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Good morning, good evening, good night, good afternoon.
Sometimes it's easier for me to keep going than to quit.
Life is real, you know what I mean?
You have to go out there and put the work in.
And if you've never been in the pit at a NASCAR race, do it.
The time you put in while no one is around
will be what sets you apart when everyone is watching.
Because a lot of times you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's a cool little idea.
But once they really understand where you're coming from,
the meaning behind it all in your heart what you really want to accomplish that's when people dive
in they really get on board with it it's good man yeah i guess i finally made it here yeah man
made it back made it back yeah it's been uh school so 20 so six years that i've actually
been in the lehigh valley that's wild to me yeah that's wild so i would say i'm gonna kind of roll
off an intro you really don't need that much of an introduction mr miyagi this right here
yo yo i could do it i swear i can do it i can do it all right you got him
all right hold on hold on hold on i'm gonna give him the jesus piece
i know i got him might have it's all good it's not like once i got him i got him i got it would
be good i keep that for behind the scenes stuff and everything but we'll roll in roll in and get
into it i'm gonna put the glasses we talked about being old men every time i go and start squinting
i think of you i'm like oh man bro this happens when you get in the game late so i i turned 50
this year right it was real difficult for me to say the words like i don't know i'm midlife is
like really 40 i mean i didn't have a 40 midlife crisis like a super late bloomer and when i
january came and i realized like this is my 50th year and i look in the mirror and i don't see a
50 year old man of course not like i don't see that for sure i don't feel that um but it was
hard for me to swallow and say yo i'm really about to hit that 50 and it took me a minute to like say
50 it took me a minute to really say 50 you're 50 son and uh believe it or not i went through a
little tiny depression because of that like it was hard you recognize it as like a midlife crisis
like because you say you didn't go through it at 40 does does everybody go through that i mean i
I mean, I guess everybody has to do a self-reflection or a self, like, oh, you know, you get to a point in your life where you go, all right, what have I accomplished?
What have I done?
Am I happy with what I've done?
And, but for me, it was kind of sounds a little bit, but like I have a phobia of looking old.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That's kind of crazy because I saw you post that picture of you super old.
so and i did that as like a like a self-reflection of the future like you know what hopefully i get
beat get to that age and i'm blessed that i can still do it do you understand what if you're not
doing video by the time you get to i mean you had a whole life before this yeah you had a whole life
before that yeah but this is the life that i enjoy so so the answer is yes you want to be
as tired as i get and as exhausting as you know physically taxing on my body yeah um i gotta like
be behind the camera that's fire i have to see it that's fire like even if it's part-time
maybe at that age you know at 80 hopefully i still have my my eyes but i still want to see
it's crazy i was i still want to see and so for me seeing is not just with this
it's seeing with my brain you know what i'm saying like seeing yeah how i'm gonna piece together
things and it's uh and also to see the world i don't think i ever get tired of that yeah that's
something that i want to start yeah that's like of the many things that you've inspired me so for
our listeners that don't know i've known this man before the world knows him as jack not only did i
get to see the grind and see the reputation and the name that demands respect he's so freely shared
everything with the world with social media you can tap in on any social media he's not only giving
out information on new technology staying current with stuff but he's talked about the long nights
He's talked about I can remember posts like there's nobody that's going to outwork me, even when you were doing stuff for, you know, I don't even want to disclose how much you were putting it out because you had a vision and you were seeing that, you know.
