RAWTALK - Banks tells the TRUTH about FaZe Clan, losing his father, & a web3 Future

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

This podcast is sponsored by Transcend, go to https://www.transcendcompany.com/rawtalk and get 40% off everything.0:00 Intro 0:33 bringing internet 2017 to 2024 2:00 life expectancy 2:43 crypto 5:11 we need the internet 8:20 banks on nft’s 11:07 getting scammed from crypto 14:06 finding people who are actually solid 15:26 banks on faze clan 22:21 finding talent 24:30 will banks ever stream again? 25:41 faze rain 27:03 what probably nothing is 27:50 twitter vlogging 30:00 what video games did for banks 34:18 transcend ad 36:10 is faze going to turn into a crypto company? 38:38 finding the balance in faze 41:08 faze being the first content house 42:04 what faze did for banks 43:16 what content banks is looking for 43:58 would banks sign adin ross? 45:06 when banks knew there was a problem with faze 48:24 what you leave behind and teach people is what only matters 50:08 Steve Jobs changed the world 50:33 how banks stays grounded after his dad passed 53:46 brad on losing his father and how it changed life for him 1:00:55 there is so much more on the internet and changes 1:01:58 pitfalls for humanity 1:04:24 jobs are now obsolete 1:07:11 what the future looks like 1:10:11 truth is becoming blurry 1:11:40 what makes banks the happiest 1:15:36 what is a big part of being happy 1:17:43 the way life goes 1:21:12 brad on banks

How's your life? Amazing, man. Amazing. I remember I've seen you out once. I mean, obviously you got out a lot, but I seen you out once. I forgot how long ago it was like, I don't know what some random, was I think like Leo DiCaprio was there or some crazy. I don't know. Maybe you were waiting.

What party is? There's too many of those nights. But do you still do a lot of that? So I was out until 5am last night. I won't lie to you. There was this little party and somewhere in Beverly Hills. And it was a little bit of a movie. but it's been a lot less far and few between.

Not a lot of nightlife. Nightlife in L.A. is kind of, it's not its best. Was there a better time? Definitely, dude, what? I mean, we talk about it all the time in the house and with my core little team. Internet 2017 is the vibe. That's the vibe.

That's crazy. I'm trying to hop on a time machine and, you know, bring Internet 27. to 2024 it's honestly things are starting to feel that way do you feel that yes yes it's sick man there's something about like I don't know just like the vibrations like globally it just feels like I don't know at the same time it seems up too like the world no I feel like it's more than it's ever been it's big time up it'll always be more up than it was the day before I think that's just like that's how it's gonna go yeah with with what we do the internet all that but I mean

making the best of it and putting your best foot forward and being grateful for like all the shit that's that isn't a good spot or a better spot I mean at the same time too it's never been easier more comfortable better to be a human being you don't I mean yeah it's interesting like when you zoom out like 100,000 years ago

we're like struggling you know what everybody we have a lot more tools yeah even kings were struggling the life expectancy and like yeah just the food yeah I was reading something recently they were saying like if you live for the next five years like people are going to live to like some crazy so some crazy number people are really going to start taking to the streets and going crazy when like jeff bezos doesn't die at like 100 and he still looks like he's 50 yeah you know what I mean it's gonna get weird that's a whole weird thing the AI stuff there's so it's just so much crazy

going on where we're like we are really in the transition into like a different sort of brother it's about to get so weird and I'm in this bubble right now Like I live with, I don't know what it is about me. I've always felt the need to live with people that I work with. That's fair. And I live in Hollywood right now with, you know, four or five crypto degenerates. And I spent a lot of time over the last, you know, three, four years, deep diving into this weird world, this weird crypto web three world. And, you know, just filled in the network and figuring it out.

I'm a big fan of Bitcoin and Ethereum. And I have, I don't know if you. I think you have a lot of money in that. I have a lot of money in those two. Good. It feels great. Good. But the rest of it.

For anybody that has, that, that's fortunate enough to be able to park their money anywhere should have at minimum. I think it's irresponsible almost to not have at least 20% of your money in crypto. Why? Why? Just because it's, there's a really solid shot. I mean, I have pretty much, you know, my entire life. bet on the fact that when you zoom out, you know, in five years from now, Bitcoin is going to be

worth more money than it is today. I think, I don't know, when you, when you really like break it down and you dive deep into it and you, you know, you see the way that the history of finance has worked and the history of money has worked. It's just, it seems to, it seems like that's the natural progression of how it's going to work. Yeah. Well, you know what I mean? It's kind of a no brainer. Yeah. And I don't know, like the ROI on it and like the expected return that I would have on an investment like Bitcoin, like you're not, you can't beat it with anything. And it feels safer. It feels safer than USD almost to me. And I know it sounds insane, but. No, not at this point. But also when I saw. What are you going to do by a house? I mean, that's, that's a cool,

easy, low risk thing. But the returns on it. I don't know. Yeah. And then when I saw Black Rock by a ton of it, you're just kind of like, well, clearly they know a lot of everything. And they're control money for in a sense so it's like as soon as they buy it i'm like oh i'm in yeah you want to talk about the illuminati and like who really owns planet earth it's yeah it's it is what it is like black rock they manage trillions of dollars worth of assets and shit like so if they're buying bitcoin i'm like oh i'm doing this yeah coca cola and pepsy black rock is the is the bro they i mean they own everything yeah so okay on that note though don't you think like i feel like all the other stuff is just like a it's like a luck so i'll break it down like like you like you're like so the dot com boom

bubble the internet pops off starts popping off there's a bunch of naysayers like the internet there's all these articles and newspapers and and you know little bits of media that were you know put out into the world during the beginning of the internet that kind of wrote off the internet like this is a phase this is a fad like this isn't anything real which obviously like if the internet just went out tomorrow the world would collapse around us it's like every business we need it we now we need it it's just like you know running water and electricity it's as essential to our daily life especially in america is things like that so obviously the way it's scaled is massive everybody participates in this tech it's very very much needed people i feel like

people's relationship and opinion and kind of perspective on crypto web three tech is very similar and I feel like the outcomes will be very similar so who are the big winners from the earliest days of the internet that are still around it's like Microsoft and like google and like amazon was pretty early too but besides those which are really big yeah if you got in early to those things you're probably set for life you know what I mean but how many thousands of other little startups and little projects and dot coms existed that were valued and perceived the same as those early internet you see where i'm going with this yeah yeah so again when you zoom out five 10 years from now in crypto there's probably like you know besides the big l ones like bitcoin ethereum

etc etc how many of these products entities are going to exist or be relevant or you know be a part of everybody's day to day you know five 10 years from now probably not many right so as far as the way that I navigate crypto. It's a lot of day to day. You know, obviously like I'm very, and I feel like you were one of the first people I saw an influencer space, like really into crypto. Love that you said that. No, I mean that. Like a like a long time ago. You're not wrong, man. You're not wrong. I watch everything. Yeah, no, I know. I know. And I mean, you roll in the same circle, social circle. By the way, I don't do podcasts. Like, the last podcast I did was Logans and Mike had asked me and I canceled on that thing 20 times before I finally did it would only ever do

that for Mike, I'll hop on Aden's stream once in a while. The content, like, it's really not for me, but you, you and I have always, like, just ran in the same circles, have the same friend groups. And I feel like we connected not on some clout, but on some, like, senior parties and just like, yeah, yeah, human. So I don't know, when you, when you hit me up to do this, I was no, I'm grateful. I'm grateful. Thank you for saying that, by the way. Honestly, like, the financial with this crypto stuff is awesome. It's obviously an amazing, like, byproduct. but being right and being early like that's five for that in everything like music and clothes and just everything like I love being on early it makes it it's that's what drives me

and I was buying in crypto punks and talking about NFTs before anybody knew what this was and I brought that term to so many people and so many people heard that for the first time through me and I can love that and I love even more. so that, you know, kids I lived with at the time, Mike Maylack and Aden and Rice and like my managers and like, dude, stop buying these things. Are you out of your mind? Like, what's wrong with you? It always goes that way. And then something happened really quickly and, you know, I 10x on these investments and everybody's looking to me like, and I was trying to, I was begging these guys to buy these things. I'm like, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm telling you. And it's something as

simple as that. Like, I don't know, you fire, you know, $10,000, $20,000 into some, it's, that's a that's a lot of money for anybody by anybody's standards right and you want to protect that and you want to know where that's at and you naturally how did you have any foresight how do you have any foresight like to know so i have an edge and the my perspective is a little bit clearer on the web three nfts specifically because of my history in gaming traditional gaming like counterstrike skins i'll kind of always attribute those to like the first you know nfts yeah the first idea of nfts you can freely trade them there's an open market um and just the way economics works like that was forever ago yeah but there's forever ago and there's skins in that game that forever ago people were trading

for you know 10,000 plus dollars which again if you kind of like turn your head and heard that for the first time you're like what the fuck are you guys talking about are you guys crazy yeah but when you're in it you play this every day you start to understand like why a picture on a screen could be worth something yeah it's just it's the same psychological is why people wear paddocks and drive Lamborghinis and dress the way that they dress. Yeah, it makes them feel good about whatever. The community they're a part of.

