Celebrating 2022

It's 2022. This year represents new opportunities, new challenges, and a new outlook on life. In this episode of The Rise, we talk about our goals for 2022 and what's top of mind as we gear up for the year - both in terms of music and business - let's see how it turns out! Plus an exciting fan giveaway from Skrizz! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Adams' Goals
• 7:57 Skrizz's Mindset
• 13:50 Plans and Strategies for 2022

Transcript

Adam   0:02
Talking music, building businesses, and the grit in the journey. We're Skrizz and Adam and welcome to The Rise.

Skrizz  0:15 
And we are back. This is Skrizz and Adam with a new episode of The Rise. It's the first one we are doing in person for a hot minute now. So I'm excited to see your handsome face in person, Adam, how are you doing?

Adam  0:26 
I'm doing well. Yeah, it's been, it's been far too long. We tried doing virtual for a little bit.

Skrizz  0:31 
We did some virtuals, we had some wins, and we had some losses. And we're learning every day with the virtual. So fans of The Rise expect more virtuals and.

Adam  0:39 
We're figuring out it takes a little bit of time. But we're getting there. We're trying to figure out how to position the camera, horizontal versus vertical, how to make sure we're recording.

Skrizz  0:47 
What we're saying is we have no idea what we're doing. But we're figuring out we have chemistry in person. And we are here to bring you that chemistry in person. The first thing that comes to mind, me and Adam talked about before the show was it is a new year, new year means new opportunities, new disciplines, new philosophies. Adam what are your thoughts with you, and you're gonna make it's a personal episode, what is going on with you, in the tangible sense in 2022, as a businessman and entrepreneur, and what is going on with you philosophically and mentally in 2022 as an entrepreneur?

Adam  1:23 
Good question. Really good questions. This guy kind of threw me off on that one. So, for me, the biggest thing that I want to focus on so at the end of last year, I spent the whole time traveling, so I went from Florence to Switzerland. And then I came back to New York for the holidays. And now what I want to be doing is I want to spend all of 2022 on the road traveling building an online business. So that's my complete focus now. Moving forward is how do I just build an online business with my business partner from wherever we want to be in the world.

Skrizz  1:52 
So a question for you this is, is, is well, obviously, you want to travel because traveling is great. Everyone wants to travel, everyone wants to go to Italy, and eat great Italian food and go to the south of France. But would you say it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy that you're choosing to travel and build the business, so that the so that the birth of the business is out of necessity, you're trying to make something that is not geographically dependent on where you are. So by doing that you're bringing yourself out of, let's say, your comfort zone is New York, the state of New York, where you have a lot more resources than you do in France. And by doing that, by doing it in France, let's say any problems that will arise in the future of it being a non geographically dependent business will arise and you will be able to tackle those problems. Is that your philosophy? Or do you want South France?

Adam  2:42 
No, I mean, for me, like I, for me, entrepreneurship can create freedom, I think we all desire in life is freedom, for sure, in one way or the other. And for me, we started building this online business as a side hustle eight, nine months ago. And it's starting to develop into something that could become a full-time business. And now we're saying could we do this for everyone in the entire world so for me, it represents freedom and the opportunity to build, hopefully, something that could be pretty special, doing whatever I want, wherever I want.

Skrizz  3:11 
So almost what you're saying is like in the spirit of entrepreneurialship, and what the, what the goal of the businesses is, that you're traveling in the sake of the spirit of it, if that makes sense, not, not out of like a necessity thing is what I'm saying. Just like being an entrepreneur means you can travel. So if you can, you will? Is that's the kind of you're saying?

Adam  3:31 
Yeah, I mean, it's questioning all of what I thought it'd be an entrepreneur was like I thought it was you had to be in the office from the early morning to late at night in the same location forever. So for me, it's more challenging everything that I thought I knew in the past and seeing if I can do this and if I could do this, okay, what's the next wall that I can breakthrough.

Skrizz  3:48 
Me, as somebody who knows you to people who don't know, you were like, we work office like, exactly clean-cut thing? How many years did you do that?

Adam  3:57 
Six years from start to finish.

Skrizz  4:00 
Got it. So this is literally taking that selling that and then taking the sharpest left turn you can.

Adam  4:05 
Yeah, I mean, I took a couple of turns in the past two years since like, I sold it and now it's just all right, I want to do this and then see where my heart is next.  There's challenges you know, it's awesome, like being able to meet new people, experience new, new things, build a business, do all those things, but there's, you know, the other side to where, you know, you're on the road constantly. You're living out of a suitcase, it's tough to have anything. You know?

