In Search Of Excellence - Jason Derulo on How to Take Risks | E116

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Jason Derulo is a singer, songwriter, actor and author and is one of the most talented people I've ever had on my show.  He has sold more than 250 million singles worldwide, and joins Taylor Swift, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Maroon Five, and Christina Aguilera as the only artists in history to have a number one single on US Pop Radio in three different decades.  Jason is also one of the top 20 most followed people in the world on social media – he has more than 300 million followers across all platforms.  He is also a successful entrepreneur, investor, and author of the awesome book, Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream: The Inspiring Story of Jason Derulo.   He also has some of the best advice I have ever heard on the show for people starting their careers and are struggling finding traction.Here are Jason's 15 Rules for Living Your Dream:Take risks. Failure is good.Unlock closed doors. But go through the open ones first.You are only as good as your routine. Train repetitively for your success.Success is for rent. You’ll never pay it off.Stop showing off. Invite your audience to the party.Obstacles are opportunities. Grab creative blessings in disguise.Decide what is important to you. Then connect it to how you spend your time.Those who can, do. Those who can’t, become critics.Respect the hive. Your copilots are as important as the destination.Trust the data. Creativity and analytics go hand in hand.Collaborate, period. Choose people you can teach and learn from.Reveal yourself in your best light. Ignore what works for everyone else.Talent is overrated. Desire is the gift.Work hardest at what comes easiest. Go from good to great.Choose your competition. And keep pushing that bar higher.Timestamps:0:00 - Intro4:49 - Jason Derulo on Family and Life Perspective after Breaking His Neck6:03 - Transition from Music to TikTok During the Pandemic10:40 - Embracing Failures and Importance of Taking Risks13:30 - Jason Derulo's Book: Message for Dreamers and Importance of Mindset17:54 - Leaning Into Strengths and Viewing Competition at a Higher Level20:21 - Work Ethic vs. Working Smarter and Value of Collaboration24:23 - Extreme Preparation and Las Vegas Residency27:57 - Business Ventures: Car Wash Industry and Billionaire Goal36:12 - How Fatherhood and Philanthropy Changed Jason's Life38:28 - Jason Derulo's Philanthropic Efforts41:18 - New Projects in Children's Education42:00 - Fill in the Blank SegmentSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

So I encourage you to take chances, take risks, fall on your face and embrace those falls because that is what takes true bravery and that's what's going to set you apart from everybody else. What's your advice to all the people out there who are nervous or fear trying something new and say, gosh, people are going to make fun of me if I do this, I shouldn't do this. How do they get the courage to go ahead and do it? new and say, gosh, people are going to make fun of me if I do this. I shouldn't do this. How do they get the courage to go ahead and do it? You've heard that story enough times to know that it's the risks that you take in life that are rewarded. If you color within the lines, you're just going to blend in with everybody else and nothing extraordinary happens with blending in.

What's your message to everyone out there who again are just afraid to reach out and say, oh, this person's never going to call me back. I'm never going to get to meet with that person. Every call that you don't make, every chance that you don't take is a missed opportunity. You're listening to part two of my awesome interview with Jason Derulo, one of the most successful singer-songwriters in history. He's sold more than 250 million singles worldwide and has more than 300 million followers on social media. If you haven't yet listened to part one, be sure to check that one out first. Now, without further ado, here's part two of my awesome interview with Jason. I think having a medical scare is a big wake-up call.

I had a medical scare. I was 44 years old. I was in great shape. I'd go to SoulCycle three days a week right next to David Beckham. I was trying to compete with David, but I was a machine. I wasn't feeling well. Heart attack. You're wondering, gosh, I got the pain.

