't need to look at? Sure, but the

1028
00:55:45,320 --> 00:55:48,600
Speaker 2: high quality content I think will break through. I really

1029
00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:51,359
Speaker 2: like all these platforms I think are for the betterment, right,

1030
00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:55,799
Speaker 2: and it's giving more people at all more I think.

1031
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:59,719
Speaker 2: So it's giving people more access. I mean, like, I mean,

1032
00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 2: there's obviously there's obviously not nice people outs there.

1033
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 1: Let's just be honest, right, the vast majority of content,

1034
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 1: it's like the vast majority of music, the vast majority

1035
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:12,439
Speaker 1: of music is bad and it's it's detrimental. And that's

1036
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:17,560
Speaker 1: why specifically hip hop music is going down, right because previously,

1037
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:22,000
Speaker 1: like the Golden era, you had to really be talented

1038
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:24,479
Speaker 1: in order to be heard. Now anybody can be heard.

1039
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:30,719
Speaker 1: Now with that breaking up the barrier, you lose any

1040
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:35,120
Speaker 1: level of nostalgic moments. Quality of music is going down,

1041
00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:38,160
Speaker 1: and it's hurt the entire genre.

1042
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:41,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can see the point you're making. I think

1043
00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 2: the point I'm making is, like you have in content,

1044
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:51,560
Speaker 2: you have these seismic consumer changes happening where like you know,

1045
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:56,080
Speaker 2: the average age of like news programming on linear television

1046
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:57,040
Speaker 2: is in its seventies.

1047
00:56:57,120 --> 00:56:57,239
Speaker 8: Right.

1048
00:56:57,280 --> 00:56:59,480
Speaker 2: That means there's someone like one hundred and four watching

1049
00:56:59,520 --> 00:57:00,400
Speaker 2: it if the average is.

1050
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 1: Seventy, right, so I watch it to average seventy.

1051
00:57:02,880 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 2: Average is seventy MSNBC is seventy years old, right, That

1052
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:08,680
Speaker 2: means there's no one eighteen watching it? Literally no when

1053
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:13,760
Speaker 2: not one person? Right, and all of these social tools,

1054
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:15,399
Speaker 2: And I would agree some of it is not nice,

1055
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:16,520
Speaker 2: and some of it is not good, and some of

1056
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 2: its low quality. But there are a lot of people

1057
00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:24,560
Speaker 2: that wouldn't get the opportunity to create content and break through.

1058
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:28,960
Speaker 2: With there's such a reduction in friction that they can

1059
00:57:29,040 --> 00:57:32,000
Speaker 2: have the opportunity to break through. And I do concur

1060
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:35,840
Speaker 2: with your point that it is important that it is

1061
00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:40,160
Speaker 2: high quality, it's premium, it's scheduled, that it's done in

1062
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:42,560
Speaker 2: a methodical way. I do think that's more valuable, it's

1063
00:57:42,560 --> 00:57:45,960
Speaker 2: more trustworthy. I think brands matter. Like you know, I

1064
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:50,280
Speaker 2: don't agree in this, Like you know, Jason Calacanis and

1065
00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:54,800
Speaker 2: Chamoth Polyopatia that like Cinnisen, journalism is like gonna be

1066
00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:57,000
Speaker 2: the thing, Like No, you guys are just all riding

1067
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:00,520
Speaker 2: Elon's you know, like wave right like this not true,

1068
00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:03,040
Speaker 2: like citizen journalism. Yeah, maybe it's part of it. But

1069
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:05,680
Speaker 2: like I want journalists I can trust, right, I want

1070
00:58:05,800 --> 00:58:07,240
Speaker 2: people with ethics.

1071
00:58:07,120 --> 00:58:08,680
Speaker 1: Trust any journalists?

1072
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:15,360
Speaker 2: Can you trust anyone? But yeah, like I think nobody.

