The School of Greatness - 127 Influence, Impact, and Legacy: Inside the Mind of Music Legend Scooter Braun

Episode Date: January 18, 2015

"We chase the dollar but we don't understand what the dollar is for." - Scooter Braun If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video and show notes at www.lewishowes.com/127.

This is episode number 127 with Scooter Braun. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast today. Very excited about this episode.

We've got the one and only Scooter Braun on the show. He came in the studio here in Los Angeles. And for those that don't know who Scooter Braun on the show. He came in the studio here in Los Angeles. And for those that don't know who Scooter is, he is one of the entertainment industry's biggest power brokers, one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world, Billboard's 40 under 40 headliner, and one of Fast Company's 100 most creative people in business. He is the founder of the SB Projects, a company at the intersection of music, film, television, technology, brands, culture, and social good. And some of his clients today that he manages are, of course, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande,

Carly Rae Jepsen, Cody Simpson, Tori Kelly, Psy, Dan and Shay, Martin Garrix, Rickston, and many other powerhouses. Now I'm excited to introduce you guys to Scooter for those that don't know him. And we talk about a lot today. We first cover how he got into promoting clubs early on in his career in Atlanta. And we also go into how he got to know Usher and connect him with Justin Bieber early on. The big lessons he learned early in developing artists, how family has shaped him and why it's so valuable, how to build powerful teams and how to get the best performance out of everyone that surrounds you, who his mentors currently are, why we should focus on innovation

over creation, why he decided that every investment he makes needs to have a charitable component, his advice to young people, and what shifted for him when he found out he was going to be a father. Super pumped and excited to dive into this interview with Scooter Braun. So let's go ahead and jump in right now with the one and only Scooter Braun. So let's go ahead and jump in right now with the one and only Scooter Braun. All right. Welcome back to the School of Greatness podcast. We got my man Scooter Braun in the studio. What's up, brother? It's good to see you, man. I'm really, really excited. We've talked about doing this for a while.

For a while. Yeah. We originally connected through your brother, Adam, who I'm friends with. You're wearing the t-shirt. Wearing the t-shirt, got to represent and support. Pencils of promise, I like it. And when we met at South By, I actually met you a couple years ago at the gala for like a brief second. You probably don't remember. And then-

I don't remember you. You did not make a mark. No, I'm kidding. I remember you. And then we met at the gala. We met at South By. We played some basketball. We had a good time.

It was a good time, yeah. We went out on that court. We got busy. It was a good time. Yeah. We went out on that court. We got busy. It was fun, man. On that Texas court. It was fun. I got some random facts, common facts about us to start the show. It's common facts.

One is we both played basketball, football, and swimming growing up. Yes, we did. You were a swimmer as well? Yes, I was. How many years? For years on the Greenwich Dolph. In fact, John Waters waters i just couldn't beat him and that's probably what discouraged me from continuing to swim and then he was like an

alternate in the olympics so i probably should have kept no way yeah okay crazy so you played football too i played football until ninth grade and then i got serious about basketball and realized it wasn't that big so yeah yeah but i was i was all about uh you know hitting people as a middle schooler. Okay, cool. So those are common facts. We also both played college basketball. That is true.

You played at Emory. Yeah, well, for the time I was there, kind of. You were there for two years, right? Well, kind of, not even. And then we also both played sports at Emory because I did a decathlon at Emory. You did? Yeah, I competed there one time. It was a beautiful campus, actually. Yes, it was. Actually, I was there a lot and they thought I was

a student. But you weren't a student. I'd already dropped out by then. How old were you when you dropped out? 19? 19. I was 19. That's incredible. We both used to promote events. Yes. You're an event promoter in college? Yes, that I was for a long time. I was a party promoter and event promoter until I was probably 25. Okay, i used to promote uh like these linkedin networking events when i first started back so you were trying to like do the nice things like bring people together not like drunk and like yeah i was the drunk i was the drunk and like sierra seeing one two step and like you know try to get out the bottles and yeah no i wasn't i was selling them i had no interest in drinking i was selling them did you drink interest in drinking i was selling them

did you drink ever when you were doing the parties no not when i when i worked i never drank you never drank gotcha yeah i i mean if certain cases i might do a shot here and there with cold buddies yeah yeah but i was about the business jay-z's like hey let's do a shot you're not gonna shy away yeah i wouldn't shy away from from jay-z but it was but it was atlanta so it was more like jay-z it was like, you know, he was like, hello man, I'm the snowman. Take a shot with me. We, uh, we both, um, sit on the board of pencil promise. Yes, we do. And, uh, we both believe in the hustle and the grind. We do. We do. We actually do. But the real thing, uh, and we're not talking about the Terrence Howard movie. Right. It's

a little bit different. Uh, hustle and flow. We're about hustle and grind. That's our movie. Exactly. You're Terrence Howard. Terrence Howard. Yeah. I feel like you're the Terrence Howard movie. Right. It's a little bit different. Hustle and Flow. We're about hustle and grind. That's our movie. Exactly. You're Terrence Howard. Terrence Howard? Yeah, I feel like you're the Terrence Howard in this group. Okay.

I'm just the chick. You're the chick. Now, what I'm curious about, I've been doing a lot of research about you. Obviously, I've heard about you from your brother, but as I've been preparing for this, I'm curious to know

what your actual dream was as a kid because I know about your family and I've met your family and your parents are incredible, but what was like, was your dream to be, I'm going to drop out of school and promote these parties with celebrities. Like, what did you actually want? When I was a kid, I just wanted, I mean, no one told me that a five foot 11 Jew wasn't highly likely to make it to the NBA. They didn't? No. So I was watching like, they gave you hope. I was watching Mark Price gave you hope i was watching mark price and john stockton i have a chance every every like six foot white guard the nba had to offer i was the kid who

would go on like nba you know live and create my player and he just had a ridiculous jumper and had more hops than i'll ever have wow um but that was like my dream and then i read uh it was one summer i read one of phil jackson's books and then i was like my dream. And then I read, it was one summer, I read one of Phil Jackson's books. And then I was like, well, maybe. Secret Hoops? Yeah. Great book, man. You know, I was kind of like, I want to be a coach.

And then I thought maybe be a lawyer, maybe be a politician because I was class president in my high school. So I thought going to politics, I did the whole boy state thing. Yeah. And then, you know, I wanted to be in entertainment there for a little while. My brother was always the guy with the five-year plan. I was kind of like, we'll just see what tomorrow brings, but I'm going to keep working. Adam does everything planned out, it seems like. Yeah, I'm the opposite. And what happened was I ended up in Atlanta, started throwing parties, never been to a nightclub before college, threw parties because after selling fake IDs,

it was a legal way to make money. I like how your cameraman just made a face like, oh my God, he said it out loud. It's okay. I don't do that anymore. And it was very short lived. How did you make those? Did you have a printer? Did you like- You know what it was? I actually, I didn't make them. I didn't make them. There was a buddy of mine who made them and he made great fake New York IDs, but he just had a really, really bad way of selling them. He was a bad salesman. You were great at like saying, Hey, I can get you in this club. Well, not even that. I just said, there's a way to do this where you're not going to get caught and we can make more

money. You just have to be smarter. And I would tell you, but then college kids would start doing this and I'd probably get in trouble and be liable for them going to jail. So I'm going to just say, don't make fake IDs. I did it. It was like a two month thing. He broke one of my rules of what I said, look, if you ever break these rules, I'm out. And he broke it and he said, what are you crazy? Everything else. And I said, no, I'm out. I told you don't break these rules. And I quit cold Turkey. Wow. And then, um, went by a nightclub, um, called chaos in Atlanta. And I said, you know, let me, can I bring some people here next Thursday night and you give me some money. And my first, you know, let me, can I bring some people here next Thursday night? Can you give me some money? And my first party was a Paradox and then Chaos, Chaos and Paradox.

