Main Street Business

#582 How Gene Simmons Started as a Small Business Owner and Became #1

• Mark J Kohler and Mat Sorensen

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Gene Simmons joins us for an unforgettable masterclass on business, life philosophy, and how KISS built a billion-dollar brand through strategic thinking and trademark protection.

• The precious nature of time and why "you will never get this day back"
• Why the "get rich slow scheme" is more reliable than get-rich-quick fantasies
• How KISS became the only band whose faces are trademarked like Disney characters
• The recent billion-dollar sale of KISS to Pop House company
• Coming from humble beginnings with a Holocaust survivor mother who taught resilience
• The dangers of telling small lies versus "the biggest, most monstrous lie"
• Why Gene's solo band sometimes makes more money than KISS with 60 personnel
• The power of opportunity and why most people miss it
• How AI and algorithms are already reshaping industries faster than most realize
• The importance of having a laser focus and clear vision for success

Every day above ground is a good day. If you're surviving in America with food in your belly, you have nothing to complain about.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Main Street Business Podcast with your distinguished hosts, mark J Kohler and Matt Sorenson. Both are bestselling authors and have over 25 years of industry experience, with 10,000 client consultations, making them the leading tax and legal experts in the nation. Together, they'll unpack the most complex tax, legal and financial strategies crucial for saving more, stressing less and building generational wealth. Crucial for saving more, stressing less and building generational wealth. Today they're your personal advisors, ready to break it down for you and make the tax and legal game easier than ever. Here is Mark and Matt.

Speaker 2:

You will never get this day back, and the question is what the hell are you going to do with that? You can't just sit around and let life pass you by.

Speaker 3:

Everybody wants to get rich quick scheme and you've got to know what you want. You've got to have a vision, you've got to be focused.

Speaker 2:

It's a business and you want to go where the money is. Carl Icahn, who was a major takeover, unfriendly takeover guy. What he would do is he would fire lots of people and the company would turn around immediately and be in profit.

Speaker 3:

When you started, did you even envision the fact that that makeup, when you were putting it on, would have its own value?

Speaker 2:

You specifically know, but generally yes, and we just sold Kiss the band for a billion.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to the Main Street Business Podcast. I'm here with the infamous Gene Simmons. He just gave us a master class at our Tax and Legal 360. He had a room full of accountants in the palm of your hand. Have you had that before?

Speaker 2:

200 accountants just sitting there yeah, I've done corporate events, but it is interesting to me always that people don't realize how precious like today is. Right now I can point with some sense of pride a little bit I drove here and it took two and a half hours. It's going to take two and a half hours to go back home and while I was here maybe I changed somebody's mind or lit the fire a little bit. They have to go do all the work. All you can do is say, hey, how come you haven't done this or have done that? So, yeah, I feel pretty good about today, but the shocking idea is you're going to be alive one less day. You will never get this day back and the question is how are you going to do with that? And it's finally going to come down to if God only gave you one 24-hour day, what would you do?

Speaker 3:

You'd want to spend it with the people you love the most.

Speaker 2:

I know, but what would you do? Who would you be with?

Speaker 3:

I'd get them around and hold my own little master class with the fam.

Speaker 2:

Sure, teach them everything, something. Yeah, you know, be kind, give to charity, do a thing, build a pyramid, whatever it is. You can't just sit around and let life pass you by. I didn't create that.

Speaker 3:

You know I didn't plan on asking you this, but, with that said, you've probably had so much more of a reward writing your books than performing music, or did you feel like one was? Why do you?

Speaker 2:

have to choose. Why can't you like cheesecake and steak? They're separate. Why do you have to choose stuff that the best thing in life is where you're every day you're having a ball, which is not necessary. You're blessed if that's what's going on, if you really love what you're doing. But I get different kinds of pleasure from doing all kinds of things.

Speaker 3:

Well, and the money and the power that you've said before allows you to do more, started, I guess, with your artistry in the music, and then it opened up so many more opportunities to change the world.

Speaker 2:

Right which is a learning lesson to everybody, because it was to me which is, once you crack the door open and can make a name for yourself or make some money and all that, other doors can be pushed open as well.

Speaker 3:

I don't know why other artists whether it's music or even whatever they just they feel like they're selling out to make money, when their real power is to make money? Who?