I can't breathe. They call 911. They come to your house. They freak out. In the ambulance, you're wondering gosh they got the pain you can't breathe they call 9-1-1 they come to your house they freak out in the ambulance you're looking around you know and i'm like man you know you guys you can see these guys are worried they're calling in the time we got 12 minutes 10 minutes eight minutes you get their whole team waiting for me like er the show they put you on the gurney everyone's waiting and rush you in having a heart attack I said it's not possible why why is it possible said and I you know just I said because I go to soul cycle three days a week and the guy says I'm the head of cardiology and I'm telling you that you're having a heart attack so you're just freaking out right I've got three young kids try to call my ex-wife didn't answer

try to call my mom didn't answer try to answer, try to call my mom, didn't answer, try to call a doctor friend of mine in Detroit, didn't answer. You're wondering if you're going to die. And so they get in there and they run all these tests. And there's something in 1% of the case, less than 1%, it presents like one, and it's something called myocarditis. So you're in this room, they're putting in the stent. And I said, am I going to die? And they said, no, you're not going to die. So, okay. You know, tears flowing. And I said, but the bad news is just something called myocarditis, which is an infection of the heart. And so I said, well, what can we do? They said nothing. So some people die. Some people live. Go to the ICU.

I'm 44 years old. I'm the youngest person in there by 30 years. Everyone around me dying, and you can see everything hooked up. And it was one of these wake-up moments. I lived, and the weird thing about this is I used to be a lawyer. And I was friends with this woman, Christina, where she was two years younger. We go to lunch every day and I get out of the hospital and my kids went to school in Santa Monica. So I dropped them off. We'd all have coffee. You know, some of the parents then we'd go to work.

And one of the guys in there said on Monday morning, I'd been out of the hospital for like four days, something like that. And they said, hey, did you hear about Christina? I said, no, what happened? She said she died last night. I said, what? How? She said, didn't know. So I go to her funeral and I'm thinking, gosh, this could have been me. Looking at this, you got five-year-old twins, husband's crying, just a mess. And know i'm i'm crying probably more than most people because that literally could have been me uh a week before and the crazy thing is i later found out she died in myocarditis wow that's crazy it's crazy but it was a wake-up call for me and people say you got to have

some kind of scare to change your life around and And my life was crazy at the time, working 80 hours a week, 90 hours a week. And here I'm living my dream, right? I've made money. I got a great house. The only thing that was missing was finding an amazing woman to spend my life. I did, Madison, who's the best thing that ever happened to me. But how did the wake-up call of you falling and breaking your neck affect your life? You know, it forced me to think about family more because

when you feel like you are against the ropes, like who is still in your corner? You know, like who is still rooting for you? Like who can you turn to? The people that are closest to you, you know? So it really put things in perspective for me from a family perspective. So that was like my main, main, main thing.

It's like I need to be with my family more. I need to make sure that my family, my relationship with my family is thriving as well as my career is thriving. So that's still something that I'm striving to do. Because, you know, you can, life is short, man, and you can have all the things that you've ever dreamed of, but what's it all worth if your relationships are rotten? Well, fast forward a little bit. At some point, your career wasn't going that well. And there was something online called Musical.ly, which I think people forget about, which ultimately became TikTok. And TikTok was considered this online platform for people to post weird videos.

There were 12-year-old kids posting on that. That's where it kind of came up and that's where the popularity started and then the virality happened and tell us about your girlfriend jen at the time and you hanging out experimenting with tiktok what happened then yeah so i was uh really early on musically uh this guy uh iol uh that was working at the label that i was with at the time one of brothers he was like you should get on this app you know we'll do like a promotion with them it's they're brand new i was like all right cool get on this app um i do a couple of promotions with them and uh i start to hear about it more from my nieces and nephews. They were like into this app.

So I, you know, do a couple of lives on there. And like there is like a real fan base on there. And this thing is called Musical.ly. And still, I don't really put any time and energy into it because I'm just so consumed with music. You know, I'm just not really I can't be bothered with social media, honestly. And the pandemic happens. And I was like, this is a perfect opportunity for me to learn how to social media because I was just the worst. Like, I just couldn't figure it out. I couldn't do it.

