From Survival Mode to Savage Hustle

On this episode of The Un-Traditional Entrepreneur, Juming sits down with Tommy D, founder of Tommy D’s Juice Entertainment, to unpack his 15-year David‑vs‑Goliath legal battle against Live Nation and what it’s cost him personally and professionally. From hustling in the New Jersey club scene as a teenager to building one of the East Coast’s most influential EDM brands, Tommy walks through how he turned raw grind into opportunity long before he had resources, connections, or a safety net. He opens up about operating in a constant survival mindset as an entrepreneur—what it does to your confidence, your relationships, and your decision‑making—and why he refuses to back down even when the odds are stacked against him. If you’ve ever felt like you’re fighting an entire system just to build your dream, this conversation will hit home and show you what it really looks like to keep swinging when quitting would be easier.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

When you left at 16, were you already paying?

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Were you paying people at that age? At 16 years old, I wasn't paying anyone. I didn't have a shit. I lived on the streets. I had fucking nothing. I worked my ass off to be able to throw parties, to be able to get houses, to be able to throw parties to fucking survive.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

I got something to prove. There's a switch that happens at a young age that most people just don't have. And that's what happened. That switch turned on for us and survivor mode clicked on it. We like bet. And that's the same switch we use in entrepreneurship. Survival. How often do that switch turn on for you? Like when you're thinking about your switch. That switch is on for me 24-7 now. That's exhausting. I keep this right here in Kobe Bryant magazine, bruh. I keep this shit here next to my door. And he and it's like I keep it right there. So every day I walk out, that look at Kobe Bryant, the look that he gives right now is like, hey, you know what you need to do. Every day. Every day, this look says, we gotta spawn as well as you say, you know what you need to do. Don't be distracted by shit today. Don't let nothing get in your way today. Go out here and do what you gotta do because the world is a battlefield.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

If you look at Kobe, he went through a lot of shit too. And one of the one of the biggest things in this doctor, which I always expected him. One thing you can do. And most of us can't do this an entrepreneurship thing. And that's something to do with the only stuff to get it, it'll never be successful.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

People who know how to trust because an entrepreneurship is absolutely fucking. Welcome to the other side of motivation. Alright, welcome everybody, and today's guest represents everything this podcast actually stands for. Tommy D didn't just follow the traditional path, he created his own path. Starting at just 16 years old, throwing underground parties simply to just survive what began out as necessity, grew into an iconic venue, cultural impact, and eventually courtroom battles that would test everything he built. When his company took on Live Nation in a legal fight that lasted over a decade, he did not back down. He built another business to fund the fight to continue the fight against Live Nation. When faced with corporate power and pressure, he did not walk away. He adapted. This conversation is about resilience, loyalty, and the real price of independence in industries dominated by giants. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show, Tommy. Thank you for joining. I'm curious, before we even get started, I want to ask you something that I think most entrepreneurs need to know coming out. You came out with a whole lot of struggles. You left the crib at like 15. You started running your business at an early age. Like you've never worked for anybody, right? Like you've only worked for you and yourself. When you hear something like this, when you hear the phrase entrepreneurs romanticize independence, but they avoid costs. You've been an entrepreneur your entire life. Your resilience grew from your past life and everything. When you hear that entrepreneurs romanticize being independent and being free, but when it's time to come and pay some shit up, they kind of like freeze. What do you say to that kind of comment?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Look, just to me, being an entrepreneur, you gotta put it all in. Um that comment right there doesn't necessarily resonate with me right there. Well I was trying to even get the answer to your question, but um entrepreneur to me, it's either built in you, it's in your DNA, you're either fucking working for it, you either have it or you don't.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

When you left at 16, were you already paying were you paying people at that age? Or were you just like doing things you're like I'm curious?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

At 16 years old, I wasn't paying anyone. I didn't have shit. I lived on the streets, I had fucking nothing. I was lucky if I had a roof over my fucking head. Um, so I had nothing at 16 years old. Um I worked my ass off to be able to throw parties to be able to get houses to be able to throw parties to fucking survive.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

But you were paying people so you were paying people for houses though. That's paying people.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I guess. Yeah, all right, gotcha. Fact, you're right, you're right. So I I was able to pay people. You're right. My bad, you're wrong. I'm wrong. I was paying people for houses um to survive to have a roof over my head. You are right.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

Yeah, so therefore, you started out, you came out paying people then. Yeah, I guess you gotta always pay people. Right, because like that's how you got to the houses and the house party. What got you in the house parties? Like, what was that about? Was that like a New Jersey thing? And I didn't even know you could make money on fucking house parties. If I would have known that, I would have started when I left at 14. I went to a straight to a job.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, I've never had a job. I hate jobs, but since I was 12 years old, my dad passed away when I was 12, 11, 12 years old. Um, I used to have a in the summertime lived down in the Jersey Shore. And I literally, my first entrepreneurship wasn't even then. It was actually back when I was 12. I was actually throwing parties on beaches um with people drinking out of kegs um for$5 a pop. Just to actually, that's where my first first entrepreneurship started. Wait, how you do that at 12 years old?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

You ain't ain't that shit like illegal? Yeah, everything most of the shit I did illegal um for a long period of time. How did you get the kegs though at 12 years old? How were you hiring people to grab that shit? How was how would you get an inventory at 12?