1073
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:18,640
Speaker 2: I think honestly, there are journalists and the journalists I've

1074
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:24,840
Speaker 2: worked with that they have boundaries, like you know, they

1075
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 2: they will quit at a principle, they will not do

1076
00:58:27,240 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 2: things out of principle. I think there are people that, like,

1077
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:33,320
Speaker 2: there's certainly people that the other way, right, that they

1078
00:58:33,360 --> 00:58:38,800
Speaker 2: will trade you access to a famous musician to give

1079
00:58:38,840 --> 00:58:41,480
Speaker 2: them a favorable whatever, right, because they want that access.

1080
00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:44,840
Speaker 2: But then there's journalists that are hyper critical, right, and

1081
00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:48,360
Speaker 2: and you know they won't bend those things. So I think,

1082
00:58:48,440 --> 00:58:51,920
Speaker 2: you know, I do think the critical journalists are super important.

1083
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:57,200
Speaker 2: You know. I don't want to just see like you know, uh,

1084
00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:00,480
Speaker 2: flattery of people, like you know, the podcas has to

1085
00:59:00,680 --> 00:59:03,400
Speaker 2: I think it's called like founders or acquired one of them,

1086
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,560
Speaker 2: and they bring business people on, but there's no critique.

1087
00:59:06,640 --> 00:59:10,120
Speaker 2: It's just like they're just lathering them with how great

1088
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 2: they are. It's like, well, it's not journalism. That's just

1089
00:59:13,760 --> 00:59:16,240
Speaker 2: you know, just a hype piece. It's just a biopic

1090
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:17,400
Speaker 2: in an audio format.

1091
00:59:17,760 --> 00:59:21,120
Speaker 3: So and that theme, how do you stay youthful when

1092
00:59:21,120 --> 00:59:22,440
Speaker 3: it comes to content creation?

1093
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:22,720
Speaker 1: Right?

1094
00:59:22,760 --> 00:59:25,120
Speaker 3: You have Speedy be at a certain point and Speedy's great,

1095
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:26,040
Speaker 3: it's going to be a.

1096
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:28,480
Speaker 2: Demographic younger one. Yeah, right, So like that, even Speedy

1097
00:59:28,520 --> 00:59:29,560
Speaker 2: pushes us, he does.

1098
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 5: I think he's amazing.

1099
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:35,280
Speaker 2: But Speedy is critical of us around like who's the next? Yeah,

1100
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,440
Speaker 2: or hey, guys, how come you're crushing it on reels

1101
00:59:38,480 --> 00:59:40,880
Speaker 2: but TikTok's not doing as well. You got to you

1102
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:42,280
Speaker 2: gotta go to get in there tinker with it. And

1103
00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 2: then they'll be like, hey, you're killing in TikTok, but

1104
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,720
Speaker 2: why are you killing in shorts? Like he's honest about that.

1105
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:51,560
Speaker 2: And I would say all the people that are, you know,

1106
00:59:51,760 --> 00:59:54,320
Speaker 2: sort of on the content side, they tend to be

1107
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:58,920
Speaker 2: of that you know, you know, mid to late twenties

1108
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 2: cohort the are you aware of that? And they are

1109
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:05,800
Speaker 2: pushing that agenda like they're you know, you know, sometimes

1110
01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 2: it's you know, makes this maybe be a little squirmish,

1111
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:10,560
Speaker 2: you know, but like they are pushing that, and I

1112
01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:13,320
Speaker 2: think it's right you have to be obsessed with the

1113
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:14,400
Speaker 2: youth or you're gonna lose it.

1114
01:00:14,520 --> 01:00:16,680
Speaker 3: Do they ever does it get to a point where

1115
01:00:16,680 --> 01:00:19,439
Speaker 3: it's you seeing telling it and they're like, wait, that's

1116
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:20,560
Speaker 3: the person, that's the person.

1117
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:22,800
Speaker 5: Can we build around that person?

1118
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 2: Sure? Like, are you guys familiar with them? She's new Gillian.

1119
01:00:28,360 --> 01:00:31,200
Speaker 2: She's a new on air anchor for us on Complex New.