Skrizz  4:25 
I think there is something, as like a musician that is like, it's humbling but it's also like it's almost like the refresh button on like your email or whatever, like by constantly surrounding yourself with new people every single night. You get this fresh perspective on everything. And it's like when you're around the same work environment. You get all these philosophies and all these whatever mannerisms like just deep in your DNA, and whenever you're able to just kind of be moving like crazy you.

I always say this, I bring this with a lot of things in my life just being around so many different types of people that you just aren't everybody's full of shit. Everybody's full of shit. And nobody knows what they're doing. I think a few months ago, I talked to you and you were in Italy, and you were just we're just, we're just chatting the chat now. And you were saying, like, it's so refreshing and different. There are cafe owners here making the most amazing food and coffee on Earth, and they could not give a flying fuck about making $1. Like they just don't care.

Adam  5:17 
It's so interesting. Like, that's the it's a really, really good point you bring up because first of all, you need to remove yourself in my opinion from wherever you are just even to expand your mind for creativity. But yeah, like it was, it was nuts. I come from New York. Sure, you know?

Skrizz  5:32 
If you make here, you make it anywhere, everyone's just like, mile of just like going.

Adam  5:36 
You go to a, you go to a freakin Deli. And it's like, give me orders right the second, if you're not, get out of here. Like everything is just boom, boom, boom, money, whatever. Yeah, and I appreciate that. But in Italy, I was like, I went out to this lounge club, and I got close with the two owners and they were awesome. And they're taking 30 minutes to make my drink.

Skrizz  5:56
Yeah. And of course, they're chatting the entire time.

Adam  5:59
And it's not that they're being lazy or like pushing us off. Like they're doing every little detail to make sure this is the greatest drink of all time. I'm like, you could have made this drink 80% as good. And I would have had three by now. And you would have made triple the amount of money but they don't even care, then they're out there dancing, having a good time eating their sandwich, smoking their cigarettes, having a glass of wine, just what what matters the most is not about making every penny. It's about just enjoying life and making sure that everybody else enjoy and enjoy.

Skrizz  6:24 
Okay, so now that you learned that as a as a nice Jewish boy from New York, and then you come to Italy and see that which is the total opposite has impacted you at all in any? The answer can be No, I'm not gonna take offense. Any capacity and how you, you, you being an entrepreneur in 2022.

Adam  6:40 
Yeah, for sure. So going back to your original question, like, for me, Joy is much more important to me now. Like, I want to enjoy my life as I do this versus before. Like, I loved having the calluses in just like, like I used to box not really box like you know, in a you know, in a fake, not great gym, I was a fake boxer. In a real gym, I did not know what the hell I was doing. Anyone in that gym can vouch for me on that. But like, I used to love him the bags and like cutting up my knuckles. Like I just liked that pain. Now though, I don't want to cut on my knuckles, like I don't mind grinding and busting my ass and do all this stuff. I love that, like that's who I am, my core. But like, I want to be in the south of France, making money at the beach, meeting new people enjoying life more than probably did in the past. Like I want to see if I can combine the two versus then competing against each other.

Skrizz  7:34 
It's like the to enjoy every single second of the process as opposed to busting your ass for five hours. So you can go home and have dinner and be like I busted my ass for five hours.

Adam  7:41 
Yeah. So like for you, then what's your? What's your thought for? What's your mindset for 2022? Because I know you have some interesting things that we've talked about off the air. But I want, I want the audience, the Skrizzly Adams already thinking about.

Skrizz  7:57 
Sure. So if it were to just focus on like the artists business. The big change I'm making this year and it has like several different different reasonings for it, I think one of the reasons is kind of gonna connect with what you said. For me, I've spent so much time figuring out the craft of making music, you know, putting money into getting that music out there and all these sorts of things. And then I kind of had a revelation where I was like, the only thing that matters right now is making great music and making lots of it, you know, I mean, like, rather than dividing 50% my resources into that, and 50% into resources that are marketing, and let's say the best marketing resource will give you like a 15% return, I don't mean the 15% profit, I mean, a 15% return.

So let's say I spend $2,000 on independent Play listing, which is going to get in front of more people's ears, I'm only going to make 15% back, you know what I mean? So I've done stuff like that. And everyone does stuff like that. My whole career to just get those extra ears and get those extra things where I came to realize, if I can just deliver great music after great music in a capacity that no other rock artists on Earth is able to do. That's all the marketing I need. And that's my philosophy.

Adam  9:09 
So dive into that a little bit deeper.