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, no good good question. A lot of people ask me that shit. Um, I got uh I was in a lot of I got in a lot of trouble at that time. Um I guess from my life, whatever it may be, who I was, and I most kids weren't allowed to hang out with me. And you know what? I ended up hanging out with people older. So I was hanging out with a 15-year-old, and they were like the um the lifeguards. I'd go party with them. I was drinking, getting lit with them at 12, 13 fucking years old, and they loved me. That's crazy. And they said I was way more mature. So you I was just about to say that.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Most people like that is because you're more mature than the average person your age, and you probably the people who was your age didn't like you because you were smarter.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, well, I got in trouble too. Most of them weren't allowed to hang out with me.

SPEAKER_03 7:18

So I but you got in trouble because you was again smarter. You had a lot of common sense. I think most, I think like when you were young like that and you get in a lot of trouble, because I got in a lot of trouble too. I think our common sense level is is is beyond the person our our own personal age. And I think that that's why it's easier for us to get in trouble because we are not acting right in the scope of our age. We're acting older than what we should be acting, and and and it kind of throws off the the flow of tradition. Uh, you should be traditionally acting. So you become you labeled as the troublemaker of your time.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah, facts. To me, it's called common sense. I'm with you. And um, most people don't have it, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

I think there's and I think there's a spectrum to common sense. I think people have a level of common sense, but then there's people like with super fucking powers. There's like superpower common sense. Like I felt like I was smarter than my mom and my dad when I was 12 years old. They would say shit, and I would just be like, that don't even make sense. And they would get so mad and I get in trouble. Even the teachers. I used to get kicked out of classroom, bruh. I used to get kicked out of fucking classroom because I would tell the teacher that is not even true. I would tell them that's not right, that is not correct. And they would get upset.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, the same thing with you. At uh at 12 years old, I was gonna have uh, I would have been in uh in-school suspension for the whole entire summer because I told the teacher, the VP of the you know, the president of school, whatever you want to call him. I told him he's wrong, I'm right. And um he actually gave me uh like first time I actually started stuck selling shit ever in my life. The dude sold glow sticks like at like concerts and stuff. Oh no, that is. He knew I lived down the shore. He gave me these things, he said, go sell this shit and make money, and then you know what? You won't be in school all summer. I said, Fuck yeah, give me those glow sticks, I'm gonna sell the shit out of them, man. That's why I learned how to fucking sell.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

But I I feel like if I see a 12-year-old rat now that acts like that, I would say something like he's gonna be an entrepreneur. Yeah, facts. Like, because you see you in that little person, and most people see this person as a as a person of of disrupting shit and destroying shit. But people who already know, like, oh shit, that kid there, he's gonna be a boss. That's an entrepreneur. You think that's troublemaking. In reality, you he's got too much common sense for for a person his age, his or her age. He's made to be an entrepreneur. I feel like I can identify that shit right now if I've seen a 12-year-old acting like that. I can go to a middle school or high school right now and tell a principal that person's gonna be your entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, fuck yeah. I want to hire his ass right now.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Better than the people in these days. And that's why older people like I still till this day, I still to this day, all of my friends are older than me. Like, I feel like the older I get, I can't hang with people like around my age. Like most of the people that I hang out with are like much older than me. Like, I'm 37. And so most of my friends are 50s and 60s. I even got a friend that's 70. Like, I those are like my friends. I don't know people who are like my age that I actually like hang with. So that that trait still followed me even when I was 12, 14, 15 years old, hanging with older people. I was friends with an older woman who let me move in with her at 14 years old, and I paid her rent to stay there. But we were cool first before like she moved me in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's because she said the same thing the people told you was like you're smart, you like you have a lot of common sense for you. You're kind of more mature for your age, you know what I'm saying? We get I get that a lot, and I don't want kids to go out taking this shit like, oh, I'm more mature. Like, you just already know it's not something that you kind of like, it's not something that uh you have to uh say yours if you have to say I'm mature for my age, you're probably not mature for your age, you know what I'm saying? Right, because most of the time people tell you that you don't you and then you start to believe that because people tell you that because you hear it all the time. Um but I still would never say I'm mature for my age, even when I was a youngin'. I still would never say that because I already knew.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, absolutely. It's either built in you or it's not, you know.

SPEAKER_03 12:05

And that's you know, what that's a really good point, because I had a guy on my podcast who talked about that last time. It was like that there's a switch, right? There's a switch in an entrepreneurship, and that switch happens at a young age. That shit happened for you when you left the house. When you the moment you step foot out that door and you got kicked out, and your stepdad said you gotta get the hell out of here, a switch turned on. And that switch, you know what that switch is? You know how I call that switch? Survival mode. You have to have the switch of survival mode. And that's what entrepreneurs gotta have in this day. For like that's what you you see, you got it or you don't. Because what happened was you don't, that's it. What what happened was your people's uh you felt like your people's abandoned you and they kicked you out the crib. You're like, all right, bet. They abandoned me, so I'm going to show you now how I can survive. Now you now something switched on inside of you, like, all right, bet. You I you telling me I got to get out. Like, that's what happened with me. I ran away though, because they was trying me, they was making it seem like I couldn't survive on my own. So I'm like, all right, I got something to prove. Right? I got something to prove. There's a switch that happens at a young age that most people just don't have. And that's what happened. That switch turned on for us, and survival mode clicked on, and we like bet. And that's the same switch we use in entrepreneurship. Survival. Now we gotta survive.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

That's what entrepreneurship is all about.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah, so like when you think about the switch, like what like how often do that switch turn on for you? Like when you thinking about your switch.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

That switch is on for me 24-7 now.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

