Your Happy Hour - Episode 26: At the intersection of pop culture, consumer and technology

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Happy Friday everyone! Tune in to episode 26 and let’s chat about: The intersection of pop culture, consumer and technology.In this episode we are joined by Bruce Hamilton - Founder & General Partner of Everybody Ventures and now Everybody Ideas, who chatted to us about his journey into entrepreneurship and how he gained his experience in business development, marketing and music. We’re excited to see what is in store as he continues to help brands develop and scale through his creative fund venture in the pop culture-tech scene. We unpack topics like: creating the career that invests in your legacy, social currency and surprise business growth, healthy competition and tapping into the camaraderie of the LA tech scene, the magic of that elevator pitch, removing the safety nets and upskilling through those around you, exploring the arena of your passions and love the games of life you choose to play.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:09 Welcome Bruce!02:10 The Journey: Entering the mix of creative and business08:45 Creating the Career: Invest in the Legacy12:12 Running two companies: Remove the safety nets 14:05 How did you know… this is it?18:00 Social Currency & Surprises: Take those 20 minute showers 20:10 The healthy-competition tech camaraderie22:40 Tap into the Land of LA28:46 The magic of that elevator pitch30:30 Surround yourself: Upskilling in the industry34:22 Love the game to spar in the arena36:30 Keep exploring: Life is more than one game37:45 Gems of the Week! 44:55 Final thoughts & Connect with Bruce47:20 Next week and farewell

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. you're tuned into your happy hour friday feels we're celebrating all you working professionals out there doing your crazy craft embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically we're your host sarge and nicole and we're living and working around the world and we're holding space for you as we keep it raw and real and share fresh content with you every week. So follow us at LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we spoke to executive coach, certified career advisor and master certified life coach, Ara Maddison, who is supporting people to lead with their strengths

and cultivate a proactive approach to their career. And this week, we are closing out this theme of The Tipping Point with founder and general partner of Everybody Ventures. We are super excited to chat

to Bruce Hamilton. We love having you on here. You're a passionate entrepreneur with experience in business development, marketing, and you have an interesting creative background and you're helping develop brands and help them scale. So today we're really venturing into what has tipped you into the world of creating a fund and into the pop culture scene. So a very big welcome to the Happy Hour podcast this week. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be on this podcast.

So one of the previous guests we had, Simon Harry, he actually tagged me on one of your posts on LinkedIn. And thank goodness he did that. So I was able to see some of the cool stuff that you're doing in the world. When I had a look at your website, what really caught my eye was think cheaper faster richer healthier more fun more connected more productive more sustainable so do you want to maybe just tell us a little bit about your journey what does this mean and in the context of the theme of the tipping point um yeah just tell us a little bit more yeah i mean i think when it comes to all of that i think people forget at the core,

technology is, the whole point of technology is to make your life easier and to make all facets of your life easier. And so, you know, when you're downloading an app, since you're downloading a tool to make some sort of process in your life easier. And so that's why we were kind of saying, know we're looking for things that you know help you make life richer or cheaper or faster or more efficient just investing in the tools that just make life easier but i thought that was a very interesting journey into venture very untraditional path and to venture as uh yeah i think you guys you may have seen oh should i dive into i'm sorry should i dive into it now go for it

um yeah so yeah so i've had a very interesting path into venture so i started my career in the music industry actually so i was doing social media at live nation then left there had a brief run there then went over to Sony Music where I was an A&R at the record so worked with artists like Travis Scott, Fifth Harmony, Mary J. Blige then ran a talent management company for a few years called Samurai Entertainment we're managing artists songwriters and producers we ended up having two clients that were nominated for grammys had clients that wrote hit records you got you know a few platinum records there and then i did a big

180 shift into tech around 2016 i hit a point where i just felt like there was two things that happened to me one i felt like i had hit a plateau of like all the things that i wanted to do in music and you know for me something that's very important to me is legacy and you know like a big fear of mine it used to be like dying or maybe it's getting old but it wasn't that i think it was a fear of just kind of being forgotten about. And so what I've learned along the years is you've never really died until the last person on earth remembers you. And so I wanted to do something that kind of creates more of a longevity that goes way past me physically being on this earth. And I felt like I hit a point in music where I had done everything I wanted to do, but music was no longer contributing to that legacy. And then another thing, too, is this for me, I just felt like music just wasn't being very innovative at the time.