Skrizz  9:11 
Sure. So for a rock band, like a peer of mine on Spotify, or Amazon, the normal for them is like the normal for them is they're gonna drop a 16 song album or 12 Song album or 10 Song album every 18 months or every two years. They're gonna drop two singles before and the record labels gonna spend absurd amounts of money get on the radio or nobody's gonna listen to them.

And they're gonna tour and like that's just becoming more and more obsolete. And as you've seen me over the years and just dropping singles all the time. Think of like dropping a single as doing a TikTok post. Like they say if you dropped three TikToks a day. It's just gonna happen. It's just kind of inevitable.

Adam  9:53 
Isn't that the Gary Vee method where he put out put out put out and just give yourself a chance to just slowly build up build up that one that might be a big hit that does come out of that.

Skrizz  10:02 
And then it pays for all the rest of it is. That's the Gary Vee model. And I think I think we've talked about the Gary Vee on this show before and like everyone's talking about it since 2017. The big thing with the Gary Vee model is he's talking about hip hop at the end of the day, like I work with hip hop artists, we can go into a basement make five songs in an afternoon. It's very, very easy.

Adam  10:20 
Why is it easier?

Skrizz  10:21 
Hip hop is a four-bar loop, you have three different sections, that takes 45 minutes to make the chorus, like butter, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, that takes 30 minutes to make. Right versus it takes 45 minutes. To it's just, it's just easier. It's not worse. It's not. I think it's better. It's bigger.

Adam  10:40 
And then what's the difference between something between you and that?

Skrizz  10:44 
Like to write the song and come with a fleshed out like alternative rock or whatever production and learn how to sonically execute it takes weeks. So that's the difference. But I spent all this time building up. So I'm a little bit ahead of schedule now. Where I said it on social media a couple days ago, and it said, I said, like, you know, fuck it, I'm saying I'm dropping four albums in four albums in two years, which is damn near impossible. But on track, I'm confident I can do three, I'm gonna try to get four.

Adam  11:18 
What makes so like, let's say you put 20 songs out there. What makes that one album versus two albums versus four albums? Is it just that like the album has a whole story?

Skrizz  11:28 
I was talking with one of the management team about this, we've reduced it down to to two moments of of two moments of two moments of profound progress. So number one is I think anyone, I think you can vouch for this yourself is like anyone who's ever invested in me whether they were in the music industry are a very serious fan doing something or even a casual fan, they're investing their time, anyone who's invested in me, has kind of proven the same. They have the same reasoning for getting behind me.

And the reason they get behind me aside from loving my music, or being a fan of the songs is that they know I'm not going anywhere. That's like the big thing people will tell me they're like, Oh, well, you're not going anywhere. Whereas like 98% of artists will even if they have a huge smash, right will not have a career.

Adam  12:21 
Yeah. So they say like in the small business world, nine out of 10 small businesses are going to be dead. I think it's within two years. The same type of thing for artists.

Skrizz  12:27 
 Exactly. Exactly. Their lawyer quits on, and their management quits on them, their producers quit on them, and they don't know what to do. And that's over.

Adam  12:34 
If you kept going the what the hell is it called the over? Give it to me Come on, when someone overseeing you label a label? Yeah. Take it out. You know? Okay, sure. So if you kept the label route, if you didn't drop your label? Sure. Do you think that would have been you? Do you think you would have flamed out?

Skrizz  12:56 
No, I think I think the difference between me is that I just always make music. And that I always find a way to make that because you love it. Because it's not a business thing. It's definitely a bad thing. I always make music. So I would find a way to keep releasing, would I be able to do for like, sure I spent the last two years aligning like I've made different deals with different people and strategy. Like I remember I was talking my friend JP who produces a lot of the all the Webby stuff and like he's asking about it, I was like, I'm just working on producing me like, all of 2021 my craft like like I am calling Ken, I am asking every question I can to figure out how I can be the best producer for myself possible.

Adam  13:34 
So how are you going to put out four albums in two years? And why weren't you able to do that in the past? Are you just saying I'm gonna commit more this year? Or is it hey, I have such a fucking awesome backlog that I can pull from? Or is it you know how to make songs better? What is it?

Skrizz  13:50 
Number one, it's by working ahead of schedule for like about two years straight, we now have enough of a backlog of quality music, where my third album, you've heard it here first is totally written, like almost done being produced on my end, like it's, it's, it's there, you know what I mean? And then, so my writing wise, I'm able to get ahead, that's the big one. And I figured out ways to ensure I'll be ahead and still make quality stuff.