They have this sort of status. It's like, you're signaling and projecting who you are to everybody around you, right? And I mean, like our presence in the digital realm, it's becoming more and more relevant. You know what I mean? Like you have a Twitter handle and your picture,

your little avatar. I always find it funny though when someone goes, this thing sold for this much money when someone just screenshots it goes, I'm rich. Yeah, it's funny. Obviously, it's not the original artwork. But I just find the, I just find the space so, so, like, interesting, but also so sketchy.

Like, how do you not, like, have you ever been in a situation where you were, like, completely f***ed on some crypto? It's really sketchy. So the way that I initially got into crypto, it's funny because we actually, we have a production around Bryce Hall coming out. This next, like, Twitter vlog. I've been doing these, like, Twitter vlogs. Oh, yeah, we're going to talk about that.

Crypto-inated Twitter vlogs. But the next one is all about Bryce Hall. he kind of got caught shilling some like coin that was recent right on the twitter time lot a couple days ago yeah i saw that and i remember david got caught caught up and stuff like that and everybody participated in in these things you remember that like a little stretch of time where kim kardashian mayweather jake paul everyone everyone Logan got wrapped up in it and dragged mike into it like i think it's important to openly talk about because a big thing that i think neither side realized because there is this crypto-native community

that very much lives in this bubble. And to them, it's like so no-brainer. Like, bro, that's a scam. You're getting paid to show this shit. That's wrong. Yeah. And it's probably illegal. Like, you're-

You know what I mean? Yeah. But on the flip side, these, you know, traditional influencer media, content media guys, like they don't know any better. Like, we know how this,

it works in our world behind the scenes. It's deal flow from managers and stuff and it's, right you get pitched a million things a day right yeah and you know if if things sound the right in your brain by your standards and where your priorities are at you're saying yes or you're saying no right yeah so we can get you paid X amount of money for one tweet and do this and do that and if it sounds good it's like all right yeah whatever crypto's hot kids are talking about you know what I mean like yeah all right do it and my first experience with crypto was um something

along the lines of like a paid chill it came to me through um our sales team and my management which i trust these guys with my life and my career and this was like kind of around the time that crypto really started to pop off 2021 early 2021 and it came to me you know just the same as any other deal flow it was like yo these this token i don't want to say it um if you dig deep enough you'll be able to find it but it was it was relevant to like my name my name made sense with the token and that the way it was pitched to me was These guys basically want you to be the spokesperson. They want you to deliver, like, updates and news, like with your face and your voice.

And they'll pay you a salary, yada, yada, yada. They'll give you, like, this big allocation in their token, whatever, whatever. I'm too dumb to even know what any of the it means. Ultimately, I never sold their token. And they kind of used me onboarding me and, like, announcing me is this big pump to dump on whoever bought it. And that was my mistake getting wrapped up in that. And now, now that I know what I know now, it's so obvious, like, what happened. yeah but at the time it took me kind of coming out the other side to be like wait what the

just happened and i felt and honestly created so many issues for me down the road like i had like i had to kind of behind the scenes like write that wrong um but i'm grateful for it at the same time because in that moment i decided i was never going to allow something like that to happen again and i i needed to one establish some sort of solid network in crypto and two, know enough myself to never be able to be like over on some shit like that again, if that makes sense. But how do you find, how do you, that's my thing, like, because I've, I've been in a similar situation.

And then how do you find people who are actually solid? It's trial and error, right? It's like really, it's just like anything else. How do you know what they know? Because I feel like everyone says, oh, I know. So what's something that you're super passionate about that maybe not necessarily everybody in your immediate circle is probably health, fitness. Yeah.

Right. You definitely, they're, I'm sure. right on especially in social media I know a tiny tiny bit about like that community and the way content works and like the creators and stuff I'm sure there's some people who make like Instagram videos who are like LARPs and like fakers fakers frauds phonies pushing whack product

pushing whack routine and whack game right and like you are able to identify that really clearly because you live it every single day yeah you would probably be somebody who would be a value to add to their network like if I wanted to get yoked up and be a vanilla gorilla like you i don't want you in the network right but there are other guys who maybe if i you know what i mean came across they wouldn't you know what i mean it's it's kind of like that i don't know you just got to spend the time and the effort and and be passionate

about it to an extent and it's just i guess some of it has to do with like your judge of character and your ability to identify frauds versus yeah real ones you know yeah just like anything else yeah Speaking of that, I mean, obviously, I don't get too deep into it, but like you've obviously had a really interesting journey with Faze and dealing with sort of, I guess what I would call from what I know. I don't know. I don't want to speak for you, but some fraudulent, some dumb shit that's happened. No, man, it is what it is.

I'm like, I must transparent as can be open book. The Fade is as simple as this. It's a tale as old as time. We created Faze. phase was created in 2010 right that's insane like it's even insane to say it out loud it's insane well that was also one of the first we got to give phase their credit words dude that was the first I would say like group of creators who are really making this content thing a thing facts and when you I always say this I even say this to like my new crack like crypto team you don't really

ever want to be first first gets like they really really do even when you look at like the first original like YouTubers who were like cracking on like an S tier level. Yeah. Those guys like touched a bag and touched money and touched success, but nothing compared to what the S tier, Logan Paul's of the world, Ks, size of the world, the time came and the ones who came out. You're going to exit billionaires. You know what I mean? And like the Ray William Johnson's and the Freds and the Niga he is like, I mean, I'd be surprised if any of those dudes ever touched millions of dollars, let alone billions, right? So when you're first, you don't really have a blueprint to work off of. You don't have anybody,

to lean on to for advice and you kind of got to like figure it out as you go right like build the plane as it's flying and it's like I said a tale as old as the as time me and the other founders like young kids all we were concerned with all we cared about doing was making videos around playing video games and kind of naturally building this like insane entity in phase clan right and you come across bad actors and it just takes one right somebody to sit down and take advantage of the fact and manipulate the fact that you don't know anything about business legal finance and kind of pill you on this concept of like you need me you need this you guys you know what i'm saying you're sitting there like you're like well i don't know about any of this

right i was you know six months ago a broke no 22 year old nobody living in my parents house yeah and i'm still like kind of broke like i don't really know how to convert this crazy fire success thing that we got going on into money so maybe i do need like this right in long story short like i don't this is something that not a lot of people know about but my shares in phase clan were straight up stolen from me like i didn't have my shares reissued back to me until right before we went public because they had to because we were about to go public you know what i mean so for a long stretch of time i actually wasn't on the on the face cap table. It's like an original founder.

Was that strategic on their part? No, no. It's something happened. Like one of the first guys that came into the company and I can't name names because I'll get sued. It's just annoying. There'll be a tell-all at some point in my life. Like this is a, this phase is a movie. I don't know how it ends yet. I'm hoping it's that, you know, classic Disney channel, happy ending off into the sunset. And I really think we have a real shot.

But it's a fucking movie. the first guy we ever met who like what I just described you need this and you do that we'll take you to the promise land this is how it's done i love you and i care about you and i just want to see you succeed realistically this guy's just trying to sink his teeth in it suck everything he can out that guy kind of played the whole dividing conquer game between me and the other founders took advantage of like i had this like crazy sicko mental break and the day ones will remember it because it was documented i was all over snapchat during this time and tweeting out crazy crazy but I kind of lost my mind I was in Europe for a little bit around about the face stuff just early early this was this is when I was like 24 so this would have been was the girl stuff at the time it was a combination of things combination of it was I was spending a lot of time in Europe my life just radically significantly changed like I went from I'd been on a plane one time of my life from zero to 22 and now I'm flying all over Europe and I got this dude telling me like I'm going to help you guys get rich and this is going to be, you know, the next Nike and yada, yada, yada.