And I just grew extremely frustrated with just the walls that the music industry was putting up to prevent innovation. And so I wanted to just go be an innovator myself. I'd spent, you know, the first half of my career helping other creatives get their visions out. I've always considered myself a creative. So I wanted to kind of flip that role and then be creative and get my own vision out, which led me to launching two startups that were both non-music related. First one was an Instagram growth hacking platform. We created this automation tool when you could growth hack on Instagram that helped brands, brands, influencers just grow their audience using our tool.

So we worked with brands like Spotify, Hilton Hotels, Reebok, several other very well-known brands. And then also just people who are just getting started. That did very well, ran that for a few years. And then actually a year after I launched that company, because that company was literally profitable out the gate, launched a no-code app development company that allowed people to build apps without code.

So I was in a scenario where I was literally running two companies simultaneously. The app development company was featured in Forbes, Complex, Black Enterprise. And so I ended up selling that company in 2022. And then we shut down the Instagram growth hacking company at the end of 2021. Shut that down because we essentially essentially instagram figured out how to stop

growth hacking on their platform and so we knew from the moment we launched that we were on borrowed time we never we knew this wasn't going to be something that we could exit we just knew we're just going to make a lot of money in a short time and then we'll just eventually kind of like shut it down that's then that's literally what ended up happening but met a lot of amazing people along the way and it actually helped build my network in the tech space and so when i sold my company in 2022 then i kind of started doing some consulting here and there for some companies and then I was trying to figure out what my next thing was going to be. And I was like, well, and then there was some startups reaching out to me that wanted me to work with them on our branding marketing capacity that I wanted to figure out a way where I could work with a bunch of different companies and these different passions that I had without being bound to one.

And then a light bulb kind of hit one day and it's like, oh, well, venture capital will allow me to invest in these companies I really like and like really be as hands on as I want with them. And so launched my first fund called MechVentures in 2021, raised the fund one, deployed out, fully deployed out that capital. We were investing at the intersection of pop culture and technology and we you know once they come up with a very unique strategy we realized no one was really looking at investments from that lens

and i've always said if you're going to invest in consumer you need to understand pop culture very well because you need to be able to predict consumer trends consumer behavior and pop culture really tells you how that's all going to work so we really want to invest in a unique lens fully deployed fun one um and then i recently branched off to launch a new fun solo called um Ventures, borrowing that same thesis, the intersection of pop culture, consumer, and technology, and really just continuing that mission

on investing in consumer-focused companies that are really building a more connected world. I love that. That feels right up our Friday fields, Ellie. Yeah, that's amazing. What a journey you've had. I think that's really interesting you know what you you said is because some people could spend their whole life in the music industry and never kind of venture out into being an entrepreneur and then an investor and so it's really interesting that you said you kind of hit a plateau. And I feel like sometimes that's kind of where people

make those changes that are very different. And I'm sure your life would have been very different, right? If you kind of, let's say a few years ago, just decided, all right, let me just keep moving up in this industry. Let's see how high we can go or, or even stayed in it, right? Opened up your own thing. And that was so it's very interesting that you, you mentioned kind of like following your passion and, and knowing that you wanted to do different things and figuring out around that, how to create your career, would you say that's kind of like a fair assessment, rather than kind of going into different paths, you decided to create something

and fall into an industry that allowed you to explore all your passions rather than being limited by you know kind of just what was around you yeah 100 one of my one of my worst periods when i was working in music was to be 40 plus managing artists i just thought that was just like for me that would have just been a personal hell and i was like i would do not want to be on this path i've seen too many people go down it i do not want to be that person where you what because what ends up happening music honestly is you most executives age out and then what ends up happening is you do a whole musical chair run the music industry we'll probably work at every label possible at a different position and then you

after you've done your run of all of these different labels you definitely you age out because a whole new generation of executives have come in that are more tapped into what's currently trending in music and you age out and then you typically didn't just start managing artists and my worst fear was just chasing around 20 something year olds i did not want to do that i did my i did my time managing i would never do it again you couldn't pay me to manage artists but that that toppled that combined with just being a creative at the core um i just knew music wasn't just everything for me professionally and also just wanted to go back to being a fan of music i hit a point where i couldn't really enjoy music as much as i wanted to because just of the politics that came with music where i found

myself not even i couldn't even bring myself to enjoy a song because maybe i knew the politics that came with music where I found myself not even I couldn't even bring myself to enjoy a song because maybe I knew the politics of what came behind a song or somebody worked on a record that I you know maybe was kind of at odds with and I was just like this is just not this is not a way to live so I just wanted to just go and just be creative and really just explore that intersection of creative and business. Because I've always found myself in a unique lane of being a creative business person. So I really wanted to explore that. That's awesome. That really resonates with me.

