Dina Marto Interview: 10 Tips EVERY Music Entrepreneur Needs

I went from Island Def Jam, which is under Universal Music Group. I had a direct deposit in my bank account of a 401k. I have stock options, health benefits, and then I go out on my own with my own money, having to basically eat what I kill, no safety net, and that's a big risk. When you are an entrepreneur, you have to take big risks. That's how you make big money. Spin spin it. I am beyond thrilled to be welcoming in on the One More Time podcast legendary singer, songwriter, actress. It's Demi Lovato. Let's go, Demi. Hi, everybody. Hi. Demi. Demi! No, no, all seriousness. We have Dina Marto, a legend in the game. Dina. Just to like pop your shit a little bit. I mean, handpicked by LA Reid to work at Def Jam, executive assistant to the late great Shakir Stewart. We got a part of TI's management team, founder of 12 Music and Studios, C and D agency most recently. I mean, business partners with Rick Ross.

I have. At one point. Yeah. I mean, the list goes on and on. You are a true entrepreneur and a true just boss in this shit. I feel like no matter the chapter, no matter the company, like you've just been doing Dina this whole time. Well, I appreciate that introduction and I appreciate your research Oh, of course. and writing down these points. And thanks for having me. I know it took a little while to get me over here. Couple little tries. Oh, gosh. But we are finally here, and I'm excited about this. For sure. Yeah, I mean, you might've been the hardest guest, you know, to coordinate. I could think of uh three right off the bat. Right. That were harder. I mean, I think coordinating with Drake's team has been a little easier than with you. I mean, to be honest. This is gonna be one of your best interviews, I will tell you. Worth the wait. It's worth the wait. No doubt in my mind. Absolutely. Um, so you know, there was a blog article from 2017, so it's a it's a little bit dated, but I think it was a cool article. It was for it was for the A3C Music Festival uh here in Atlanta. And you know, it was called Letter to a Young Entrepreneur, and so you basically picked like 10 tips or 10 pieces of advice, 10 concepts that you would have wrote to you know a young entrepreneur, either to yourself as a you know, a younger lady or to anyone out there who's thinking about starting a company or thinking about embarking on their own entrepreneurial you know journey. So I thought it would be cool to just kind of walk through those 10 and have you kind of comment on your experience, your perspective, and how your story, like how you arrived at these 10, right?

Because they're they're really they're really good pieces of advice. I love it, and I'm glad you have them because I don't remember any of them. Oh, yeah, I got them. Dina. This is perfect. I got them. You're Dina Marto. We have to have these. We have to know. We have to know these things. All right. So the number one tip was find your passion and create your vision. Okay, so obviously you've worked in music, so like, but specifically, what what are you passionate about when it comes to working in music? Because everyone has their own different reasons for like why they get in the industry. Sure. It's simple. My passion is music. Like I love music from the core. It is like the it's my soul. So I always wanted to be in music because I understand how music heals people, how it's the universal language, how it teaches, how it it's a voice for the voiceless people, um, how it really started, especially in hip hop with being the 50th of hip hop now, how it started as like uh a movement. And so my passion is in fact my love for music.

That is the only reason I I spent this time and energy in this business for 20 years. Because it'll make your hair turn gray real quick The business of it. The business of it is not as fun as listening to the music, right? Yeah. I mean, it's it's hardcore. I miss just like listening to the music and not, you know, not even being judging it, critiquing it, not like thinking, where am I gonna put this? How am I gonna sell the like none of that? Just the love of it. And so what I like live for, one of my favorite things is when I hear a song for the first time that I'm in love with. And then I play it over and over again, like repeatedly for that whole day, all day long, until I get tired of it, which I don't, because then when you hear it again, you just fall in love with it again. That's like my true love. I have that today. Yes. How excited did I come in the studio today? Didn't even say hi to me. No. He went to the computer and went to Spotify. I turned off his music Since I was vibing too. He was pissed, but I was so excited to show him this new record. It's by an artist called Quail P and I think it's called Love What You Got or something like that.

You'll have to check that out. Yeah. So, I had lunch with his manager today, Sam Lancaster, who also manages Young Pinch and Guapdad Dad 4000 and some other dope acts, party alone. And he showed me this guy, and I just like fell in love with it. And it was that same thing. I probably listened to it seven times on the way out here. Cause you know how long it is to get out to the studio. Yeah, so uh guys, very, very far. If you ever want to get over here, just put aside like three hours of your time. You know, book a whole day. Um, but it's that feeling, it's that magic of hearing it and it touching you your spirit. Like that's what I love. I also think that if you don't absolutely love what you do, there's someone in your industry that does. Yes. I think they're gonna outwork you ten times out of 10, right? Period. So, because it's not even gonna feel like work. When I first started in this, I was like, oh shit, like I can get paid to do all these things that I I was just doing because I wanted to be in it so badly, I didn't realize that it was like a job. Um, because I just wanted to be in music. So I was like, any means necessary, I'm gonna figure this thing out.

Yeah. We literally just had this conversation about podcasting and interviewing people in music and just all the dope shit that we've been able to do. Yeah. We're starting to finally, like, you know, two years in, try and build a real business around this and monetize. But I told him, I was like, bro, I would do this shit for free. Like, swear to God. Like, I don't tell him that. Don't tell him that. Don't tell him that. I'd actually do it for whatever we're gonna charge you for all the services. We need that. But no, I just it really does feel that way. Where if you really do love something, um, obviously we, you know, we all have bills to pay, we all have families, et cetera, loved ones, but like at the end of the day, you better be like in it for the right reasons because there's plenty of people in this shit that I've met, you can just smell it on them that they just are not here for the right reasons. If you're here for fame or money, it's like get out. Like, do you you're it's it's just not what you're here for. It I I like to deal with people in this business that I know truly love music, and that they study it, they read the credits on albums back in the day. They, They like they wanted to know who produced what, who wrote on what?