You know, everything musically was everything in my music career was was was great. And I can write a song. And that was my world. But when it came to connecting the dots on socials, I just didn't know how to do it. So when the pandemic hit, I was like, I'm going to give myself a routine. Again, with a routine. I'm going to post six times a day

and see what makes people tick. Like, what is going to get people's attention. And in posting six times a day, as you can imagine, like how the hell am I going to figure out six things to post? I started posting anything. And it's through that freedom that I was able to realize that it didn't really matter what I was posting. Like it was certain things, uh, would connect in certain things wouldn't. So I started to, to learn my audience. I started to, to figure them out. You know, I was doing anything from cooking videos to, uh, special effects videos to dance videos to, to anything. But when the pandemic hit and this

thing was called TikTok, it was only dancing going on. There was no other things going on except dancing and lip syncing. Those were the only two things because musically was a lip-syncing act dancing came with tiktok i was posting any and every fucking thing um because i was trying to figure it out um cooking cooking yeah anything you you can cook not really but i made some pretty amazing uh desserts i must say um but yeah through the through that through that exploration man I was able to just like really figure out social media and it took some time but I'm I'm pretty sure I I I got it I but I remember like people were like joking about me like being on this kid's app like what the hell is Jason

Durell I'm doing you know like he's supposed to being on this kid's app like what the hell is jason derulo doing you know like he's supposed to be like this big star and he's making a fool of himself and then like the and then i watched every single other person jump on the app like it was the craziest thing to watch so that's something that we're going to go to next. People are making fun of you. And what's your advice to all the people out there who are nervous or fear trying something new and say, gosh, people are going to make fun of me if I do this. I shouldn't do this. How do they get the courage to go ahead and do it? I honestly think that you've heard that story enough times to know that it's the risks that you take in life that are rewarded. If you color within the lines, you're just going to blend in with everybody else and nothing extraordinary happens with blending in. So I encourage you to take chances, take risks, fall on your face,

and embrace those falls because that is what takes true bravery and that's what's going to set you apart from everybody else. I want to talk about some of the things that make us successful. And one of the things is reaching out to people. I think same thing. Many people are very fearful. Gosh, I really want to get some advice. I'm not going to pick up the phone. You called the head of strategic partnerships and media relations at TikTok and you had this woman come to your house. How influential was that? And what's your message to everyone out there who, again, are just afraid to reach out and say, oh, this person's never going to call me back. I'm never going to get the meeting with that person. Yeah, man.

I mean, every call that you don't make, every chance that you don't take is a missed opportunity. I mean, I never know what the outcome is going to be, man. I just go for shit, you know. And it's done really well for me. I couple my life into two things, right? And I think it's a beautiful way to live. Being a legend is a very special thing. And I think a lot of people would want to be a legend in one way or another at something. And I think that you're either doing things to build that legendary status or you're doing something to recover. So even when I'm in the gym, right? So like every single rep, I'm thinking about like,

like how can I reach legendary stats? What would a legend do here? Like if a camera crew was watching me right now, like what would this look like? So it either has to be a part of that legendary journey or it has to be a part of recovery. So even so, like me having a drink, right? I consider that recovery from my mind. You know, me going out and letting my hair down, that's recovery. But when you get to too much recovery, then you know you're just falling off the wagon. But I believe that there needs to be a balance between those two things. So at some point, TikTok became as big a business or bigger business than your music business. You learned a lot of lessons on TikTok and you wrote this incredible book.

You bring me the book? At some point you wrote this incredible book. Tell us about the title of the book and what it means. I'm singing your name out loud. I wanted to write this book because there's a lot of dreamers out there that are giving up their dreams for going to college or doing something that their parents think that they should be doing or because somebody told them that their dream is too lofty or too crazy or they think that they're too old. So I wanted to write this book because in looking at my life, there were specific things that I did that I feel like were the difference makers. And there was a specific mindset that I had that I felt like was a difference maker for me. Because when I was thinking about what made me successful, there was just so many things, but I think mindset was the most pivotal thing.

So I just want to teach people how to reconfigure their brain and kind of just think like a winner. So I decided to write this book and I didn't know whether anybody would read it, but I was like, I have to do this because I feel like it would help a lot of people. And thankfully, you know, it's been really successful and people come up to me all the time and I expect them to say something about my music but then they say something about the book and I'm like, holy shit, this is incredible. And yeah, man, you know, I wrote the book

for the right reasons and I feel like that's why it's connecting so well. Lesson number one, take risks, failure is good. How is failure good? Failure is good because, like, I think you got to learn to be comfortable with falling on your face. You're more unsuccessful than successful. You know, every entrepreneur knows that you're going to be way more unsuccessful at things than you are. Like the success rate is super low, you know.