I guess I try and box myself, but I can't. It's kind of creative and multiventure right now is the way to explain it. But I appreciate that because I think, you know, a lot of people will think that you have to be one or the other. And I think there's so much beautiful intersection in the two. So it's great that you followed that. And yeah, I think it's also interesting that you've had two businesses at the same time because I could see both Sasha and I were looking at each other

and that's the situation we find ourselves in with Friday Fields jointly and then our own businesses on the side so I'm quite curious how was that experience for you was it did you feel that was challenging or did they kind of help each other or was there a tipping point in there between them I mean when I first I remember when I first left Epic and I remember my boss at the time was like are you sure you want to do this because my boss was trying to talk me out of it he's like are you sure you want to leave I was like yeah I'm pretty positive i want to leave and he was like you know once you leave this door it's hard to get back in and i was like yeah i know and i'm okay with that and you know after that because then i left to be a full-time entrepreneur running my talent management company i'm not gonna lie that first three months was rough i was like did i just make the worst decision of my entire life?

But it all, you know, it all panned out. And, you know, I think sometimes removing that safety net allows you to really explore things that you would not have explored because you didn't have that safety net. And so you're just like, well, I got to figure it out. So let's just get creative and really figure it out and I think if it had not have been removing that safety net of being at a label that had a built-in salary and all that I would not be in this position today because I would not have explored like different avenues of creating revenue or different just different avenues of just exploring business when you left did you have any idea of what you wanted to go into? Or did you try a few things

and these are the two that kind of rose to the cream of the crop? Or I'm just really curious about that kind of point in your life because we have a lot of listeners that, you know, very much the podcast touches on that point where you're kind of like you have a safety net, but you also have other passions, and you're trying to figure out like, how to make that jump. And so I like to

ask, you know, people who come on the podcast, because those are the kind of the tipping points that shape your career, and you're also your personal journey. So would you say like how did you know that you wanted to create an instagram growth company was it out of a need that you found this is a problem that a lot of people have or were you like i need to do something what can my skill set match up to can you take us through what that moment was like for you that was actually a very interesting journey i never sought out to make an instagram growth hacking platform that was the least of my worries like i wasn't even thinking about social media really at the time i was running my talent management company and then the idea came about to launch a music tech platform that was kind of like a marketplace for music producers,

for artists to buy music production. And so at the time, like really the only things out there was, um, it was called sound. Click was like the only one. And it was like, you could,

it just looked like someone initially built it in 2004 and then never touched it again to update. And so I had a lot of friends and peers it was like man we wish it was just easier to like find music production and then just buy it on the spot and because you know the time it was sound click or if you found like you have to really search you have to really search the internet to find like some music you like but then you have to like contact producer and you gotta like go back and forth negotiate pricing and something people are like hey it'd be much easier if i could just find a song i like buy the rights to it use it and so i started

to actually after a lot of conversations i was oh, this is something that I should probably build. There's a need in the market for it. So I started building it, actually. And then as a first-time tech founder, I was like, ooh. And I was looking at all the other things of SoundCloud and Spotify. And so then I was building this platform. And then what ended up happening was I was then trying to take all the best features of all these other platforms and trying to include that into my platform. And then eight months later, I realized I had an MVP, but it was the most convoluted thing

anyone could have ever built. Like it reminded me of MySpace 2.0 when Justin Timberlake was the creative director. And he went on to MySpace 2.0 and you didn't know what it was. You just knew Justin Timberlake was the creative director and you went on to MySpace 2.0 and you didn't know what it was. You just knew Justin Timberlake was attached and it was music focused. And then you went on to it and you're like,

all right, I'm here. What am I supposed to do with it? And that's how my platform fell. There was so much going on. Like I looked at it from a consumer perspective and I was like, if I was a consumer, I would not know what to do. I would just get here and I'd be frozen.