And they gave me like $800 cash. Knowing what I know now, they probably owed me eight grand. But that was the first $800 legally I'd ever made, you know, in that short amount of time. And I just bugged out because my summer job coaching basketball was like 1600 for the whole summer like every day yeah yeah and plus taxes you know so uh so you know i just made eight half as much in the whole in one night one night i bugged out and then i started learning the business of promoting funny enough from a guy named alex get a one who was uh there were no i was the only white boy at alex's parties sure but alex taught me about a cut line he taught me about how to create the hype and kind of the secondary market of Atlanta, like how to promote. And then I went to Miami and ended up promoting parties for a long time.

And how many people did you get at your first promotion, your first gig? I read somewhere 800, but I'm on the close. Yeah, probably about 800 to 1,000. Now, how did you get that many people on your first time when you're a 19-year-old white punk? Yeah, freshman. Freshman in college. Who believed in you and trusted you? Well, my first party was all the college kids sure and what it was um but no freshman were pulling like that what i did was i realized

everybody wants to go where the freshman girls go oh you had a college party and i had a high school sweetheart at the time so the girls didn't feel threatened i could dance a little bit so they knew you know they'd have a good time with me on that dance floor. And I got three really cute, awesome girls. And I went to Kinko's and I made my own flyers. Shut up. And we flyered the campus. And I told these girls, I could give you free drinks if you get people there.

And sure enough, 800 people came. And I was like, I'm pretty good at this. Let's keep trying. Wow. So one thing led to another. And then I became a very big party promoter. So one thing led to another and then I became a very big party promoter. So you did that for a couple of years, right? Yeah, probably for about six years. Six years? Oh yeah. I was a party promoter until I was like 25. And you dropped

out of college right after about a year after you started, I'm assuming. I started, it got really big. And then I started working with a young rapper with his manager, Shotgun, his other manager, Jeff, his name was Ludacris. And he had a song called throw them bows and i started working that song and that was my first exposure to the music business and then there was another guy named jermaine dupree who um he can't he you know he came to my parties he loved him and then he said i gotta meet with you i'll never forget jermaine's like not the tallest individual he's short right it's probably like five four i don't even know how tall he is he'll say five six so you're almost eye level oh nice try five eleven um look i love how tall people always like to talk shit you know they love talking shit um all right so short people are

usually smarter so we have to have something it's okay we are um but i'm like i'm like more than average all right he's just a huge human being. So what happened was Jermaine was took me to, I'll never forget, took me downstairs to this nightclub and he wanted to talk alone. And he got on this stool and he's so short that his feet were dangling. And he's like, man, I'm going to get you living in mansions and these parties aren't going to be there. Come work for me at So So Def. And I said, okay.

And I went and worked for So So Def for three years and dropped out of school. And I still remember when he gave me like my So So Def puffy jacket, like it's kind of like a starter jacket, but it's So So Def and a scooter on it. I thought it was the coolest guy in the whole world because I was like, money ain't a thing. But yeah, that was a really great ride. I learned a lot from Jermaine, super grateful. And then I've had certain people who've given me chances throughout my career. Right, right, right. So were you already three to five years in the promotion business when he approached you?

Or was that earlier on? No, no. I was a big promoter when he approached me. Yeah, I was a big college party promoter. Everyone knew that you could promote. We were the biggest revenue-wise college promotion company in the US. Right, right. And so we were doing really well.

That's my seat. That's your chair. It's all good. I was like, where's that sound coming from? And I sound and i was like oh that's me it's all good um that's cool so you made a name for yourself and he was like okay this guy can yeah consistently bring yeah he used to call me his leor to his russell simmons so i do little leor white puff i had a lot of cool little nicknames back then so what did you start doing for him so you learned a lot in this promotional business it sounds like you learned a lot just like guerrilla marketing basically and being creative. What did you learn while at the next level and what were you doing specifically for him? Was it

more marketing artists and records? Yeah, it was marketing artists. It was building outside campaigns. I was the vice president of marketing at Sosaduf Records. I was 20 years old. Wow. And we went on this crazy run where when I signed on with Jermaine, he didn't have distribution yet. He signed on new distribution. And then we did Jay Kwan, Tipsy. We did Anthony Hamilton. We did Youngbloods. And then we did Usher Confessions. Jermaine executive produced that. And that's how me and Usher became close because we were in the studio every night. In fact, Confessions part one almost didn't happen because I was trying to get them to come to the nightclub with me. No and they kicked me out of the studio wow smart move

guys um but yeah i didn't yeah i was still learning and while i was doing that i was trying to create my own artist so i was spending all my money on the side this is asher or is this no this was this was early on these were um acts that people don't know about because it was while i was still learning you know so i had this act OD and that fell apart because they robbed a bunch of banks in Atlanta and the FBI shut them down and they got caught because our mixtape I paid for to put out they were opposing and the FBI finally identified them from our mixtape that we flooded Atlanta with and then I had this artist Kato who's part of OD who I was very close with and I just financed everything for a long time I mean I paid for the mixes the masters the housing I mean it was just like I was very close with. And I just financed everything for a long time. I mean, I paid for the mixes, the masters, the housing.

I mean, it was just like I was understanding how to develop an artist. And I learned a lot from that experience because I failed. What were some of the big lessons you learned early on, you think, with that? Well, I learned how to make records, first of all. I mean, I learned the mixing, the mastering. I learned the radio promotion side independently

because I was working record independently. I learned how to trust my gut at the right time. And I hear all the time of like, oh, everything you sign blows up. But I had a lot of failures before Asher Roth happened. And Asher was kind of a new beginning for me because it was the first time I did it without SosoDev. So my back was against the wall. It was all my money.

I had no income coming in. I refused to do parties. You had everything to lose basically. Everything. I mean, literally, I will never forget. I'm actually moving into my new house with my wife now. And I looked around, I said, I can't believe we live here because I remember paying for pizza with change.