And like, I don't know, it's kind of zapped my shut a little bit. Yeah. Took advantage of that, kind of drove a wedge between me and the original founders and use that opportunity to write me out of, out of the contract out of like the cap table. And honestly, if it weren't for, if it weren't for me saying, I'm not waiting around and taking the leap of faith and moving to L.A. and doing everything that I did with rice gum and the Nelk Boys and Summer Ray and Alyssa, I, I'd probably still be in Boston right now. I'd probably be hanging by my neck off a bridge or a beam in my house.

Like, seriously, like this is the you hear about, like the horror stories you hear about where like that guy helped create X, Y, and Z and got out of it. And now it's a billion dollar thing. And you don't know what I mean? He's broke. It's like, it's really foul and fucked up. I don't know, business. It's weird how some people just see money, man.

Dude, it's so creepy and weird. It's the worst. Because I don't get me wrong. Everyone loves to make money. Of course. And there's no issue with that. When you take something of something that was like of someone's like true heart and like they build something that's so special because phase was special not just because it was like a gaming thing.

It was special because it was a real community. Yeah. Like it was people who were all kind of like, yeah, we love this. And you guys as creators all are like created that atmosphere. That person comes in sees the connection to this. you know money essentially and they just see it as just dollar signs instead of like people and they're just like oh I can make a ton of money and it's no it's it's beyond dude it's beyond and like that's kind of what my mission is not only for my own life but for phase as a community and as a company like

I want to help people never make the same mistakes that I made I want to guide young talent promising talent I've always been really good at spotting talent early this is something I was going to talk to you about which is interesting yeah and I feel I feel safer these guys with me than anybody else because I am you. You know what I mean? Like you can go talk to some dude who's going to appeal you on the fact that you worked at Interscope or did this or did that or helped break Eminem in the 90s. Right. Or you can work with somebody who really got through the whole process and genuinely is only interested in you making the right moves. You know what mean? We can talk about business and breaking bread later like that comes later. It's so funny. We're so

similar in that. Not not to the, I don't think to the exact scale, but I've had it my own personal experience with companies and people who, you know, saw what it was and took the advantage and took their benefit. And I've dealt with that. And so beyond that, though, my question to you about the finding talent, how do you know when someone has it? Because I've been pretty good at spotting this kind of as well. How do you know when someone has that, that like sort of X factor to be able to succeed on the internet? It's just, I don't know, it's something about, it's a combination in two things. I think to invest your time and energy and effort and place a better. And And on somebody they need to have both of the things that I believe are required, really the only two things I think are required to hit like superstar, you know, S tier, top level success, which is one natural talent and just a natural, like, I don't know, you meet, you meet people like Aiden and you meet people like speed and even off camera. Like you just like this person is a main character. And they're just like, you might as well be a cartoon character plucked out of a cartoon. You know what I'm saying?

And, you know, I know people even in my day-to-day, just normal life who live normal or work normal jobs and live normal lives who like, I think to myself, like, dude, if you ever put in a camera at this guy, like, you could be a superstar, but that brings me to number two, you also need that, like, sick obsession. Yeah. An insane work ethic. Especially in the world of content. Especially now.

Especially now. Yeah. And like streaming, like that's a whole other thing. Like to be like Aiden Ross, you need to stream 10 hours. There's no way around that. There's no shortcut. There's no cheat code. You need to turn the stream on and stream 10 hours a day. And realistically, you're going to have to do it for a long time and see absolutely no return on that time spend. It's like everything. It's just like, exactly. It's just like everything. But when somebody has both of those things, when you see that level of commitment from somebody and that passion doesn't die out when, you know, the return isn't what they necessarily hope or dream up. But they, in the belief, like, We've all met that delusional, like Kanye West type kid who's running around talking about he's going to do it. Like, I'm going to do it. It's, I'm not taking no for an answer.

I'm going to do it. And then they have that special like 8x factor too. That's a kid I'm taking bets on all day, firing shots into. Are you ever going to stream again? Streamer I never really streamed to begin with. I like with it here and there, especially when I was, you know, kicking it with Aiden. Streaming is just like, if you know anything about me in my history with content, the fact that I have followers. or ever like fell into that bucket like under that umbrella like the fact that anybody can ever

label me as a YouTuber is hilarious because I'm like the furthest thing from consistent like I accidentally became one of the biggest vlog channels for a stretch of time and I you know quit and jump back in a bunch of different times it's I don't know how people stick to me and continue to me I love it I appreciate it more than anything you guys are the only reason I have any leverage in like these phase meetings in yeah that's the thing too like it's not lost on me to bring it back to the phase thing it's not lost on me that i have such a huge edge with a platform i have the ability to jump on this show or turn on a camera at any time and let my fingers know what it is yeah right and that's always made me feel safe it's always

made me feel like i have you know some level of protection but not everybody has that man and there really are kids who get smoked and have no like it's it's so what what going back to the phase stuff what How come rain's not a part of it now? Because rain, rain had a lot to say. I talked to rain regularly, and it's not that he's not a part of it. Rain,

he's phase rain, right? Like, rain is one of the most important, crucial pieces of phase in phase's history forever. He's got the logo tattooed on his body just the same. Rain cares more about phase clan

than everyone on planet earth except for exactly three people. And that's me, Tommy and Apex. And we all, care about it the same it's it's transcended business or you know monetary opportunity bro if this was about money for me this fake i wouldn't be doing this you know i mean i wouldn't be spending the time i get paid a modest salary to show up every single day and try i'm trying to fix this thing you know what

i mean like i make way more money doing other and have honestly more fun doing other i feel like i owe it to this brand and this entity to fucking put my best foot forward and i believe that like it's not as complicated and hard as the corporate guys have made it made it be they just got lost in the sauce mismanaged the i think that it's as simple as making it fun again throwing a camera in the middle of a group of friends like the way it was with us in the house the original new york phase house and just let rock point the camera at the whole is that what probably nothing is probably nothing is a crypto native media content platform so i'm doing vlogs on twitter not for no reason because crypto lives, the crypto community lives on Twitter.

We call it CT, crypto Twitter. That's where CTV comes from. Yeah. Crypto Twitter vlog. We're on our, we're making our fourth one. This will definitely make a feature. And I have a G7X on me right now. That's how you do it.

I haven't, I haven't vlogged in six years. I'm making Twitter vlogs for crypto. And there's obviously a reason for that, specifically on Twitter, because like I said, it's crypto native. but two and you're probably instantly the biggest crypto vlogger easily not only the biggest crypto vlogger we've transcended that immediately into the biggest Twitter vlogger there I don't think there's really anybody else tweeting I mean um yeah tweeting out vlogs yeah and it's funny because steves I was gonna say that Steve's obviously

on the YouTube shit I'm going a Saturday to go do it sick oh really yeah he asked me to jump on to I got I got to follow up with that maybe I maybe I hop on that but he's like he calls me we talk for an hour about him doing his whole thing on Twitter. I'm like, Steve can do it. And there's all these metas we're learning and it's fun because I'm like back into this like phase banks,

YouTube mindset. I feel like I'm standing over TWOP's desk and we're figuring out of all these like interesting plays and how to like push up the YouTube algorithm. It's a whole different game. Twitter videos don't get shared the same what YouTube does, right?

You're not getting pushed to the home page. You're not in anybody's recommended thing. But something we discovered, you know, in this third vlog is this quote tweet meta where if you quote tweet a tweet, like if you quote tweet a video on Twitter and that your tweet, quote tweet gets 100,000 views. Those 100,000 views get allocated to the original post as well. Yeah. So they count toward the original post. Right. So if I put out a vlog and Steve will do it, quote tweets in and it gets a half million views. That half a million views goes to the original post as well. So now this original. vlog on Twitter has a view count two million views like that's a banger you know what I mean that's now all of a sudden with the biggest vlog on Twitter never mind the biggest crypto native vlog which is a whole thing I didn't

even I didn't expect to happen why I'm so bullish on content and crypto obviously I'm a little crypto freak I live with crypto native people and it's what I do every day it's what I have fun doing yeah I'm passionate about on a different level it it transcends

the money part of it I really I like living in the future you know what I mean And it's crazy. The parallels between traditional gaming, early gaming and crypto is one to one. Like I get, I talk about this in meeting sometimes and with the crew. And I get the chills when I talk about it because it's literally bar for bar one to one from my perspective. And when I say that, I mean, I used to spend 12 hours a day on an Xbox, right? My fucking parents and my friends thought I was a freak.