Like they studied it, and and that's what I did as a little girl. Yeah, no, it's it's absolutely true. So the the create your vision part of it. So, like getting into it though, like, did you have a vision for what your career path and journey was gonna look like? And if so, like how did that look back in the day? And then how close did we get to executing? Yeah, we're a little off. Um, it changes. So, what's the the thing about a vision is you want to have one. I think it develops and changes as you go along. I didn't know that back then. My vision was when I first started, and I think a lot of people are like this in the business, is I wanted to be a singer-songwriter. So I wanted to start as an artist, like on the creative side, clearly, very far away from that uh objective. But I once I got in and I started moving, I realized I was really good at the business side, and then I never looked back at the creative side. But I still was able to be in what I love because I'm still dealing with the music, is just that I don't have to be the actual singer or the artist on the stage. Do you still have like a debut album under a pseudonym on SoundCloud? I have songs

That you'll never hear that I've recorded, and I was a pretty good songwriter, I'm not gonna lie. Okay. Somebody hacked Dina's hard drive. I know, I know. We need the tapes and stuff, like, They were back on like tapes and stuff. Like you guys are too young. We won't find that. Oh shit. She just dated herself. I know. Uh, but okay, so you know, a lot of our audience is independent artists and kind of like aspiring music industry creatives, and then also like managers, ARs, et cetera. But like for an artist, you've you know worked alongside incredible ARs and music executives, and you yourself obviously, you know, founded your own company where hella records were made. Yeah. What you know, what does a vision look like for an artist though? I think they need to know what they want to bring to the world. Like, what is their music gonna say? What is their foundation? What makes them different and unique from the other artists? And then it'll, it'll, it'll like it'll just, it'll change and move as you create and things evolve. But I think it's mainly like knowing what you what's your end goal is.

Are you just here? Do you want to be a touring artist for for the rest of your life? Stick with that understanding when you're making the music and you're doing the business. Yeah. Yeah, because I feel like a lot of you know, ARs and managers, et cetera, like they only want to work with artists that have vision. Yeah. And I feel like our audience might not understand even like what that means and what they're supposed to be thinking about. Cause you know, also to her to her point, it's okay for it to change, y'all. Like for sure. whatever you think the vision is today, as long as you're like trying things and taking steps towards that, it can, you know, it can take turns. The artist is going to develop and it's going to change as they go and they're going to grow and it's going to be better. Or it's going to, it's just going to take a, Your life kind of dictates how that moves. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Not having that 50 year goal is unacceptable, right? I think that some type of vision. If you're just here for like a quick hit and you just want to be like super famous real quick, like it is you can tell through the you can tell through the talent in the music. Yeah, yeah.

Have your island boys moment and move on. Right. Oh God. Are they still around? I hope not. They're doing cameos. They're kissing on OnlyFans for money. So I think they're trying to do that. It's so hard to watch. Oh Lord. All right. Number two. Number two on the on the uh, you know, love letter to a young entrepreneur. Don't share your ideas with too many people, especially those you don't trust. That's an interesting one. Oh shit. That something happened. Were you betrayed? Um where did that one go? Why is that number two? I think I I said that because oftentimes we second guess ourselves. Like you have the intuition, you have the idea, and then you might share it with somebody who you may think is a friend or a business partner, and then they shoot you down, or their own projections of themselves. They like put that on you and their own fear of their own failures or what they think is limiting for themselves, and they put that on you, not as haters, I don't think. Like you could have some haters. That's fine, but I think more so like they're not doing it on purpose.

It's just more that they might say little something that makes you feel discouraged. Or like, oh, maybe I'm not onto something. Like T.I. always gives this great example of he he's the rubber band man. So he wanted to do like rubber bands and like um have that be something he sells. He ended up not doing, he told some people, they're like, eh, it's not a great idea. Ends up not doing it, and Nike comes out with like the rubber band that they sell and make millions of dollars with. Oh shit. So it's like those kind of stories that you're like, don't share your most intimate. Have your team of people that are like your accountability team, the team of people that you share ideas with that are your your your um what do they call it, your safe space, your close circle. But don't go outside of there and just start talking to people about what you want to do. Okay, so it makes way more sense now that you've explained it. Because I read it. We envisioned someone like stealing an idea, like stealing some multi-billion dollar ideas, like she thought of Apple computers before Jobs. Yeah, no, no.

I mean, it's sure. I probably gave out some ideas that I could have done myself. Or I think it's more so it's just how you're like who's around you and how they're either encouraging you or discouraging you. Yeah, that's big. Because you but it's a fine line, right? You you don't want all yes men around you. No, because you don't want everyone to be like, oh, it's fire idea, fire idea, dope, dope, whatever. All that is. You want critical thinkers, you want somebody to say, okay, that's a great idea, but how are you gonna get there? Or what if we did it like this, or tweak it a little bit, but it's not like they're saying that's stupid, it'll never happen, you sound dumb. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. For sure. Especially because you know, this episode's about entrepreneurship. Yes. And there's a lot of crazy ideas, and a lot of people that thought ideas were crazy that ended up being multi-million, multi-billion dollar companies at the end of the day. I would say every great idea started out sounding crazy. Probably. Probably. The internet, like that's gonna work. Yeah, right.

Such a fad. people thought MySpace was just a fad, and like it wasn't or Napster, like I mean, just think back. Like it was like, what? You know, these are ideas that that people just obviously all the ideas that are new are like, what? What are you saying, you know? Yeah, for sure. All right, number three, take calculated and big risks. Yeah. Okay, so what you know, what do you feel has been the biggest risk that you've taken thus far in your career? Being an entrepreneur itself is a risk, right? So I went from Island Def Jam, which is under Universal Music Group, which was I was there for six years, I had a direct deposit in my bank account every bi-weekly, it never fails, right? I have a 401k, I have stock options, I all of these things and health benefits, and then I go out on my own to build this world, you know, to build my dream with my own money, um, having to basically eat what I kill, no safety net. Um, and take and that's a big risk.

As people get really comfortable in their spaces and they don't push themselves or challenge themselves. I could have got stuck in that system for a long time. But I was like, you know what? I feel like it's time for me to grow. When you feel too maybe not, it's not stagnant is the word, but when you feel too like um comfortable, that's when it's time to push yourself to the next step. And it's not like do something risky and dumb, it's like make it a calculated risk that when you are um an entrepreneur, you have to take big risks, and that's how you make big money, yeah, for sure. And and so 12 music and studios, that was the first venture, like post Def Jam. Post-Def Jam. So before I did start a PR firm when I was 19 in college. Yep, yep. And I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Sure. But what was so great about it then is I I just was like, I'm gonna learn as I go. Yeah.

Then I went into a system, got all the knowledge I felt like I could get, the relationships, learning how a machine operates, how a major label works. And then I was like, okay, I think I'm ready now to go back out there. They taught you everything you're doing wrong. Yes. Essentially. Essentially. And maybe reaffirm some things that you were doing right. Yeah. No. But so with 12, you know, the studio specifically, like what, what prompted you to, you know, leave the, you know, the label system. I know, you know, rest in peace, Shakir Stewart passes away. So obviously that was who you were like directly supporting uh over there. So I mean, it makes sense that you would, you know, try something new at that juncture. Yeah. But why why the studio, like why did you do what you did? So I actually stayed at Def Jam several years after he passed. Okay, wow, okay. A lot of people don't know that. And I was running the Atlanta office, and I'm a builder by nature, so I was like, and I love to deal with creatives, and I wanted to build a space that felt like a home for the creative community in Atlanta. And I wanted to build a space that had like an environment for growth and nurturing talent.