You know, I remember I ordered this pizza and I realized I didn't have any money and I had to wait till the next party the following week. And I paid for pizza with change and then I was quick parties cold turkey because I said, if I have to throw a party again, I failed. So I had enough money when I signed Asher to, you know, live for about 13 months, my lifestyle, and then I was going to go broke. And I signed Asher and Justin within four months of each other. And I put everything into them. I mean, wow, housing, studio time,

paying for the tutor, paying for the furniture, paying everything. And I really believed in these guys and it makes it all worth it now because it was, I couldn't, I was far away from home. I couldn't go home. I wasn't asking my dad for money since I was 18 and I had to make it on my own. And the idea of failing wasn't an option. Did you ever think that one of them wanted or both of them wouldn't be successful in their own way or that they wouldn't work out or you would have to find another way to make money? No, I really believed in both of them. When I found Asher, I knew exactly what it could be. What Asher also taught me though is sometimes artists don't want to be as big as you want them to be asher was

super happy being who he was and i had this vision to make him the biggest artist in the world and you know we had so much hype and he just that wasn't what he wanted and you know he's one of my closest friends now he's my brother for life and he just put out a video the other day kind of chronicling the whole journey we've had together for himself and um it was really nice to see because you know he just wanted to make music and enjoy his life and never really be famous and you know and he's achieved that and he's done very well for himself and he had the big hit he had the number three album um and you know he i it was a struggle for me with justin justin was like make me the biggest let's go like perfect you know and

and you know he was very much like me and um and we you know grinded and he was a young man and no it was uh it was a different thing but you know when Asher made I Love College it was in the basement of this house I was renting this crap hole that like had rats everywhere he's called the greenhouse because the truth is he was smoking so much weed down there um but that night uh he wasn't smoking weed he never smoked when justin was around uh but he recorded i love college and justin actually was in the studio he was with studio it was like a little crap room in the basement you know my buddy was doing engineering but we all kind of came up together and there's this really great picture of me asher and justin on the front porch of that house.

And no one knew Justin was. I mean, there's videos of Asher and me with Ludacris. And everyone's hyped because Asher and Ludacris are in the same room. And they don't notice there's this little kid sitting behind us. Just chilling. Justin. And he was 12 when this? He was at that time 13, 14.

When you first had him move to Atlanta? Yeah, he was 13 when I had him move. I found him when he was – videos he was 12 yeah um but he uh you know just the whole adventure to kind of you you respect everything so much more and it also reminds you when you get money that tomorrow isn't promised yeah and you value everything you know because you know what it's like to be a big promoter and have all kinds of money and then literally be paying for pizza would change because you spent it all trying to make it you know so um and promoting also you're trading your time for the one event you're like promoting for one event then you got to make money another event

yeah you're going party to party and yeah it was um it was the best learning experience the atlanta hustle taught me so much wow um and kind of the uh you know when you're in a cash business and there aren't contracts like your word is all you have. And, you know, having that experience and, and being able to shake someone's hand and know that that's powerful and mean something. Um, it was, uh, it was very valuable lesson. Wow. Now the money you had for this 12 or 13 months to, uh, bring on your two clients, I heard

you brokered a deal with, was it Pontiac and Ludacris? Is that what happened? Now, how did this come about? Well, I had it from the parties and that, but I was leaving SoSoDeaf. Jermaine and I were kind of agreeing that it was time to go separate ways. I was disagreeing with kind of certain marketing ideas.

I had all these ideas for social media and I just was getting frustrated. I wanted to sign different acts. And I got great advice, one from my dad, who said, look, if you work for someone, shut up and do what they want at the end of the day, or do it on your own. And, you know, put up or shut up kind of thing. And then I saw little John in a nightclub in London. And he said he worked for Jermaine for 12 years. And he had this idea for little John, but Jermaine was focused on what he was focused on. And he said he finally left. And he said,

don't take 12 years. If you have an idea that you believe in go after your dream and um and i was like yeah no that's not what happened but that would have been awesome that would have been great um but uh but yeah it was it was an interesting time and um that pontiac deal ludicrous had just got you know unfairly judged by o'reilly who was kind of calling him gangster rap and anyone who's ludicrous knows that it's nothing like gangster rap yeah um and he kind of lost all his endorsement deals and i told shaka let me get you an endorsement deal and he said look the agency's not getting us anything right now if you can bring anything in sure um and just broke it a standard 10 or 20 commission or whatever yeah i mean what it was yeah and what

happened was um he had a song called Two Miles an Hour. And I said, we can do a car deal with that. And I started looking and calling around and I bought an Escalade, you know, a couple of years earlier. And the guy who I bought it from on the dealership, you know, I've become friends with. And he told me that, you know, the Pontiac, you know, was coming with campaigns and he had to ask around. So I called up the Pontiac and I said, I was a student writing for a student paper. You know, how do I do this? They said, we have an agency. I called the agency.

I said the same lie. I finally got this woman on the phone thinking she was going to do an interview to talk about how she decides the Pontiac campaigns. And I said, can I come see you in person? I did. And I pitched her Ludacris. She said she got a kick out of the fact that I got to her. And the movie Crash was coming out, which featured Ludacris. And she said, I'm not really interested in Ludacris, but I said, well, come see the movie. And she saw the movie and she was blown away by him. And she took a chance on me and on Ludacris. And we did the Pontiac Solstice deal. And here's the best part. They sent down for the video. They let us shoot our own video with Brian Barber directing, who was a big director and a friend of mine he'd done all the outcast stuff bunch of ludicrous videos

and they sent down the prototype of the pontiac solstice and said look you can't drive this on the regular streets you have to just have it at the video shoot and have it you know but i couldn't afford at the time to pay for the shipping of the car from my house where they dropped it off on a flatbed and everything i was trying to cut every corner it's like five grand or whatever so for people to understand a prototype of a car is like a million dollars even though it looks exactly like the regular car yeah when it's the first one it's the pro so i drove that thing oh my gosh from my house down the highway to the video shoot driving like 50 50 miles an hour. Yeah. I just, I just drove it. And I just said, you know, looking back now, it wasn't very smart or responsible, but that's what happens when you give a young kid. So this is brilliant though.

I love this story because. I drove it right onto that video shoot. I love this whole, your mindset behind getting the deal done and getting your foot in the door because so many people wouldn't have that idea of like let me act like i'm a journalist at a school and wanting to do a paper a story around this it was deceitful though like i feel bad talking about it now but you know what i think it's atlanta it was fake it till you make it it's hustle too it was fake it till you make you know what it was it was the opening scene of schindler's list you know my i'm actually serious my grandparents are holocaust survivors so i always had an interest but that opening scene affected me in a different way than the rest of the movie because the opening scene schindler spent all his money to his name to impress the german executives

so that he actually got the government contracts because they thought he was something that he wasn't and that's pretty much what i did with hip-hop in atlanta i would spend all the money i made on my thursday night parties with college kids on tuesday night at alex's party at the velvet room where i was the only white boy with all the rappers and everything else and they were amused they let me in for free because they were amused that i was showing up right like who's this white boy because back then atlanta was kind of segregated as far as how they party but i was from the north so you didn't care so i didn't i mean i you know i got my family's very diverse and i didn't see it but they saw me like popping the bottle and hanging out with these girls and the truth was i wasn't

drinking anything sure but i was faking until i make it i'd send them bottles and they'd say what are you doing oh i want to come to your party and then i started mixing things up and you know i grew my business and uh it was it was a wild time now you've heard you're talking about your family and i know family is really important to you and is it true you have family tattooed on your wrist yep right here there you go now how has family shaped you and why is it true you have family tattooed on your wrist? Yep, right here. There you go. Now, how has family shaped you? And why is it so valuable to you? Well, funny enough, today is the 35th anniversary of my parents. I saw your Instagram photo.