They're like, dude, what are you doing? Like, are you good? I remember. Are you okay? Like, why, why'd you stop playing sports? Why'd you stop hanging out with your friends? What the fuck is wrong with you? You're missing days of school for this?

Like, what's wrong? And I'm like, yo, you guys are tripping. Like, I'm chilling. I'm cooking with my homies. And I put a headset on and I, I, I enter this, like, weird little underground world where there's millions of people. So many people who are just as passionate about it as I am, spend just as much time.

And when we talk to each other and the way that we communicate, it's like we're speaking a different language. It's like we're on a different planet, right? But then again, like I said, you look over your shoulder and nobody seems to realize or pay any attention, paying any mind to what's going on. And their initial reaction is to write it off, like video games, bro. Like when I first, I dropped out of school

after I made my first little bit of internet money that was related to video games. I made a YouTube video, how to hack Xbox 360 Gamer score, made like 500 bucks, Google AdSense, early YouTube. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, this is crazy. crazy and it really sent me down this rabbit hole.

It's the only reason why I'm here with you today. I attribute all of my success to that moment. But what that did for me is it made it very like, it made it a real thing, right? And I'm trying to explain it to the outside world, to my parents, to my friends. And they're like, bro, are you crazy video games? Like this is, now you explain this YouTube. It's the biggest thing ever. It's the biggest thing ever. And the video game industry is insane.

It's obviously valid. It's, I think when they pull little kids, Kids in fourth, fifth, sixth grade. What do you want to be when you grow up? It's a professional streamer, YouTuber, gamer, right? Like, it's a very, very real thing. But, you know, 2010, 11, 12, you're trying to explain this to people. They're looking to you like you're crazy. And that's how I feel people interpret crypto and perceive crypto.

If that makes sense, just all the way down from like CT, the crypto Twitter, that's where we hung out. That's where gamers hung out, right? Like, it was the Twitter timeline. It was all little cod trick shot in kids. That's what my Twitter was for. for a very long time. We all talk to each other on Skype.

Now it's Discord and Telegram. I'm phase banks, phase rain, phase temper, phase Apex, phase Tico. We all have these weird names that originate from our gamer tags. We were all undoxed, never put our faces on a screen for the first, you know, for the first five years I was on the internet, nobody knew what I looked like.

Nobody knew what my real name was. Just like crypto. It's crazy, you know what I mean? It's one to one. And I'm just like, the only two things that are different to me about these operations And what's ahead is now I have over a decade worth of experience, right? And two, the financial upside. It's me and my friends used to have to dig through the couch cushions to get the money

to buy the new call of duty, right? And now I'm in a market where there are billions of dollars transferring hands. Yeah. A second in crypto, it's insane, right? So those two things for me, plus the fact that this is like very much the potentials and what the future looks like and how much the average person participates because now gaming is a real piece of the pie and you can't dispute that you can't argue that it's a very real piece of the human pie

you think it's going the same way right up there 100% 100% I think it um I think it works its way into people's lives the same way that the internet has the same way that electricity has and running water has I think that the biggest things are the shit that we participate in on a day to day that we don't even realize right like there are people who are growing up now and learning how to be a human who have never done it without the internet and that's just a

part of being a human now like a default the facto part it is like for me and you that's insane because we used to walk around our neighborhood knocking on our friends doors to see if they were home yeah that's like that'll never be the way the world works again you know and you know the same is true for like like I said like electricity running water I know I probably sound psyched out right now, no, no, it makes sense. It makes sense. I mean, you, you were there in both spots. Like, you were there when before gaming was like everything in the world. And now you're, you know, you're there really early on in crypto and you're just seeing it. Yeah. It's not crazy. All right, guys, crypto rush for the podcast, transhand company.com.

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If you have ever wondered like, you know, why do I feel like this? Why do I feel like that? And they got your back. Let's get back to the podcast. Now, now as far as phase in crypto, everyone's like,

you're going to turn phase into like a crypto company. Like what's going on here? So there's no immediate. And are like, are we kicking out gamers? So genuinely, listen, this is my only priority with phase clan

is to protect the brand at all costs. The brand has been mismanaged in hoard out for so long and controlled by the absolute wrong people. We're finally in a spot where thank God, Justin Kenna and Game Square have been such good faith partners and actors in just trusting the process. We've been on a blackout. I got the Twitter password back and the Instagram password back.

I deleted everything, unfollowed everybody and just said, we got it back. With no real agenda, no real game plan, we're just doing it in flow organically, genuinely. it's about reestablishing the brand and reintroducing the brand and just a fun, real way. Like there's no agenda.

I want to park the priority of like making money and it gets complicated because we did just get acquired by a publicly traded company and at the end of the day like that's the way it works. All anybody gives a fuck about

in the world of business is profit and loss. Making money versus how much money you spend and it's just the sad fact of how it works. But I'm fighting every single day to make sure that These people understand why Faze's chart, so to speak, took a swan dive is because you guys lost the plot.

You guys forgot what Faze was to begin with. Faze is, one, the brand and the logo and all the history and the movie that is FazeGlan. It's something that can never be recreated. It's a part of gaming history and internet history forever. Me and three of my friends met on Xbox with such pure intent. And all we wanted to do is play video games with our friends and, you know, slap this word in front of our name.

And we're on this mission to just make the coolest videos we could. And it turned into this thing, like globally recognize sick thing. And it got, you know what I mean? It's, it's, I just, it can never be recreated. How much money is in this market and in this industry now. It's all like VCU, like anytime anything has any sort of like shred of potential. on the level that we had the potential, it's getting scooped up,

it's getting bought out, you know what I mean? It's just getting put through that machine immediately. And I think it's really important to protect that. So how do you actually find the balance now? Because like, aren't you getting rid of a bunch of like actual video game creators? Well,

we're definitely cutting the roster down significantly. Again, it's like... Because at the same time, if it's about not recreating, because you never recreate what happened, but if it's about getting back to the core value of it, then wouldn't it be about keeping video game creators?

Well, for sure, I mean, and the people, we're cutting all kinds of people. Yeah, okay. We're cutting the roster down significantly. We had something like 140 employees this time last year. I think we have 30 right now. I want to cut that down even further to like 10. I've said this, I've screamed this in meetings for years. Like, we need five people.

How many people work for you? My guess would be five to 10. More than a, I guess, on a day to day. On a day to day. Not like production, merchandise. guys, I wouldn't count those people. Your direct team, I'd say, yeah, I'd say five to six. Five, six sounds like a great, healthy, good number.

And I would assume, even like, Mr. Beast, he's obviously expanded way out into, you know, his other branched off businesses. But his core team, who he works with on a day to day is probably, you know, five to ten people who he really, you know what I mean? And I don't know, I've argued for a really long time. We don't need, you know, 140 people in. in an office space walking through an office space who are these people and what the they do it's like this crazy it's all smoke and mirrors bro yeah business at the end of the day

the word business is synonymous with the word and that's the truish i could ever say and that's really how it breaks down how do we balance it i firmly believe that as long as the brand is taking care of as long as the people who are a part of the brand you know that roster of 10 people are all on the same page, have the same focus, have the same vision, and are incentivized the right way. Like the corny, like us paying members to put phase in their name and having that be the relationship. Like that doesn't work. It's whack. I want no part of that. It doesn't do anything for either side. It's this weird transactional shit. We're not red bull, bro. We're not like, you know what I mean? We're not trying to slap our local to talk a lot about this.