Speaker 2:

made these rules? Who created the credibility rules? Who is that person? It's sort of the question I keep asking of all the mystics who are on street. They have these street corner stores Come in and I'll tell your future and all that. The question I have is and it's only 15 bucks why is it that they have to wait for the phone to ring to pick it up? Aren't they supposed to know who's on it? And why are they poor? If you have the knowledge of the future, why wouldn't you invest wisely?

Speaker 3:

They should be the richest people on the street. They should be the richest people on the street. Well, your story and I've been wanting to ask this about your mom it chokes me up, thinking about her sewing buttons to get you through school and the hard work that you did Three jobs, teaching, school and saving your money. I made my kids read that story of yours.

Speaker 2:

We all have different life experiences. My mother had the kind of life experience I wouldn't wish on anybody. She was 14 years of age when she was in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and our whole family was wiped out, starved, tortured and all that. And, by the way, not just 6 million Jews, catholics, a few million Catholics were killed, romani, who were the darker-skinned Europeans, like gypsies, quite a few different groups, anybody who didn't fit into the Nazi ideal.

Speaker 2:

But it's interesting if you read Mein Kampf, hitler's book, which was awkwardly written, not very quote poetic in the illiterate sense, but he did say something that's profoundly accurate then and continues to be now Never tell a small lie, it's not worth it. Always tell the biggest, most monstrous lie, whatever it is, and continue to tell that lie over and over and over again, because people are lemmings. Fortunately or unfortunately, whether you're talking about politics or religion or anything else, the biggest lie gets the most attention. So he was saying the master race is German, but everybody knew he was from Austria. The lie was right in front of them. The master race is German, but everybody knew he was from Austria. The lie was right in front of them. The master race is tall and blonde. Actually, he was quite short and dark. Yeah, so he can keep going down the list. He was not the embodiment of what the Aryan looked like.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but if you insist on the lie light, they can't see past yeah, everybody wants to get rich quick scheme and I just love the get rich slow scheme.

Speaker 2:

You know, we don't need to jump at every little idea that what's shiny and other than the lottery, which is very rare, what is get rich quick. What does that mean?

Speaker 3:

well, that's the elusive point. There's a dream that it's possible, but how do you do that? Yeah, I think that's the lie. People think that there's a way to do it, and boy, the influencers have figured it out, though Maybe the only way to get rich quick now is to post online.

Speaker 2:

They invented themselves. Before the influencers started doing that. There was no such thing. The interesting thing, though, about the West and pop culture is it's not created or ruled by the elites. American music which rules the world pop, jazz, blues, rap, you name it is black music. It comes from slaves.

Speaker 2:

Hollywood, warner Brothers, paramount, universal every single studio were created by Jews who came out from Europe in a 500 square mile area, never knew each other, found themselves in New York. Fox from 20th Century Fox called himself that because you couldn't pronounce his Russian name, and he started to import foxes from Canada and sew them onto coats, and then he charged double or whatever, the price Fox coat that's where he got his name, fox. So they all had the same idea and, without knowing each other, moved to California, right here in LA, and invented the movie business where they can shoot year-round. So they bought property and did that, created the studio system and all that. By the way, the music industry I don't know if you have an agent or not, it's all Jewish the agents, the managers, the record companies it's all that.

Speaker 3:

When you talk about everything changing too, what is your thoughts on AI?

Speaker 2:

It's already too late If people are just entering into it. Amazon announced today that their trucks are going to be driverless, that a robot's going to or AI is going to deliver your package, and then this automaton is going to deliver it to your door.

Speaker 3:

These drones are coming.

Speaker 2:

But also algorithms. Now banks. There's something called LIBOR, which the banks loan each other billions and sometimes trillions overnight. The London International Banking Rate is what LIBOR is. But now there are algorithms. The rate of exchange of a dollar, let's say, is worth a dollar and one cent, and in a minute it's going to be a dollar and one cent and a quarter. So people buy and sell the value of money, futures, in essence based on these algorithms, and they're making fortunes and the rest of us have no idea.

Speaker 3:

And crypto and Bitcoin hopefully will make the playing field more fair, or is it going to take away more freedom?

Speaker 2:

There are going to be growing pains and where there's an opportunity, you're going to get a lot of bad guys. You know the bad guys tend not to break into small, poor homes. They want to go for the big ones. So wherever there's money, they want to figure it out and some of the guys were bad guys, you know.

Speaker 3:

What's next for you to conquer? What do you want to do so much? What's the Gene Simmons band about too? My solo band, yeah, by the way, I play drums. I just want to point that out, if you need me.