So I actually meant what I wrote. I wrote that they showed me what real love is. You know, to have parents that really, truly love each other and are good to each other, it's such a blessing because it's so rare in today's world. And to witness that growing up and to have that love, you know, all the time, I always felt full. You know what I mean? I always felt safe in a way because you have that love from your family. And, you know, I'm a big person about studying happiness and trying to figure out how to become content in life. Even though I think life is a journey, it's ups and downs. You just got to understand that once you understand, it's kind of this – there's this idea in Kabbalah where you have to rise where God is, where it's kind of enlightened.

He's looking over the valley. You're in this kind of tight ravine of like a thing. Imagine a Grand Canyon, but really tight. So you can't see what's around the next corner. So it seems scary but if you can rise above and kind of see where all the turns and where the ending is you know it's not nearly as scary and that's kind of what life is like once you start to realize it's going to be okay and you'll get through those turns and there are ups and downs but tomorrow will come i think you get happier and i think what family has taught me

is there's always this steadiness and i think if you can provide you know for your family if you can be you know build a family which i'm now doing with my wife we're doing our first child you know you do all this stuff but what's it really worth and i think the only real legacy in life is family and charity you know and when you asked me earlier kind of i had a five-year plan i can tell you i'm and I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but for me, my perspective is I just wanted to leave a mark on the world. I wanted to leave something positive. Because I don't, you know, I think you only get a short time on this planet. And what's it worth unless you can do something? You know, and I understand one of my mentors said, no one's

going to remember you in 100 years. No one's going to remember me. No one's going to remember you. But they'll feel our impact. And who might remember me is my children you know and um so the idea of family the idea of working your ass off to share it with someone else is what makes it worthwhile so to me it's everything i mean it's you know and i don't even think i comprehend what that means until i meet this kid in february you know because when i meet him i hear every it's when is this air uh a few weeks okay let's not say okay we'll wait no wait but uh but yeah it's uh like i said i'm rambling a little bit because there's so many thoughts i have about this but um but family is everything and i think you know you look at a lot of third world countries and a lot of people don't realize I watched this documentary happy the other day, which is really great

documentary. And they talk about how our nation in the last 50 years has gone up 50% out in wealth, how we are richer than we were 50 years ago by 50%. But our happiness per capita has gone up less than 1%. And I think it's because we chase the dollar, but we don't understand what the dollar is for. And money is an amazing thing. It can be actually a complete release and an avenue to freedom. But it can also trap you at the same time. You get caught in the rat race. And I think family is that thing that you always need to know that comes first. And if you do that, you're going to live a happier life. So in your 20s, it sounds like you were chasing building things in your life, making money, hustling.

It wasn't as much about building a family, obviously. I tattooed this on my wrist when I was 20. Wow. Interesting. No, actually, hold on. Let me. No, I wasn't 20. Hold on.

Let me think. Was I 20? It was the day after Jay Williams had his motorcycle accident. Oh, wow. So it was June 19th or June 20th that I did it because Jay is one of my closest friends. And I found out what happened to him. And I chickened out about getting a tattoo a couple weeks earlier. And my mom had unfortunately got a little bit sick. She's okay now. And I, you know, I realize everything I'm saying now and I'm actually glad because once again,

this tattoo brings us back to it. I tattooed family on my wrist, my only tattoo, because I said I want it in a visible place for the rest of my life. People will ask me about this tattoo, which you just did. And I will have to tell this story of why I got it, which is this simple. And it will remind me for the rest of my life. I was lost and I was chasing the dollar and I was chasing the money because I didn't really understand. I was just going for it. And what I realized was all I'm doing it for is this. So I'm going to tattoo it on my wrist. So for the rest of my life, I'll get asked this question. And for the rest of my life, I will be reminded of what's really important.

Did something shift in your mindset and your energy or any way of being when you realized that, yeah, I was pregnant? Yeah, completely. What shifted for you? You start to realize, and I think as a man, which I've been told by everyone, and I think it's true, you don't really understand until you see the child. It's not inside of me. So I'm excited, but I'm not like, I can't, I can't comprehend until I think I meet them. It's going to be crazy. And I'm really excited about that.

But what you start to realize is, you know, you can live for other people. You can do charity. You can, you know, I, I. I manage, so I have to. I'm helping people a lot. My job is to help people achieve their goals. But I think what I realized when my wife got pregnant was for the first time in my life, my wife's an adult. She can fend for herself. And if you know my wife, she can really fend for herself.

She's right, yeah. When you become a father, you start to have this idea of, oh my God, my life is no longer mine. For the rest of my life, there's never going to be a selfish decision again. You can't call me and say, yo, Scooter, we're going to Vegas. You want to come with us? I was going to play basketball. Yeah. Every decision I make for the rest of my life, I have to consider how that affects someone who depends on me, like truly depends on me. And that has made me respect other fathers. The moment she got pregnant,

I started looking at friends of mine who are great businessmen, who have kids. And I've worked my ass off, but I've been able to be selfish in my time. Give your own time. Yeah. No one to look out for. No one to look out for, really.

Like even my wife's an adult. Like I can do what I need to do to make it happen. Sure. And I look at some of these guys who have multiple kids, which want and they're at the kids baseball game and they're here and then they're still handling all this business and they're present too and completely i have so much respect for them and i need to pull from their wisdom because i'm scared of how am i going to pull it off but i have to pull it off there's no other option and i my buddy Charlie Walk has four kids. And he is a workaholic like me.

And I hit him the other day when I was thinking about this. And I said, Charlie, I have so much respect for the fact that you work like this and have four kids. Right. Because he's a present father. Sure. And I think that is the ultimate thing. That's why I look at people like Jeffrey Katzenberg and Richard Branson as role models in a sense because these are very successful businessmen, but they have great kids. Great kids who are adults and they love their father.

And I think that's the ultimate test of success. If you would have been married when you were 23, 25 and had a child, then do you feel like you would be as successful in your business career and done as much now? Or do you feel like it would have shifted a lot of decisions you've made? I would love to say yes, because people say that when you have a kid, you grind even harder. That's what I've been told because Gary Vee says that. Yeah. Like you grind even harder, but I'd have to say no. If I was really being honest with myself because i had to be present because my acts are so young i had to be present for them at that age and that's almost

yeah and i had to be present for them and um i i don't think i would have been able to do the things i needed to do at the time i was building my business yeah because now i what took me six months before i can do in a phone call because i've earned you got the average it's not even you you earn it you earn equity in your relationships and time and the hard work you put in sure but back then i had to earn it and uh and i think that's actually why i wasn't ready to have a family back then because i knew it wasn't the right time but now i'd be a complete hypocrite if i wasn't a good dad at this point because if i can't give my kid the time he needs at this point in my life then everything i worked for you know i'd be a hypocrite yeah what's the point so but um but at the same

time i have amazing artists and people that i work with because we're all like a family and they're so excited to meet my kid too you know and i think my child will grow up in this fabric of these relationships like my artists are going to be uncles and aunts yeah um and we're gonna we're gonna have a fun ride it's gonna be it's a fun life that's cool yeah what um you talked about mentors who are your your mentors right now and do you think it's really important that everyone has a mentor or coaches supporting them? I think sometimes people say they have one mentor. I've never had one mentor.