Cause I, cause there's just too many things in here. And so there was a week where I was like, all right, I need to like sit down, figure out what this is. Maybe, maybe even like rebuild this thing from scratch.

And so what ended up happening was I think I was out and about in LA and I was noticing this trend, like the past, the few times it was going out and I was just seeing people and I was like, Oh, do you know someone? So, Oh,

you don't know them. They have like 500,000 followers on Instagram, but that kept happening to me. And I was like, wait, social currency is a big thing now. And so I was just kind of looking around and I was like, why don't we just build a tool to help people build social currency? And so that was how I just immediately switched plans. I was like, forget this music tech platform.

Helping people like grow back on Instagram, that's going to be the moneymaker. And so Switchgears, I think, spent a month with my team building that out. And then we launched it. And funny enough, that was a very interesting week that we launched. So launched it, didn't really have, I think it was like maybe a very interesting week that we launched so launched it didn't really have

i mean i think it was like maybe three days into the launch maybe had like 20 users and then i hit a point like on day three i was like maybe i might have made a terrible mistake building this platform what am i going to do next so what am i going to do here i remember i took a shower and i came out the shower and i had a ton of notifications on my phone so i look at twitter and our biggest competitor instagrams got shut down by instagram and the verge somehow found my company and then mentioned in the article talking about instagrams being shut down and mentioned that my company was a replacement for Instagress. So in the time I took a shower and came out, I had like 5,000 new users in a span of 20 minutes. And I was like, whoa, this is insane.

And then things just escalated so fast. But it was that one Verge article changed everything for really not even just like my company, but my entire career changed in like 20 minutes. That is amazing. I love that story. I'm going to go take showers more often. Build it and then go take a shower Or maybe the lesson is To reach out to my PR

Yeah because even later that day I had gotten Like people were randomly reaching out to me Because I remember I had randomly gotten A DM from Ever Taylor At the time I think he was running a growth Hacking platform at the time. I think he was running a growth hacking platform at the time called Growth Pop or Pop Social.

I think he was running at the time. And I thought, I was like, uh-oh, Everett's going to be so mad. He's going to be like, what are you doing? You're building a competitor. And funny enough, he was like, quite the, he was embracing. He was like, bro, I've heard about your company. That's really dope congrats we should jump on a call and connect and i was like very shocked because i came from music

where everything is like hyper competitive and it was like the first time in the tech space i had seen kind of just a camaraderie amongst people in tech where it wasn't really competitive everyone's just like hey let me show you a couple of things that i've picked up and that was it was just really it was really good i don't think i've ever told him that that was really cool but he now runs he's the ceo of kickstarter which is crazy watching his whole journey from running growth instagram growth hacking to being the ceo of a major tech company But no, it was really the first time I've seen that camaraderie that I knew at that point, I was like, okay, I'm where I need to be in my career right now. That is amazing.

You know, that's such an awesome experience of, one, following the nudges, going through the open windows and doors when you can see the summer closing and not trying to like keep that one open and then you know finding your tribe at the same time I think that's really a testament to all those things that we often talk about on here which is you know your community finds you in the right places when you're following your dreams. And I think that's really awesome that you, I've heard of people that have built competitor companies and have not had that experience. Like you say, you know, it's kind of like a, there's a revengeful energy.

But I think because you built your company out of a place of good intention and motivation, that energy carries it into the world. You know, I think that's what's so important when you put like this baby of a company out in the world too, it has its own little energy bubble. And yeah, that's really beautiful that you had that experience. So thanks for sharing that. Would you say that, you know, you're based in LA and now you're in VC, would you say that the tech community on that side of the world is more on the collaborative side, the let's share what we're working on? What do you, what do you see it as? And really just asking, because, you know, we have listeners from all over the world. I think they're in like 40 something countries now. And sometimes we have people on here that you just you're very much responsive to your environment.

Right. And it has a lot to do with where you find yourself, where you place yourself and opportunities that you open for yourself. and opportunities that you open for yourself. And like Nicole mentioned, sometimes it's not always, you know, considered. And it could be industry specific. It could be geographic specific. It could be kind of personality wise that some people just kind of mesh. But I'm just very curious, genuinely,

you know, is the tech space in LA kind of collaborative and conducive to a VC environment because I noticed that when I went to San Francisco which I thought was very different from New York was that the tech the VC community was very open to saying oh this is what you're doing you should talk to my friend you should chat with this person and I'm like but they're doing almost the same thing we're doing I was very, but I did it and it wasn't that bad. Like I was like, oh, cool. So I'm curious, is that something that you find that also helps your business? Or is it more like you kind of have to drive in your own lane and people kind of help you

when they see you if they choose to? No, I would definitely say it's very collaborative, especially in the VC space. I think the big thing about the venture capital space is a lot of investors are connected with each other and they're all open to connecting with each other, especially if you're investing in the same space. It's kind of like, let's connect with this person, let's share a deal flow.