It's very true. And Rain's genius like brand mind, internet content mind. And I respect the God of like his perspective on this and we rain and i see eye to eye almost every step of the way when it comes to this conversation specifically um but like we i mean you talked about this earlier and i really appreciate it like giving us the flowers phase was the first content house we made the blueprint for what like how a lot of even today like a mp and side men yeah etc etc etc all these hyper successful click brands homies groups of homies operate the reason why they're also as passionate about about things as they are they they completely own these entities themselves together and they completely control the direction of which

they move you know what I mean and if you removed either one of those never mind both if you removed either one of those it would fall apart at the seams right like it makes you have to properly incentivize people and like again it's really not about money like at the end of the day I'm trying to restructure the to where I don't give a If I'm on equal terms and own as much of this thing as a kid who I recruit two weeks from now. Like, I just, I just want it to work more than anything. You know what I mean? Like, this part of me forever.

It was the first tattoo on my body. It was my dad's favorite thing that has ever existed on planet Earth. It was the highlight of his life. It was what he was most proud of. It changed my life. I feel indebted to it personally forever. like I said all the historic significance and stuff like I just this this logo is going to be on my tombstone one day it's a part of my name forever like I'm the guy who gets all these tweets

of people like meaming and on me for the the way that the the spec and the IPO went when like this this isn't what any of us wanted to do or necessarily like you know what I mean like we got chewed through this system and machine and I just want to wipe the slate clean yeah I I think it's very, very important that phase goes through a real deep cleanse, so to speak, and kind of just like wipes the flake clean and has fresh, new, positive energy. Yeah. A group of people, really focused, talented people, driving toward the same goal, the same mission, and just having fun with it.

So what sort of content, though? Like, is it back to the vlog style? What sort of creators are you looking for? Like, what sort of creators are you looking for? Kind of like figuring out as we go, like the lifestyle. You know what I mean? there are groups of kids and there are certain people

that are creating content every day and on that content ground the same way we used to be who are reminiscent of us who we f***ing with who I turn on their streams or watch their videos and I want to work with people like that

you know what I mean it's as simple as this kid's dope I feel with this content I think I could help him you know A, B and C and I think he would with us for X, Y and Z

yeah, yo let's talk does this sound cool cool and if things align and we're on the same page then Help me build this face back up. You know what I mean? Let's run it up.

What about Aiden? Because Aiden was jokingly like giving a Goat man. Aiden is- Would you sign him? I would, I mean, of course,

I would definitely do business with Aiden. I have in the past. I mean, actually really not. Like we've never really done business together. But he's my brother, you know what I mean? Aden's transcended like any sort of work relationship.

He's my family. So it's all love and anything he does. I support anything we do. I know he supports. And if it makes sense for him to jump in the face. You know what I mean? I mean, then, yeah, of course. Like, that's what I want more than anything.

I just want it. I just want to reestablish that sense of, like, homies, just doing fun shit. Like, I don't know, you sit down. You sit down with people and they're either on the same wavelength as you. You're catching a vibe or you're not, right? Whether there's a camera pointed at it or not. Yeah.

And when we meet those people where it really clicks, you don't want to let that person go. I have a question on that. You want to either date them or be best friends with them or, you know what I mean? Yeah. And, like, I'm just, I want to collect as many of those people as possible, but not, you know what I mean? Quality over quantity.

And just move forward with the squad. Yeah. Well, I'm really curious because on that note, like the vibe thing. And at what point during the whole phase thing, when it started to go south, when did you first recognize that you were like, oh, this problem? And then you kind of did, because obviously they were already in there, already had their hooks in. So my experience is really, like, much different. like I said I basically got excommunicated and kicked out of the whole operation

moved back to Boston from New York like I said that first guy came in and kind of things up yeah pushed the other guys away from me pushed me away from the other guys used that as an opportunity to literally steal my I made it my mission to to make it so these guys wanted to me again so it wasn't happening on its own so I took the leap of faith moved to L.A. did my thing we took over the internet for a stretch of time like the clout gang shit we did like the funny goofy cloud gang shit we did was huge and naturally these guys kind of turned back over like yo banks all right cool you're back you're doing your thing whatever and honestly that's the whole reason why i moved to l.a to begin with because the guys had just moved

to l a was always our plan like our group plan it was heartbreaking to see these guys move to l.a without me you know what I mean yeah but in a lot of ways the best thing that ever happened to me you know what I mean such a important part of my life and my story is that unfortunate like rock bottom stretch of time move back here start around um and like got welcome back into the fold right but like by that time it was kind of already too late like the wrong people were kind of in control and and like steering the boat and this is another thing that i feel like people don't like not give us credit for but it's important to note that we all grew up in phase like i even feel that way and i joined phase when i'll

like 20 years old, right? So, Rain, Apex, Tommy, these guys had been in phase since they were. I think Apex joined phase when he was 15 years old. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like this, his entire adult life. He became an adult, yeah.

You know what I'm saying? With a camera pointed at it, like, being a human being is not easy, especially under those circumstances. You know what I'm saying? It's a weird, there's a lot of weird that happens to you as a human being. And being a human is never just a straight,

climb up it's a you know what i mean yeah we love life personal all of it dude family yeah things can happen like losing your dad that completely shakes your whole world and shifts your perspective and puts you on this insane like makes you live a way that you've never lived before in your life you know what i mean and we all grew up through all this happening while these blood sucking like vulture type people were around us and it's disheartening right like there is such thing as being there is such thing as having your spirit chipped away slowly but surely like you know going in with your best foot forward and like bright-eyed and like I just want to do cool shit with cool people and like you trust the wrong people too many times in a row and it's like bro people suck yeah like you

said like to bring a full circle one of the first things you said in this conversation was like it's so unfortunate how many people just literally only care I don't understand that I'll never understand that it's crazy because it doesn't make sense it's like that that's the thing that don't all recognize that you the thing that only matters is like kind of what you leave behind and the things that you teach other people because nothing else nothing else goes on but you're just greedy because you just have all this money you live your life in a way and everyone knows there's how many conversations you have with rich people who have all the money in the world and they're still unhappy because they don't have like good relationships or good friendships like it's just

like what's the point of it all i'll never understand that 100 because i've had people who've completely me over in business who have a massive company who rode my coattails and but will tell me every single time that they did it, not me. It's how it goes. Wait. That's why crypto and like giving your normie friends, crypto advice is like, it's such a small antidote,

good metaphor to use in what you just said, because it's exactly true. Ask you for advice and like crypto, for example. And if you give them a good cook play, they're a genius and it was all them. But if they lose money on it, dude, what the fuck like?

You know what I get it's crazy. There's no winning. I don't understand the accountability. and how people just passed like no it's fucked there's a quote i'm gonna probably botch it's from like confucius or Gandhi or one of those like goats and it's something along the lines of like the only thing that matters is how many people you loved and like how much you loved pretty much like that's really as like i and i absolutely botched that but no i mean nobody's ever been on their deathbed and like you know regrets not closing that that business deal

about their family 100% it's always I wish I did this I wish I spent my time in this way and I wish I spent my time with these people and that's how it always is even when you look at the most hyper successful by like everyone's metric success

people like Steve Jobs like that's what his whole bit was at the end right it was like I wish I spent more time with my family I wish I worked less changed the whole world you know what I mean it's insane he changed the way the entire world works such a significant life, such a successful life.

But at the end of his life, he's like, man, that's the same thing. I lost the plot. You know what I mean? And it's like, so how do you not, how do you, how do you stay grounded to that for yourself while you're still trying to like kind of build yourself back? Not necessarily build yourself back, but build a company back and in the way that you'd like to. So you asked me before, I think we even started rolling like, how have I been? And I responded and said, never been better and genuinely never been better.

And I attribute it all to just the way that I've lived my life the last 15 or so months. Unfortunately, my dad passed away last year, almost a year ago to the day. And it really shook my, and I was, I'm 32 years old. I'm not fucking a kid, you know what I mean? And up to that point, you know, I lived my life kind of all over the place, stumbling through life, you know, not really focused, in my opinion, on the right necessarily. I feel like I've always led with love. I feel like I've always had a good heart and like had really good intent in everything that I've done. But like when I zoom out and look at a lot

of the way that I've spent my time, it was clear like how unhappy and like, like, yeah, like lost and like just tripping over myself and kind of almost like self-sabotaging my own was my dad died of 55 and it like really put put a crazy perspective in terms of like how I want to spend my time and like potential's a huge thing right i've always been told not to jerk my own off i've always been told i have a lot of potential and i definitely haven't ever really lived up to it you know what i mean like i've been kind of stumbled into everything that i have today and like minimal to zero effort getting here you know what i mean and i imagine sometimes like i got to buy my dad a crib but he never got to like be on a private jet with me or like and not that that matters but like it's one of those things that drove me my

entire life like oh my god i can't like i'm sitting you know cage side at the octagon watching connor mcgare i can't wait till i can my dad can do this with me you know what i mean yeah and like that's all that ever mattered me for a long time it's all that drove me and i didn't get to really like see that through and i know i'm kind of like rambling right now but no no you're on it but the um that should obviously change my whole perspective shook my whole world i've been sober now for 15 months i quit nicotine 60 days ago I pretty much exclusively only spend my time, my free time having conversations like these, like off camera.