Speaker 2:

It's in giggles we have a lot of fun. But if you look at it as a business Kiss toured with 60 personnel, private jet, three triple-decker buses, 24 tractor-trailer thing, just like a moving city it's amazing you made money on tour.

Speaker 2:

That's right, we did okay, yeah, but the Gene Simmons band literally has no manager, no roadies, no nothing. The promoter locally sets up the amplifiers, the screens, all that stuff. We just show up, I bring my guitar, pick and that's it. Do you still play a lot? Sure, but it's fun. But in some of the gigs I make more money doing the solo band than I did for single shows with kids.

Speaker 3:

Oh my word, it's crazy, the overhead of those big shows.

Speaker 2:

Well, one of the first things Carl Icahn, who was a major takeover, unfriendly takeover guy, would do is he would fire lots of people and the company would turn around immediately and be in profit Because we're so overstaffed. You ever go down a highway and there's a guy with a sign that goes slow down and all that. Yeah, that's not going to last long. And, by the way, the union says you've got to have two or three. Oh, yeah, that's not going to last long. And, by the way, the union says you've got to have two or three, oh, you've got to go get a popcorn fart. Okay, you take over the sign. They've got to go slow down.

Speaker 3:

Well, now you're back to the good old days. You have roadies, a van, and you just show no. No roadies, no van. Oh, the promoter just sets it all up. You just roll in. No band, no roadies, no nothing. We carry nothing with us. Do you still sing? Sure, if you call it singing, oh wow, do you get the same thrill when you get up on stage that you always had? Would you like the?

Speaker 2:

real answer or the romantic answer. It's like people ask me where's your favorite city to play. Then I always have to do you want the truth or do you want these? Oh, that's so romantic. The truth is, one of my favorite cities is Paris or London or New York. They're favorite cities. So if we did a show or you did something for appearance and they gave you I don't know a few hundred grand to show up for a few hours work, that ain't bad. The worst place I can imagine is Antarctica Got polar bears and sub-zero thing and all that stuff. And they want me to appear there, do the same thing two, three hours or whatever, with nobody around and all that stuff. Give you $50 million. What's my favorite place to play?

Speaker 3:

Well, if I know Gene Simmons.

Speaker 2:

Any human being who's sane.

Speaker 3:

Who's sane? Well, sure You're going to go dog sledding next weekend.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to look at the trees or look at that nice Gothic architecture. It ain't about that. It's a business and you want to go where the money is, why do some artists just miss that?

Speaker 2:

Well, because there are no classes, just miss that. Well, because there are no classes, nothing prepares you for accidentally having a hit or getting the right band together and all that which is very difficult to do. Getting a band together and keeping together is harder than marriage, because you're living together 24 hours a day, you drive in the same van, fly together, do all that stuff Sooner or later. You know familiarity breeds contempt. And then the egos. Did you step in front of me when the spotlight like all that stuff? It's very hard to do that. Having said that, I'm a lucky guy. I found a guy named Paul Stanley over 50 years ago and we just sold Kiss the band to an amazing company called Pop House, for a billion.

Speaker 3:

That was a cough. Is that what you call the library? Is it the band or the library?

Speaker 2:

I don't understand the difference. There is a difference because most almost all other acts only have a library. They're only songs. If you buy Springsteen, you're just getting the songs, because his face is public domain. There's no value. We are the only ones whose faces are like Disney, without the overhead. You can't use our face makeup without me taking your firstborn when I sue you. Yeah, so they bought the makeup, the trademark in the Library of Congress. It's the only musical act whose faces have been trademarked.

Speaker 3:

When you started I know you know trademarks. Now you were showing me trademark. You probably trade in trademarks more than URLs or Bitcoin trademark. You probably trade in trademarks more than urls or bitcoin and they're so powerful. But when you started, did you even envision the fact that that makeup, when you were putting it on, would have its own value, that it would be you?

Speaker 2:

specifically know, but generally, yes, I've always been blessed. Maybe it's genetics, but I've always been delusional about myself On a sane level. I'm aware I'm not the best-looking guy in the world, but I also know that I'm not the worst-looking guy in the world. But I know I can walk in anywhere and I will walk out with your girlfriend. Either you have presence or power or you don't. By the way, this stuff may look cool and everything, but after 50 years of being on stage, these lights kill me. So it happens to be the sun never sets on planet. Cool, but also gives me a chance to look around, like right now I'm looking at your wife.