One company may, one firm may see a deal that they really like and they kind of want to get advice on if it's something that they should invest in maybe if they don't have expertise in it or maybe they have invested in the company and they want to help their founder close around so they'll reach out to other vcs to get interest to help their portfolio companies close around uh but no i found that you know in la especially because it's a new growing ecosystem especially for consumer i would say la also i would say la is mostly consumer investing there are some like b2b sass but like very few most of it is consumer and there's also a lot of space tech in la a lot of people would not think that but

there's a lot of space and frontier tech i don't like but no i think the opening of deal flow is great everyone's always looking to connect i think the beauty of la is because you're in a city where there's very a lot of prominent people. And so everyone moves here to potentially bump into someone that can change their life. And so the beauty of being in LA, it's like you're literally a copy away from your entire life changing. And so I think everyone kind of keeps that vibe of like, let's be open, let's connect,

let's share some ideas. But no, I've found that it's been really great. And I've had people in the space like randomly reach out to me and I'm like, I didn't even know I was on your radar, but you somehow have found me. So it's been, yeah, it's been really amazing. That's awesome. This is so funny that we're having this conversation because I just watched that

movie once upon a time in Hollywood yesterday or the day before and I'd never watched it before but it's it's really just that you know kind of I don't know if you guys have watched the movie you know it's it's a it's quite a random movie but it really comes down to where you living can have such an impact on your life. And Margot Robbie's in there and DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. It's a Tarantino film and it's really random. But yeah, it just reminded me of that now. And I felt that when I was in LA a little bit.

It was really interesting how, you know, I was walking in the street when the home exchange I was staying and people chat to you you know there's that open neighborly feel as well you know that people are interested in you and yeah it's coming from South Africa and coming from Johannesburg where I was originally raised which is very different from Cape Town where I was staying for a long time Johannesburg has that feel because people understand the value of networking. People understand that when you invite someone to a braai, a barbecue, that's also about social networking and it's also about how can you help each other. And yeah, I think that's really awesome to tap into those little pockets.

And so it's great that you're living in hollywood bruce yeah and you know people complain all the time and they'll say oh la is super hollywood or super steamy and i always respond with this if you're looking for the scene or the super hollywood mix you'll find it but if you're not looking for it just like la has this like combination of so many different cultures like you'll find what you're looking for if you if you go look for if you're looking for the scene you'll 100 find the scene but if you're just looking for people to really connect with like you'll find those people too so you'll find what you're looking for just depends on what you're looking for you're like an la ambassador and do they pay you to recruit people i mean they should i do i do love

la very much but i'm also very quick if you give me a hint that you want to leave i will strongly encourage that you leave because we could always do it one last person in this thing. Oh, man. I'm curious. You know, you've obviously had a really interesting journey and we're talking about meeting people and connecting with people. And, you know, what do you feel has been the best professional advice that you've received or even personal along your journey that's kind of helped you along in building the things

that you're building and following your heart one of the best advice i've received that really changed everything for me i met troy carter in an elevator he used to manage lady gaga um very well known in the music space almost considered like a music industry veteran um i remember i was in the elevator with him i was at sony and i did a quick i remember in college they used to teach you about elevator pitches they were like have your pitch be ready to get it off in like 10 seconds and i was like what am i gonna need to do this but literally we in an elevator, and I wanted to give him my spiel real quick of this music tech company I was building,

and literally in the elevator, I just did my elevator pitch in an elevator, and I remember his immediate response was, if I were you, I would get out of music and go into tech. And so I was like, all right. And that literally stuck with me. I was like, all right, maybe. And like, obviously it still took,

I think it took like another two or three years before I finally got out of music. But like, it really stuck with me. And I was like, I think he might be on this with me actually. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. I mean, I think that's awesome awesome that's probably a tipping point for you you know in your in your journey and I'm very curious you know when you decided to go into VC