If I had one mentor, it would be my father. I think I've learned more from him on how to be a man. Yeah. And that has helped me more so in business than probably anything. So I'd say he's the ultimate mentor to me. But I have really great mentors in Jeffrey Katzenbergrey at katzenberg who i asked how do you get a family like this and he gave me really great advice he pointed a picture of his wife and he said get one like that and uh and then you know great mentors and people like lucy and grange

who's the chairman of universal music group i'm very close with who's been an incredible mentor and friend yeah um and then you know i have people uh you, just friends I draw from. But I read a book about David Geffen when I was 19 and that really inspired me and made me want to go into this business. And now David has become someone who's become a mentor to me and someone who I can draw from. And every single time I get advice from him, whether he's yelling at me or sharing stories, I'm just appreciative because to be able to meet the people that inspired you is a really beautiful and incredible thing. And especially when they offer you the guidance

that you always wanted from them. So those kind of people, I'm eternally grateful because I draw from people. But sometimes, my grandmother worked in a sweatshop 15 years my dad grew up. And my grandpa was a refugee and kind of did odd jobs. And, you know, and I know where I come from. And I think that I was always taught you treat the CEO and the janitor the same. Yeah.

And there's a lot of wisdom you can get from all kinds of people. And sometimes the best advice I've gotten from mentors is I'll be in a random country in a car with a driver. The cab drivers always have the best advice. Dude, and sometimes you'll talk to somebody and you'll just start sharing because they're a complete stranger. Yeah. And they will give you a piece of wisdom. A little nugget, man. A little nugget.

So good. Yeah. And it clicks with you. You're like, what? Yeah. You never know. You know, it's the Plato quote that made me, funny enough, my wife said that's why I wanted to meet her. She tweeted it.

I saw it. I wanted to meet her. But it's that idea that be kind for everyone you meet walks a hard journey. Wow. You know, and you never know where you're going to, you know, get that greatness from. Sure. That's a good word. Yeah.

That's a good word. Now, your dad, you said he taught you about what it means to be a man. What does it mean for you to be a man today? Good husband, good father. I think everything else is secondary. I think at the end of the day, if I die and people say, oh, you're so successful, look at everything you achieved. And my kid and wife walk up there and they say I was a piece of shit. You're a failure. But if I lose everything and they walk up there and they said he was a great father, a great husband, I think I was a piece of shit, you're a failure. But if I lose everything and they walk up there and they said he was a great father, a great husband, I think I'm a success.

And what about for someone who's not a father or a husband yet? What's the definition of being a good man? Being a definition of a good man to me is, look, life is not black and white. There's a lot of gray. But understand your end game game do things with integrity um incorporate giving back into things that you do because it will i think it's really good karma yeah in our business everything we do has to have a charitable component yeah and uh what is the idea of being a good man i think the i think the best way to be a good man is to simply live by the golden rule. Do unto others as you want done unto you. If you just live by the golden rule, I think you'll be okay. Right. And when did you decide that you wanted to have a charity component to everything that

you do? Because I read this about you as well, that every investment you bring on, it's like you've got to have something involved. I think my mother instilled that in us when we were very young. Even funny enough, it's Hanukkah. And when I was a kid, Hanukkah was eight days. Still is. Hasn't changed. But my mom always said, one day of presence, one day of charity. So we only got four presents, and we got four charities that we would choose as a family.

And sometimes we would give money to the charity. Sometimes we would go to the soup kitchen and volunteer. But we always had to have four days of charity. That was something very important to my mom. So in my parties, every fourth party, I gave the money to charity. So I worked with a lot of on-campus charities and certain things like that. Because I always thought it made people feel, oh, he's a piece of shit promoter, this, that, and the other. But they'd feel good and say, OK, well, at least he's doing this.

And when I started putting that into our business and our artists, and look, I'm really proud. I know Justin's gone through a lot of crap this year, but he's the number one make-a-wish giver in history of any musician ever, and he's only 20 years old. That's impressive. You know, so people can say what they want, but he has taken that idea of giving and dove in headfirst. And I see it with Ariana, I see it with Martin Garrix. Listen, we went down to do Ultra. Every other DJ's partying their assfirst. And I see it with Ariana. I said, Martin Carrots. Listen, we went down to do Ultra. Every other DJ's party and they're ass off.

And these are all good guys. I'm not talking crap. But I asked Martin, I said, would you mind if we did something good in the community? Miami has a lot of very poor communities. Let's go to one of these community centers and teach kids how to DJ. And Martin went and did that. And he, at first, was like, what are we doing? You know, he's a young kid.

He'd never done anything like that before. And he said to me afterwards, he was like, that's the most fun I've ever had. And I think that a lot of people want to give. They're just not given the opportunity, and they don't know how. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, I'm a big believer in giving and being of service, and I feel like that's a key to greatness. Hold on. Let me say something to your listeners, real quick. I want you guys to understand, you listen to this man's podcast all the time, but I want to tell you why I actually know this man. Because he started to do well in his life and make some money,

and the first thing he did is he reached out to my brother and said, I like this charity, I want to get involved. And every single year, he builds schools. Every single year, he gives back. So when you're listening, it goes right back to the beautiful, beautiful man sitting in front of me uh yeah and there's a couple there's a couple pictures yeah a couple schools that he's built i just built one last week so so what i'm saying is feel good about what you're listening to in

this podcast every week and the reason i came to do this is because this is someone who gets it that understands that you you get what you give and um and and i feel like you live the same way as i do which is you are probably like me we're both very selfish individuals and let me say what i mean by that i think i know where you're going you like to feel good of course and i think in our society this is way off topic so i'm sorry again but in our society i think god i'm talking a lot today um in our society i think we we get told it's okay for the CEO of a cigarette company to make millions of dollars. But the moment someone works in a nonprofit and makes more than $100,000, it's despicable. So our brightest and smartest people in the world, they can't work in the giving.