And even like with releasing songs, right? Like I believe Drake released like 188 songs and only 30 something of those songs are hit songs. You know, I've released something similar. I think I've released around 200 songs. I mean, I have 22 platinum songs, right? So like most of what you do is not going to be successful. So I think you just need to get comfortable with falling on your face. It's a great thing. I think it's character building and you just got to get used to it lesson number four is my favorite success is for rent that's just awesome line what does it mean yeah it's awesome but also not so awesome because I think we all have we all have to deal

with it it's kind of like going to the gym, right? Like, it's the craziest shit. Like, you can all of a sudden get your dream body, right? But you can lose it in an instant, right? All you got to do is stop working out and stop working out at the same intensity. Start eating bad again and that body goes away. The same thing for success. You know, the moment you let up, the moment you take your foot off the gas, somebody can come and take goes away. The same thing for success. The moment you let up, the moment you

take your foot off the gas, somebody can come and take that away in an instant. So success is for rent. You're not just successful and it just stays there. You have to pay that rent every single month. You said also that find what comes easiest to you and lean into that. I think the advice that's counter to what most people say is, hey, tackle the most difficult problem first. So which one is right? Yeah, I'm a firm believer in like, was, you know, in these choirs, I noticed that my falsetto was like a little better than everybody else's falsetto. So I was like, I should lean into that. That should be like my shtick. That should be my thing.

And I think it's paid off you know like i i think like when you it's better to be great at one thing than to be good at a lot of other things so if you're closer to being great at one thing you should probably go after that also think that success begots more success and when you become successful at one thing, other things just kind of fall into place. We also talk about knowing who your competition is there. I think all of us look around and say, all right, I want to be better than that person or that person. But you view it as a whole different level. So how do you view competition and what's your advice to help people who want to be great, how they should view competition?

Yeah. I mean, I try to give this advice all the time. I mean, to my, like, nieces and nephews, because I think we get so wrapped up in our circles and where we live and, like, the people around us that we think that those people are our competition. But the truth of the matter is, statistically, those people are not going to be successful. So you got to dream bigger. You have to be able to think outside the box and pick somebody that you're competing with that's at the top of their game. So if you play basketball, don't compete against the kids that are at your school because the chances are none of those kids are going to the NBA. Right. So just statistically, it's just not likely. Right. So you need to pick somebody in your mind that's going to make you up your game up to somebody that's in the NBA.

You should be looking at what how many shots Curry is taking and do exactly the workouts that he's doing. You shouldn't be doing the workouts that Johnny from down the street is doing because Johnny is going to probably live down the street for the rest of his life. I know it sounds harsh, but it's the harsh truth. So I want to talk about ingredients of success we're talking about work ethic which i teach i coach i mentor and i think work ethic is the most important determinant of our success do you show up to a regular job i mean your your job is not as a non-traditional job most people are going to work you show up first person in the morning last person to leave you do that your whole career

you're going to be very successful whatever you do. What do you think is the most important determinant of our success? I think the harder you work, the better chances you have to be successful. But I do think that there's some people that don't work as hard and they still become successful. I think there's something to be said about people working smarter as well. Right. So you can take the long way and I can take the short way because you just want to have the best chance possible. But working smarter, I think, is even more important. I think one of the most important determinants of our success is also the value of a team. Talk about collaboration in this dude

wallpaper and you giving these amazing opportunities for these songwriters to work with you. Yeah, man. I believe there's talented people all over the world and some people have just never been given an opportunity. And a lot of my biggest songs even are from producers that never had a hit before. And yeah, Wallpaper being one of them, you know, just heard this beat and it was from an unknown producer, but it didn't need to be from a named producer because if I like what I'm hearing, then that's all that I care about. You know, I just I don't have to work with the biggest producer in the world for the product to be good so uh i'd go from from talk dirty to marry me um trumpets john bellion that was his uh first hit as well um i mean there's so many of my song i mean uh obviously uh savage love um all of these producers they'd never had a hit before. And yeah, I mean, I continuously want to work with people that are

talented, you know, from the top level to the bottom level. I actually would rather work with people that just need an opportunity. One of the core ingredients of my success, if not the core ingredient, is something I call extreme preparation. So I always want to be the most prepared person in the room. That means if someone's preparing one hour for a show or podcast, I'm doing 20, sometimes 30. Love that. And I can tell the shows. Thank you.