That's exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, I'm fucking I I I I I don't like talking myself up, but me, um uh that's how I am. It's 24-7 now, it don't stop.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

So they call that wartime CEO. Like how like that's a wartime CEO. I can't my switch only turn on when a motherfucker tried me.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

Hey, that's how it started for me when I was younger to prove myself. I wanted to create a club empire and I was fucking told you can't do this fucking shit. So that was my switch then. Being like, fuck that, I'm proving everybody the fuck wrong, and I'm gonna fucking create this club empire that everybody told me I can't do and told me go to college. And I said, fuck that, I ain't going to college. I'm gonna create a fucking club empire. That was my switch then. Now, over all the years, I guess being knocked out by Mike Tyson a thousand fucking times. Um that switch is just on.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

So it stays on for you. Now it's it don't come now, now it stays on. So back in the day. I I mean, I feel like that's dangerous as hell, man. Shit. Like that that I feel like that's gonna end up burning you out, burning you out or making you. I feel like that switch has to come on certain times because for me, I and at least for me, from what I realize is that when that switch is on, everybody's getting it. Like, everybody, like if you are in the war path of Jameen Delmas, when that switch is on, you ain't safe. Like, it's either you're gonna put the work in or you gotta go. Like, like once it's time, once it's go time, once that switch is on, it can't stay on for me because it's it's like people gotta come into the heat mode. And then once things start dying down, then that switch starts to turn off. But once that shit is on, it's like everything is we everything's on go. We gotta make sure that hey, this gotta get done. It's no more nice CEOs. I call it the wartime CEO.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Yeah, well, in entrepreneurship, to me, it ain't one size fits all. Whatever works for somebody, yeah, doesn't work for another.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Bruh, that's like saying Goku is always Super Saiyan. He keeps it on, he don't turn back to the black hat. That's what that's like saying. Like Goku always on go. He always super. Even even when he with Chi Chi, his wife. You know what Dragon Ball Z is. Stop playing, man. That's like saying I'm always on go. I'm always Super Saiyan mode.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Like, look, I battled a fucking$36 billion company for 15 years. If I wasn't on, that's what probably pushed me to have to be on go mode all the time. And that's how it came to me. I didn't start off like that, man.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

So, so what is it, Live Nation? Is that the company, right? That's what you're referring to.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Live Nation, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Why are you battling Live Nation at your stage in life? What what what relationship you have with Live Nation that you have to, you gotta go into this where you gotta battle these guys?

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Well, as we talked about it earlier, I came from the streets, I got, started, I'd started off in my world throwing house parties. I built a over time when nobody told me I could fucking do it. I brought it to real clubs. Over 15 years, I built a club fucking empire, um, opened my own nightclubs, won awards across the world, booked every fucking major celebrity, and was built a fucking empire of my dreams, which nobody told me I could do, and I did. And then Live Nation Entertainment, when I got big enough to the top, and I wanted to run festivals in the house music world, they took that shit away from me. Um and wiped me out of my whole entire fucking career. Were you were you in relations to them at all?

SPEAKER_03 17:53

No, I had nothing to do with them. Why they so I'm confused. Why they just why they picking on you? Why they came out of nowhere and like, hey, we won't time me.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

So yeah, yeah, you know EDM music?

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Mm-mm, I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Okay, cool. So it's electronic dance music. When I when I started off living in those houses, it's called house music. That's what was cool in Jersey at the time. I became a pioneer of this music. Um, and this music became mainstream, like rock and roll when like before like shit even rap, like when rap turned in, it became mainstream. I was one of the pioneers of it for over fifteen years. Live Nation, I had no clue who the fuck they were. They never bothered me. I ran every major club throughout the whole entire New Jersey, New York, Miami, fucking Cancun. I wanted to do I accomplished all my goals, all my dreams. I got to the top of what I wanted to do, build that club empire. I wanted to get bigger. I wanted to run music festivals, I wanted to do shit in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people. And I signed a massive deal to do so at the Meadowlands for over ten years. And Live Nation, they did rock and roll. They were the biggest promoter in the world, but they weren't into my scene and house music. So they were behind the fucking eight wall, behind the game. And when they fucking when I got when I started when I made that contract, and I was on the verge, and I was putting on the biggest EDM festival in the East Coast ever. Um Live Nation needed it. They needed it because it was the new music, it was the it was turning mainstream. I predicted this stuff as an entrepreneur. I predicted this was gonna go mainstream, and that's why I made this massive contract with the Metal Lands for a 10-year deal. And that's why they came in, and that's why they wiped me the fuck out.

SPEAKER_03 19:48

I don't understand how they wiped you out though, because like why how are they able to how are they able to wipe you out? I mean, their competition, so what what how did they mess up your money? I'm confused on that.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, it's it's pretty simple. So Live Nation um is the most powerful promoter in the world.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

Um, but they wasn't at the time when you were doing your um house music, right? These were they were they a new industry? Oh, they were still powerful then. Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

They just weren't involved in my industry. House music, EDM. They weren't involved in the rock and roll, other shit. I didn't do rock and roll, I wasn't my shit, you know? So they weren't involved in rock and roll. I mean, not involved in EDM, they were in rock and roll. So I never saw them coming after my uh contract, I never saw them coming after my festivals. I looked out being Street Smart from a kid. I was watching for all my competitors in the house, EDM world, to take this contract. Um, just on the ED. I had a 10-year deal exclusive. It was like a you know, talking hundreds of millions of dollars here. And I watched out all my competitors not to be able to take this contract from me. But I would have never predicted them because they weren't in my scene.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