Because I'm it's more, it's a lot more fun to me when I can find something new and help grow it into it's a big brand than it is for like already dealing with an established artist or brand that has its stuff already going. And so I don't know what made me say, listen, I have never recorded a song. I well like helped do anything on like, I didn't even touch the computer. I never used the microphone in that studio. I didn't know how to build a studio. Yeah. I didn't know how to run a studio. I didn't know you're not in Pro Tools. Like I didn't, I had to learn the soundproofing, like the quiet rock walls that you have to build, all the stuff. It was such a big learning curve. And um, and it ended up being great. Yeah. Yeah. But but like, so where do you start? Like, okay, you you decide you're gonna go into this, you know, studio business. You don't know anything about it. Zero. So you're learning as you go to your point, right? But the thing gets built, then what?

Like how you know that it's not build and they shall come, really. It's like you still gotta go get them to come into the studio. I still gotta get them to come, but that's where my relationships kicked in. Sure. So I never marketed the studio, wasn't advertising, it wasn't open to the public, never open to the public. The only way I got people in that studio was from my already established relationships. So when I first opened, I I had four rooms, and my big A room was um taken by Polo Da Don. Shout out, Polo, who was an old friend of mine, and I said, Hey, I'm building a new studio. What do you think? I took them when I was doing the blueprint of it, and he he came back, and it's funny, the the actual A room was called blueprint. I named it after major albums. Okay. Um, and so he took that room, and then I called Ray Daniels, who had Rock City, and I was like, listen, and they were on the rise at the time. I was like, I want y'all in this space. So he took the Adele room.

Um, and then I had uh KP, who was with Atlantic Records at the time, and he got the thriller room. Shout out KP. If y'all haven't listened to the Kawan Prather interview, you're fucking sleeping. We'll put a link to it right here. Yeah. I mean, maybe we're not very good. We usually point to the links and we forget to put the links It's Top right, man. Just it's over there. You do link. I will. Anyways, who took the other rooms? the last room was Purple Rain. Okay. Yes. I know. Nice one. My favorite room. Yes. And I left. So it was your favorite room there, actually. That was my favorite room. Why? I don't know. It was the vibe in there, it was the name. It was just, it was the I don't know. It was just my room. Yeah. And I left that open for my talent that I signed to develop in there. And so you did, okay, so and I left that room open for other people to uh book time and record. But those people were only people that I knew. Wow. Or were referred by people that I knew. So it wasn't like a regular studio, let's say like a tree sound or a patchworks where you can call up and say, hey, I need some studio time, and they book it. It was like if you didn't know me or anybody else in that studio, weren't getting in.

You couldn't get in. I'm curious how with a system like that, you're wanting to build a community of creatives, you want to support the people that you know, you have a room specifically for artists that you know are under you. Um, how does that kind of what are the difficulties with also trying to run a business and you know make some money out of it at the end of the day? Did you find like oh yeah what was the business? That had to be hard? Well what was the business model? I think is his question. So the business model, was it not just being a studio? I think if I had just built a studio to build a studio, um, it wouldn't be so great. It was more about how do I operate a studio, but also nurture talent, and then these hits are what's gonna fund how this operates. So from like what publishing, publishing, management, record deals, publishing deals, it was me taking the writers, producers, and artists that I thought were talented and giving them a space to grow and be great, and then taking those hits, and and that that was what's kind of was funding, not just the booking of the rooms. That is one source of income.

But I feel like what made my studio special, because like listen, I didn't have the greatest equipment. It wasn't the best rooms, they weren't the biggest place. It, it it was that there was this vibe. It was this family environment that people came and they were able to collaborate with people. I made it to where you had to collaborate. And not only did I have those four rooms, I had six offices in the front where I rented out each office to different executives. So Empire Distribution's first like location in Atlanta was at my studio. Ghazi booked that room. Wow. And then um I Rick Ross and I did a deal with Fred to be the MMG headquarters. And then who else that I had? Ray had an office there, KP had an office there, Vince Phillips, big time attorney had an office there. So they're all running around in the same building. We're all in the same building. How do you not collaborate in an environment like that? You just ignore them at the coffee pot, you know, at the water cooler.

Nothing to see, nothing to see here, nothing to see here. Uh man, are you like we're taking notes right now? I got chills. No, because we we've just talked about wanting to do it's just awesome to have like stumbled across you because we have always dreamed of and wanted to kind of create something similar. Yeah. Right? Where, you know, we don't want to just be in the studio business where we're just how many hours can we book? Slinging hours and getting the cheapest engineers and you know, just booking it out as much as we can because that's what you have to do. We, you know, we want it to be more special. We want it to be more community driven. We want it to be, you know, some a safe space for the people that we trust, right? Um, so it sounded like there were hits being made though. Like don't fucking get it twisted. So what what was the biggest song or like what your favorite song was? Uh, I mean, Pour It Up. Rock City, right? I mean, Theron and Rihanna. And then you had like um Polo produced um Anaconda for Nicki Minaj. And then um there was a young, like uh kid that worked with um um rock, what was his name?

Uh for uh Roddy Ricch, the big hit for the box. The box. Yes. Come on. Who's the producer for that? He's gonna kill me that I don't remember the name of the producer for that. Henry, get on it. I know, I know. We find out. but here's the thing, and here's why the concept was so crazy. Most studios, they the whole point is you wanna be secluded in your own space. So when you go to patchworks, there's an A room and there's a B room. There's a door in between that never gets open. So the A room people are who's ever booked in that room is never gonna see whoever is booked in the B room. Yeah. That's that was my concept was completely opposite of that. It was like when you walk down the hall of 12 studios, you're gonna see all these people. So if you want to be exclusive and by yourself, this was not the place to be. But if you wanted to be um around the young new talent and around the established people like a polo Da Don, then this is the place for you to be. Like if you want to bump into him, this is where you go.

Yeah. That's fire. Was it 30 Rock? But from Eardrummers? Thank you. Sorry. So 30 Rock was in there. I'm on it. I was gonna say, you're quick. You're quick. Um cheese beats did a lot in there. I mean, we had everybody come through. Sure. Pierre Bourne was started as an intern there. Wow. I know. Tell us a story about, Tell us a story about a young Pierre Bourne. I'll tell you the story about young Pierre. Let's go. Did he fuck up a coffee order or something? He definitely fucked some shit up. But it was so he started as an intern and he became the engineer for Epic Records who did have a room there for three years. Okay. And he used to sleep in my studio. He used to sleep on the couch. He didn't have a place to go. Damn. And I remember one day I was, I don't know, things weren't bills weren't needing to get paid. We're probably behind on people paying us on some stuff. And I had wrote him a check, and I was like, don't cash this check yet. Because it's it's like it's not there.