I just, I'm trying every single day to be a better version of myself than I was the day before. I'm waking up every day. It's a little cliche, but like gratitude I really do believe makes the attitude. And just like, I take a nice cold sip of water and I thank the universe and thank God. I flip the light switches on in my house and they work. in a thank universe and thank God. And that really got me through this last year.

And on paper, this last 15 months, probably the worst time of my whole life. Yeah. But my attitude and my perspective on it and like the way that I've decided to handle it has in a weird roundabout way, I've like kind of hacked it into being the best time of my life,

if that makes sense. It'll definitely prove to be the most important time I think of my entire life. Yeah. Does that make sense? Of course. Yeah. I lost my father when I was very young when I was sick. I'm sorry. I totally get it. Man, I think it's interesting from your sort of angle or timeline of everything is like maybe the Faye stuff dealing with the Faye stuff and now dealing with the loss of the father

probably just gave you a lot more perspective on life and what really matters. Because for me it took to be so long for that to make sense, like that sort of pain that I carried for so long since I was a child into like, you know, young adulthood. into business and the friendships and the relationships and I'm not trying to get emotional shit. I love you, Brad. Yeah. You're awesome.

Sorry. No, you're good. But it's, I always find it so interesting because I think the, you know, we talk about life and what really matters and like it's, it is actual moments with people.

You're a great dude, Brad. Sorry. No, you're good. You're the best. It's like, Would you say that your ability to deal with the loss of your father and, you know, how you took it is almost somewhat not indicative of, but like you've learned through, I guess, quote, the loss, the downfall, the issues with phase and everything that you think that made this part of your life easier to deal with? It kind of left me no choice, to be honest with you. Like I said on paper, I'm in this position where, you know, I put my faith in trust and all the wrong people.

it felt like right and I'm at this rock bottom moment in my career where I was pilled on the fact that yeah like you're gonna lose all control over this company and like the direction of this brand and your baby it's a part of you you know what I mean you're the living embodiment of this thing um but you'll get you'll at least get rich in the process you know you'll be able to take care of your family and you'll be able to do all this cool with your dad and your brother and your stepmom who took care of your entire life and when neither of those things happen and you're left holding the bag. I've never sold a phase share. I've never made money on the valuation of phase. All I've ever made money with at phase is a salary. There are literally hundreds of

people who have made infinitely more money than me at phase and the other founders. Like that's the spot that I'm in in life. And then yeah, like the crossover and like the way the Venn diagram works with my dad and how much he loved this. And his advice, ringing through my head trust yourself trust your gut there's going to be people trying to take this from you telling me and tom me before we moved to new york before even happened and you think it's your dad being a dad like dude shut the up like we know what we're doing it's not that serious it's not that deep we play call of duty like calm down it's just like your whole world gets rocked and like it'll i'll i'll never i'll never be able to fully come to terms with the fact that like

that's the note that my dad had to leave on was seeing me in that tough spot because he saw it, you know what I'm saying? It's horrible. Like it's something that I'll never fully be able to like make make sense. You know what I mean? But it was his favorite thing

that's ever been created. And that's kind of what I'm doing it for. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's the driver. It is super heavy, dude. It is. It is.

It is heavy. Well, I think, man, I guess that the only thing that's given me sort of but that's what matters the we're talking about right now that is what matters like you said it's what you leave behind it's like if i can help one kid accomplish that with his dad like you know what i mean not to get like super like poetic or cliche about it but like that's like that is all i want like that's all that i want for the rest of my life and i'll never not trust myself again i'll never allow myself to get that close to somebody who doesn't give a about me or doesn't have the

same vision, priorities, values as me, like ever again. I'll never allow it to happen, ever again. And learning that hard, tough lesson at 32, like, I can live with that. You know what I mean? I got enough time left to spend my time the right way to where I'm not, you know, hopefully on my deathbed. I wish I spent more time the right way. Like, yeah. Well, the beautiful thing is now, like, the position that I'm in the position that you're and you now have, you know, these platforms that you can jump on and speak and share this kind of shit to people who, for what it's worth, like, need that. Because I think, you know, obviously everyone has to make their own mistakes

and they have to learn their life the way they have to learn it. But there is a lot of value when you could see where someone went through and what they went through and then like what they really learned from it. And we keep taking that same takeaway about what really matters is like the moments you share with people. What do you share? What do you give? How do you share love?

And like, it's so interesting. like that that concept that you have of damn i wish i could have just showed my dad or had these sort of moments with them but you were so caught up in like you know i guess the the business side of it or the issues of your life and never really got to that point with it but now it's like you just always think that you have more time you know what i mean yeah like you just always like we're gonna have it we're gonna have it like i'm a big like god i'm a big believer in like manifestation and like it starts in the mind and stops in the mind and like see it want it believe it naturally move toward it i think that's a huge part of like success and accomplishing and

like i always just like had like he's gonna get it you know what i mean because i'm gonna get it i know i'm gonna get it but then happens you know not necessarily the way that you planned and you don't have as much time as you thought you did you know what i'm saying it's like i don't know what's yeah but it's but at the same time it's beautiful because it's the part of your story that like you know even as you age now and as you progress forward on the internet in the crypto space the phase base or whatever the you decide to do you'll always have that to share and give to someone for sure to any any kid any person listening to this podcast or anything you do forward like that's what life is about as crazy as it is like all these things that people get so you know heartfelt about or hurt or

like pain in regard to like losing a father losing a family member anything right it all comes down to the same thing like that is the point of life 100% and then are you able to share it even if it's just when you're you know being on a podcast but like one person you're personal like and share, like, your experience with that person goes, oh, maybe I can navigate or be better in my life. 100%. Because that's the only thing that we talk about, the Steve Jobs thing.

That's the only thing that really goes on beyond that. And to bring it full circle on the question on everybody's mind and all anybody really wants to ask me about or talk about, that's really all that matters at phase right now, genuinely, like that concept, that idea. It's very simple. I feel like these are overcomplicated it for a long time. Homies having fun on the same tip.

creating cool living life on their own terms and you know sharing the wealth of knowledge and experience and like it's just reminiscent of the phase new york house like oh try this in your title and do this with the thumbnail and like we're learning in real time like these youtube metas and sharing it with each other and it's like that was the highlight of my whole life and that's i i just want to i want that again well it's beautiful because now there's so much more yeah like there's like 10 times crazy it's insane the internet's so weird now like how everything's why YouTube's changed snapchats now this big player and it's because it's not the internet anymore it's just life you know what I'm saying like it used to

be like this internet thing like and the way I used to talk to people about it was like yeah we do this weird internet thing yeah and they would dog your YouTuber now it's like oh that's everything it's just it's just life it's so wild it's so crazy that's like I'm gonna pill you a little bit more on this like crypto web three weird but like that's the way I really think that's gonna be in the future. I just think it's more and more and more of it. But what sort of other projects go? I feel like it's... I just think that we're going to exist. There's going to be a whole separate realm in reality.

There kind of already is, but like where like you throw a headset on and it's ready player and one and you have a whole second life and like you, you walk around this world and you look like a dragon and I look like a spider man and we're fucking running around doing weird. Yeah, because I see weird. Like there's tons of like this, but do you think there are pitfalls to that though? for like actual humanity, like human, human. 100%. It's horrible.

Some girl's doing this thesis on some college last night with her iPhone mic out asking me questions about what do I think the effects of social media have on young girls and young boys and it's obviously super destructive in so many different ways. But it's just like, I guess, I don't know. This earth thing, this human thing,

it's just this experiment happening live in real time and we'll see where it all, you know, land. Yeah, it's completely non-linear. It's insane. Who knows? There's no real way to know. All we can do is hope the good guys come out on top,

put our best foot forward and just like everything else. Just be your best. If everyone's your best and everyone's honest and everyone has, you know, the values that we just talked about, the world probably looks like a good place, even if it's like a weird digital, anti-social, like borderline autistic realm. Put the thing on sitting in your room.