But um, so so why are you suing them? What do they do to you? I mean, that's that's competition. That's what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to come in and take out I mean I mean the objective is to take out the enemy. You know that in business ownership, like you gotta stay on top of your shit. Like, what what are you suing them for? Like, what wrongdoing did they do for you to sue?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

It's competition's great, but it it you come and take your competition, but if you're a mob and you come in pop pop and just shoot uh shoot everybody up, it's called illegal. So what Live Nation did was they came in and they told me you have to partner with me, kick my partners out, and you talked about loyalty. I'm very loyal. I had two partners handshake fucking deal with them to produce this 10 year festivals of the EDM festivals and all concerts. Rap concerts, you name it. Me, you kick these partners out. Um, if you don't, and you part don't partner with us, you're out of your we're kicking you out. We're gonna block all your talent. So to make it really simple for you, in the in in the in this music, if you can't get talent, you can't put on a show.

unknown 22:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

If you can't get tickets, you can't put on a show. But how would they how would they block that?

SPEAKER_03 22:22

How can they block that? What can what if you if this is if this is an industry, the the the the home, the the music, what do you call it? Home music, what do you call it? Uh house music which became right. If house music is your baby, your world, how can someone in a completely different world come in and block you from getting your talent? I don't get that. That don't make sense to me.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

Across the whole entire world, which just merged with a company named Ticketmaster and controls all the ticketing, which they threaten to block, not let me get tickets from my show if I don't partner with them. It's really simple. You tell one artist, I had a DJ, DJ Tiesto. They told him if you don't if he performs at my festival, they'll block his dates worldwide. So if you're an artist, do you want to uh perform at my festival and have all your dates blocked through the whole entire world? That's it. It's just power. Just like a mop. Same shit.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

But it's business though, you know that. As business. And here's the deal. Like, to be fair though, like, even if they blocking you from promoters or or venues or whatever, you should have you, you, you already have conjured up, right, a group of um loyal partnerships with these clubs and all this other shit. Like, if somebody's loyal to you, why would it matter if live nature come in and say, we don't want you working with this dude? If they loyal to you, why I'm like, why would we care? Like, how are you gonna like I get that Live Nation might affect some, but if if you got talent who's loyal to you and you got brands who are loyal to you, what is that gonna do? Especially if you're bringing them bread.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah, great, great point. Bread's nice. I can bring them one piece of bread. But if Live Nation's gonna take away 10 fucking loaves of bread and block their date, telling them they can't perform in the rest of the world, why the hell are you gonna perform my show? I I built a loyal base, loyal crowd following. I brought loyal partners, but artists, they don't just perform for me, they perform across the whole entire world.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

So, so in your situation then, Live Nation just had a much more it has a I mean it has a it had a much more bigger impact on the industry. And they controlled the whole entire industry worldwide. Right, so you made the choice to stick by your loyalty and and and friends versus signing a deal with Live Nation, who also controlled your money and how you moved.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Live Nation didn't control my money.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Well, they did if they if you if if they fucked up your money, because they they can tell you who and who you can and can't work with, or etc.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Well, they can try to, but I I said no. Yeah, they came in, they they they said kick your fucking partners out, give us 50% of the fucking money, which they weren't entitled to, and we'll let you put on your show and we won't block your ticketing and we won't block your talent.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Such a show on what though? And why would and why do they want to kick your partners out? That's why why are they targeting your partners and say we want you, but we don't want your partners?

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Because I had a contract. I'm the one that owned the contract with the Meadowlands for 10 years. But the State Fair Meadowlands exclusive 10-year contract. I owned it, my partners did it. So they couldn't bypass my contract at that time. So they wanted them out so they could get more money in their pockets. And because they needed to be in EDM. Their CEO, just to throw this out to you if it makes sense to you, their CEO, Michael Rupino, at the time, he's in the press saying that my music that I was in, EDM, Live Nation was behind the fucking eight ball, and they were in trouble. They needed to acquire or hire all EDM promoters and lock up properties before companies like me could lock up festivals. So that's why they jumped in the game because they were behind the game. Because it was becoming the next rock and roll.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

To be fair, a lot of a lot of a lot of people are suing Live Nation. Like, so you're not like the only one. Like, but uh, and a lot of people are suing Live Nation because um, you know, they're saying that it's being monopolized, right? Like, you've been you've been battling these guys for 15 years and you lost their respect because of your loyalty to your friends. Are you still friends with are you still friends with those people you um that you were loyal to? Are you still friends with those guys?

SPEAKER_00 27:22

Haven't talked in a while, but we but we've uh we we left on great terms.

SPEAKER_03 27:27

So y'all ain't really so like so y'all don't really talk like that. Nah. So for me, like, okay, so this is my question about loyalty and and decision-making skills, because obviously this is part of entrepreneurship. Like, you got you were loyal to your peoples because now I nation came in and wanted to kick them out. And you was like, nah, I ain't doing that. These are my peoples, I ain't going nowhere. So this powerful organization decided we know how to block your funds, we need we know we know how to fuck your money up. And you're and you're like, I'm being loyal to my people. If you can go back and do it all over again, would you still be loyal to those people if you know what you know today?