For sure. How important has extreme preparation been in your success? Man, if people knew how much preparation could save you in a room, I think a lot of people would just work way harder. People ask me if I get nervous before I go on stage. And the answer is no, I don't. Because I know exactly what's gonna happen when I get out there on stage. It's not, I'm not guessing. I've done that show

for hundreds of hours. My rehearsals are eight hours long. So I know exactly when I get on the stage. I know exactly what I'm going to sound like. I know exactly what I'm going to look like. How, how can I be nervous?

I've done it so many times. Um, and, uh, except, um, I just started my residency in Vegas. Um,

tell everyone about it, where it is, how many nights a week that's promoted here. Yeah. So, uh, my residency in Vegas. Tell everyone about it, where it is, how many nights a week, let's promote it here. Yeah. So my residency in Vegas just started. I just had my first weekend. It's at Voltaire in the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. And I wanted to create this 360 show where the entire room is the stage, you know, from where the audience sits to the actual stage. The entire room is the stage. Now, this is a totally different kind of show. You know what I'm saying? And it's going to be the first of its kind.

And I'm going out and doing it for the first time. Now I'm shitting my pants. I'm like, damn, like I ain't never do this shit before. This is totally different. I actually have no idea what's going to happen. Because now we're dealing with the fans in the room. You know, there's an element of, there's a whole other element that doesn't even involve me. You know what I'm saying?

But it ended up being incredible. I think it's my favorite show that I've put together so far, man. And I'm really excited about it. People have been through the roof about how much they enjoyed the show. Congrats. Thank you, brother. I'm going to go. Please do, man.

I hope I can get some good tickets. Absolutely. I got you. One of the things that every famous person and successful person I know, and when I'm talking about famous, I'm talking about online and social media, has haters. Right? There's a negative respondent bias that people have as well. They bitch and they moan. And they're sometimes not as easy or happy to say positive comments.

So you've had a lot of haters online, but you say not all of this is bad. Some of the haters have actually helped you change your music. So what's your view on the haters? And then how, especially after your first album, did one of the haters or some of the haters actually help you yeah um so social media is can be a social media can be a really really tough place um and it's definitely not for the faint of heart especially when you start to have success uh when you're on the come up it feels like people are way more uh amenable and way more amenable and way more, they're more, they're, they're root for you more. Right. And as you, the bigger you get, the more hate that comes. And I think you should embrace the comments, you know, and, and, and learn from some stuff. You know, I remember when I put out the first album and, you know,

What You Say had, you know, all this auto-tune on it, right? And like, people were like, oh, he can't sing. It's like, it's auto-tune on it. So like the next project, I was like, oh shit, like maybe I shouldn't be putting all this auto- tune. Like, maybe I need to, like, show my voice. You know what I'm saying? And without those words, without, you know, those comments that, you know, felt hurtful at the time, I probably, you know, would have done the same thing again, you know, and not knowing that people wanted to hear something totally different. So I embrace all comments. You know, if I mean, obviously, certain comments are just like you throw away.

But you might find some gold within a mean comment. So lots of celebrities. We'll switch gears. I want to talk about business now. You've been a very successful businessman, investor. You found a great partner in a collab. I want to talk about, tell us about the car wash business. And is your share really worth $2 billion?

Yeah, so the company is worth $2 billion, not my share. But you're doing okay. I'm doing great. There's only three of us within the company. So that's myself, Danny White, and Chris Erickson. VC funding or no VC funding? No, it's all self. That'll work.