1120
01:00:31,280 --> 01:00:33,120
Speaker 2: She's pretty new, like in the last couple of months,

1121
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:37,480
Speaker 2: but you know, discovered her totally organically. She was a

1122
01:00:37,480 --> 01:00:42,080
Speaker 2: producer behind the camera. Cornell who used to be our

1123
01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:45,960
Speaker 2: head of video. He now works with Kendrick at a

1124
01:00:46,200 --> 01:00:48,760
Speaker 2: pg lang. He's like the president of pg lang and

1125
01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:50,520
Speaker 2: he hit us up, Hey, we're doing the pop out.

1126
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:53,400
Speaker 2: We're doing this music video. And Compton. She happened to

1127
01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:56,680
Speaker 2: be home in Compton, got her friend to hold the

1128
01:00:56,760 --> 01:01:01,080
Speaker 2: camera right then, never been on camera before? Does this content?

1129
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:03,840
Speaker 2: It does like first day ten million views, second day

1130
01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:05,640
Speaker 2: twenty million views, whatever? Right, she did like a ton

1131
01:01:05,680 --> 01:01:10,400
Speaker 2: of content and we're like, oh, wow, you're a star,

1132
01:01:10,600 --> 01:01:13,400
Speaker 2: Like we need to we need to get you in

1133
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:15,640
Speaker 2: front of the camera instead of back of the camera,

1134
01:01:16,760 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 2: and we need to, you know, help you. Hone and

1135
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:24,760
Speaker 2: sharpen your skills. But we're constantly you know, Aria and

1136
01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 2: Know are constantly looking to find and develop new creators

1137
01:01:31,600 --> 01:01:34,480
Speaker 2: and on you know, on screen and talent and like

1138
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:37,120
Speaker 2: you know, like you tell who's another one of our

1139
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:40,720
Speaker 2: on screen talent? Like Cornell got him out of like

1140
01:01:40,760 --> 01:01:43,120
Speaker 2: flight club. He went into flight Club and the kid

1141
01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:45,160
Speaker 2: was like just pitching him hard on like whatever the

1142
01:01:45,200 --> 01:01:47,440
Speaker 2: shoes were, and he's like, huh do you want to

1143
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:50,360
Speaker 2: do like a screen test? And then like you know,

1144
01:01:50,400 --> 01:01:51,800
Speaker 2: he's been with us for the last you know, three

1145
01:01:51,880 --> 01:01:52,320
Speaker 2: four years.

1146
01:01:52,360 --> 01:01:57,640
Speaker 1: Now, Well, there you have it. Appreciate the conversation.

1147
01:01:57,720 --> 01:01:59,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, nice meeting you guys. Thanks for having me.

1148
01:01:59,520 --> 01:01:59,920
Speaker 1: There's a plan.

1149
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:00,760
Speaker 5: It's a pleasure.

1150
01:02:01,640 --> 01:02:04,960
Speaker 3: Can we end with some list? You love albums? You

1151
01:02:05,000 --> 01:02:08,400
Speaker 3: love sneakers? Well, Illmatic was your favorite album?

1152
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:10,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's my favorite album? Well yeah that in't like

1153
01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:15,240
Speaker 2: uh component Noriega's first album was probably Yeah, that's probably

1154
01:02:15,320 --> 01:02:16,479
Speaker 2: my favorite of all time.

1155
01:02:16,480 --> 01:02:18,000
Speaker 5: I haven't got my hands on the back.

1156
01:02:18,560 --> 01:02:22,800
Speaker 2: Back in college, I had like a you know, like

1157
01:02:22,360 --> 01:02:25,920
Speaker 2: a tape deck, you know, in the car and it

1158
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:28,320
Speaker 2: got stuck and you know how like it plays so

1159
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:30,040
Speaker 2: many times that water is down.

1160
01:02:30,160 --> 01:02:32,040
Speaker 1: What's your favorite song on the album.

1161
01:02:32,400 --> 01:02:33,800
Speaker 2: I don't know. There's so many, but I always I

1162
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:36,200
Speaker 2: always remember, you know, left rack is Iraq. That's like

1163
01:02:36,280 --> 01:02:39,000
Speaker 2: my favorite piece of it. I don't know that that

1164
01:02:39,160 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 2: album was like, so.