We call it nonprofit. My brother calls it for a purpose because why should you call it something that it isn't? Don't say the negative of something that's good say the positive it's for purpose it's not against war it's for peace 100 and i think when i say that we're selfish it's because we should tell our kids i'm gonna tell my kid this that you should do things that make you feel good and drugs aren't gonna make you feel good that short-lived everything else party and drink and all that stuff you will never feel as good as when you're giving back. And it's okay to be selfish about that. It's okay to want to celebrate that, to say, you know what, there are the

pictures of the schools I built when you walk into my house. You should feel good about that. You should be able to share that. And when people say you should only give and no one know, look, I think you should do that 50% of the time, But the other 50%, you should be giving in a way people know. So it inspires others to give, to give. And I think, you know, I get off on giving. Yeah. So, you know, why not do that? It makes me feel good. If you have a problem with me feeling good about giving, go fuck yourself. Right. Right. And what am I, I mean, what about people that say they don't have any money to give their, you know, maybe you can give your time, be nice to a stranger, a door yeah like there's so many different ways to help somebody you know call a friend that you think you know unfortunately

i've lost two really close people to me to suicide and i probably should have picked up that phone a week earlier and you can't blame yourself anything like that but you call somebody that you care about who might be going through a tough time just speak to them people need outlets and there's so many different ways you know and things that you'll do that you don't like years later people have come up to me and said hey you did this i don't even remember doing it and the truth is because it was just this little thing and you know i have those people in my life where i i say to them steven spielberg i was 14 years old i made this little documentary. Somehow someone gave it to him. It was a piece of crap, 10 minute documentary, but he liked the subject

and he wrote a letter to me that changed my life. It was from Steven Spielberg. I was 14. It made me believe that I could do anything. And years later I met Steven Spielberg and I told him, this is like a little nothing letter he wrote one day. But he didn't forgot I forgot like who cares you know funny enough Steven Spielberg is it was crazy he actually remembered the subject no he couldn't believe that I was the kid when he remembered the subject but that little letter that was nothing for him changed my entire life Wow so you know I think people you always hear about people you hear about big businessmen who killed themselves because they lost millions of dollars, right?

But they had a billion dollars already. Yeah, but did you ever hear about anyone working in a soup kitchen? Like my buddy Sean Stevenson, you know, told me that. I heard him say that. I thought it was so brilliant because you never hear about people giving, experiencing severe depression. And that's why I was talking earlier about third world countries. They're happier than us. So happy. Because they're giving to each other they're experiencing things and you know we we

we're the only creature on the planet that takes more than we need um and that's fine there's a lot of fun you can have with that trust me you know i enjoy art i probably don't need every piece of art but you know i enjoy it um i heard you have a mickey mouse sculpture or something you got i just love mickey mouse man. I love him. Walt Disney, I saw it on your wall and I loved it. You like that? But yeah, I'll let you ask your questions now because I'm talking too much. No, that's good. I'm glad you're sharing.

Are we doing okay, guys? Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. I'm glad you're sharing. I want to talk about, I mean, service for me is very important. Can I get a t-shirt too? I've got one laid out for you right behind you. Okay, I'll shut up now.

I got my t-shirt. You're my free swag. Yeah, exactly. It's a great workout. You're to play basketball. Talk about building relationships and building teams. You're a master at giving to people, adding value and building relationships. And do you believe that you can build something so big or build an empire without a powerful team or without empowering others around you and supporting a team? No, no, I think it was actually one of the hardest things for me because for the first, um, for the, sorry, um, for the first seven, eight years, I really built it,

you know, on my own. Um, and then with Alison Kay, my first, she's my GM now, you know, she was the first person that ever came work with me and it was, you know, I didn't even have an office till three years ago. We built the whole thing like on laptops and cell phones and traveling around the world and hotels and buses and planes but what i realize now is no one will ever do it exactly the way you want because no one is you right and that doesn't mean that you do it better it means the way you want it you're the only one who can do that because you're you and what you need to be okay with in scaling is saying, you know what, they might drop the ball. Because when you drop the ball, you know it's you.

It doesn't bother you as much. When someone else does, you go crazy. It affects you. Yeah. But you got to realize the only way to scale is to delegate and to empower others and to say, you know what, they're not going to do it exactly like me, but they're going to do exactly like them. Sure.

And I have to be okay with that. And in fact, they might do it better than me in the long run. them. And I have to be okay with that. And in fact, they might do it better than me in the long run. And I've been able to bring in some amazing people in my life and surround myself with people I think who are skilled in ways that I'm not. And we've been able to scale an incredible business because they make things happen. Scott Manson, who works with me, he is responsible for Scorpion. um, he is responsible for Scorpion, you know, him and a guy named Danny Rose, but Scott found Walter. Um, he believed in it. Uh, he got me to understand it, but it was his baby. And if it wasn't for Scott, I would not be executive producing a TV show right now. You know, it was, you have another one coming up, right? Yeah. We have, we have a couple others.

But, uh, but that's also because the people in the business who are scaling, I just really smart cable people who believe in what we're doing. And I believe in them. And, you know, sometimes they'll drop the ball. Sometimes I'll drop the ball. But you have to, you know, that's the same idea as when we play basketball. It's like, you know, sometimes you're going to make a great assist and the guy's going to miss that easy shot. And you're going to be frustrated because that was another assist for you on your stat line.

But at the end of the day, it isn't about our stat line. It's about winning the game. And you cannot win a game on your own. Unless everyone wins. Unless you're Will Chamberlain. What is the best or how do you empower your team to raise to the next level, to get the most out of them? What are some things you do to let them know they are appreciated, they're seen? One, I think you do to let them know they are appreciated they're seen one i think uh you

have to you have to empower them you have to let them know that people can't call you and go around them even if you agree you have a private conversation say look this is how i want you to deal with this but you have to let people know that they're the end all be all on that decision on the thing that you've given them the task you've given them they're the ones who will decide how it's going to go down you'll advise you can take part but it's their decision at the end because then give them ownership yeah give them ownership make them bosses yeah let them know that you will believe in anything that they dream of once maybe twice but if it fails then they start to have a reputation and then you got to reassess things but if they say look blind you know i i know you're not really sure about this, but just give me a shot.

That's how I got started. Someone, Steve Rifkin gave me a shot with Asher Roth. Didn't understand it at first, everything else. He gave me a shot and then we went on a great ride together. Ellie Reed gave us a shot, you know? Yeah. I mean, we built that kind of huge on online anyway beforehand, but you know, it's, you, you have to give people that shot because you are in the position you are in because someone else gave you a shot. And how do you find the right people, the right people? How do you find people that are, you know, going to make a difference that are going to step up and. Okay. So, so I'm a firm believer that it's more important to have positive energy around you than the smartest people. Now, luckily I've been able to have, in my opinion, some of the smartest people around me.

And positive. And positive. But that's actually more important. I learned that lesson the hard way because I had some negative in my life before. And you start to question yourself because negativity projects onto you. You start to look in the mirror and say, you know, am I a really good person? Am I doing the right thing? And that isn't you.

That's their bullshit feeding onto you. Sure. You know, there's this scientific study I read recently. Funny enough our friend sophia bush put this online about the idea that the heart creates an eight eight foot um pulse of energy of energy wow and you know the brain creates i think five feet pulse but the heart actually is eight feet and you can feel it you can so when you when someone walks in a room and you say wow that person walked in a room and i felt their energy that's actually a real thing um so when someone has negative a room and you say, wow, that person walked in a room and I felt their energy, that's actually a real thing. So when someone has negative energy, it's going to bring you down.

So I think it's more important to get loyal people, people that love you, people that surround yourself. And they'll say, you asked me how you create a good team. They say don't mix business with pleasure. I absolutely think the opposite. I think that's BS. I think if someone cares about you and when it's 11 o'clock at night and they need to spend an extra hour in the office to get it done, they're going to stay because they care about you.