I'm assuming you didn't have any experience investing in companies aside from building your own but in terms of looking at it from an investment point of view, because we know the stats are really low for a unicorn, right? When they hit it, they hit it big, but there's so many that don't. And so can you walk us through like the mindset that you had? Is it like, listen, I can open and close doors as I see fit. I've already navigated through career changes, so I can talk to enough people and kind of figure it out? Or was it you had a friend that mentioned it to you? Because I think it's that kind of thinking that sometimes it's hard for people to understand like, okay, you know, we can look at your LinkedIn and see what you've actually done. But it's hard to know, like, what prompted you to go in this area? Or

what made it stick? So just really curious on that side like how did you know you were going to one be good at this or two that this is where you kind of should be I don't know if there was something I knew I would be good at it I think it was really just the people that I had surrounded myself with. Like one of my really good friends, um, Elliot Posen was the founder of Pluto TV. And I remember I was with him the day that Pluto got acquired by Viacom and they acquired it for 350 million.

And I remember all of these, we're having a drink together in his office. I remember all of the VCs that passed on him were calling his phone saying hey congratulations we want in on your next one and i was like oh wow like this is kind of how it works but just kind of being around him and him introducing me to a lot of people in the space really kind of opened my eyes up to one tech in general because i never saw myself being in a tech space and i ran in i met these two guys through him and they they were they were young black entrepreneurs they were they had built what i considered at the time like the first social media influencer agency um and i was like there's two guys that look just like me that are doing this.

It kind of let me know that it's something that I could do too. It's not a space that I should be scared of. I should embrace it. But when I was thinking of going into venture, I briefly thought about maybe going to a firm and like learning, you know, learning on someone else's dime, but then I didn't want to conform to a firm. I came from the music industry where it's all about individuality.

And that's something that's very important to me. I have, I knew going to a firm, I would lose that. And that was not something I wanted to lose. And I still wanted to keep my edge of it. And so I just decided to just do a big gamble and just launch my own fund and kind of launch it with my own vision instead of trying to merge what I know with like someone else's company culture. I just already knew it was going to be a clash.

So I decided it would be better if I just go at it on my own and take the the harder path and then i just i didn't really know what i was doing i was just figuring it out as i went i was just pretending like i knew all of these terms and this was research it after meeting like i really didn't know a lot of this. And I'm still learning stuff in real time. But, you know, I mean, the key is, you know, if you stay quiet, people won't know what you don't know. But most times when you do a lot of talking, people figure out fairly quickly what you don't know.

That is very, very true. That is very true. And I love that. I love that you're just going for it and, you know, just following your gut. And I can truly appreciate someone who's also very individual. And the reason I started SwatCut Studios was not to conform in any way in my own journey, but also be able to provide that for other artists. So, and you will figure it out, you know, as you go, because you love what you're doing.

And I think that's incredible that you're going for it. And I'm sure there are days where it's not easy. And yeah, maybe you can kind of just tell us a little bit how you navigate those. Like, what are kind of like the things you hold on to that make the journey a little easier as an entrepreneur? I mean, there's definitely days that are tough where you're like, I don't know, why am I doing this? But then there are days where everything just kind of clicks and you get emails or you go

to an event and you're like, okay, this is worth it. I'm on the right path. So you just kind of have to hold on to those reminders. Even like on the tough days you're like this is just it's just one day out of many that's this is what it comes into it's part of being in the arena it's like not every game is going to be your best game you're going to have really bad games and you're going to come in you have some good games you're going to be reminded this is why i'm doing it and you also gotta love what you're

doing too because if you don't like the game it's going to be really tough and i've ever seen this video i think i've seen this gary v video where he was saying like you know how many athletes i know that actually hate the sport that they're playing and he's like and you see why a lot of these guys are out in three or four years it's because they actually hate the game that they were playing. And so the guys that are in it for, you know, 10, 15 years, they love it. And so this is something that they can do long term. And so that's the thing. You have to love what it is that you're doing because when those days come

and it just sucks. And it's not even just days. Sometimes you just go through some stints where it just sucks for for a bit like the love of the game will keep you going yeah that's so true and i think also recently i realized it's okay to change what you love and play different games you know i think people stay in a sport like that because maybe that was their dream and what they loved at 18 or you know maybe it was something their parents loved and they got pushed into that but what you thought you'd be when you ate what you thought you'd be when you're 18 what you love in the world when you're 28 or whatever age you know age is but a number