Yeah. I just picture, like, so many weird movies or TV shows, and I'm like, it's going to end up like this. Black Mirror, Ready Player 1. Like, you know, the black mirror where the astronaut was in space, but he went to his body, and it was obviously that weird, like, murder thing with the family. But that shit is how I picture, like, weird. That's what it's going to look like, bro. That's what I believe it's going to look like.

And I think, yeah, I'm taking a lot of bets on that. Do I, do I know, do I think it's going to be necessarily a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. You know, if you ask me that about social media in 2017. 2010, I'd probably have the same answer for you. I don't think we'll ever, we'll ever have the answer. Because it's moving at such an exponential rate. We almost can't keep up with the rate that it's, it's moving.

I feel like it's making humans less human. For sure. Like it's just, and that's kind of probably where the next chapter. That's what the next chapter probably looks like. It's the Jeff Bezos replacing their heart with some like, animatronic computer control. You know what I mean?

No, absolutely. Slowly but surely we turn. I mean, neuralink, all these things. It's literally doing that. 100%. Like there's a guy who, you know, he's not. he can't he's not audible he can't really move and he's like controlling a computer with his mind like the terminator type shit like this world at some point maybe looks like one giant like

mechanical machine of a ball and it's all computer operated and generate there is no biological life anymore it's just the earth is one giant computer you know what it's so weird it's the transition of that's so interesting because you get to the point where like jobs are like pretty much obsolete and then because I saw when you think about it. I know. Like I saw Elon Musk talking about like there needs to be like there's going to have to be a universal income because like people aren't even going to have jobs. They're just not going to like it's cute like an allowance.

Yeah. Because like but I also wonder like dude at some point because I can't imagine like specifically in the Western society like the US being like all right you know here's a rate at which inequity exists and like I'm I'm more like right leaning and more like. You know, physically conservative and shit. And I really do believe in like capitalism and the fact that like, you know, if you're the hungriest and you're the most driven and you work the hardest, like you deserve to win the biggest.

Like that's just, it's fair. You know what I mean? But at the same time, like the gap in inequity and just like what exactly what you're talking about right now, at this rate, 10 years from now, literally the only types of people that exist are hyper wealthy people or like, you know what I mean? Yeah. impoverished people like super poor or super rich and that's obviously not like a healthy yeah the middle class is yeah the middle class is like evaporating yeah right now you know something i saw it was

really weird i don't know if you've seen this or not maybe it's just uh it might be i'm just a weird up for seeing this but you know how there's only fans yeah obviously and there's girls on the internet they sell only fans i've literally found girls who aren't girls they're computers and they don't sell only fans because they don't have a social security number but they have a patreon account So it's some random guy creating a fake girl And selling content for a fake girl I'm not surprised at all I mean people already we know a bunch of these only fans girls

None of them are in control of their chat None of them manage their accounts You know what I mean? They show up They show up to a set just like this They take some pictures You know what I mean? They might do it or two And they jump off the set

And they print money And there's people who take advantage of the algorithms And know exactly what to say And like crunch all the numbers And it's you're not When you're talking to these guys and jerking off and thinking you're talking of whoever the it's really some like 25 year old paid intern who just understands like how only fans

works yeah but that that taking that a step further and like fake girls like yeah that's it's insane but that's that's also just like well what the fuck is happening though because i how our guy it's insane dude i know i saw that and i was like dude this is next level like next you know they're have an only fan for AI. I don't think people necessarily even care. That's the thing

that I find interesting is like I'm wondering if the people who are you know subscribing I'm sure it's not as many as people who are subscribing to like actual girls but I wonder if they even know

or if they care because I've seen when they'll take girls' bodies and AI a face so it's not the girl but it's a girl's body I feel like there aren't enough movies and there aren't enough media

dedicated to like predicting what the future looks like like there aren't enough good AI movies there aren't enough good like you know what I mean I feel like those It's like so relevant

People are so interested in it And they should make more It's such a It's such a conversation Like everyone's having this conversation It just it blows my mind If there aren't more like You know what I mean?

Siri You remember the fifth element Flying cars Is it Bruce Willis? Is that the Is it like an alien movie or now? It's like Bruce Yeah kind of aliens are definitely in it

Like flying cars Bruce Willis It's like the stone thing And this aliens you know It just reminds me like I remember being a kid being like I wonder if the world ever When I was young young Flying cars is like

always the thing isn't it it's so funny about it forever what does 2020 look like like flying cars it always came back to like our cars flying yet that's what it always was yeah no ready player one and like x mock is it machina yeah that movie's insane yeah what i mean like but more like that you know what i mean like we need more media like that yeah fucking make it happen i just dude i always just get the thing that i was trip on is getting back to like the humanness of it like we're essentially it seems like we're going to become like a android's yeah thanks we kind of already are like ever we need this thing without this thing we are like toast yeah but that's scary because it could all just be shut off which is the scary part which

is like you know you look back at old tech and you're like that is insane like it's so clunky it's so slow it's so inefficient like people in a hundred years are going to look at us and be like look at these and monkeys running around with these fucking like little tiny bits of technology in their hands glued to it yeah now that it's just wired into our brains and you just see it you And we're not even living in a, in a real plane. We're in a cloud somewhere and like, it's, it's going to look so fucked up. Yeah, but it's like, is it good? Is it good ultimately?

Because I, I don't know. It just seems like it leans more towards the ability to be controlled for sure. Like controlled in a way where it's a little bit scary. But then the counterbalance of like the open conversation that people have, right? Like we saw the ability of like the government to control people through what just happened with like COVID, for example. like even control people on such an emotional personal level like how identity politics has played such a giant role. Oh man. And like American culture in the last five years. But now here we are in 2024 and everybody's kind of leveled out and kind of like seeing that for what it was

and kind of like you know what I mean like got back to a nice set. Things feel better right now. They definitely feel better than they have, you know, through the COVID. For sure. It feels like everybody's leveling out um and i feel like a big part of that is just like the open line of communication like we all are talking like in this big giant group chat that is twitter yeah and like we all have like so much more access to information i feel like we're also creating we're ending up in a space where like it's also like anyone could seemingly say anything and like there's not a lot of like truth is becoming very blurry one i mean the deep fake and like boughted accounts like you can't really, it is becoming harder and harder to tell if, you know,

a tweet you're receiving, for example, is from a real human or not. You know what I mean? Like, that is a little bit scary for sure. But again, I think the way it shakes out is people will be so like, it'll be so normal and so, like, people will take it less seriously as they do now. You know what I'm saying? Like the feedback or like maybe comments from like anonymous accounts. Like it'll be written off and valued less than it is today because people are

so adjusted to the fact that like it's probably a robot like you know what I mean it's spam it's an ad you know I feel like there's too many dumb people that go oh this is real yeah no definitely right now I mean like boomers and stuff anybody older than us is like kind of but like kids now like the nine year old kid who like grew up on an iPad like that who's gonna be more in tune and more tapping than we are you know what I mean he's going to be able to identify that easier than we do you know what I'm saying so I see I see what you're saying die and as the young people grow up like I just I don't know I have faith like I think you're really all you can really have is faith right like who really knows the way it shakes out I've always

like to exist in the future I've always felt comfort and like been excited to like think about what things look like yeah I don't know I've kind of like that's kind of the way I've always moved through life I don't know it's exciting but it is scary what do you what makes you the happiest right now you're always so interesting to me just as a person like just I want to say like every time I would see you I'd be like is this guy happy I swear it's a good question I mean and honestly more often than not in the experiences we've had together the answer is probably no it's such like a it's such a hard thing to answer to because girls were never hard for you that was always easy that that part I saw that like oh

this guy I'm not saying you know I was like yeah for sure but that's like that superficial that like you start life thinking like money really matters and like having hot girls you matters and you know dressing like this matters and having these friends matter and that's another lesson i really am grateful to have learned young it takes experiencing thing i mean you've everybody's heard this a million times but you really got to live it to really have it hit where you're sitting and overlooking la in the hills and your bathroom's bigger than the house you grew up in and there's a supermodel in your bed and you've accomplished you've blown every expectation you ever had for yourself

out of the water you've reached your goals and dreams and a thousand X to that and you're looking over this view that you've dreamed and envisioned your whole life and begged the universe for and you're sad yeah and you're like something's missing and i don't feel good how's that possible how was i happier broke in a shoebox sized room playing xbox on a broken broken xbox box how was i happier than I am now and that's where like that perspective shift comes and like it's who you're doing with yeah and why you're doing it yeah and the time spent with the people you know what I'm saying yeah that's kind of why I jumped off the vlog and kind of got out of the content game it was never really like I was never really in it again if you look at the history of like how I came to be

who I am individually it really was little sparks and flashes of me kind of popping in and out and like the demand for my content, again, not to jerk my own dick off, has always like way exceeded the supply. And I think that's where a lot of my success comes from. Yeah, because most people when they see that demand and pump out, you know, 85 videos a day if like the demand asks for it, right?

