The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 192: The Fire In The Booth That Would Have Destroyed My Brand: Charlie Sloth

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

In this episode, you'll learn how Charlie Sloth, renowned DJ and music entrepreneur, stays true to his values whilst building and scaling a global brand. Featuring tough decisions, lessons on authenticity, and the role of integrity in creating a successful brand. Head to https://www.linkedin.com/doac24 to claim your credit. Listen to the full episode here - Spotify- https://g2ul0.app.link//TIVYc9ZjNu Apple - https://g2ul0.app.link//eF0IPuWwsPb Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/%20TheDiaryOfACEO/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Terms and conditions apply. Here's Charlie. When it comes to building a brand that has integrity, what matters? You know, this is a brand. And I think in a lot of- It has integrity. But I think because you have integrity,

I think because you have integrity, you install your morals into the brand and this brand is a reflection of you. I think like pretty much everything you do speaks about you as a person because I feel like I'm the same. I feel like if it challenged my morals, I wouldn't want to do it because I'd be like, well, that's, that's not a real reflection of me. Why am I going to invest my time or my money, my energy into something that doesn't represent me? And I feel like my team, you know, I have an amazing team, do an incredible job of managing the expectations

of all of the brands that I'm involved with. And I don't even have to say it no more. If I feel like something's wrong or it's not going to work, it doesn't look right for the brand, they know before it's even come to me. Because they know what my morals are. They know what I stand for, what I don't stand for,

what I feel is right. So it's got to the point where I don't even have to have those conversations because I have such a great team who have those conversations for me. And they protect the brand. I feel like if something goes wrong with one of the brands it's a reflection on me and something that I've

always believed is one of my biggest assets is my reputation. I feel like you may not like me, you may hate me, you might find me annoying, but one thing you can't challenge is my reputation. I've never done anyone dirty. Ever. I've never backstabbed anyone. I've never said I'm going to do something. I've not done it. And my brands have to hold up that same ethos. In order for your team to know what decisions you'd make before, you know, it even comes to you as it relates to the branding, you know, it even comes to you as it relates to the branding, the positioning of it and all those things. That must first start with

you being really, really clear. And what I've got from all of that is because you're so clear in your head and non-negotiable about what this brand is, you've been able to kind of like install that in all of the people around you. So now they are like disciples of the values. For sure. Well, we actually have a Bible. Oh really? We actually have a fire in the brief Bible, a handbook to do's and don'ts. And especially now, because, you know, the vision of Fire in the Booth

has gone from being a feature on a radio show to being a global brand. You know, obviously now we're of Apple, you know, one of the biggest companies in the world who I believe share the same ethos as we do in terms of vision, in terms of content consumption. And I feel like now the brand really is going global. Everyone wants to know what's in that Bible. What kind of things are in there? I mean, it's, you know, it goes from camera setup to edits, colors to use,

right through to how artists are treated once they arrive, communication with teams. One of the things I found really interesting is I read that you deleted potentially hundreds of episodes of Fire in the Booth that just didn't cut it. Yeah. Which I think a lot of people would be surprised by because, you know, a rapper, an artist comes down, they perform, they might think it's gone off, they might think that, you know, they killed it. And then you're sat there thinking, this doesn't meet the standard. Yeah, I feel like, you know, I feel there's times when I've not really to Fire in the Booth and an artist later on has gone on to thank me.

Because, you know, it's a big moment in an artist's career. And I feel like if it doesn't do you justice, it's not about me. It's not about why I think this is going to do well for the final booth brand. Like anytime I have a conversation with an artist and they say to me, do you think it's good? I can't sit there and lie to the artist's face and say, yes, it's okay. I'm going to be like, you could do better. If you want to come back and go again, we can. If not, let's just park it off for now and come back to it at a

later date. And there's been so many that have not gone out. But that's because I felt it's not a good reflection on them. Not on the brand, because no one's going to, you know, attack the brand as much as they would the artist. There's one of the biggest artists in the world right now, Stephen. One of the biggest, globally, right? Who come in to do a final booth. And I can't tell you how excited I was for this moment, even though it was a few years ago. They were still a big artist then, but they weren't as big as they are now.

And they came in and done their final booth, and everyone was excited and we were prepared for it. And they came in and it was possibly one of the worst final booths I've ever recorded. And I could see that the artist was quite excited by their performance. And, you know, they was like, when are we going to release it? And in my mind, I'm thinking, is this just me?

Is it because I expected here and they delivered here that I'm judging this? And they're talking to me and their mouth's just moving and I'm processing all this information in my head because I'm like, I don't want to lie to the artist, I don't want to be disrespectful to the artist. All this information is swelling in my head and I was like, I want to go back and listen to The Final Booth. Give me 10 minutes.

So I went back into the studio, replayed it, and this is garbage. This is garbage. So I chatted to the producer at the time, I was like, how's best to handle this situation? I don't want to go out and say that this is not going to go out, but at the same time I want to give them the opportunity to redo it while they're here, while they're in the country. And regretfully, I didn't do that. I didn't go out and give the artists the opportunity to do it again. I was like, you know what, I'm just going to say that it's not going out. And for me, that was a bad decision. I look back at it now, it was a bad decision. But it just weren't good enough. It weren't good enough.

And there's so many artists that have come through and not performed. But again, like I said, some that have called me out later then said, you know what? I appreciate you not putting that final brief out. Let's go again. Why do you regret that decision? Because in hindsight, I could have given them the opportunity to record again there and then. But because I had no faith in the situation, I was like, I'm not going to waste their time, and I'm not going to waste my team's time. I just think it's best that we kind of keep it moving.

But now, on reflection, I should have given them the opportunity to do it again. You know, and there's comments all the time, I've spoken about this before, where people are like, release it. Release the frying of beef. This person is huge right now. We've got sign off on it. We can release it. But I just wouldn't. You know, I don't do things for that reason. I'm not going gonna shit on the artist now. We put something out that I thought was shit back then and put it out now for views. It's counterproductive. It goes against everything that I say and stand for. So it will never come out.