but i get to share with you my listeners not only pick the brain of the creative genius who's built
things um we can go into like even before i started recording where you told me 34 is a great
age to find yourself and you know you know i started the podcast after that call wow that's
crazy that's incredible um i think and and 34 is a great age there's no age like but for sure
34 sticks to me 35
You know because I feel like
You might have went through enough
You know BS
In your 20s
That you learned from it
And you matured
And then now you can apply
To not making those same mistakes again
And
Hopefully by in the mid 30s
You know there's a level of
A level of foundation
You know and whether it be a home
or relationship maybe children are involved at that point you know i know for me you know
my daughter definitely went and you know put a uh a stamp on okay i gotta work for her now
and then now for my son and you know of course you know being married now going on 32 32 joints
which is kind of crazy um wow yeah no 32 joints in january yeah 32 years um to you know so i have
always held those responsibilities to the highest standard um i am very prideful and very proud
of saying i've been married so long and i have my children and they're stable you know and
that whatever crazy life that i live and that how exhausted i can get and also the
the long times that i'm not you know there's times i'm not home for a month
two months but that i'm providing for them yeah that's a huge sacrifice um i want to say this
because i feel like i don't say it i don't people need to hear this especially people that have kids
here you go there's two ways to use your family your children to do something or not to do
something you gotta make the right choice i can't tell you what that choice is gonna be
but me i chose to do something that was a lot of people thought was unattainable
so i said no i'm going to do it so they can see daddy your daddy really goes hard
facts you know and uh i see too many people using their excuse of their children as excuse
not to do something not i can't do that because for sure um i don't have the time even like
traveling can you imagine using kids as an excuse to travel say i want to give my son well my goal
is is you know they can come with me that's what i'm saying you know like you open that up that's
that's amazing or even that you know i open up their minds of possibilities that they get to do
it um and if i had to pick and choose out of my two kids my daughter she's like the bookworm
yeah you know so i don't see her she she hates flying i see the more adventurous one being my
son there's always one so for sure i see my son as being the more adventurous one and i see my
daughter being more the i'm going to stay home and make sure the household is good she took that
trait from my wife there you go you know what i mean like that that's my wife's trait 100
reminds me a lot of gil of mutual client of ours gil thompson no i i gotta hit him up
i do i do i gotta hit him up that's right shout out to gil my my first guest and uh
my regast after my two-year anniversary but i think it's great that you have a mindset and i
think that's what you've always done a great job of sharing with the world is you could i mean i'm
sure with ai we could scrape your facebook and remember when you said you got to go from local
to global everybody has you remember all these things bro i don't remember i'm on the spectrum
somewhere son i don't even know how you remember the punch lines like listen so so to be honest
i'm probably on the spectrum because i'll go i'll go to people i'll be like oh you know how's how's
jayden she's probably like 17 now right because i'll remember a five year ago conversation that
you told me something about your kid yeah and it's just because i appreciate humans so there's
probably stuff i forgot that didn't resonate with me but when i started this podcast i gotta go from
local to global that's the steps that's you've shown the path so it's like yeah how much of
different influences in your life do you want to bring and how through my show can i help share
that to people who may not be familiar you know uh as far as the work goes going from like you
said being a late bloomer to having the same mentality that's what i wanted to pick your
brain about what kind of stuff got you to this level of success what do you keep with you
all right so there's so many phases and transitions that you go through there's the
there's the i'm not good enough phase right but you work through that then once you get the
i'm not good enough phase then you get into the i'm the man phase right and then god will humble
you and then you go through the and pardon my french i ain't shit phase you know i'm saying
yeah to finally realizing it ain't my plan phase you understand there's those you can run through
all those phases so i went through all of them now i'm just in the song it's in god's hands now
i don't sure really have something scripted i used to be so controlling as far as what i felt
i wanted to accomplish yeah right and and for the most part you you know you're the cocky answer is
yeah i did it right no i didn't i really didn't have anything to do with it you know what i mean
like god really had a hand in that for sure he had all he had all the hand in that and you know
he said i'm gonna let you i'm gonna let you live let you feel a little i'm gonna let you feel
yourself for a second until you know life kicks you down because you if you want to get into the
music business or any type of entertainment business creative you better be tough-skinned
it yeah you better have tough skin if you don't have tough skin this is not for you and so i've
developed tough skin with a soft heart i like that yeah it's gonna be my new one i stick on to
no that's good i think that what impresses me is people will go i mean what you do is a lot more
accessible now than it was back then anybody can get a mirrorless anybody can you can go to best
buy right now and get the like like cinema or what people will not cinema you can't get cinema
now you can i can i haven't checked out right now right now you go right now all i know is that my
setup was completely attainable but i felt that i paid my dues before i did this one thing that
stuck out to me that like how long did it take you to call yourself a director took a while it was
after you were already directing like after you already had that title i mean once i i mean i
already had like a pretty hefty resume at that point and i it took me still took me a while to