And I just was never that guy and I kind of jumped off at like my peak. And like my last video was that Tifu video and it goes and 11 million views and a million likes and anybody else, any other. a YouTuber or whatever, you know, crank 10 videos out of that situation. And I use that as, you know, as a marker, my final, like, see you later. I'm over this in this cloud-obsessed content media world. Like, it attracts all the wrong people and I'm over it. Like, I don't need

to do that. I'm confident that I can figure something else out. Um, but yeah, the odds are I wasn't happy. Um, I am happy now, genuinely. And I think what makes me happiest is like, I don't No, like I'm 32 and I wake up every day in 8.30 in the morning and put music on and order a coffee and do my little routine, brush my teeth, and I make my own bed now and I do my own laundry now and like it sounds so goofy and like weird, but it's like I swear to God those things make me happy. And maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I'm a boomer for that. But like those things set me up for a great day. You know what I mean? Like again, just like starting my day off like plugging in a light and looking at the light that I bought a couple years ago and just

like I love this light like you know what I'm saying it's such a weird example but like that's not that's not white a candle and like I love the way this smells like today's a good day it's time to suck today see the lights and the yeah yeah yeah I'm like with it but it's just like it's finding like genuine joy and like your day to day present life I think a big part of being happy is remaining present. I think... So hard sometimes. It's so impossible sometimes. But like, it's a battle, bro. Being a human being is not easy. It's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, we'd all be blobs of flesh who have absolutely no personality and nothing to offer each other. That's a fact. Yeah, it's a

fact. And I just feel like when you spend too much time in the past, that's where like depression comes from like woulda shoulda coulda I miss that girl or I f*** that opportunity or like how did I get to be obese like I should have yeah I should have stayed stuck with baseball and worked out and I you know what I mean that's where depression comes from I feel like existing too far into the future and too much in the future is where anxiety comes from like what where am I going to be like how am I going to pay rent how I'm going to do this so I'm going to do that and these things are important it's important to reflect on your past it's important to prepare for the future. But at the end of the day, like right now, this present, a live moment, where are we?

We're on a set. Look how amazing this is. You created this content IP and you're probably in a position where you can support not only yourself, but your family and dogs that are run around. You created this whole thing around yourself and you're across from me who, you know, hasn't done terrible for himself and we're sitting on a couch and we're comfortable and we're healthy in this moment. We're alive. Like in this moment, things are okay. And even as bad as they could be, nine times out of 10 in this moment, you're probably okay. Unless somebody's got a knife to your throat or a gun to your head or you're, you know, over, intolerable vomiting, sick, sick, you know, unless you're in, in the dirt in that moment, you're, you know what

mean? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's interesting because like truly, like, even though, like you said, it's important to, like, prepare for your future. It's important to like learn from your past mistakes. Nothing else actually exists. Yeah. Like in the, you know what I'm saying? Like, everything we think of and everything we want like how we get to that idea in the future or how do we not make the same mistakes we made in the past is all about right now 100% how you act how you treat people everything your whole life is just a string of dominoes of experiences one after the other and you know the only reason why this one's happening right now is because every single one happened before it in both of our lives separately yeah which is and then your mom and your dad's

lives. It's crazy. It's wild. It's like astronomic. Like the odds are so heavily stacked against this being possible that it's like how can you not appreciate that? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And that's like I don't know my philosophy on just like good things happening versus bad things happening. I don't really necessarily buy into either of those existing. I know it sounds but I think that just like I said everything that's happened in my life has led to this moment and was only made possible because everything happened before it you know what i mean all the good all the bad the relationship that good has with bad it's such an intricate process like it's just like it's just a lot more complicated than this sucks or it has to be it has to be

like you could hit the lottery tomorrow have 400 million dollars injected in your bank account sick right dope nobody's mad at that that's awesome you're probably on the phone all day you can't believe it. You're beside yourself. Literally, this isn't real. This is the best day of my life. You book a private jet. You load it up with all your homies. Everyone that works for you, your family. We're going on a trip. I booked this

private island. We're living there for the next month. It's going to be the sick. We're celebrating. Maybe we're rich. That's it. G.G. The plane crashes. Everybody you have ever cared about dies. And in that moment, you hitting the lottery was literally the worst thing

that ever happened to you. Or, or, you You didn't have no idea how to deal with it. Yeah, or yeah. In a less extreme example, we see it all the time. People get rich and, like, get addicted to drugs. And they divorce their wife and, like, their kids end up hate, you know what I mean? And then again, you're at the end of your life and you're like, wait a second, I blew it. You know what I mean?

That was the worst thing that ever happened to me. On the flip side, too, like, you could be on your way to work and get into a car accident. You already had a morning and like now your car is totaled. Your piece of a lemon of a car is totaled. Your boss doesn't get. he's over you being late you're fired things couldn't be any worse you're you're one more el away from maybe putting a gun in your mouth and calling it quits you get rushed to the hospital because you're from the car accident they do a cat scan and it's a miracle the doctor walks in and he's

he'll look on his face they catch this like benign tumor attached to your brain or your lungs or whatever and and he can't believe it because if you waited even a month longer you're done you're done terminal you're done you have six months to live but the good news is we're going to operate on this right now and you're going to be fine you're going to live a healthy normal long life and now all of a sudden that horrible experience was the best thing that ever happened to you yeah and probably shook you into a new like line of thinking a new perspective the grass is greener and the colors are brighter and fresh air smells better and it's just like you have a new found appreciation for life and it sets you up for a way better life than if that hadn't happened.

Yeah. And 20 minutes before the doctor came in and told you that, it was the worst day you've ever had. Yeah. That's life. And then it's just learning how to continuously go through that and how to continuously fight for that being present and like being good in the moment, even though it's not always supposed to be. I mean, bro, it's like it's cool. It's cool talking to you because like obviously you have all the success and you've been doing this for so long, but you've clearly gone through a lot of as well. And it's like everything you say is so spot on. I'm glad we had this conversation because I think this is really important for people to listen to and to hear I expected it too and like I said for what it's worth I really don't do this like I don't

do podcasts I don't jump on people like I you know what I mean I I I've been obviously toying with the idea of doing more content and stuff as it's relevant to phase and as as I feel like I kind of need two four phase and but like I don't know I really only feel comfortable doing like this when it feels organic when it feels like it has purpose and potential to like help I'm really I'm happy I did this. I'm stoked that I came. That was so damn important, bro. Dope. Like, really important. Hey, not bad for a kid who hopped off the content.

We talked about earlier, like, you have that thing. Because if you could spot that thing and if you know what that thing is, you have it. To bring it full circle and to wrap it up in a really poetic, amazing way, internet, 2017. Let's bring it back. It's insane. Bro, let's bring it back. I have a vlog camera. We got to bring it back.

That was the best time ever, bro. This is insane. It was the best. You're sitting with me, I'm vlogging on the set. Let's go, baby. This is fucking insane. We got TG in the back. Let's go.

I have a G7X in my hand. It's 2024. We got to make it 2017 again. 2017. Bring the vibes back all year. Internet 2017. You already know, baby. Look at me on G7.

This is crazy. It does feel like internet 2017. It feels like everybody's in their creative bag. It feels like everybody's kind of snapping back into like, wait a second. What the fuck is this really all for? Yeah. And I'm so grateful for it. Yeah, bro.

I'm excited. And thank you for having. Blessing to have you, man. Thank you so much for coming. I need a hug from you. Yes, sir. I love you.