1165
01:02:41,120 --> 01:02:41,640
Speaker 5: What's your favorite?

1166
01:02:42,040 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 2: I think I got five mics and the source.

1167
01:02:43,720 --> 01:02:45,920
Speaker 3: They revised it and went back and get it.

1168
01:02:47,080 --> 01:02:48,360
Speaker 2: That was very that's a big debate.

1169
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:52,480
Speaker 1: My favorite song is Closer, but with which version? The

1170
01:02:52,520 --> 01:02:57,200
Speaker 1: original version? Serious? For sure, I don't care for the

1171
01:02:57,240 --> 01:02:57,840
Speaker 1: second version.

1172
01:02:57,880 --> 01:02:58,800
Speaker 5: That's the best one.

1173
01:02:59,120 --> 01:03:01,520
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't stick is my favorite one post and

1174
01:03:01,560 --> 01:03:03,080
Speaker 1: then l A l A Is a good one too,

1175
01:03:04,560 --> 01:03:06,200
Speaker 1: that's a really good one. Extended version.

1176
01:03:07,360 --> 01:03:11,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I think people will say the remix of

1177
01:03:11,840 --> 01:03:14,680
Speaker 3: the L A l A is one album. Yeah, but

1178
01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:17,160
Speaker 3: they switched to beat on some of the albums.

1179
01:03:17,840 --> 01:03:19,440
Speaker 1: Well, only one album.

1180
01:03:19,720 --> 01:03:23,080
Speaker 5: No, I'll play it, I'll play I'll play it for you.

1181
01:03:23,120 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 5: I'll play.

1182
01:03:23,680 --> 01:03:25,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did it. A second version of.

1183
01:03:26,360 --> 01:03:30,280
Speaker 1: Yah blood money t O n y I was a

1184
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:32,520
Speaker 1: commercial song. I'm saying blood money for that was.

1185
01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:32,919
Speaker 2: A good song.

1186
01:03:33,840 --> 01:03:34,480
Speaker 1: The whole album.

1187
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:41,040
Speaker 2: It was a rare album that every song was like listenable,

1188
01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:42,120
Speaker 2: A good song.

1189
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:46,080
Speaker 1: Like when I work out, it has good replay value.

1190
01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:48,520
Speaker 2: It's interesting though it does sound like at this point

1191
01:03:48,520 --> 01:03:54,959
Speaker 2: it doesn't sound modern, like yeah, but like I feel,

1192
01:03:55,000 --> 01:03:56,520
Speaker 2: for like a long time I listened to and I

1193
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:58,360
Speaker 2: would never think like, oh that sounds like it's from

1194
01:03:58,360 --> 01:03:59,880
Speaker 2: a different era. But now I listen to him, like,

1195
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:03,960
Speaker 2: oh wow, that that's I mean, what is that five

1196
01:04:04,080 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 2: years ago?

1197
01:04:06,720 --> 01:04:08,400
Speaker 3: And I told him I was the Molly ma remix.

1198
01:04:08,640 --> 01:04:11,080
Speaker 3: The original has the West Coast beat, and then Molly

1199
01:04:11,080 --> 01:04:12,200
Speaker 3: mal did a remix.

1200
01:04:12,920 --> 01:04:15,560
Speaker 1: On the album. Yeah, there's only there's only one.

1201
01:04:15,440 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 3: The Molly remix, but there was originally just the L

1202
01:04:19,000 --> 01:04:23,720
Speaker 3: A L A just and debate, no debate that there's

1203
01:04:23,720 --> 01:04:28,400
Speaker 3: two versions. I don't remember, but i'll play I'll play it, okay.

1204
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:30,720
Speaker 2: I just remember the cassette getting down to like that

1205
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:32,560
Speaker 2: sounded like it was underwater.