because i will here's the thing is that i would study so because i was cool with different artists
i had uh i had the privilege of like okay i might not be the director of this video but because i'm
cool with this artist and he's recording a big video with this big director i will go and sit
and watch yeah and i go damn that's a director facts that's what i would go like wow that's
you know and a lot of them uh became now my peers uh i remember when i met uh you know famous latin
director and he you know this man is done way more than me you know what i mean yeah and when
i stepped on set with you know he was shooting a video for a friend of mine and he's a big artist
and but he was shooting it and that was the first time that we meet he knew who i was
yeah at least you know i thought i knew who he was and then i walk in he's like jack
he's like finally i get to meet you and then you know he showed me so much love and he became a
mentor you know anybody will look at it like yo why are you mentoring the competition and he's
i don't believe in the competition it's enough for everybody so he's you know he took me not
under his wing but like if i called him he would pick up the phone yeah and and you know for
everybody knows jose javi fiel you know i mean and he's super huge and um and we're real good
friends you know and you know it got to the point where you know we're peers now and we work you
know one minute he's working with the same artist and then the following week i'm working with that
artist and it's crazy because it's like we're we're now we're here right kind of like on the
equal playing field you know i still feel like he has he's he's attained much more and i'm proud of
him um but you know i studied i had the access to look and so i was very careful about the title
director that's why i was like i can't i can't just i can't just throw it around like what makes
a great director and then now i know what that answer is a director is not just somebody that
looks behind the screen and can uh say all right press the button now a director is in charge
of the entire orchestra the whole vision the whole orchestra so my job as a director is to have
an entire orchestra i'm the conductor and i gotta be able to know okay i know when the cello's got
to come in i know when the violin's got to come in i know when the i know when the you know the
bass got to come in you know what i'm saying that's all the director is is a just a grand
conductor you know and yeah absolutely and also i'm the energy of the set um people that have
worked with me on set on some big productions they see me at the very end and i look exhausted
like i'm talking about i will sit in the corner and just kind of catch my breath after a 16 hour
day yeah and and they you know the people that love me and are around me long enough know kind
of the routine what to do all right go get him his water go get him this going on that because
it's like i give forget 150 i give a thousand and fifty whatever that is like i go on i can't
imagine that kind of channeling i mean it's a real energy thing so when you're giving you're
sacrificing i mean you it takes a toll physiologically and physiology and psychologically
and physically right total right because i give so much i almost have to snap myself back into
reality it takes me like like a day or two after a big production to get back to okay i'm josh now
i'm not jack that's that's fast a day or two is fast that much energy i mean you might want to
give yourself a little grace yeah but you know i gotta keep working i know i know man there's a lot
that even besides all the inspiring and that's you know my show is not we're not name dropping
because my audience doesn't i mean they may not even be familiar it's a matter of what i've grabbed
and taken as well the good as well as the bad don't think it's your class when we saw how much
everybody in your industry works and you hear words like 16 20 hours 24 hours straight and i'm
like whether or not i make it to director i know i at least have the tough skin in my field of it
right and it's it's cool it's like you also want to emulate i remember we were at uh my brother's
keeper event and you wouldn't take coffee till the decaf came out how do you remember bro you
mind blow me you remember this stuff bro that's wild okay wow okay sometimes i can't remember
yesterday but just tell me if i'm lying you didn't drink caffeine no no right and uh i drink a little
now okay but there was a point where i wouldn't drink any caffeine and honestly i don't drink that
much now you know i mean i drink yeah a cup of coffee in the morning that's it but there's a
specific reason why you didn't drink caffeine and that stuck with me it's a drug it's a drug it's a
it's caffeine's a drug or any stimulus a drug you know what i mean and so i want to be as clear-minded
as possible i don't want to be overly stimulated or overly emotional when i'm working yeah i want
to be there i feel that i want to be there so you know i i during while i'm working it's water
and fruit that's it i just started taking that on recently and i'm fat so don't the audience
there's probably looking at where's the water and fruit yeah right here right this is the in
between sets i don't remember i don't remember eating fruit yeah no that's good though but i
think it's important for people to get the whole picture because it's easy for them to get and see
the glitz and the glamour and think that's what i want you know what i mean yeah but also to know
the family structure the you know you've raised adults and brought whole lives into this world
you know i'm one of my favorite songs right now you know who wrote it my son wow and it's literally
i listen to a lot of music yeah and it's you know what i mean it's i might ask he owns the right so
i might make it part of the podcast how old is your son now he's 15 i'm gonna play he's been
putting out music that's what's up i told him i'd introduce him to like phase one and them after he
puts out five tracks on his own because he was boxing for a little bit not that he doesn't
stick with things but i know what it's like when you're young yeah he still could drop an album
and then never make music a passion but since he's showing interest in it it's like uh you know
just kind of guide it but like you were talking about accomplishments where you could sit back
forget all the cool stuff for the podcast set i get to listen to somebody who created one of my
favorite things in the world which is music and i helped inspire that yeah so it's like you know