And number two, the big one, and I you know, I don't wanna get too logistical because it's not, you know, it's private business. But like, I worked with a mixer named Brent and he does a lot of my additional production and like we've been, we've been just growing together for seven years where we, I remember the record was home to you. Home to you and then come out tonight and then the can't you see cover, we just hit a stride together. Where like I said, like me and you now have a rhythm that like is really good. So instead of doing something in 40 days, can we do a song and 20 days? And if so was the business behind that and then I got him to just sign on.

So I just I was able to, I was able to come up with the songs and come up with a formula on how to get them done in a faster way. But again, that was, that was like a lifetime in the making just getting there, I had the production meeting yesterday and I was just like, I was just like, Yeah, this, this feels like it. You know, this, this feels like this is the game changer like this is the game changer.

I want to go back to the original question, though. The original question was, the goal is at this time next year, I'd say 85% of people that encounter me don't know that I'm a lifer. They just look at my discography and see one out they don't know me like, you know, me, they don't understand that this is going to happen till the day, I'm 70 years old, whether I'm playing 50% show, or 50,000% show. So, the whole point is like, like he always said, he's got two albums in one like, that changes the complexion, that changes the complexion a lot. I know you don't think about that, because you know me so well. But for all we know, a lot of people have encountered me several times hundreds of 1000s. Really? Oh, I know that one song when it's when, when it is.

Kind of a Netflix shows talk about Netflix shows Netflix, Netflix shows blow up on the third, fourth, fifth season. Sure. Okay. So just think about that. And then the second question is, after doing another year of two albums a year, you should financially be in a much more profound place where not only is your operation undeniable, but your monthly income and your annual income are undeniable.

Adam  16:12 
You can reinvest that you have a better team in place, better systems in place, all that stuff that you can replicate, but what so what happens a year from now after you put out a few albums, and then two years from now, after you put out the four albums like what's the, what's the biggest difference other than more money in the pocket? Or a little bit more recognition? Or whatever that is? Maybe it's a lot more recognition.

Skrizz  16:31 
It could be no recognition, you have no idea? So I'm I'm the king of pivoting. I like I may say somebody something different. The operation shouldn't change, it should stay as lean. I you know, like, if I'm making profoundly more money than yes, we're reinvesting it in whatever. But the whole point is not to right now, the whole point is to just like content content, content content content, like a YouTuber would you know what I mean?

The really main difference is income goes up, the audience goes up. And then my whole point I was talking to someone phone today was like after these five albums, seeing these five albums as like, a rappers mixtape. So then I'll do one hour meter, and then the tracklist will be longer I do short tracklist. I wish I could 10, 10 tracks. But you need more tracks the chart. And from that moment on, we're going to try to get number one album every single year. And that's the difference.

Adam  17:21 
Okay, so let's, one of the things I my dad taught me when I was applying for jobs back in the day, sure of like, ask the question. So a year from now, and we're out we're celebrating. Sure. What is that thing that we're celebrating? Like? What's that success that we're celebrating? So like next year at this time? I know you don't drink anymore. Congratu. Thanks. Thanks, good work. What are we celebrating?

Skrizz  17:42 
Let's say four to 10 times as many streams as we did the year before,

Adam  17:47 
and how many streams that you have in 2021?

Skrizz  17:50 
I don't know. 3 million on Amazon 13 million on Spotify. Let's just say 50 million I guess or 60?

Adam  18:01 
So you want to do about 60 million streams plus?

Skrizz  18:04 
Yeah, yeah. Just think about it as sales like stranger sales. So like, the end of the year sales report. Like we just, we just sold a lot more.

Adam  18:12 
You know, we should do when you hit 60 million streams in 2022. I think there should be some type of fan giveaway.

Skrizz  18:18 
Okay, I like that. Play it 50. Make it easier.

Adam  18:21 
50 million streams in 2022 Skrizz fan giveaway? What do you want to give away?

Skrizz  18:26 
Give away? Private zoom concert? Full one, like 12 songs.

Adam  18:36 
Wow. For one lucky fan.

Skrizz  18:37 
Okay, you heard it here first. Adam pressured me into it.

Adam  18:40 
I got you guys. I know what the people want.

Skrizz  18:43 
Yeah, so that's, so that's my main philosophy difference, my main philosophy difference is bulk up content. Don't worry so much about marketing. Don't chase any big wins, big wins are going to happen on their own.

Adam  18:55 
You want to put out quality and assume and hope and expect because it should with quality should come results. If I can

Skrizz  19:02 
If I can do quality at a rate that no one else has done before in my arena. It's gonna sell itself. That's my philosophy.