it's okay to keep pivoting i think and we often want to limit ourselves but there are lots of games to play out in the world so yeah i mean for me i thought i was gonna be in music forever i'd like i always dreamed of being in music and i would spend a few years in it i was like i don't want to do this anymore i want to do something else that's part of the human experience is like you get to grow and change and discover new things that you like and then you can explore that so you know it's not i wouldn't say it's some people would say oh maybe you quit and so you didn't quit you just you explored it you realize you don't want to do it anymore and then you move on and that's that's the human experience at the core it It's true. I think that's a beautiful gem right there.

Yeah, I would say so. We do this thing on every episode where we do gems of the week, kind of what's filling your cup, what's enabling and empowering you to be a successful working professional in the world this week. So I'd love to hear, you know, Bruce, what that is for you. And maybe, Nicole, you can kick us off this week to give him an example of, you know, what a gem is,

what we consider a gem on your happy hour. Yeah, yeah. Well, whatever it is for you. For me, it's been, gosh, it's been a hell of a two weeks, to be honest. And I released my music video of my one song last week and the other song this week. I think it was this week.

I feel like the weeks are kind of leaning into each other. And it was just a beautiful experience putting this out in the world. And it's been songs that I've been holding onto for a while, songs that I've written many years ago that are at least seeing the light of day. So just getting a lot of love from everybody and it's been wonderful for me to have that experience and really step into being a singer-songwriter in that way in the world. And yeah, I just feel like, you know, like you were saying, Bruce, a lot of things kind of just start clicking into place when you do that, when you follow your dreams.

And so it's been, yeah, it's been a week of a lot of surrender and not always knowing what's next, but being okay with that and knowing that, you know, the universe has got you. So, yeah, that was really my dream of the week has really been the releases and some really cool connections coming from that for Swatcut and yeah just super excited also for the next week with the interns starting Friday feels so that's been awesome to engage and have signed contracts with them and just grow the team a little so yeah how about you Saj? Yeah I think well that's awesome first off your music is amazing super uplifting and if anyone

hasn't listened to it you definitely should we'll share it on Friday Feels Instagram so you can you can hear Nicole's wonderful work that she's putting out in the world. And I think for me this week, it's been really cool. I think we've been working kind of like stealth mode for so long, Nicole and I, my other co-founder Ruki and I for our growth consultancy, we're just constantly talking to each other about what we think, what we know, what we think is going to resonate. And now that we're actually like out in the public and talking to potential clients and partners and investors, it's super exciting, you know, kind of hearing the feedback and then wanting to grow the team. And I feel like I'm getting really excited by,

you know, the possibilities and openness. And sometimes when you're just so head down, like this doesn't work, we need to fix this. Like you're just not really the, what you intentionally set out in the world to do. It gets bogged down by like all these things that it takes to actually do and birth this, you know, creation into the world. And so now that we're kind of reaping some of the benefits of it, it's like, oh wow, this is exciting. Now I remember why I was excited in the first place. Now I remember why we wanted to do this in the first place. And now I remember why it was so different and unique and really wanted to kind of be a value add.

So I think it's been really fun to kind of go through that process and then also utilize skills that I've had for so long that I feel like I haven't been really exercising, which is like the sales and the business development and the partnerships that I used to do for so many other companies. Now is the time that we get to do it for like our companies.

And it's super exciting, you know, hearing the feedback from people. And I guess it's a different place. I've never really found myself in that place before, because I didn't ever put anything out in this way before. And then also kind of embracing the human aspect of social media and trying to push myself in front and say, like, this is what we're doing and all of that. So it's been a very interesting week, I guess. Just kind of soaking it all in

and remembering it's part of the journey. And I really like what you said, Bruce, because I think when you don't enjoy what you do, it does make it so much harder when you're setting up things you don't want to be setting up. You don't have anybody else to pawn it off on or work with to do it.

So I think this past week has been really enjoyable for me. And I love like when the weeks happen like that, where there's like little tidbits of, I wouldn't say validation, but an idea that you know, you're going in the right direction. And you know, each week is different. Sometimes you have a lot, sometimes you have a a little bit but just kind of writing them down when you do have good ones so that you remember you know this is why this is why i did this it's been a week like that for me so i would say that that would be my gem of the week bruce do you want to share uh what if you have any gems of the week for the past week? Gems of the week.