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Absolutely. Because one thing about me, I grew up on that code, and from my dad at a young age, he taught me loyalty. And like be when my dad passed away, like when I was like five, eleven years old, years later, I'd run into people on the street, and my dad did like construction, and they'd be like, Your dad did a handshake deal with me. He could have fucked me. And that's for me to pave a driveway. And I paved that driveway, and he paid me the money every time. So you know what? I always had a code of loyalty. I stuck with that. If I did a handshake deal, it didn't matter if my fucking signature was brown there, I would never break my fucking word. So to me, that was it. My if I give you my word, I never back, I I'll I'll lose anything over that. I'll never not back down for what my word says.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

And you know what's crazy about that statement, though, because I'm the same exact way. But the problem with the problem with people like you and I is that while we are extremely loyal, we do have a level of expectation of that same level of loyalty around people that are around us.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

And it's hard to get it back. You're right. It may it it definitely can be a weakness at time and it can be a strength.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

Because we have that level of loyalty, but we have that level of loyalty because of our upbringing and because of how we had to rely on the streets. The streets created that loyalty in us. So now we have this expectation that people should have it. And then, like, do you know it makes you think like you did this where it jeopardizes your career? Now you're battling in this legal battle for 15 years with a a large organization for people you were loyal to that you don't even barely talk to today.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Yeah, absolutely. And you're absolutely right. It can be a weakness, all that. Um, but I don't break my word, and I ended up going homeless and lost my whole entire career over that. But again, I'll go back and maybe it's a weakness from same street bringing up.

SPEAKER_03 30:11

How are you homeless when the people when the people who you did it for, they shouldn't you shouldn't be homeless. You did they open their home up to you?

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Hells no, they didn't do shit.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Bruh bruh, see that's what I'm saying. Like, you're loyal to them, they're not loyal to you. Like, I think we gotta pick and choose who we and that's that's business too. Like, pick and choose who's loyal to you. I mean, to be fair, that were the fact that's character for me. That's character what you're saying. You know, that's that's hectic character. You know what you know today, you will still be loyal to the people who wasn't even loyal to you when you went homeless.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Look, uh in New Jersey, growing through the club scene, same thing. I dealt with the mafia, I had guns in my head, I don't take threats, I don't bow to a threat. And this was a threat. I had a basically had a corporate gangster shoot with a gun to my head, but not a real gun, saying, You do this or you're dead. They had no right to be in my shit, and I'm not gonna back down from that. That's me as a person. I don't back down. And I stand up and fight, and I've always been had to fight my whole life, and I'm not gonna back down from a corporate monopoly or a gangster, a mobster, a fucking you name it across the board. I ain't backing down um because you tell me I have to. People told me you have to do this. I didn't listen when I was a kid. I went and did what I wanted to do, and I created it. And I ain't gonna back down besides those partners. I'm not gonna back down to some nerd in a corporate suit telling me you have to do this, you bow to me, you do this, you do.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

I call it a bosses. That's a boss.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

I call it a bitch. You you you you yeah, you you I call him, I call him a fucking gangster, a fake gangster in a fucking suit, in a corporate fucking suit. Fake gangster in a fucking corporate expensive suit. I hate fucking corporate America, and ain't no boss, that's a bitch.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

But see, that's the difference between there's a difference between a boss and a leader, though. You know what I'm saying? That's what I mean by that. That's a boss. Bosses hide up, they hide behind the statement. Bosses who who pick and and and threaten people on their position, knowing that their livelihood depends on them, I call them bosses. You know, that's just the professional way of saying reality.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

If you got it, I have a 10-year contract signed, you have no right to be in that contract. So we ain't no boss. You ain't no boss.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Nah, but to be fair, I don't I don't think boss is a good word. I don't think that that's a positive word. Boss to me, it doesn't mean positivity. Boss means exactly what you just described. It's everything you describe. It's is a ho. It's everything. It's a person who don't understand business eticacy. They are based on emotions. They they they don't like something, they're gonna act on their emotions. I feel like a leader is is the true, is a true um entrepreneur, is a true manager. Leaders are trying to lead to get people to a certain place. A leader helps people grow out of themselves. Bosses try to keep people in within themselves so that they stay above them. It's a bit of a shit.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

I love how you said that. Because anybody that's worked for me over the years, anybody that calls me boss, I was like, nah, so I ain't your boss. I ain't your boss. I'm your teammate. I'm your team, though. I hate I if someone calls me a boss, fucking pet peeve. I ain't your boss, man. I ain't your boss. It's I'm your teammate, it's a team saying, yeah. So I respect that with you. To me, it's leader. I hate bosses. And someone bought me a glass that said top boss. I was like, here, take that little full of fucking garbage.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Top leader, nigga. I'm that. I'm him. Like, and I think that that's what you were. And because we are so built on loyalty and and respect, like, we take it to the we take that shit to the entrepreneur world. And we know that corporate America is filled with bosses. That's why so many people hate their job. They don't really hate what they do, they hate who they work for. Most people don't quit their job, they quit the person that they work for, the bosses. Because if you if you can make 30 bands a year at a company, but if you got a good leader that grows you as an individual, the money don't mean shit to you.