Shit's bouncing, bro. He went and cashed it anyway. Oh, Pierre. Fucked my whole shit up. Oh no. And I had to like, like, it was a whole thing, but like he learned how to be a great engineer and producer in 12. Wow. And he will credit me for that. That's fire. And in that space. That's fire. And now he's taxing uh, was it Trippie Redd said 100K, 120K or some shit? Damn, Pierre. You can't you came up, bro. Sleeping on 12's uh couch. But I had everybody in there. Future came through their young thug, Usher. Um I saw a caption on one of your posts. I think it you'd said like uh who all has slept here. Like it was that kind of vibe, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah, because everybody spent the night there. I mean, there were people living there. I'm like, they should have been paying me rent. That's what it sounds like. Do you know? It was literally the it was the place to be. It was a very special time. I love that place. So I'm not gonna lie, you know, you posted something about 12 years in. First of all, how poetic is this?

12 years, 12 studio, 12 studios. Yeah. You, you know, you shut the doors to it. I literally, I didn't only, I didn't, I just oh, I met you, I guess, you know, like a few weeks ago. But yeah. Essentially, I don't know you, right? And I was like tearing up, seriously, at that post. So dramatic. No, it just it just felt like damn, like this is the the end of something really, really special. Why, you know, was it that it wasn't working still at that point or like kind of time the time of it? Um, also, like if I was ever gonna do a studio again, I would need to own the building. It's just different when you have a landlord and different things like that. They fuck everything up. They really do. So fuck it up for everybody. It was just time. I was, you know, it is exhausting. Oh, yeah. It's a 24-hour business. When I tell you I never had a day off, we people were in there Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. You know how creatives are, they don't care what's going on outside. From the morning, I think we we really got rolling around 11 a.m. until maybe four or five, six a.m.

in the morning. Yeah. That's how the day went. And I needed at one point I had 10 people on staff, 30 interns at a time, because you need to have so many people there to keep a ship like that rolling. Yeah. Damn. Four rooms. Oh man. All right. So, you know, moving on. Yeah. Uh number four, fail quickly and learn from your mistakes. What was the biggest L that you took? Would you say in your career thus far? Whoo. What was the biggest L that I took. So many. I would say that Where do I start, man? Where do I start? How long do we have on this thing? I feel like it's never an L if you if you learn from it. I know that sounds like so cliche, but it's like it's not a mistake, it's not a failure. It's about failing fast and quickly and forward so that you don't keep making the same mistake over and over again. And if you do it quickly and you learn what's what's working, then you can push ahead because it's never gonna go as planned. You need to be flexible with your plan. You need to know that like I have an A plan, but there it's most likely not gonna go that way.

And so how do I move with what's going on? I would say probably um bad business partners that weren't aligned with the overall vision. And once I realized that staying in business with them too long in partnership and not getting out sooner. Yeah. And so over communicating your goals with them. Yeah, and just realizing when it's like not it's not benefiting and it's not moving forward the way it needs to, because it can drag you back. And that's tough because it's like if you've invested any sort of time, money, energy into a business partner. Um I mean, even when I was doing the management thing, it was like, you know, you've sunk a lot of like there's a lot of sunk costs involved, and so you're kind of like clinging on to like should should we still do this? Are we the right fit? Are we not? And you almost want to like make it in your head make you believe that you are, and maybe it's not right, you know? And sometimes you you don't have when you don't know any better, you don't have an out. So you have to build your partnership agreement with an out when things go wrong.

It's like a divorce. Like nobody, you're you're in love right now, you're getting married, you're not thinking about like I might hate this person, it might not work out, how do we separate? You have to have a way out. You have to have a clause that says like, if we go the you know, a different direction, how can I, how can this be handled in the proper way where your emotions are not a part of it? Well, yo, we have that in our agreement, right? Do y'all have an agreement? No. No. Well, I know. I'm just joking. No, but like, we I mean, we were working on it. We've said we've said we're working on it for so long. Agreement only is necessary when things go wrong. Nobody's looking at the agreement when everything's going right. Yeah. So you should should you maybe get it in place when things are going right? Probably. I would get it in place at the beginning before you go start dating the person down that road. Yeah. We didn't even know what we were doing. We were just we go to the movies. Are we dating? In this analogy, we are. Damn. In this analogy I don't like this analogy.

I'm not helping raise your kids though. Sorry about that. Right? Yeah. He hasn't offered to babysit one fucking time. Like, what a shitty uncle. He's Busy producing chopping up content. I gotta edit this podcast. I can't watch Oliver. I gotta chop up clips. Um, all right. So number five is have a plan with no backup plan. So, you know, it I I'm assuming the reasoning behind that is that because if you're one foot in, one foot out. You gotta go all in. Yeah. And the backup plan, there's no like for me, there wasn't a like there was no room to like fail in this. Yeah. Like I put everything into it. So like I, if I knew it was gonna be this hard, maybe I would have been like, oh, I'll do something else, right? But once you're in, like you're rolling, like it's hard to stop that, like it's a snowball. Yeah, no, it's it's very true. like you have to like if it's it's definitely the one foot in, one foot out. Because like if you're not all the way, your heart and everything that you're doing is all the way in because you have to sacrifice a lot to just be an entrepreneur and do it.

Like if you're still hanging on to some other stuff, it's not gonna be full force. Yeah. Yeah. Every decision you make, every every step you take, you'll have in that in the back of your head. Well, I could always be a dentist. You know, it'll be fine. Yeah. And so that's like your own self-negative talk. Yeah. You need to go back to that almost primal instinct of like, I have to make this work. Exactly. Are you considering a career in dentistry? Yeah. I've been looking into it. Okay. My sister's a dentist. That's why you know this. And her and her husband. They're both dentists. Anyways, all right, number six. That's my backup plan. This one's big. Yeah. Don't have one. Number five. Uh this one's big. Find a mentor in your same industry who can guide you. Yeah. So obviously, you know, my mind immediately goes to like you had one of the greatest mentors in the music business of all time. I mean, or I guess two borderline with LA. I was gonna say, who which one are you talking about? LA and Shakir. Yeah, for sure. Right.

And so, you know, I don't want to make this a Shakir Stewart and LA Reed, you know, interview, but at the same time, like I do think it's you know powerful for us to spend some time understanding like some of the key lessons learned from those just powerhouse executives, right? Like I mean, the Atlanta music business, I mean, we have to give him his his his credit. The Atlanta music business is here because of LA Reed. Yeah, right. We are all um stemming from that man and that his and his work here. Shout out LaFace Records. LaFace. Exactly. What would we be without LaFace Records? We wouldn't be this. Nothing. Right. So I had to, I I was learning from the cream of the crop. Like there was no, and I was 21 when he hired me. Wild. So very young. I think I was the only like the youngest person that wasn't an intern at Def Jam. What did he see in you? Do you think? Or did he tell you? He might have told you. Um, it's a crazy story. So what happened was I was running my PR firm and I was representing a bunch of talent that he works with. So how?