Two billion divided by three? Yeah, man. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, it's really a special company. What's it called, just to tell people? Oh, it's called the model. It's called Rocket Car Wash. And the model is, you know, obviously it's when you go to a car wash, usually, you know, you pay for your car wash. You go home and then you wait for your car to be dirty and you come back again when it's filthy.

With this model, you pay a membership and you can wash your car anytime, you know, whether you feel like you got one little scratch or one little bird doo-doo on your car, you can just go and get that cleaned up, you know, the next day and not have to pay anything extra. I mean, it's really, really a value add, right? And yeah, the membership model, I think, is the best model. And I think that everybody is moving towards the membership model, not in just car washes and not in just streaming services, but everywhere. Everybody is trying to move towards the membership model because it's fixed income. And when people are looking to buy large companies, it's way better to buy something that you know exactly how much that company is making.

And it's fixed. You don't have to worry, is it going to go up? Is it going to go down? No. For the last three years, it's been this. You know, people have a membership. It doesn't it doesn't waver very much. We love investing in these unsexy businesses. People, oh, you have technology and the margins are so great. Well, the car wash industry is twenty eight billion dollars a year. Globally, it's grown at a historical growth rate of 3.1 percent people wash their cars so they do even in the pandemic uh you know it's like like how are we still thinking about washing our cars in the pandemic their cars are people's prized possession right it's like this is like

the one thing that i like really really care about it. It's like, it's a, it's a symbol of me. Um, and that's how a lot of people think. But you said you want to be a billionaire. What's, why? Um, I, I, I want to be able to, uh, there's not a lot of the billionaires that we do have most of which are entertainers and made their money doing that

I really want to make the majority of my money doing something totally different and I want to show a different path I think it's important for me

but I think it's important from the community that I come from. Being the community in Miami, but also the community in Haiti and show that no matter where you're from, you can have a huge impact on the world. And not just music and not just sports, but there's other things that we can do as well to be successful. So when you were trying to meet people and get mentors, you wrote to a bunch of black billionaires and you were asking for five words of encouragement and nobody responded. So are you going to respond to people

asking you for five words of encouragement? How do they get a hold of you? And what are 10 words of encouragement that you're going to... Well, Tyler Perry responded, to be fair. What's that? Tyler Perry responded. Okay. So one out of how many?

Like seven. That's not a good response rate. That's not a good response rate. So how are people going to get a hold of you? Not that you've got 300 million fans or followers around the world, but what kind of advice do you have for a young black man who wants a mentor and for you to give them 10 words of encouragement that you were looking for when you were younger? So already I put my money where my mouth is. So the top people within

my circle are African-American as well. So I'm already doing that. And I just think I want to give people opportunities that wouldn't normally get opportunities. And when I walked in here and you talked about the internship program that you have here, I think it's a beautiful thing because I come from the same model and I do the same thing. And it's all about giving people that you think want it bad enough an opportunity. Because all it takes is an opportunity. Like today when I was playing basketball today, right? It was 5 in the morning. I came late.

They were already past the first quarter. And I came in. I shot two air balls. 5 in the morning? Yeah, 5 in the morning. It was fucked up. Two air balls. Well, who's playing at 5 in the morning, first of all?

So it's a really competitive game that I play here. It's like all like former hoopers, like either from the pros or like that played in college, you know. Like they're, you know. They're good. They're good. Great. But people, so we play before the the crowd comes okay so really early um so i come in excited it's been a while since i played two air balls um

but i i didn't get a chance to warm up so the whole room is like ah take him out like he probably needs to come out and then then, um, I got an easy lay in. Sometimes you just need to see it go in one time. Um, and, uh, one of the guys on the team, he just kept feeding me the ball. Like he kept giving me the opportunity, even though it wasn't looking good. He just gave me the opportunity. The game winning shot. At this point, I'm I'm like. One for five. Not my best game. Two for five, two for five game winning shot. The guy that's been carrying us on his back Has a shot that he can take

Instead of taking that shot He gave me the opportunity I'm like way back But I'm wide open They're leaving me open at this point He gave me the opportunity I felt so good coming off Rolls around the rim.