1206
01:04:32,160 --> 01:04:34,640
Speaker 5: You know, like I let my take route to my

1207
01:04:34,720 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 5: tip pop.

1208
01:04:36,080 --> 01:04:38,600
Speaker 2: You know, or just you know, my little Honda c

1209
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:41,400
Speaker 2: r V. I couldn't, you know, afford to get a

1210
01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:42,680
Speaker 2: new whatever it was.

1211
01:04:42,720 --> 01:04:48,120
Speaker 1: Pioneer, yeah, and then Prodigy. Little known fact about that album.

1212
01:04:48,640 --> 01:04:50,680
Speaker 1: He was supposed to he was supposed to be on

1213
01:04:50,920 --> 01:04:53,000
Speaker 1: L A l A as a verse he's on as

1214
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:56,440
Speaker 1: a hook. But he gave his verse to nas for

1215
01:04:57,600 --> 01:04:59,400
Speaker 1: the it was written album.

1216
01:05:00,640 --> 01:05:02,640
Speaker 5: Uh, I'm taking the song.

1217
01:05:04,360 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 2: I feel like you guys could do another podcast.

1218
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:13,440
Speaker 3: It I feel like that the expectation is like, of

1219
01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:15,400
Speaker 3: course they can do that. Like it's like we could

1220
01:05:15,400 --> 01:05:17,360
Speaker 3: do one on sports. Of course they can do that.

1221
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:19,120
Speaker 3: What we do nobody can do.

1222
01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:24,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, but look, you've built the brand, why not create

1223
01:05:24,800 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 2: sort of you know, you have fans on the left

1224
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:30,320
Speaker 2: and the right of the brand, create products for them.

1225
01:05:30,360 --> 01:05:33,440
Speaker 2: It's you know, like I would imagine there's a very

1226
01:05:33,480 --> 01:05:38,960
Speaker 2: specific brand and advertising group that wants to work with

1227
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:44,520
Speaker 2: you guys, right, like around financial literacy, et cetera. Sports

1228
01:05:44,600 --> 01:05:47,680
Speaker 2: is everybody else, mus music is everybody else. I mean

1229
01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:49,480
Speaker 2: the two bigges passion points in the world are music

1230
01:05:49,520 --> 01:05:53,200
Speaker 2: and sports. Right, So like, just you know, if you

1231
01:05:53,200 --> 01:06:01,800
Speaker 2: guys love money.

1232
01:05:58,240 --> 01:05:59,280
Speaker 5: My friends over accomplix.

1233
01:06:01,000 --> 01:06:03,960
Speaker 8: That's an idea, you know for sure.

1234
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:06,840
Speaker 2: But yeah, thanks for having me guys, just fun. We

1235
01:06:06,880 --> 01:06:08,520
Speaker 2: appreciate you rating on all your success.

1236
01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:10,120
Speaker 1: Appreciateank you appreciate it.

1237
01:06:10,160 --> 01:06:13,840
Speaker 7: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1238
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:17,640
Speaker 7: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

1239
01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:22,040
Speaker 7: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

1240
01:06:22,120 --> 01:06:26,000
Speaker 7: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

1241
01:06:26,080 --> 01:06:29,840
Speaker 7: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

1242
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:33,480
Speaker 7: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

1243
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:38,280
Speaker 7: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

1244
01:06:38,320 --> 01:06:41,880
Speaker 7: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over

1245
01:06:41,920 --> 01:06:44,160
Speaker 7: one hundred thousand illegal aliens.

1246
01:06:43,760 --> 01:06:44,560
Speaker 2: Have been arrested.

1247
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:48,400
Speaker 7: If you are here illegally, your next you will be

1248
01:06:48,440 --> 01:06:52,320
Speaker 7: fine nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported,

1249
01:06:52,800 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 7: you will never return. But if you register using our

1250
01:06:56,040 --> 01:06:59,240
Speaker 7: CBP home app and leave now, you could be allowed

1251
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:04,240
Speaker 7: to return. Lee do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump,

1252
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:08,000
Speaker 7: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1253
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:10,240
Speaker 8: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.