Well, because I was just out there. I was doing it. Of course I should be your PR representative for. So at the time, like Sleepy Brown, like Rico Wade gave me a shot with the Dungeon family, and I was representing like DJ Drama, Ryan Cameron, like just all these people. I was Gucci's first publicist. Wow. Like all these people, right? And he's like, you know all my people. So we had one meeting, never heard from him again. Damn. A year later. Ghosted your ass. Ghosted me for sure. Like never. I was like, okay, that didn't go well. A year later, Shakir calls me, and he had just signed Jeezy at that time. And I was like, oh, I'm about to get Jeezy as like I'm about to be like the independent because I was like filling in as the independent publicist when you had publicity at the major record labels, but you won't you needed like the extra hand, right? In the streets. And so he was like, we went out to lunch, and as soon as he sat down, he was like, I didn't call this meeting. LA Reed did.

And what people don't know is he's not just good at finding talent, he's good at finding executive talent. And he wants you on our team, and he saw something in you. I think it was just that I was a go-getter and just very intelligent, um, working hard, and that I was already connected to the people that he's already doing business with. Right. And so he gave me that shot. But what was so smart about LA Reed is that he filed that in the back of his head, and he was like, he waited till the opportunity that he found the right position for me to bring me on board, and that took a year. Yeah. And then, and then that's it. And she and she got to work with young Jizzle, baby. Jizzle. Yeah. All right, sorry, we like we like doing Jeezy ad libs Around here. Um okay, so um two, you know, just just working alongside those two specifically. I mean, arguably two of the greatest ears, you know, in the game ever to exist. And so, you know, from your perspective, you also nurtured and developed talent at 12, and clearly you were around tons of talent being at Def Jam and you know, uh alongside those two.

Is is an ear for talent something that can be developed? Sure, but I think you have to kind of have a skill at it for like it kind of has to be a natural gift a little bit. Yeah. I don't think so. People like want to just apply to be an A and R. I'm like, it doesn't work like that. Yeah. Like you kind of have to know, you have to know a song, like a hit song when you hear it. You have to know what to pick. The ARs that we talked to, they uh realized at some moment or someone told them like that they were actually already A&Ring without knowing that that was a job title. Bro, you just know dope shit all the time. Like this is the job title if you ever were to want to apply for something online. Exactly. And you you you it's like a feeling, you know it, it's your intuition. And um, of course, being around Shakira in LA, I knew how to like what why you would pick the song over the other song. Why why would you put this out first, then put this out second? Or what makes this uh artist what somebody you want to sign immediately in this one you have to develop? Or so it it helped me to understand more of the business side of it, but I always had an ear.

Everybody says that though. They do, yeah. Everybody says that, but they don't. So it's a little bit of both. You need to have something, but you can also practice and learn and get better. You can learn what's what is is business smarts. So Barry Hefner was on that panel at the Unlock 404 event that you know we met at Barry. Yeah, but I think it was there that he made some comment about the fact that there's no more superstar executives ever since like Shakir and LA Reed. There haven't been really superstar executives in the music business. Do you agree with that? Um very far and few between. Okay. For sure. And I think I would take it one step further and say there hasn't like superstars in general. It's it's lacking in our business right now. Yeah. Because when I came in the game, we were building stars that are gonna last for decades. This was like a longevity game.

This these are like real talent legends. Now I feel like I don't know what the hell's going on. Yeah, I mean, you know, we got Drizzy, we got Kendrick, and maybe Cole. I don't know. Like who do we even have, right? People don't want to work hard, people don't want to tour, people don't want to perform, people don't want to. It's like, I don't know. It's it's the work ethic and it's like the craft and really like pouring your entire being into it. For sure. So number seven, network and build a team. You have to. Yes. Because you can't do everything on your own. No. And I'm a perfectionist. If I could clone myself to do the same, like every job, like if I could be the receptionist at the studio, I could be the engineer, I could be the producer, the writer, the thing. I would have cloned myself because I'm like, listen, I'm pretty good at all this shit, right? I'm a perfectionist. But you can't. You have to like know what you're good at doing, and then you have to find people around you to build that team to delegate the task and for them to come in and do the things that you're not good at doing. If you don't do that, you're not gonna, you're sti- stifling yourself.

Is it stifling? Stifling? Stifling yourself. Close enough. Yeah, very close. Stifle, stifle, whatever. Whatever. Fucking grammar. Police don't tell T.I. Yeah, it'd be bad. Scintillating. I know. So you're limiting yourself because you can't grow. You can't do it all on your own. You only have so many hours in the day. So you have to do what you're really best at doing. How hard. Okay, because you're very hard. You have two people that I'm looking at right now off camera. Who are a part of your team that you work with that are your partners in crime. And like, how hard is it to relinquish some of that control and like that? It's hard because the trust, but then you have to like you have to be vulnerable and be able to grow it. And then you have to know when it's not working as well. Yeah. Yeah. Because what I didn't like to do was fire people. So the person that you're looking at over here on this side, she's great at it. But she no, she would just tell me, like, you need to let this person go.

You need to do that. And I'd be like, can you go let them go? Like, I it's hard because you, when you have a loyalty, but you have to realize that like not letting them go is basically holding you back. Because they're not in the right position. Yeah. And it's not working. And so it's about really building a proper team with the right people. And it's a trial and error thing. You're not gonna figure that out on the first try. Um, you have to try people out, and you have to see what works, and then you have to grow those people with you. Yeah, we've been we've been struggling. It's so hard, Dina. We've gone through some editors that we just feel like ah, maybe that they're not doing it quite as good. But like we probably were we were probably fucked up about that, to be honest. It was nice to hear Jeremy Key say, he said, um, if they're doing it at least 80% is good, right? Yeah, then like it's yeah, he just used the 80 20. I feel like the 80 20 rule is used in every fucking like way possible. So he had used it in a way I'd never heard, but he basically was like, you should hire someone to do a role that you shouldn't necessarily be doing, probably based on like top line revenue generating activities, which is where like big thinking, strategic thinking is where like the owners of a company should be spending their time. If someone can do that like operational day-to-day task as good as you, you know, 80% as good as you or better, yeah, then they could be the right fit, but I don't know, man.