SPEAKER_00 34:43

Absolutely. Corporate America, it just I fucking hate corporate America. Anybody sits to me and even talks to me as boss, talks to me to corporate America, fuck corporate America. I hate easily. I love entrepreneurship. I love entrepreneurs, it's not for everyone, but I fucking live corporate America.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Hey man, look, I tell everybody all the time, entrepreneurship is hard. Like, entrepreneur, it's not just about constantly fighting these battles that we have to fight every day. We're hunting. We ain't just hunting, but we are now identifying shit in the world that we have to get through. We ain't just identifying shit. Now we are feeding families who rely on us, who rely on our our knowledge to help the survival of their homes, right? An entrepreneur, an entrepreneur understands that I'm not gonna dangle these dollars over your head so you could be a puppet and do what I want you to do. You know what I'm saying? That's not what we do. We say, hey, look, hey bruh, the way I look at entrepreneurship today is like a coach at a football team. That's to me, that's the that's the analogy I would use uh of an entrepreneur because a coach for a football team, he wants, he doesn't just want to win the game. He wants to build character in his players. Because character is what will win the game every time. Not how strong you are, not how build you, how big you are, it's about the character that you develop within your team, is what makes a great football team. Because some of the smallest teams win championships. It's not because they were bigger or stronger, it's because of the character that they brought. And therefore, you can't bring boss characteristics in entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

You're absolutely shit won't work. Shit won't work, and you're absolutely right. I built my whole system of my career off sports. That's right. As an athlete when I was younger, I didn't I didn't learn from the books, I learned from sports, and you're absolutely right. You look at it like I've listened I'm I'm originally from Jersey, I'm a fucking Jets fan, I'm loyal, see? But um, you look at the the Patriots up here in New England, where I'm at now, yeah, all those years. You know what? They didn't have Tom Brady been might have been the fucking man, but you know what? Oh, this was development and leadership, building people, building people. You know what I love to do as an avateur? Build people, build people. That's what you're supposed to do. The exciting thing to me is building people and helping people to succeed, yeah, building people.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Exactly. And that's what you know what that's how you can identify a boss versus a leader. If you got a boss that's telling people what the fuck to do all the time, there ain't no boss. Like, I want to get to a point where I'm like, hey, you should know how to do this. This is your baby. You take this and control this. You come to me and say, hey, I got an idea. And I'm like, oh bet. I like that or hell no, let's try something else. Man, look, I keep this, this right here at Kobe Bryant magazine, bruh. I keep this shit here next to my door, and he and it's like I keep it right there. So every day I walk out, that look at Kobe Bryant, this look that he gives right now is like, hey, you know what you need to do. Every day, every day, this look says, he got his arms folded, he says, You know what you need to do. Don't be distracted by shit today. Don't let nothing get in your way today. Go out here and do what you gotta do because the world is a battlefield. And what I learned, bruh, is that we are as an entrepreneur, you know, there's a difference between the entrepreneur and the boss, right? A boss is a soldier, right? A boss is a soldier that goes out and fights wars to to try to to to you know, he teams with his partners or whatever, whatever the case is, but uh uh uh but entrepreneurs aren't soldiers. We're warriors. Warriors go out and they they know that they gotta fight the world, but they'll be strategic about who they fight. They don't go out and fight all the wars. They know that all the wars have to be fought, but they're strategic about the wars, and the wars that we fight first are the biggest wars. We knock the biggest ones down, everything else gets easier for us as entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. And I love the Kobe stuff because you look at Kobe, he went through a lot of shit too. And one of the big one of the biggest things to be successful, which I always respected him, the bullshit he went through, one thing he could do, and most people can't do this in entrepreneurship, and and I tell people, if you can't do this, don't even fucking get in it because you'll never be successful. You have to leave all your personal shit, and he dealt with a lot of shit. You have to leave it off the field, off the court, yeah, off the business, yeah, and then you have to get in the business, and that shit has to be there, and uh home at night, then it can come back to you. But if you bring it onto the court, you bring it onto the field, quit right now. Go get it, go to McDowell, go get a nine to five job, don't fucking do it. It's not a new one.

SPEAKER_03 39:51

And it's crazy that you say that because at the end of the day, people some people bring that shit to the crib, and you're absolutely right. But I think what's even more important is who's at the crib. Because that that that's that's important to entrepreneurship. People don't even know that. Like, as an entrepreneur, right? Like, you fight in the world constantly. You're constantly fighting problems, figuring out shit. Like, as like entrepreneurs mean strategists to me. Entrepreneurship is for struggling people. Entrepreneurship is for struggling people, people who know how to struggle. Because in entrepreneurship, we're gonna constantly fucking struggle. When you lose somebody that was important to your team, that's gonna be a struggle on your business. It's gonna be a financial strain on your business, it's gonna be a strain on your business every single day, and you gotta be ready for that.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

And if you're not ready for that, get out.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

People who are nice, you could be nice and have a wicked heart. But you but people who are kind, that's their genuine heart. They could be an asshole, but be kind. Their heart is there, so it don't matter about the action, it matters about the heart. Anybody can act good, anybody can be good, everybody don't have a kind. So that's why when you say when somebody's loyal to you, because you came from that, you understood what that means. When somebody's loyal to you, it kicks in. That heart kicks in, it kicks in, and you can't help it because now you see it, you feel it. Kind people are typically assholes. Because behind their heart, behind that, behind that action is someone who cares and have high expectations for the people that surround them. So it comes off like you the asshole. But in reality, you just have higher expectations for the people that surround you because of the way you see them. Because they do right by you, you're naturally gonna do right by them. It's not gonna even be an instinct. Like people go to church and like, oh, I got a tide, I gotta throw in a tide. No, no, motherfucker. We we don't gotta we don't have to feel like we have to throw in the tide. Yeah, we don't have to do it about it. We just fucking do it. It just do it. Like, I just do it. Even with homeless people, like I just do it. I don't even go to church, bruh. I don't even believe in religion. I give to homeless people because, like, at the end of the day, I'm like, damn. Like my heart kick in. And like, dude was homeless on the street, ask me out of nowhere. Hey, man, I'm really struggling. Can you take me to so and so and so? I ain't know this nigga from nowhere. I put this nigga in a car and we do a road out. I ain't on. I ain't did it because I'm just trying to be a good Samaritan. Nah, bro. I did it. I ain't nobody was looking at me, nobody was there. I did it because that's who I am as a person. I'm a tough ass business owner. I'm tough on my team, but I'm only tough because I want the best and I know what they're capable of. If if I felt like you wasn't capable of it, motherfucker, I wouldn't even have you on my team.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Yeah, absolutely. And the homeless thing, I totally agree with you, Dad. I tell I tell my employees, so I'm like, I want bonuses, this, and they don't want to work. I was like, you know what, man? I'd rather take that money, go down the street, give it to a guy that's homeless, probably a girl, for a tough reason that you don't even know about. Now don't look at them like they're shit bags. They probably won't be in a position that they're not, they don't want to be there. I'd rather go help them the fuck out than you. Give it to them than you, because you're entitled for that shit. Because you're entitled for the shit, and I'll go down there and give it to them because at least give them a chance. You have to do that.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