uh that's that's important too yeah thank you for giving all that no i appreciate it and uh
you're gonna do a track with your son listen he hasn't asked me yet so nothing will make you feel
older than your son dropping hits and he's not like yo dad you drop a 16s no no my son so my son
thankfully um you know and honestly it's funny because i used it kind of like a form of punishment
at first um uh his first report card came right you know so my son he always gets a little bit
lazy every year the new year starts he gets what i call like you know summer brain fart you know
what i mean where so the first report card comes and it's like you know i mean like i okay i gotta
grind them out again you know what i mean so it's fine you know i mean i think you know boys are
like that you know I was like that so I can't be too hard on him but I am first you know because
I got to be dad so he came home with a bad grade oh you know one bad grade everything was just kind
of okay so so I went and he's 10 and he knew I was disappointed and so actually when I found out
I was in Russia and my wife facetimes me when I was in Russia and I just I just I just landed in
russia and i said you are going to learn three songs on the piano and when i get back you better
play them like like so now he's on it but he's on it on his own it's like yeah i used it kind of
like a form of punishment the art yeah but it's because i wanted to get rid of like the video
game thing for a second you know and not to say that there's anything wrong with video games
because it does open up the brain you know i'm just yeah we got to be mindful there's got to be
balance for sure so you know mom and dad took away all the video games and no you're only playing
this this is the only thing you're gonna dedicate yourself to because he was making beats on my
little mpc in my studio and i'm like okay he has rhythm and so now he's on it you know what i mean
so i'm like okay i think he might follow in dad's footsteps in some sort of way you know so at least
that's my goal yeah hopefully i want his own journey if i can nudge it a little bit no you
gotta nudge it and you gotta let them like you said it already you gotta let them know it's
possible yeah and i think what if i could share something with you i have my son on this podcast
and we were streaming his music and i asked him what was your influence like is it nature or
nurture like are you into this stuff because i can't because he jokes he says dad i was there
when you started like when we tried on a cell phone to record with no key light yeah i'm good
shit yeah i'm good i keep thinking the cat said no like uh i had like a yellow light that i was
kind of using as a key light no angle and it was also um the it was like the tripod was on the
table that they were playing and doing so i was doing everything wrong yeah but i wanted to show
them they could get a video up on youtube i wanted to show them it was possible so he brought that
full circle and was like you're always around the mics it makes you happy like he take he got a paid
logo portfolio at 15 so i didn't know which part because i'm into the martial arts like if he would
have went and dedicated his work ethic yeah that he sees from me to martial arts then i would support
that yeah but there's got to be a level of show me you're into this and when he got his five tracks
he hit me with eight he wasn't even telling me i follow him on spotify and i'm like oh he got a
whole thing oh he's putting his own stuff on spotify he's distro kid owns his masters so he
learned how to upload his own stuff i mean you said nudge right that's what's up i nudged him
and i got him the interface but as far as like mixing he's been over recording a couple times
but he plays his own music engineers and you're gonna i know you're here in 15 i don't have my
phone hooked up but we're it's off because i'm no but when i play the music you're gonna be like
okay at least I just played my favorite song but it's one of those things where you don't know
what somebody's gonna do with the stuff that you say or the stuff that you take you rightfully so
don't know how much there's things that influenced or which parts I'm gonna take or not take or
whatever that's why when it's like okay we could do a class we can do this but I have that same
thing from you i didn't even call myself a podcaster i still call this a hobby and people
come in they're like it's you know you kind of took this somewhere so all right i don't even
like the term uh what is it what is it a content creator oh content creator i hate that word i hate
that word so much because i just created content yeah i guess so right it's on camera i just created
content again there's no bar for it like exactly there's no yeah that's my point so if somebody
just went and just did this all right what is it am i saw asmr videos whatever they're called
and they just do this just for the sound it's content creation and to me i mean okay i get it
you know but it's it has cheapened throughout the years it's cheap for sure and so and i don't even
like the term digital creator you know i don't like that either i facebook only lets you pick
three it's like you could be i know i know i know i get it i get it and so i gotta pick them i gotta
pick one yeah but i just think they're diluting profession in general i don't know if you saw
article uh today today was it there was an article today that the department of education
has took off nursing i did see that as a professional as a professional i'm like
that's foul you understand what i'm saying that's wrong you know what i mean like no that's that's
you know that's hard you know what i'm saying and that it's it's almost like where's the where's
the bars where's the levels you know how do we uh i mean you can't do it with numbers we know
this industry's never been like a numbers thing it's like i'm not i'm not one of those uh everybody
gets a trophy kind of guy that's cool i'm not i don't like that concept that everybody gets a
trophy no i think what we need back is that sense of uh competition and pride and also good
sportsmanship when somebody's doing better than you you congratulate them facts you know what i
mean like if they're doing something that might be out of the ordinary for them and they become
successful you know uh where you're like wow i didn't think that that guy will be
or or she will be doing her thing like oh man wow send the inbox you do it you know that's one thing
throughout the years tone is that you've always uh you know we don't talk every day i think yeah
You know what I'm saying?