Adam  19:08 
Right? Yeah. Okay, cool. So that makes sense. Now, from a more of a personal standpoint, you know, I said, I want 2022 to be filled a lot more with joy. I want joy to be mixed in with everything that I do. What about for you?

Skrizz  19:20 
So don't think I was thinking that but it's funny. I was leaving the studio yesterday and was just like in such a such a good mood. I was just like paying like, everything's coming together. I was talking to a friend. It's like I'm hitting a groove. And it wasn't like a conscious effort to be happier. But it was just like, me spent so much time learning how to make records and so much time getting to this point, that it really is like, I don't say it's like, like, like, bliss. It's more just like, like fucking football. It's like touchdown like. And I'm just feeling that way every day. I'm just feeling, I'm just feeling like we're in the studio working on this, this third album and just like pacing back and just like yhe drums turned out good like, and I'm not trying to celebrate every big with a little win, but it's just like, you just the process is enjoyable. You know what I mean? And there is something about, it really is like, like, like, like a sports competitive that's the way I mean, if you're trying to put out four albums in two years, then yeah, it's like, I'm not here like, lotty dying and whatever, and all the artistic bliss and just like, this year, let's go like, Yeah,

Adam  20:29 
But I do think that's important, though, like, because even though I do a lot of coaching and teaching of entrepreneurs, small business owners, and that's a big thing I talk about too, is like, we got to learn how to celebrate the success because that's something I always did a shitty job of. I don't I don't know about you. But maybe maybe same for you. I feel like with a lot of people, like we don't realize our small wins. And we all know like, we gotta enjoy the process, enjoy the process, enjoy the process. We all know that. But doing it and feeling is another thing. So the fact that you got bliss, and you're happy after every small win, I think that's awesome.

Skrizz  20:59 
Yeah, I'm feeling really, really good about this. And I think.

Adam  21:02 
That probably comes out in your music, too. That probably comes out in your branding, it probably comes out in everything that you do. When you're happy and you have that energy. People want to be around that. People can feel it.

Skrizz  21:10 
I think kind of piggybacking off of that like, like, what's coming out in the music now, which wasn't really planned was that like, like I said, like, I'm doing almost everything by myself for these next couple albums. And I've worked to get there, which was very difficult.

And I think, I think what came from that he was talking to candidates on the phone the other day, I was like, man, I was just like chatting like, I was like, man, like, I'm just able to just like pan song by myself like, and I was just like, it feels great. And it's just like, well, the best thing about it is like, it's just, for better or worse, that's your most authentic self. That is your most authentic self.

So you're getting the most authentic me every time and there's a part of me in the back of my head is like, Man, I really hope this album doesn't flop because it's the most authentic me there is. But it's like, but no, that's the most authentic like, right. Like, even if it is worse than sales, you need three of them, you're gonna get more people that are more aligned with who you really are, aligned with who you are. Yeah, so I'm really excited about that.

Adam  22:07 
So do you think old music or old albums that you put out, maybe were not as aligned to your most authentic self?

Skrizz  22:15 
Um, I don't think I knew who was my authentic self, but I wasn't capable of pushing forward the most authentic self. So in that moment, it was my most authentic self. Does that make sense? This is just deeper, the details are a little more. There's more the devils in the details. There's more more details, I guess.

Adam  22:34 
Any. Before we wrap up any last thoughts that you want to give to the audience for them for 2022? Give us some wise words.

Skrizz  22:45 
I think I said this. I was talking with Adam, right before this. I was like, I want to think I hide a lot of things I have going on just not to jinx myself or if it bombs terribly. But I had a long talk with my full team. And I said, like, you know, this is the this is the you know, we've had this long sprint album, long marathon album, one, a little quicker album two now remove an album. And then we're just we're just speeding up and we're speeding up or speeding up. And then it's like, everyone wants this aha moment. And I said Skrizzly Adams breakout year will be like, 2026, 2027, 2028 like that.

I know you all wanted to happen now. But just trust me. I know the economics of it, that I can afford a breakout year in 2026 and 2027. And compete with all the biggest in the world that are literally be 10 years younger than me. And the difference is I will own everything, and I will own back catalogue already bringing in all that so it's a long play. Just keep rallying with me. And I promise you, you won't be disappointed with music.

Adam  23:51 
I love it. That's well said you're feeling every groove in the process, which is why you know you're a long-term play. You're not an in and out. You're done and you're forgotten. So that's a, you almost brought a tear to my eye listening to that. I don't think I could say anything else on this podcast. We might have to wrap up to this point.

Skrizz  24:07  
Everyone, I love you guys. Happy 2020! Tune in share, subscribe, and you'll hear more from us soon. Peace.