And what's crazy, and what's crazy is those guys who on the street will work twice as hard for for half the pay. I don't even want to, I don't even want to hire people at colleges anymore. You know what I mean? If I'm going to people to hire, I want to look for people at like technical schools.

unknown 43:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Trade schools. Well, you've actually learned community, community all with you.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Technical schools, trade schools, you've Fucking learn something. To me, I look for beep people like if you played sports and you were successful in sports, I will take you all day before anybody with a fucking college degree.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

With a good degree. Yeah, if you told me you play pop one of football, I know you coming in here with the grit. And you ain't, you might I know you play basketball because you because I know that those we talked about it earlier. Entrepreneurs are coaches by our nature. You know what a coach do what you know what a coach does to the football players on the field? Yell at them. He yells all day. Look at the coach like he's the asshole. But in reality, he's yelling because he wants you to win. He knows you better than that. That's how I can describe us as entrepreneurs. That coach probably coach football coaches, basketball coaches probably have the biggest, purest hearts on the planet. You will see them, you will see them yelling and screaming at the players all day. It's like a dad yelling and screaming at his son. He ain't yelling and screaming because you hate him, you yelling and screaming because you love them. You want to get them to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

They care. They care. They got it in their heart. They want to help. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 45:06

They come off like a level. I want to help. Right. It comes off like an asshole, but in reality, you're not an asshole. You just care. You just want to help people out.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

You want them to be successful. You want them to get to the top. You want them to be, if they want to do that. You want them to win. You want them to get there.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

You want to fucking win. You've done this play a thousand times. What the fuck are you doing? What are you doing? You've done this play a thousand times. Get your head out. Get your head out of whatever you got going on. Get your head in the game. It's time, it's go time. Stop playing. It's go time.

SPEAKER_00 45:40

You know what we gotta do. Just with sports, if you can't be coached hard, business, you can't grow in entrepreneurship. You need to be coached hard. There's no little like hi, I love you.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

Yeah, you know what? That's good. As an entrepreneur, if you know you know you're an entrepreneur when you got coach mentality. Not boss mentality. Fuck bosses. Bosses suck. Coaches and legit. That was that's where you go. That's where you go. If you get nothing else from this man, I will say that in this in this show today, what this show talked about was independency, right? Showing people, you know, it's about as an entrepreneur, you gotta learn. You those are true independent people. Everybody who works at a regular fucking job, you are not independent. You are dependent of a company to finance your living situation. Your own right. You're not independent. So all a lot of these independent people who are here running about, I'm independent because I got my own, I got my own. No, you don't. One, you rent, you lease, you you you make payments on a phone and the phone bill, you are not independent. You are dependent. You are dependent on your job. The true independent people are out there making their own fucking money, and nobody has to tell them how to make that money. You are independent. The people who are out here making their own bread, I will give them that. You're independent. You can't be independent and work in a regular job. I'm sorry, kiss my ass. You can't do it. You depend on a job to suffice your livelihood. And I think that in our culture, everybody throws that around like I'm independent. Talk to an entrepreneur, because an entrepreneur is up all types of nights, all types of mornings. I gotta get this done, I gotta get this done. That's because I'm independent. My job, my livelihood, my company relies on me to keep this thing running.

SPEAKER_00 47:43

Yeah, if you're looking, uh I look at it as this. If someone's like, I want to work nine to five, obviously you ain't an entrepreneur. Now, to a real entrepreneur, to me, if you were gonna put me, I've never had a job. You know what? I can't fuck with that. I'm never afraid, I've never I am never scared of business. I'm never scared of battles. You gotta be beat on that. But I'll tell you this fucking thing. You know what I'm a fucking afraid of? Working nine to five. And I'm scared of the fucking business. That's what I'm scared of. I tell my employees this. You know what you should be scared of? Working nine to five. Guess why? You have no job stability, you can get fired any fucking time. You have no fucking growth. You know what I mean? Because you're gonna you're complaining that you're looking at a wall from the last job that you were at. You get past that fucking wall. Well, in entrepreneurship, there is no wall unless you fucking make it. Be afraid of nine to five. Be afraid of a JOB. It sucks. But you know what? Most people can't do it. I tell my employees right there listen, I am an entrepreneur-based business. But the biggest thing, can you manage yourself?