It's about training and development, right? So the person that's coming in, you have to, it's it's take a it takes a lot of time on the front end, but it works on the back end. So you when you take a person, you bring them on board, like the person that's like this side of where you're looking at, they come in, they come in like with a certain skill set, and then you have to develop how you what you know what their role needs to be, and they have to develop those skills as a training process. They don't just come in and know everything or know how you like to work or what your vision is or how your plans are. And so it takes that it takes time, like you can't just throw somebody in the fire and not tell them like I like to tell people like this is what we're doing, and this is why we're doing it. Not just like do this, do that. I want them to know that okay, why are we doing this, this, this, this way? Why is this the method? Yeah, it helps them make little decisions along the way. Yeah, it's just knowing the goal. I I know you like kind of were training a couple, but like we didn't really give it a fair chance. We didn't give it a full go, bro.

Yeah, it's hard. And I wasn't, I wasn't involved at all. It takes time. I didn't even meet, I had to be dedicated to growing the people. I haven't even met like one of our, I mean, like, bro, one of our editors, you still need to set up that call, first of all. Like, let's use this as the like reminder. And you need to know, like, maybe you should do a little more editing. So I think knowing the job I'm I'm prepping front and back. I'm doing a lot more right now yeah I took a break took a break it's it sucks I hate it but you need to know the job that you're hiring for I think I know it now okay all right moving on moving on maybe number eight know your competition and do your research yeah what what do you think just like just general generally speaking more so or was there maybe something specific you think you were talking about people come in this business and they don't know what came before them and they don't take the time to see like this is how things um this is what music came from like this is how the business grew and like knowing like the back end of stuff and how things operate and I just think that um it's uh a disservice to yourself when you don't really research and then to know your competition and like any business that you're building like you gotta know like who do you want to like who are you gunning for like do you want to be great well like who who's that person you're going after. And that's what I but it it's a fine line of you know Jimmy Iovine has the whole like you know run your race with blinders on not looking left or right type of shit.

So it's it but you have to still be knowing like where like who you're going like you still know what the whole number one horse is in the fucking race. Even when you put your I think even when you put the blinders on you still know who you're racing against for sure. That's my like we've heard both sides it's kind of tough man because I I spend more time looking at that and you know obsessing over that to it to a degree and he I feel like is on the other side of the spectrum he's like we're just full steam ahead. And I'm like, I love that too. Well, you gotta know what the landscape looks like. Yeah. And we do get we do get good ideas from just kind of being open to seeing how other people are doing it. Um so that is helpful, but we try not to get distracted from it. Don't do it if of course I think y'all are doing it right. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. All right, number nine. Uh remember you are your brand. Yeah. I feel like you've you like still embody number nine right now. Right. I mean, you have your own website. Sure. You know, I mean everybody should have their own website. They don't they don't.

Well, I mean, depending on what they're doing, but yes, because and then and social media is so key, right? When you post something like that, is your extension of your brand. So whatever you're posting, you gotta think really clearly about every single thing. It's so funny because I feel like people just post shit, and I'm like, why are you posting that? It doesn't look good, or it's like you're you're posting it for the the moment, it's not great for the long term. I don't know. I think nobody like puts a gun to your head and says, post this stuff. It's like your decision making on the post. So you have to think about every time you post something, or every time you step out, or every time you speak, what do you want the the audience or the people that you're reaching to know? Like what is that um what is that brand that you're portraying? What authentically do you want them to understand about you? Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's so true. So, you know, for someone um like an independent artist, right? Like, what are some things?

You you obviously have seen talent, you've seen it, you know, done well, you've seen it at the highest level, you've seen it at the you know, kind of like just starting out level. What are some things from like a brand building perspective? Do you see maybe you know, from an independent artist perspective, or just you know, independent producer, you know, up and coming producer. Where are some things that they're they're doing it wrong? Or like where where can they most improve? Is there anything you've noticed that's like a recurring theme? I I I think what you said about the like posting with intention, I think that's huge because I do agree that like you know, people just be posting shit, and I I agree with you. I'm like, how is that aligning with anything? Like just craziness. Yeah, but is there anything else you've kind of noticed or like I think like when when you're a creative, you should be constantly creating content, not just the music, everything around that. So I think that artists have to really think that every time they're even walking to do something, going to a show, um, producing like recording a record, like all of that is content, all of that can be fed to your audience. And so you sh you should be constantly thinking about how to utilize even what you do every single day as content for you.

Yeah, yeah. It's funny, man. Like she's not even someone that I thought would have said anything really about I didn't think content was gonna come up. Yeah, every fucking episode, y'all. If you're not gonna listen to Dina as well, along with a hundred other people we've had on say that content is king at this point. Yeah, what the fuck are you doing? King. Oh my gosh. Like we've just we I feel somewhat like a broken record, still continuing to talk about it, but like it's gotta keep doing it. Still doesn't seem like it's getting through sometimes. Um so I I think a big part of your brand obviously is the entrepreneur in you, right? Like you embody that, you know, to your core. Um, I feel like working with someone like T.I., you know, and being a part of his management team right now, I mean, he is like also the definition in my mind of an entrepreneur. I mean, sure, you know, filmmaker now added to the resume. I mean, he he's building real business, podcast, comedian, comic, actor, rapper, you know, filmmaker, et cetera. High hyphenate superstar legend. Yeah, so so so how how do you add value to something like that?

Or like, you know, what are you bringing to the table, or what's your vision for him or alongside him, right? Like, how are we executing against all of that? Um, well, he's the visionary in it, so we're here to help him uh make sure that it's done properly, that it's in his best interest, um, that all the the dots are being the T's are being crossed. Something like that. I's dotted, I's dotted, those things. And also, I think the way I show up is sometimes I say, like, I'm honest, like, I don't think that's good. Or maybe we could try this because nobody just wants a bunch of yes people around them. Yeah. Um, that's not fun either. And so you need to have people that you can confide in, that you can trust, that um are have your best interests at heart and are looking at all the sides that you sometimes when you're only looking at one side. Do you have involvement in like are you helping coordinate or like drive and execute against all those different pillars, like the comic side? Like I know he's doing like shows with the haha mafia and all that, and then like with the movie, do you have to like help with any, you know what I mean?

Like, are you having to learn about all these different things? I generally have to help him with all the things that he's doing. Sure. I think one of the biggest roles I played was helping him uh produce and launch expedition expeditiously his podcast. Yeah, which became number one on Apple Podcasts. And we helped, like I helped him like book the guest, come up with the themes, come up with the questions, uh, come up with talking points. Like that was a I was a real intricate part of of how that went. So you were on the other side of this shit. Yes. scheduling. Did it take you 30 tries to schedule his guests? Sometimes, you know, when you call and you say Tip wants you on, it does not a good idea. It's a lot easier, a little bit easier. That was like a Henry and Ben want you on. We recorded. No, we recorded. It was low key. It was a little like, Damn, Dina, I feel like we've been doing we've been talking for a little, but like we were we recorded essentially in the city, not she Jesus Christ, she won't give it a rest. I mean, not stone mountain.