Speaker 3:

She's pretty hot. I know she wore that leather for you too. If only I wasn't gay.

Speaker 2:

That's what the rumor is, but you can't say that either. Why, what's wrong with being gay? No, no, I think it's good for you. I just don't want to be.

Speaker 3:

Well, gene, what a pleasure. Thanks for chatting with us it's been a long day and thank at being here for the event, being here for a moment on the podcast, your business acumen experience it's not, it's not.

Speaker 2:

It's not a genius, I'm not a business, this or a business that you just got to keep your eyes open and see opportunity. It knocks all the time. The vast majority of people simply ignore it or they're looking someplace else or doing something else. You know, we have a song called Beth and it's a ballad, but it's really not. It's not a love song at all. Beth, I hear you calling, but I can't come home right now because me and the boys are playing all night. What's more important? The band or me? Actually, it's the band because you're not going to pay my rent.

Speaker 2:

You've got to know what you want, you've got to have a vision, you've got to be focused and laser focused you may not know specifically what you want, but all guys understand that the more money they have to put it in the language of the street, the more the chicks will like them. And then you hone in on the one that and look, and I've got a daughter and she's an alpha female. Let me tell you something she's married now. She was nobody's girlfriend. They are her boyfriend.

Speaker 3:

She's in charge. You saw my daughter too. Same way, you can feel it right? She told me to fuck off right away.

Speaker 2:

But think of it. Think about it In your early years, before you get to your middle. You're going to have children and she's going to be quote, quote, stuck with them. She's got to feed them, get up in the middle of the night because you're not going to do that. So you're going to go off on your merry way and chase. You know that fortune that you want to make and everything.

Speaker 3:

Woman wants a guy with a plan.

Speaker 2:

That's it With money, Whether you won the lottery or earned it. Because that's why I keep saying and I said it at the talk that so many, the vast majority of women, are single mothers who are raising children on their own and have to figure out how to earn a living. I can't do that. I wouldn't be able to do that. After you come home dog-tired, then the crying kid or the kids are fighting with each other. You can't do that.

Speaker 2:

There's a place in heaven for every single mom, women are on a higher level you will never be able to get. And we joke around about women and all this kind of stuff. Because we're so fancy free, we get to do it. Yeah, because you don't have to take care of the kids, you don't change diapers, you don't even have to wipe your ass. Somebody's going to do that, but women have to do all Once you get up and the bed's on me. Have you ever made your own bed? I've never done that.

Speaker 3:

I make the bed once in a while. I've got a woman, special woman. She's not only beautiful but love my life.

Speaker 2:

Tomorrow, wake up and every day just say I'm sorry, It'll go much better for you.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, ever since you told me that, she's been reminding me every morning.

Speaker 2:

What did Jean tell me? Tell you to say in the cell? They need verbal. My wifey never says you're so good looking, never. I don't care. And, as a matter of fact, I've never had another guy walk up to me and say hey, gene, guess how old I am? It's great, I don't care, not an issue. But they need affirmation every day. Thank you for doing this. What does it mean? But then you have to teach them how to read, how to be able to pronounce. I'm sorry, I was wrong. You got to think it's because there's a lot of letters letters in there you can't.

Speaker 2:

Well, she's giving me, giving me the stink guy.

Speaker 3:

Right, she's going to have all this ammo for me when I get home. Now, mr Gene Simmons, it's an honor, wow. Thank you, sir. I could keep talking with you all night, but your agent here is like Mark, we've got to get some food and drink.

Speaker 2:

My mother and it's a good piece of advice for everybody we complain about a lot of stuff. My mother, in her broken Hungarian, rather broken English, translated something from Hungarian that actually is profound, from Hungarian that actually is profound Every day above ground is a good day, and that's literal, because my grandmother, who was my mother's mother, grabbed her mother's hand, my great-grandmother, and walked her to the gas chamber so she wouldn't die alone. They took the oldest, slowly and, by the way, naked, and before my grandmother, my mother's mother left. She basically turned to my mother and, in Hungarian, said live, in other words, survive. That's all of it. If you're surviving in America and you have food in your belly, shut the fuck up. You have nothing to complain about. Bad traffic day, bad hair day I always have a bad hair day. So what, it's all good, you'll be a better person for it. You won't stress as much and that stress stuff will kill you. Ask your doctor, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, gene, thank you and words of wisdom, appreciate you.

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