But every six months or once a year, you'll hit me with a, yo, congratulations or something.
And little messages like that, it makes me feel like, wow, I'm on the right path.
You know what I'm saying?
And I have other people that do the same.
And I appreciate that.
You know what I mean?
So, but there has to be a level of competition, like healthy, healthy competition.
not like competition like uh that you hate you know i mean on the person or that you wouldn't
even work with them because i feel you can work with someone who is uh your quote-unquote
competition you know i'm saying it's when i say competition it shows you can measure yourself
you understand facts so you can measure yourself so that way i can go okay where do i need to
improve that's what i'm talking about not competition i gotta destroy them that's not
what i'm saying i'm saying so you can measure yourself and where you stand and you know and
learn too yeah you know i'm saying so uh you know like i said not everyone can get a trophy
now i'm 100 with that normally i don't like uh what they say not agree to disagree with my guests
like there's certain things i won't but i do come from that sportsmanship like you know and being
there when people start doing things because that's the thing that i love i don't i don't sit
there and scroll most of the time it's like because i engage with your stuff it pops up but like
i like seeing people doing things and i give people chances even on like threads or twitter
or something some like young person why is the internet so mean to somebody now i get if you
don't want labs to be shown or you have a like horizontal video i mean this is not one of those
arguments of what creation is because there's two ways to do an asmr video they could have it
mic'd up right and mix it or they could just so i kind of as a creator look at what's the level of
like heart and skill that was put into this i could look at one of my competition and tell if
they just took a job because they needed a check or if they were too rushed if they didn't allow
the work to come from the universe and not like be out like you can tell what's going on with
people so you kind of hold them accountable right that's why i like competition to to kind of
dovetail on what you're saying i like the accountability thing that you said i do i think
that's important um and you should have accountability and also have people around
you that's gonna be able to don't have yes men around you facts yeah i can't stand yes men around
me please don't be around me to stroke my ego the people that are around me they go yo they won't do
it in front of people out of respect but they might give me that call later on like you know
you jacked up you messed up on that one like you owe so-and-so an apology um yo in spanish
you know what i mean like yo you're a little bit too hype you gotta calm down you know what i mean
you know i'm saying you know and and i'm grateful for them you know what i'm saying and i don't got
to talk to them every day but they the ones that look from afar and uh yo bro you slipped up and
i'm gonna tell you why i'm gonna tell you why you slipped up and this and then i sit back and i go
word you know what you're right yeah my ego is not that big i love those people around
shout out to our mutual friend uh phase yeah phases phases told me yo you know you're really
not that interesting on camera like you know i mean like it's it's great yo phase one man so
i'm gonna tell you something on the podcast because i don't know huh you had him on his
multiple times yo phase listen bro because i we talk every once in a while you know whenever i
see he's i haven't seen him on facebook in a while though but when he used to go a little
while on facebook i used to call like yo bro you was you's a wild boy you know i mean like
you really out there you know what i'm saying and then uh but he gives me his reasoning
he's not dumb no he's not crazy he's very calculated what he's saying for sure and
there's a real meaning behind what he's saying some of it looks controversial from the front
door but when you walk through the whole house you go i get it now plus he spends way more time
than either of us learning about the things he's talking about so it's kind of hard to sum like a
four-hour podcast up in a post he's always been the guy to like do a lot of things i think nobody
uh at least in the lehigh valley uh i feel like he deserves a lot more credit than uh what he's
gotten you know what i mean super fast he's yeah he gets a level and you know there was a level of
shade that i've seen that you see people started giving him for saying his stuff that he would say
But it's like, did you engage in a conversation to find out why he thinks like that?
And not just that, if you engage in it and you realize that he did that on purpose and said it so you'd engage with it.
It's like if you let not the stuff see with me, it's a matter of music.
And when I interviewed him and took all this to his studio, I was actually listening to him a little earlier.
I called him today to see what's good.