Boom. Boom. Hit it. But all I needed was the opportunity. I needed someone to believe in me. You also want the ball in your hands to win the game? Absolutely. I think every successful person wants the ball in their hands in order to control the outcome.

Absolutely. And if you can help change somebody's life, man, I mean, I think that's the greatest reward. At some point, you're in Omaha, Nebraska at a restaurant. You gave a waitress a $5,000 tip. How important are acts of service for you? When you think about your legacy, what do you mean by acts of service for you when you think about your legacy? What do you mean by acts of service? And is that what motivates you these days? I'm almost shocked sometimes by people's service. and what I would do if I was a waiter or like who I would be if I was a waiter and how I would treat people. So living in Los Angeles and being from Miami, I'm used to a certain level of service, which is very, very low. But you're famous. You probably get good service most of the time.

Yes, but you'd be surprised still. You'd be surprised. And every time I get great service, I think about hiring that person because it's so few and far between to, to, to receive exceptional service. Like good service is cool, but exceptional service is rare. And in Omaha, man, you get exceptional service is

kind of the norm. And I hadn't been in Omaha for a while. And like going there, I was just so refreshed by the service there. I was just like, I need to bless this person because I want them to understand how much I appreciate what they did today. So I gave him $5,000. How pay for that person's college? Did you know that? Yeah, I saw a post that they did afterwards. Must feel pretty good.

That was a beautiful thing. Absolutely. So you brought your three-year-old son, Jason. But he wasn't happy when I asked for the $5,000 back. No, I think he DM'd you, Kai, $5,000 more. I got to pay for next month. So you brought your... That is my life, by the way. Well, that's what happens, by the way, when you become wealthy. And I had a similar situation that you talked about before. You make a lot of money and lots of people come after you and ask for things.

And some of it's appropriate, family members, but a lot of it's not. It puts a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure on you as well. Definitely. Not fun. But let's talk about fun and life changing. You brought your really cute three-year-old son here, Jason King. How has being a father changed your life and changed your entire outlook on life? Man, it's been extraordinary.

I have recently been seeing on social media, people have been doing a post saying, like, I don't have any kids and I'm living my best life. And there's no, like, you shouldn't frown on people that don't have kids. I don't frown on people that don't have kids. But I think that they're missing out on feeling what real love is and learning what real love is and learning what real love is. Because my relationship with my parents has even changed from having a son. Because I understand love in a totally different way than I ever have. And everybody won't get the opportunity to have kids but I

I would implore people to to if it's right for your life to try it because it's really really transformed my life in a way that I mean even words can't

describe one of the great understatements that someone told me, one of my best friends, Rick Rivera, who had four kids when I met him, they were very young, four, three, two, and one, was you'll understand the meaning of life when you have kids. And I've got five kids, as we talked about before the show. I've got a four-year-old her birthday is um tomorrow and my daughter bianca i have twin girls one graduated wisconsin two weekends ago my daughter graduated cornell this past weekend and all the parents had to get up there you know

she has a house with 10 girls they've been best friends forever and then they had a little party with a food truck with all the parents and friends. And all the 10 dads had to get up and say something about their kids. And I went last. And as I was talking about my kids like I do, I cried like a baby. And it's just like such a, and, you know, I'm a crier. Whenever I talk about my kids, it's, you know, they've seen it in here a few times as well. But it's, you know, they've seen it in here a few times as well, but it's so emotional.

And, and my advice to you on this, I'm sure you have it is just take every single moment with your son that you possibly can, no matter how busy you are. And I know he's, he's here today. A couple more things I just want to talk about is philanthropy. You had a foundation that helped people in Haiti for a while. You've done things like the Make-A-Wish Foundation. What are you doing now? And do you feel a tremendous responsibility, not only with your money, but with these 300 million followers to have an impact on massive amounts of people? Yeah. So my new goal is within, it's interesting that we're talking about kids because my new philanthropic goal is to help really young kids learn.