So we did launch our creative agency arm of Everybody Ventures. So we launched Everybody Ideas, which is our creative agency that essentially builds the business of pop culture. So, you know, we're just looking to help consumer companies you know either with web design or copywriting or social media we just get a lot of startups that are like we really need help with you know these things of like growing a brand and because a lot of early stage startups don't think about growing a brand so yeah so we I mean, that's something we're just super excited about is, you know, really expanding out the Everybody ecosystem. So it's not just going to be a venture fund or creative agency. I think there'll be multiple facets to the Everybody Ventures, Venture Everybody brand that I'm just super excited to build out.

So, yeah, the launch of our creative agency is my gem of the week. That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Yeah, it's so exciting to see all these things come into the world. Yeah, and I'm very excited to have more chats with you offline about all those things and how SwatCut can help. But, yeah, I feel like I saw something

about the Everybody ideas come up at some point and then I was like, I didn't know where to go look for it, but it looked so amazing. So I'm really glad that it's now in the world and official. And yeah, please do share more information about that with us as well. Oh, definitely.

Well, yeah, it's something super excited about and it's kind of been a little bit of a long time coming but it just makes the most sense so we decided to launch it that's awesome and I guess also for our audience out there that's listening you know when you think of your gems of the week some things to think of are kind of what does pop culture mean to you after listening to us today and how are you kind of getting more connected and healthier and productive and sustainable and just you know being the everybody person that you want to be in the world and of course most

importantly how are you having fun out there so we want to hear from you guys and before we wrap that up we want to know from you bruce how can we wrap that up, we want to know from you, Bruce, how can people find you? You can connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, socials, I Bruce Hamilton, like the letter I Bruce Hamilton. Yeah, and then through our website too, everybody.ventures or everybodyideas.com. So, yeah, I think we're pretty easily accessible online.

So yeah, you can either contact us through the website or through social media. Thank you. Thank you for coming to share with us. Thank you so much for sharing your journey. Thank you so much for having me. It's been fun. Yeah, it's been fun. I wish you the best of luck in all your new creative endeavors.

I'm so curious as to where you're going to be in 10 years. And, you know, we look forward to keeping in touch and working with you and hearing about all your successes. Please, you know, feel free to always, you know, come back to us and share. We're always here. We're really passionate about shining a light on people who are following their passions. And I think you do that really well. So thank you so much for sharing your journey and giving some insight to our listeners on that. Thank you so much for having me. It's been an honor. In terms of our listeners, we'd love to hear from you. Please reach out to Bruce if you feel like you can benefit from any of his services or

if it's something that you're very interested in. He has had such an incredible career in so many different industries. And we'd love to hear from you at Friday Feels. Remember to tag us using hashtag these Friday Feels and share your tipping points and stories. You can listen to us on all your favorite platforms as always and to work with us or have us broadcast Friday Feels from your space or organize your next workation or possibly partner with us, you can always reach out to us at hello at friday-feels.co. And next week, well, it's the month of June. When I think of the month of June, it reminds me of a song that I have had in my mind constantly in the last few weeks.

I don't know if you guys have heard the music of Josh Rouse. And it's called Comeback Light Therapy. Seeing as though we can't really play copyrighted music on this episode, let me give this a little go. The song goes a little like this. I've been waiting for the longest time. I want you to come back. Maybe if the sun would shine, bring my happy back. In the dark, so tired of waking up and it's dark so tired of being stuck in my own here Norway is cold dear and here comes June the sun is gonna shine in June and the doctor says I'll feel better soon.

Feels my vet in deep pills. He hands me the big bill. Cause I've been waiting for the longest time. I want you to come back. And maybe if the sun won't shine Bring my happy back And I'm gonna stay on this mountain high Till you come running back

So don't leave me hanging on, on that line I want you to come back I want you to come back I want you to come back thank you for indulging me here comes June and we have decided screw it we are going to do something a little bit different for this next month so we are going to have some fun episodes in store in the next few weeks we're going to change it up a little and then we will be back in a month's time with a very cool topic called reinventing your conditioning so stay tuned for some fun in the next few weeks and until next time that is our mix we've had fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed into the night and into this awesome weekend so see you next week and keep it real