Sure. Because they know you give a shit about them. And I think that is how you create a really good business because in today's world, you got, like, you're going to have to make tough decisions. You're going to have to be a boss. You're not their best friend. But if you believe in someone, they'll believe in you sure interesting what about your daily rituals do you have any that are like you feel like everyone should be following do you meditate i take a piss i take a piss every morning to brush my teeth positive

habits i mean that's a positive habit you gotta pee in the morning it's very important you gotta clean out um you know it's funny i put that steve jobs um my buddy john shu gave me a poster of uh steve jobs great guy actually introduced me to my wife great director um we've done a couple projects together now we played cards against humanity at your wife's house before you were engaged yeah with john he's a just great guy he gave me a poster um for a housewarming gift my last house of steve jobs speech you know the commencement speech no no no the famous speech from the commercial oh yeah yeah yeah and that john knows by heart you know about uh about the type of people in the world yes the movers the shakers or something like that yeah it's you know the um god i'm going blank i'm having a brain fart right

now i i usually know it but it's it's this idea that idea that the dreamers in this world, the misfits, the dreamers, that they're the ones who achieve. It's this idea that nothing, kind of the way I like to put it, and I've heard it from other friends, is nothing reasonable ever becomes great. It's the unreasonable things that become great. It's stepping out of that status quo. it's the unreasonable things that become great you know it's stepping out of that status quo and you know i think that is part of my ritual i actually put it up in my above my toilet because i say i pee every morning because i do pee every morning so i actually put that poster up above my toilet and in my new house i told you have to install this above the toilet and um you know when i go to pee every morning i i just read it one more time and i remind myself okay let's go out in the world and do cool shit. Yeah, I watched your interview with Sean Stevenson. You talked about, you said, never be realistic.

You have to be unrealistic to achieve something great. And I think you stole that from Will Smith. I did. And a couple other people. A couple other people said the same thing. But that's cool. I steal a lot of things, man. Okay.

that's cool i steal a lot of things man okay no look i think i think the most great ideas have already been thought because we've been here a long time and we say them in different ways but um that's okay we have to draw from the wisdom of the past and i think too many times we try to create create create and and what you should do is innovate you know it's it's all been kind of laid out for us just innovate and create the new idea off of something great. Recreate the idea in some way. Yeah, it's, you know, how many songs, someone created the guitar and then we've created so much beautiful music off the guitar. Sure.

So, you know, it's innovate with what you're given. I like that. A couple of questions left for you because I know you got to move houses. What are you most grateful for recently, Scooter? Oh, my family. Yeah, I mean, I'm starting a family. That's an easy, easy answer. It's a wild feeling to know that three years ago, I didn't know if this would ever happen

to me because I think someone probably like yourself as well. If you say to us, hey, I have a mission for you and there's 0.0001% chance you'll achieve it. I will smile and say, where do I sign up? Because the idea that it's so hard, but there is an answer is exciting for me. And I know I'm going to figure it out. Because that's actually a task that you're telling me it's achievable. It's just hard. you or it doesn't. And that's something very frustrating for someone like me because I want to go and create my own destiny. But that isn't, you know, it's either given to you or it isn't. And I think that if you live well and you're a good person, you'll find that. And I was very blessed to have found, I actually told my wife on our first date,

I was going to marry her. Wow. That's ballsy. Yeah. She actually, she asked me, what's the scariest thing about yourself? You don't want me to know. And about 10 minutes earlier, I had this feeling about her and I said, you're gonna think I'm crazy, but I think you're it. And now we're having a child together. We're madly in love. And I will say the most grateful thing in my life is to have beautiful friends and family in my life. I, you know, I used to hate my birthdays because when they came, I felt like I hadn't achieved

everything that I wanted. And I think my 30th birthday and every birthday since, my buddy Kenny's in the room and he's been with me since like the ATL days. Of course. You know, every birthday I look around the room and I see all those friends and the people in my life and my family. And I'm just so grateful. So, yeah, friends and family. I love it. What is something small you've done that maybe no one really knows about that you're really proud of?

It could be a personal or business related something small that you've done that you haven't talked about or hasn't been you know blown up by bieber but you're like i'm really proud of this moment you know the thing i would like to say i'm proud because no one knows and i'd want to keep it that way okay um so i'll tell you one that makes me proud but it isn't that the thing because the things that usually make me really proud that no one knows, I take pride in the fact that no one knows. And I'll go to my grave with them. Maybe I'll tell my kids. Something that only a few people know.

You know, look, I actually, here's something that, you know, I don't, maybe, I don't know. It's not really what you're expecting. But I really enjoy the achievements of others at this point. what you're expecting, but I really enjoy the achievements of others at this point. When, you know, my artists achieve something for the first time, I get a real joy out of that. I get a joy out of seeing my younger managers get their first platinum plaque because I got that a long time ago. And that first time I'll never get back, but I get to live it through them. So, you. So I think the little things that I get joy out of don't seem like they should be that significant, but I get serious, serious joy out of them because they aren't mine,

but I get to relive that moment through someone else's joy. So yeah. That's cool. What are the three biggest moments in your business career that gave you the most excitement over the last 10, 12 years? Once again, a lot of those are things I can't talk about. Let me say the game changers. Like I'm saying, some of those game changers are deals that you pull off

where it's out of confidentiality to your clients. You can never tell anybody. But it's that chess game of getting it done that's so exciting of course look i think a game changer for me that i can talk about was um getting asher's record deal and publishing deal that was a game changer for my business to help finance everything else and getting to pull that off and it was the first deal for my own company that was huge yeah getting uh when justin when they're chanting his name his first time he played the garden during the z100 show wow and he hadn't been on stage and every between every actor chained justin justin and like everybody just wanted him on stage so there are lots of other acts beforehand oh yeah and

they were just john mayer ended his set early because he goes i know what you guys know way it was pretty wild and it was funny he was funny about it but um but i remember that because my mom who i never graduated college and it broke her heart, leaned over to me and said, tonight's my graduation. Oh, my gosh. That just gave me chills. And it meant a lot to me because it finally, my mom understood that I was achieving something and I was going to be okay. And Justin, you know, that experience with Justin gave me that. And I told Justin about it.

I was like, I'm eternally grateful for you because you gave me that opportunity to have that moment with my mother. And then another big game changer in business. I mean, there have been a lot of them. It seems like every day you've got a big hit now, a big game changer. I think a big game changer in business for me, because there's been a lot of moments. There's been a lot of moments, but I can't really talk about a lot. Maybe something the last couple of years.

You know, it was Steve Rifkin. Steve Rifkin, you know know i said jermaine gave me an opportunity no one would give me a record deal la gave me the record deal also because i was being i was very successful with asher at that point so he wanted to be in business with me but when i had asher roth i was known as a young marketing guy and people said what do you know about a and r signing your own acts and i was really one building acts associated with people didn't know that yeah and steve rifkin literally took a shot on me that no one else would i mean i had so many friends in the industry i'd made so many

people money and no one would give me a record deal and steve rifkin did and i uh why do you think he what did he see in you that made him want to give you a chance i talked earlier about sometimes you got to give people a shot because you believe in them someone else gave you a shot i think steve saw that in me and he gave me that opportunity. And I want to say this because I want the whole world to know this. This is the kind of man Steve Rifkin is and why I will always, always say he's the shit and he is the man. Last year, I was planning right after New Year's to propose to my wife and I was overseas and I got word that Steve Rifkin had had a heart attack. And now he's gotten much healthier and he's in a really good place.