And he told me to tell you, I don't want to mess it up.
i'll probably tell you off mike because i don't know what it means so you're his favorite
or something or favorite it was something better be uncle better be uncle it was honestly i didn't
plan on saying that on mike my phone's off when i record but i would have checked it out he said
it i was like all right i'll tell him but he's just being an asshole yeah no but i uh after
interviewing him and getting like because a lot of people wouldn't take that interview if you just
he's probably one of the greatest interviews
he could probably have he's freaking hilarious
oh yeah no it was good it was one of my
favorite that's why we've done it a couple times
yeah yo that's like he's got
another album coming up so I don't know why he don't have
a podcast of his own he should he do
he did he did he
we'll talk we're not gonna we're not gonna do
we're not gonna peer pressure you
Faze see this camera listen whatever
camera it's on right now
alright Faze
get on your shit son yeah
yeah we talked about it but now for real um the traveling the world you've said something and it's
the last thing i'll cue you said for every level there's another devil it's true is that still true
always yeah always um and and it gets uh harder the higher you go the harder it gets
the oxygen is thinner up top believe it you know i'm saying so so you're there because god put you
there and because you're doing work that god sets for you like so now i feel like for years i was
like why am i doing this okay like i would check myself like god is this really what i don't want
to be known as like just doing music videos for and not to say look i don't want what i'm about
what i am about to say is gonna sound maybe a little ungrateful it's not because i know it's
part of the process go ahead but you know there's a certain point that you have to outgrow certain
things so you know back in the day yeah when i first started i would do any video i did i would
do i would i didn't care if it was sedacious if it was guns blazing in the video you know rap videos
whatever was popping at the time you know what i mean it's been 16 years now i did it all right
and that's because the adrenaline rush of becoming something was you know blinding me
in a way at least that's what i thought until i realized yo nah god was preparing me
he was truly preparing me and he was like there's gonna be a time when you don't want to do that no
more and you're gonna work for me and when i tell you that time is coming and it's so i mean it's
pretty much landed you know what i mean yeah it's pretty much landed uh that's what's happening you
know so i say no a lot now to the point where financially the last couple years i was gonna
miyagi him i'm listening though so the last couple years you know financially it it's taking a toll
you know what i mean i can't sit here and lie to you and say oh yeah you know like it didn't take
it because when you start saying no your pockets start hurting a little bit and so you have to
readjust so i started readjusting and look where i'm at you know i mean i'm still here i'm still
grinding i've gotten more opportunities now that i probably would not have before i didn't say no
yeah you know i i said no to i have my phone so um this is the only name drop i'm gonna do i don't
like doing name drops but it's important to the story yeah so um i got him who's like a major
spanish artist he went on a seven wonders of the world uh trip and i was supposed to go
like I was supposed to go because I had an idea for a documentary for it and so from Russia I was
gonna go to Mexico and meet him and start from there and logistically things weren't just lining
up uh it could have if you know but I had to say no to something that I really wanted to say yes to
But it's like, I got to have the discipline to say no on this one, because even though it's a really dope trip and it's really amazing, I had to have the proper discernment to say no.
And I said to him, I was like, bro, this is probably one of the hardest no's I've had to give in a long time.
And because I said no to that, another opportunity opened up where I started doing, you know, like a Christian reality TV show.
You understand what I'm saying?
Not to say that what I was going to do with him was like bad because it was really good, but it was just, it would have been very taxing on my body.
It would have been very taxing on my mental.
It would have been, and I ended up in the hospital, you know, after Russia, I had a scare.
I thought I had a heart attack or a stroke.