And I'm developing a TV show, a non-for-profit TV show that'll help kids learn through song. And that's been like the big project for the last year, as well as doing children's books. So in the non-for-profit sector. I always end the show with something I call fill in the blank to excellence. We're going through one by one question. So here we go. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is. Is this supposed to be one sentence? It can be whatever you want. The biggest lesson I've learned in my life is... The biggest lesson I learned in my life is...

that success is rented. It's never owned. I'm sorry that it's one that we talked about today. That's one of my favorite ones. And all the research I did on you, I'm going to think about that one for a long time. Yeah. It's really poignant. And I think once people have reached a point in their life, I think it's important information for them.

My number one personal goal is? My number one personal goal is to be the best role model for my son. Number one professional goal is to be the best role model for my son. Number one professional goal is? My number one professional goal is to... My number one professional goal is to make sure that I'm having fun in every, is making sure I'm having fun on the journey. I think I get so caught up in the dollars and cents sometimes that it stops being fun. And again, I talk about life being short

and I don't want to do things that will bog down my life um and a lot of times people will meet me and be like you're just such a happy guy like you're so happy i think that's really important to protect your peace and protect your happiness um so it's not all about dollars and cents for me. The craziest thing that happened in my career is? The craziest thing that happened in my career is when I was finally able to get out of the deal, my first record deal. I had been trying to get out of it for years. And I ended up having to threaten them and also pay my way out. And then I was able to get out.

I thought the whole world would be my oyster. And I thought that every label would be clamoring to have me. I had sold 200 million records at that point. And I went out into the circuit and I did not receive the red carpet like I thought that I would. So I decided to go independent and released Savage Love as an independent artist, as well as Take You Dancing as an independent artist. And I didn't know what to expect, but I took a chance. And as you could imagine, after the release of those songs, all those same people that said no were clamoring for a situation.

But I took a chance on myself. Amazing. The funniest thing that's happened in my career is? The funniest thing that's happened in my career is? The funniest thing that's happened in my career was I was performing at Wembley Stadium early, very early on in my career. It was my first time, first or second time performing at Wembley Stadium. It's a legendary venue, obviously. And it was like the summertime jam thing. It was hot as hell. And I had this leather jacket on and I was trying to take the jacket off. It was hot. I was sweating and couldn't get it off. Like the leather was sticking to my skin.

And I'm like looking over to one of the dancers like, hey, like, help me take this shit off. And she's just in her own world, just dancing. In my head. She was going hard. And she finally notices me. And as she's, like, trying to take it off, like, she gets the arm off. And then the mic is in his hand. And the mic drops on the floor. And I was like, damn it, in front of 80,000 people.

So that was like the funniest moment. The one thing I've dreamt about doing for a long time but haven't is. I don't know if I have one of those. Yeah, I can't think of anything. The one person in the music business that I haven't met but I would like to is? Also don't have one of those. You don't have one of those? Mm-mm.

If I could go back and say one thing to my 21-year-old self, what would it be? I would say be yourself when i was 21 years old i was trying to find myself within other people and i was trying to find success by looking at other people's success and trying to mirror what they were doing and i didn't understand that I could just be myself and be in my own skin. Especially in that time period in my life, I feel like I was trying to emulate other people's success. So I would tell myself, just do your own thing. My biggest regret in life is... My biggest regret in life is I didn't come on this show sooner.

You're going to make me cry. Oprah moment here. I love it. No, this has been fantastic, man. I think, you know, someone doing a lot of interviews, I've talked to a lot of people across the world, but you've like really dug deep and you did your homework and like, you know this shit like the back of your head. So thank you for it. I appreciate you.

Eli Pacino, I wanna thank him for setting this up. You know, so many people you meet in your life help you in a seminal moment. Having you on my show is huge for me. So I appreciate it. I've had a lot of guests like Mike Tyson and Mark Cuban, but I'm super pumped to have you on my show. I'm grateful for you being here.

I know you had a very long day. I know you got a long day tomorrow with a couple of shows. So thank you. Hope we can get to know each other. Yeah, likewise, my brother. You're an incredible guy. Congratulations on all your success. And again, thanks for being here.

Thanks, Randall. Appreciate you. Bye.