And when I found out he had already had the heart attack 10 days earlier, but I was overseas, I didn't know. So I called from my beautiful little villa overseas. I'm hanging out with my wife, loving my wife now, but my soon-to-be fiance at that point, loving my life. And I call this guy in the hospital to make sure he's okay. And he gets on the phone and he goes, wow, I'm so glad you called. I've written an email to you seven times and erased it seven times. I said, what are you talking about? He goes, you know, at this point in my career after Wu Tang, after Big Pun, after all the things I've done, I feel like giving you a shot and being associated with you is one of the biggest things I've ever done in my career.

And I said, Steve, that's very nice. You don't need to say that. He goes, no, you need to hear what I'm saying. He goes, Scooter, I have three beautiful children and I had a stroke, you know, I had a heart attack and I almost died. And I've been, I was in ICU and everything else. And he goes, all I kept thinking about when I thought about different things, I kept going back to you and saying,

I don't want to ever see him in this hospital bed. Wow. And I never want to see him put himself into a place where he's not taking care of himself and this happens to him. So Scooter, all of it isn't important if you don't take care of yourself and if you're not there for your kids. Because if I would have lost my life, my kids would have grown up without their father. And here I was, I get emotional thinking about it.

I'm enjoying with my beautiful, smart woman a vacation. This guy's in a hospital bed. He's more worried about me. Wow. And that is a testament to the type of person he is and i was shook that entire night i couldn't sleep because i kept thinking about that you know i want to be that kind of man that thinks about others the way he thought about me and i will not only did he give me a chance he's continued to believe in me and i will uh i will always uh, I will always, always be grateful. And I will always be a friend of Steve Rifkin because he's just a great man, a great father

and a great friend. I love that. A couple of final things. First, I want to acknowledge you, Scooter. You are, uh, you're, you're playing such a big game in the world and your heart is so big. I don't think people know this much about you, but your heart is so big. You give and give and give. And I want to acknowledge you for the vision you have. You have incredible vision and you have a gift of seeing something before it's actually created and then making it happen and doing whatever it takes. And I think if more people followed you and learned how you do this, they would all learn a lot about how to be successful in their own lives. So I just want to acknowledge you for showing up so big in the world every single day, for showing up for your family, for your brother, for your siblings, your parents,

and all your friends. Like I watch it from afar. I hear about it every now and then. You know, you just do so much for the world. And I acknowledge you for that. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Thanks, man.

What do you want your legacy to be when it's all said and done? Wow, that's a tough question. When it's all said and done, like I said, I hope they look back and say I was a good dad and grandpa, all that different stuff, good husband. I hope people feel like what you just said, that would be a good legacy for me. Saying like, you know, the idea of why not? You know, the worst thing in life that's going to happen to you when you try something is it doesn't work. Yeah. So go after your dreams dreams especially when you're young and i feel like until you have children you can live for yourself and you can be as aggressive about your dreams as you want yeah be selfish about your dreams yeah and um when you have a child you have to understand

now you're living for them and you have to be more conservative but while you're young all these young people who listen to you because i know they do my advice to them is very simple. Go after it while it's just about you. Because the worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to fail. And guess what? You get to wake up tomorrow and start again. And that's a lot better than most people are. So I think I want my legacy to be something about positivity and just, you know, one of my mentors is right, most likely 100 years from now, no one's going to remember my name, but I hope that I did enough in this world that they'll feel my impact. That's powerful. That gave me chills. Um, final question is what I ask all my guests at the end. Yeah. What's your definition of greatness? You know, um, you're like, I'll take

it. Cut off the interview. Um, my definition of greatness is um so i posted something on my instagram the other day uh-huh did you read about the dogs i'm sure okay so it's this uh check it out i'm trying to remember it but it was something about you know that two dogs walk into this house and um one comes out happy wagging its tail and the other one comes out growling and nasty and this woman is really confused about they both walked into the same house like what the hell just happened so she walks in and she sees the house is filled with mirrors and she realized that one dog saw a reflection of himself filled with happiness and he came out happier because he saw a thousand happy

dogs looking at him and the other dog walked in and was miserable and saw a thousand happy dogs looking at him. And the other dog walked in and was miserable and saw a thousand angry dogs and it lifted his, you know, his anger and he walked off pissed off. And I think my definition of greatness is the idea of, of giving with positivity. And, you know, it's, it's not enough to just go out there and give, you got to give in a way to the world that, you know, go out there and give, you got to give in a way to the world that, you know, makes it better than where you left it. And so the, my idea of being great is, you know, I work with somebody named Brad Haugen, who, you know, Brad's a great guy, you know, and, and he's a great father, great friend and everyone who meets him, he just, he leaves them better off than when, where they were before he got there. And I think Brad's a great man in that respect.

So my definition of being great is pushing your limits as far as they can possibly go and never stopping wanting to add positivity and then leaving a place better off than where you found it. That's good, Irvan. Thanks for coming on, my man. I appreciate you. Thank you, buddy. It was fun.

I'm going to go back and help my wife unpack. My name is Scooter Braun, and a couple years back, I had the pleasure of becoming friends with a guy named Lewis Howes. We went and played some basketball, and I found out about his podcast, School of Greatness, and I became a listener. It's one of the best podcasts out there

and it's truly inspirational hearing him talk to all these individuals. And I would say to anyone going out in the world trying to do something great, make the time, listen to School of Greatness. It's worth it.

Lewis Howes, great guy, good friend. Thank you guys so much again for checking out this episode with Scooter Braun. Make sure to check out all the show notes back at lewishouse.com slash 127. Also to see the full video interview, that'll be up at the show notes at lewishouse.com slash 127 as well. We'll have other links to connect with Scooter on social media, his website, all the different projects he's up to. We'll also have the link to the episode with Adam Braun, his brother, where I originally got introduced to

Scooter. So you can learn more about that brotherly dynamic. Really appreciate Scooter for coming on and sharing his wisdom. Very busy guy. So big shout out and thanks to Scooter for coming on and opening up and letting us all know about how he's been so successful and what he's doing now. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs will be able to connect and it'll resonate with many of you who listen to this on a daily basis. So make sure to give him a shout out at Scooter Braun over on Twitter and Instagram or everywhere else online. Let him know what you thought about this show. Also, make sure to email a friend or two today about this episode. Again, lewishouse.com slash 127. Or if you go over on iTunes, you can

go there and share the episode directly from iTunes to a friend. You can email, you can tweet, you can Facebook share it. So go ahead and get the word out about this because Scooter is an extremely inspiring individual. And I want to make sure to get his message out there. Thank you again, all of you so much for what you're up to. I keep getting messages constantly from people who are listening to the show. We've got three episodes a week now, every Monday, every Wednesday, and now we've got five minute Fridays to get you kicked off for the weekend. Got some big things planned ahead. So make sure to subscribe.

Please leave a review and continue to share these episodes with your friends. You guys are the ones that make this so great. So thank you guys again so much for coming on. Big shout out and thanks to Scooter again for sharing his wisdom and opening up. And you guys know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you. Outro Music