Do we need to pay for her gas at this point? I mean, damn. We might be 30 minutes. I think y'all should start sending people like black like service cars. Oh my god. Like Uber. that's actually that's actually a great idea. It's a cool idea. I know. You're welcome. From what bank account? For content, bro. From the one you're making all the money. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all the money. All the money, Dina, rolling in it. They can do like a whole content piece for you in the one-hour drive it takes to get over you. How does the time it takes here keep going up? So in two hours, you're getting like all of this stuff. Ben, move this along. We're getting trashed right now. God damn it. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, all right, let's end it. Was that all 10 points? No, no, no. We're about to finish. We got 10. We got 10. And oh, and there's more still. You're not getting off with just these 10 points. Oh my gosh. Okay. Jeez. I forgot. I was like, that was my last point. No, no, no. But number 10. This is the last one. 10. Always follow your intuition in making decisions. For sure.

So like, let's let's just flush that out a bit, right? Like, where have you seen something that you just like felt in your core was something that, you know, you needed to do, or maybe you were consulting one of the, you know, business partners that you've had over the years, right? Um, like anything come to mind with that point specifically in your journey? So when I made the most major decisions of my life, it had nothing to do with logic or money. It had everything to do with how I felt about it. Damn. Yeah. But like how much intuition is not gonna steer you wrong. So when you feel like there's a red flag there, this person is not all, you know, like when you feel that it's true. Or like when it came to like signing people or like working with talent, I I had to kind of go a little bit off of like how do I feel about this? Like, what do they make me feel like? How do I think this is gonna go? Even if you can't pinpoint it exactly, it's kind of a let me say this. Uh, is there a time where your intuition though was that you remember was wrong?

Because I mean, I don't know. Intuition's not batting a hundred percent, you know, it's not a thousand, a thousand how baseball works. I'm not a baseball guy. I'm sorry, Henry. But like, is there something where you're like, damn, you know. Mostly like I feel like you know internally something, and then it it plays out later, and you're like, oh, okay, I saw that, but maybe I didn't see that all the way. I I don't know if it was anything wrong, because I think then I wouldn't be where I am now. Like all the decisions that were made got me to this point. True. So it's hard to say. Yeah, that's see, I try not to live with like any regrets and wonder what ifs, and but like that's that's hard for me. I'm like, I won't lie. Yeah. Like because you'd I mean, the past is over, like you can't go backwards. Yeah. But the argument is you could maybe learn something from a decision, a wrong decision you made, you know. Yeah. No, for sure. Um, so you have something on, you know, speaking of your website, I did go to it. Oh, wow. Uh, you have this quote that basically is, you know, I think it's super simple, but I love it. The magic is in the timing.

Yeah. Like, I mean, how like for everyone out there that just thinks that just because they want something to happen right now, oh yeah. It's just not how it's not how it works. If I could tell my younger self, like you like, don't rush it. Like it's gonna unfold the way it has to unfold. And then sometimes when you have when there's like a rejection to something, it's really your protection. There's so many times that I thought, oh, like I should have done this or I like should have got that deal or whatever. And then I realized later, like, oh no, like that didn't turn out great. So it was really like when one thing doesn't work for you, a greater thing is coming. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah. Damn, bro. A piece of content uh similar to that recently. We did, yeah. That's shit. Yeah, I do the content. We say a lot. We say a lot of shit on this podcast. Anyways, Dina, those were the 10 10 tips that you gave a young entrepreneur. That's Pretty good. Those were great. You still stand by all 10? I stand by them. I might have tweaked a little bit and now, like further along.

What would be something you'd tweak? let me see. Or add, right? I would add that for people just trying to figure it out, do what you're naturally good at doing first. Like make that your initial thing, because then the money will come. Don't like try to figure out something that you don't know how to do. I don't do numbers, so don't I'm not gonna go be an accountant. Like, that's not for me. But I'm naturally good at communicating with people, relationship development, connections, and so networking, like that's what I went off of. That's how I created this. Yeah, and and I think we kind of arrived at that with even, you know, delineating the roles between us within the the company because it was like editing. No, and and I think that what I am good at is obviously like I'm typically the one leading the interviews and coordinating the guests and kind of doing some of that type of stuff where it's not like he couldn't do it. No. Just like I can edit. I've edited clips, I've posted the clips, but it's just it's not what I am good at naturally, and I don't I don't find it enjoyable. And you can't wear those orange red glasses.

He would never pull them off. No. He can't. Dude, That's one thing I don't want to do. But uh but Dina, we have entered a final segment of the podcast. Is it time? It's time, Henry. Is it time? Is face ID gonna work with these on? Yeah, it did. All right, nice. Wow. Um, Dina, this is the rapid fire rampage. Oh, wow. She can't hear that. I know I'm doing the sound effects anyway. We've established this. No, we need that. So uh it's a three-part rampage. Okay. I'll explain it as we go along. Three short parts. And we're gonna start with the short answers. Let's just get into it. Okay. I love how you say it's a three-part rampage as if like people know about other, you know, quantity part rampages, you know. Oh, it's not a four-part rampage, it's not a Ben, I will mute your mic right now. It's not a two part rampage. I have the control. That's funny. God. Okay, we're starting off philosophical here. Just get onto into some high-level uh entrepreneurship thinking. Dina, why did the chicken cross the road? Mmm. Hmm. I mean to get to the other side.

It's fair, valid. I think that's valid. Yeah, valid. I like that. My dad literally sent me this joke where it said, I want to live in a world where we don't check we don't question the motive of the chicken when he crosses the road. Like, seriously, like what else is the chicken doing? Like, why are we? Why are we so concerned about this goddamn chicken crossing this road? Let the chicken live. Dude, he's I love it. He's just trying to get where he's trying to get. Yeah, for sure. Okay, moving on. Dina, three common mistakes, the most common mistakes you would say that you see up and coming artists making in 2023. Trying to be uh trying to be richer quicker. Let me let me explain that. Like they want to look like they are already made it so soon. Like, let the people see you, you know, gaining the money and earning what you've got and buying the chains and buying the cars. Like, just wait it out. Like you don't have to already be popping, like right when you get on the scene. The journey.

is interesting. The blow up, bro. No one understands that like People are invested in that come up and that that glow up story. And to your point, yeah, it's like we know that you spent every last dollar you have on that outfit. That Lambo is a rental. Well, we know that for sure. Right. But even the others. yeah. And then I would say, like, they don't um focus on their performance craft. Yes. Um my God. Like, like, even if you're a rapper, I'm not talking about dancing and singing. I'm talking about how your stage presence, your vocal ability, all of that has to be trained. You don't just get on stage and know exactly how to hold the mic. As a matter of fact, y'all are always holding the mic incorrectly. Holding this. Is it side? No, it's sideways. It's the sideways one, right? No, it's holding the two, and they do it sideways as if that doesn't work that way, right? Yeah. It's bad. Okay, number three, what do we got? Number three. You're two for two so far. I'm pretty good.