SPEAKER_03 48:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

Can you manage yourself? Now look, just like you, we came from the streets. So guess what we learn how to do? Manage ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 49:02

Manage ourselves, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

But guess what? When mommy and daddy grass, um it's entitled to you, listen, some of you. You don't know how to manage yourself. But if you can manage yourself, yeah and you can manage yourself and get up when you're knocked down, entrepreneurship's for you.

SPEAKER_03 49:17

I tell you, when I when I first got my first$50 as an entrepreneur, I thought to myself, damn, I just made my own fifty dollars.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Yeah, dude, it's huge. When I started in the club business, I was doing guest lists in the city, and I got I brought 200 people in, and I got, yeah, 100 bucks. And I was like, fuck yeah, I got a hundred dollars. I'm gonna fuck another world. And guess what? You know what? It fired me up. Fired you up. Then that turned in it because end of the day, too. Uh, and I'll tell anybody on entrepreneur world, if you're just looking at a dollar sign, don't be a fucking entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

You're done.

SPEAKER_00 49:55

You're gone. I want to be a million, I want to make 10 million dollars. You're fucking dead. You're dead. Just go to Dunkin' Donuts, get a fucking job. Go get a job.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

65% of that shit, 65% of that income, 65 to 70% of that's going to people paying, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

So I need me to come to you. You need to look at, I want to succeed. I wanna, I want to take over the world. If that's in your head and you can put the work into it, do it. If not, get the fuck out and go back to employee. I call it employee fucking land. Go to fucking employee land, get the fuck out. Goodbye. Take care, brush your hair, and go to employee land.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

Exactly, because that's exactly what it is. And and here's the thing we ain't shitting on employee land, because employee land is needed. We are shitting on people who are acting like they they they are built for this entrepreneur life. That's what we're talking to. We ain't talking to people who work in a nine and five. We're talking to people who are acting like they're built on this entrepreneurial life, and you know you're not, and you know who you are, if you're working by your motherfucking self, you don't got a team, you don't have no revenue really coming in, you're really cheap scaped, you're not trying to build people, you're a fucking boss, and you're fucking mean as hell.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

I'm talking about you ain't a leader. We're talking to you I run a meeting in front of, and I'll say, Who wants to be an entrepreneur? Who wants to run their own business? Who wants to take over all the movies? Everybody does. Everybody does. Everybody's hands up. Yay! Everybody does. Yay! And it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Entrepreneurs got their motherfucking hand down because they know what time it is. Like shit.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

The ones that hands ain't up, they say, you know what? I my hand don't need to be up because I'm gonna fucking prove it. Because I'm gonna do it anyways.

SPEAKER_03 51:37

I don't need to break my fucking hand. I like this is stupid. I'm not about to raise my hand. I know I'm an entrepreneur. This is some stupid shit. I ain't about to I know that motivation alone is not what's gonna keep my business going.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Yeah, like look, they're like, Tommy, shut the fuck up. I know what the fuck I can do. And the one that's gonna do it. I gotta do it. I love what you said, because the one that doesn't raise their hand, I know they're they have like a ones I'm gonna have a 90% chance of success.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

Because they have common sense to know I know what the fuck it takes to get into a business ship. I know what this is. I don't easy it ain't easy, it's constantly fighting for money. I mean, don't get me wrong, nine to five is security. You wake up, you go do this thing every day, and then you come back and you get your money. It ain't that easy. You don't know when you're gonna make your max tax dollar. And I'm gonna I'm gonna end with this, bruh. Like, I stand on loyalty, I stand on um value, right? And it's because, like I said, we come from the streets. If somebody comes in and devalue my company, I ain't got shit else to prove. Tommy, man, I think you are my white brother. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

Hey, my my brother on that wall right there, that's brother Dale, okay?

SPEAKER_03 52:48

And you bet that was Snoop Dogg. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

That's that that Snoop Dogg there. He he says Jersey, he says he's the Italian one, I'm the black one. Okay? And you know what? And we talk loyalty. This kid, he was living with me. I lived on my own when since I was 15, 16. He lived with me. I took people in my house. And you know what? I told him, just back in the day, I told him you graduate high school, okay? I will fucking give you my brand new fucking transam car. And you know what? Against all odds, kid graduated high school, I gave him the fucking car. Loyalty on your word.

SPEAKER_03 53:25

Loyalty on your word. That's what's up, man. You are the black one. You're right. Because looking at your cheap ass camera, your cheap ass screen you got going on over there. You black as hell. I can't see your face at all. But hey, listen. Okay, so before we get out of here, Tommy, I want people to know where they can find you, where can they find more about what you do for your business, etc.? Where can they find you at?

SPEAKER_00 53:43

They can find me on TommyD, Juiceentertainment.com or shutdownlive nation.com. Damn. Well, you attacking. I'm gonna shut down a$36 billion company. We talk entrepreneurship, that's entrepreneurship going all in and never quitting.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

Yeah, 15 years, you ain't never quitting. That's crazy. Hey, listen, everybody, thank you guys for tuning in to the episode. I'm your host, Jameen Delmas, and you guys know what this is about. This episode was about independence, resilience, and loyalty because that's what true untraditional entrepreneurs are based on. We are not bosses, we are leaders by our nature. Thank you guys for subscribing. If you like what you saw here today, please hit that subscribe button. If you haven't, like, comment, share these videos, share our audio. And also, you if you want to join our community and our family, follow us on Patreon. Hit that subscribe on Patreon. I'll put the link to the description in this video below. In the meantime, thank you guys for tuning in and welcome to the other side of motivation. We'll talk to you guys soon.