and thank god it wasn't any of that it was just a pinched nerve but all that traveling
caused that facts so i had to say no and but the doors opened up for something else
for something that i'm like this is dope wow i didn't think i was going to be doing this
you know what i'm saying like this is amazing so it's like you have to learn and not be afraid to
say no, you know, and have the discernment to do it. Yeah. I'm working on that one. Yeah. I do say
no a lot, but I'm also, um, like I, a few, I'd say about a year, maybe two, three years, I've
been able to work with clients that I want to work with, which is a blessing in itself, which comes
with saying no to some but there's still a lot of like you said there's plenty of work out there for
everyone right like there's plenty of it so it's to the point where i won't even go out of my house
because i know if i carry that thing somewhere i'm gonna probably get asked about another job
at least just for the type of video that i'm doing it's events and stuff so i'm like i don't
want someone to see me that i owe something so i'll say no if i know i'm not gonna have it at all
but i recently came up on pretty much i mean call it what it is like the last stage of burnout like
i probably wouldn't be here if i didn't say no to everything yeah and i'm not gonna let that happen
again so i'm so different even just now i still have work to do but i don't need to be anyone or
anything. I love video work. I've been editing forever. And when I think back, I'm like,
yo, I edited my son's one year video. Like I'm the opposite of you. I will take 10 years before
I tell myself I'm good to go. I spent, instead of buying that camera, I took Jack's class
on lighting and video. And it was one of the things that not only taught me about that,
but about the business and let me see. And it was that final step that I needed because I was
carrying around old tech now i'm like okay i'm looking at that nikon and i've read the i saw
the thing you were saying about like content creators and now it makes more sense where
you're saying like yeah don't get an osmo or something um if you're just doing regular stuff
then just you know you don't have to spend money on expensive gear that's another thing i think
gear is overrated you know what i mean um gear is nothing for me just a tool chest you know i mean
so i have a tool chest right and i have my tools and each tool serves a purpose so that's how i
treat gear you know what i'm saying i don't have if if if it doesn't if i don't need it anymore and
i really don't use that tool anymore then that tool gets sold off because i don't need it like
i just finished selling like two cameras like right now because i'm like i don't need it like
rocking with these now you know what i'm saying so i'm not gonna be like why keep something in
a tool chest you know i mean like no do you feel like lets you like be mentally free not having
stuff how can really hell yeah man i'm gonna you know i've spent like i don't know like a quarter
million dollars on gear you know like something stupid gotta be over a quarter million in gear
yeah 10 years no i'm talking about that in the last the quarter million seven okay okay
the numbers make a little more sense now
in the last seven yeah and
now I'm like man
I became a gear junkie
at that you know I was addicted
it's a drug bro like I
had this bro you know that
I had this I have a whole podcast
yeah no I know that I've never
used I just wanted it
I just I'm about to put it
to use though so
now I will man I'll get
gear from the thrift shop I'll watch stuff
on eBay. I got a wishlist for stuff. I bartered a music video that I shot on a cell phone for this
SM7B and these two lights. Now that I have some clients and a gear that I could charge
somewhat professional rates, I'll upgrade for the stuff that I need. But I'll share some pictures I
took with like Teemu Lights, just understanding what I learned from your classes. I don't like,
that's one thing I don't like about the industry you've mastered is everybody's so hung up on
gear. And even like, like I said, how much time did somebody put into it? If I see a 15 year old
on Tik TOK, that's running in the bathroom, changing clothes and makes a video that looks
like they're like, I'm not going to be like, well, that's, that's Tik TOK, the medium. She
made that art for whatever, you know, you found a very specific niche. We could turn this into
business advice for how you pretty much carved out the niche and moved out of this area yeah
no i was very adamant um because i was a music lover first you know for those that don't know
i used to be a rapper i was listening to uh mob deep rest in peace yeah prod yeah prodigy for
sure and so i actually i was a producer so i know how to make beats i still know how to make beats
um and then you know i rapped and i did the whole you know the whole phases of music and i even
knew how to record at one point but um video really stuck to me and i'm like okay this is
what's gonna open up the doors the music video business was gonna open up the door to everything
else and that's exactly what happened like it opened up the door to everything else um i
cultivated real relationships um i'm very mindful of uh not being the groupie kind of you know
person i i won't give nobody that kind of power or authority over me don't take pictures with
artists and stuff i mean if you find on my instagram you it's because they weren't no no
it's because no it's because uh you know have you seen me taking a picture side by side with an
artists yeah uh it's because either they really wanted it with me and we have a real mutual
friendship um or that my crew sometimes they like you have to promote yourself and i'm like
no i don't like the behind the scenes professional photos and videos that i hire
that's how i promote myself you know i mean so every once in a blue moon they'll go
you know everybody's kind of like joyful and i always try to run away from that moment yo jack
let's all take a picture bro and i and i and i run like right outside because i like to have my
moment anyway um and they just drag me back and they go no and then the artist i know you're
taking this photo it's a moment you know i don't like doing that you know i just feel i don't know
it's kind of weird i don't know maybe i'm kind of stupid about it um but you you're you've been
around the world you've experienced different cultures once you start realizing that some of
the stuff that matters to people here don't really matter to them over there right i think you embody
somebody who is well-rounded and cultured you know you visited the tomb of jesus you know
not only taking your camera places but you filled your soul with stuff you know i can
understand god saying you'll be all right if you just do what i put in front of you and trust it's
that faith that you know yeah no and you know the israel trip was crazy like um that was this year
like i said it was my 50th year and i every year i would you know you ever do the whole uh what is
it vision board a long time ago yeah yeah so i used to do one every year every january i'll go
okay, I would do a vision board of like,
maybe like eight to 10 things that I wanted to do
or accomplish for the year.