Those were great. Um I would say, hmm. Not having their business in order. Yes. Not knowing any anything about it. Like, just have a little bit of education on the business side of it. Yes. Because you can't like you can't be blinded, you can't just be blindly just being an artist. Absolutely. Yeah. The amount of people that don't understand even just high level what publishing is crazy. It's just mind blowing. Where all your money comes from. Literally. Uh, do you have your phone on you? No. We'll skip that one. Okay. What is what was it though? You might know actually. Uh, what are some of the open tabs on your internet browser right now? Um shit. So Safari. Um That's the internet browser. Oh, yeah, that's the internet browser. That's right. Glad to know she uses Safari. She's not a Chrome girl. She's not a Chrome girl. Um what is an open tab I have on there? No Firefox.

YouTube, I'm watching different videos about stuff. Okay. Um, and then uh sometimes I'll pull articles that I need to read later. So it's just a bunch of open tabs that like when I get a moment, I just start going in for future reference. Okay, fair. Okay. I like that. Um, you kind of answered half of this earlier on accident. I'm gonna ask it anyway. Send a voice memo to 18 year old Dina and a voice memo to 80-year-old Dina. Shit. Eight-year-old Dina, I would say 18. Sorry. Oh, 18. Okay. She's legal, okay? She's legal. I don't know how that's gonna matter here, but eight-year-old, like, focus on addition. Don't be so mean to your parents. Um eighteen-year-old Dina I would say, um, enjoy the journey. Yes. Like be in the pre like be in the present more. Don't worry about what's gonna happen next because it's coming. I wanna I wish I had enjoyed like those moments that I was going through a lot more, like being present in them.

Looking back at it. Yeah. Because you're always worried about something else and not like what you're focused on at that moment. Yeah. You're focused, you know, you're always worried about the next thing. And so I'm constantly thinking ahead. I wish I was just enjoying more of like the time that like I was spending in that moment. I love that. How about 80-year old? Oh, and also that PR firm is a great idea. Go through with that. But maybe you should start a studio a little sooner. I don't know. Um and then 80-year-old Dina, I would say that you did your best. Um, you helped change lots of people's lives and impacted people and mentored people, and um, and you should be proud of yourself. And you did the one more time podcast, so you fucking made it, girl. God damn. 80 year old Dina. Holy shit. You were lit back in the day. That sounds crazy. We're gonna be there. You're only uh, you know, 60 years away from that. Okay, I was gonna say, like, chill. Calm down. Like calm down. let's not.

I was going in the right way. Let's not actually date her here. Come on. Um, that was part one. That's part one. Great. Okay, very good. I like the voice memo. We should keep the voice memo one. That's a good one, right? Yeah, even though it really applied here, I think it could apply a lot more. And then she was like, I would tell my younger self during the interview, I'm like, damn it. Yeah, that's my line. That's fine. Um, Dina, this part is the this or that. I'm gonna give you just two choices. Pick one. Very simple. Starting with hip hop or R and B. Damn. Damn. I knew this would be hard for you. Okay, I have to go hip-hop. Yes. Thank you. Um, hard work or talent? Hard work. TikTok or YouTube. I'm not on TikTok. YouTube, it is. Yeah. Ice Spice or Sexy Red. Can I um not pick either? Yeah, I think that's I guess ice spice. Okay. Yeah. Oh, fair enough. Sorry, ladies. Sorry. She doesn't mean it. Uh it's getting rough out here.

Hey now. For another day, okay. Ice spice. Ice spice, it is. Okay. Beach house or mountain cabin. Beach house. Early morning meeting or late night studio session. Late night. Pirates or ninjas. Pirates. Rock, paper, or scissors. Rock. God. I hate you for that. man. And finally, become a full-time recording artist or leave the music industry. I guess I'll have to be a recording artist. Let's go. She's got pipes. I knew it. I fucking knew it, Henry. She's already connected. I mean, I feel like that shit would do numbers. It would. Regardless. I mean, I'm a karaoke queen. She would be it. This is what I do. Industry plant for sure. Definition. You could plant yourself at this point. Yeah, LA, I've got this new record. Right. What can you do for me? Right. Okay, part two. Yeah, that's good. Final part is the word association. Dina, I'm gonna say one word, and then you just give me the first word, right back off the top of your head. Maybe two words.

Okay. Um, you're not judged on your answer, you're only judged on speed. Judged. Jeez. Here we go. We give you a score at the end. Got it. Yeah, there's a hall of fame that we've been working on for two years. It's a very hypothetical. Is that money really, really fast? I mean, yeah. So yeah. Oh, the range is crazy. Okay, okay, give it to me. It's pretty wild. I got this. I got this. Let's go. Starting with hip hop. Damn, culture. Disney. Kids. Betrayal. Breaking bad. Tequila. All I drink. Wait, that wasn't one word. That's fine. That's work. A phrase will work. All right. Just blurting it out. First bike idea. Fun time. Shot o'clock. Yes. How about that? Riz. Riz? Riz. Like Riz what? It's the it's uh what the kids are saying. This is so good. Damn, I'm out of fucking touch. She did say she doesn't have TikTok. She's not on TikTok.

That's right. No, I do not have TikTok. I kind of can't stand TikTok. I'm not gonna lie. This is so. good. What are they saying? Give me what they're doing with it. Yo, Henry, Rizz her up. Someone that has No, Rizz her up. Yeah. Riz her up, bro. Damn it. Okay, shut up, Ben. Someone that has Riz has game, I guess, essentially. Like, but more in a like. He's got none since he couldn't even do it for like the exercise here. Then all right. She doesn't know what it means. So basically, me. Right. There you go. Me. That's an acceptable answer. If you got it, then you've got it. There you go. I'm rizzed up. Okay. She's got it now. Shit. R-I-Z? Two Zs. Probably two. Double Z's, I think. Maybe a few. The Rizzler is a. Triple Z. Another way to phrase it. Rizz god. Triple Zs. Triple is crazy. Now you're taking it to the next level. I know. Moving on. Breakfast. At Barney's. Cybertruck. Who? Crack. Cocaine? Butterfly. Beautiful. Content.

King. Lil. Baby. 12. Studios. Let's go. Come on now. That was pretty fast. That was impressive. That was good. That was impressive. That was good. I would put you in the top 25% for sure. Yeah. This has been the incredible Dina Marto. Yes. Dina. Hopefully y'all picked up some tips for all of you aspiring entrepreneurs out there in the music industry, creatives, and executives. As always, please like, comment, and subscribe. Follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Until next week, Henry, what are we doing? Getting out of here. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.