This year, I didn't have one.
I literally said none.
Oh, that's wild.
No vision.
So you're saying no goals.
I thought you were talking about the actual board
where you put pictures.
No, no, I usually have goals that I want to accomplish.
And then this year I said, no.
Okay, facts.
This year, I wanted to see how 50 was going to treat me.
Where was it going to take me?
And this year it took me to some places that were on my bucket list.
Went to Australia.
I've always wanted to go to Australia.
How was that?
It's dope.
It's dope.
Super clean.
Far.
Far.
It's 12 hours opposite of us, right?
No, it's like 21, something like that.
I know.
Okay.
So when I, I did a kind of a romantic shout out to my wife.
I got kudos for this.
So, uh, I went to the Sydney opera house when the sun was rising and I FaceTimed my wife to say, Hey, I wanted you to watch tomorrow's sunrise with me today.
So this is, I'm calling you from the future.
You know what I mean?
And so watch the sunrise with me.
So she thought it was kind of cute and romantic, you know what I mean?
And then it was morning time or midday, something like that.
It was like, she just woke up.
I know she just woke up on her end, you know, I think it was like 10 in the morning, 11.
I remember because I remember her face, you know, she was like, oh, so, but she thought
it was cute.
You know what I mean?
I actually took a FaceTime screenshot and, you know, it was cool.
So I got to do that.
That was on my bucket list along with all the other countries that I visited this year.
And then I, one of my bucket lists was Israel.
i've always wanted to go to israel and uh it was an emotional trip uh the crazy thing is is that
when we got there literally coming out of the airport the double doors open
the first foot that i step on and the missile sirens go off like the missiles you know like
my god yeah i know what you're saying i'm saying like so yeah i'm not laughing i'm like wow it's
like no joke and so we you know the the police and everybody's like you know we gotta run to
a bomb shelter so we literally like i'm with my luggage fresh into israel running into a bomb
shelter at the airport like right outside like the double doors and i really because we were
taking a train to another city called haifa which is about a hour north of in israel israel's not
big so um we're in this bomb shelter and and i'm like yo this is really happening right now i took
video of all this you know what i mean like this is all vlogged you know like this is all my stash
because we're doing a documentary of like the whole year that we've done and so that's fire
and i'm like these people seem way too relaxed for for for a whole uh bomb shelter missile sirens
going off kind of thing and so uh i'm watching people and they're on their phone not calling
family like hey no i'm talking about like if life is regular so i just think those people live
gangster forget gangster over here there's levels of gangster so after like 30 minutes you know i
guess they intercept the missile and then off you go they treat it like an afternoon i always say
They treat it like an afternoon Florida thunderstorm.
It's like a fire drill.
Everybody line up here.
Yeah.
And, you know, we went on the train.
And when I got on the train, I sat down.
I'm huffing and puffing because I'm, like, carrying luggage and all this stuff and backpacks and gear.
And I walked through the train because I had to go to the bathroom.
I'm kidding you.
Five minutes after all that happened, we're on the train and I'm going to the bathroom.
Nobody.
Nobody.
nobody was on the phone saying such and such like nobody cared not saying they didn't care but
it was like our level of care versus their level of care it's it's and so then uh you know the
first night that i was there um i woke up at 6 30 in the morning for whatever reason and this is
the first time i publicly share this so you're gonna get super exclusive right now you need me
turn the mic off nah all right back oh no no no so at 6 30 in the morning uh the sun was rising
so the people i was we was in an airbnb so the people i was that they weren't out cold they
were tired and so but for some reason i woke up at 6 30 in the morning so a couple hours of sleep
my mind was saying something well my mind was like what's going on my mouth i was never the
person to believe in speaking in tongues i never did never believed in it i thought that was
nonsense okay so you actively thought it was nonsense you didn't yeah throughout my whole life
not just you never experienced or heard of it no no i mean i you know i would go to church and i
that's nonsense that's nonsense and then i wake up at 6 30 in the morning and i'm just
saying a bunch of gibberish at least you know and i kept saying the specific thing
over and over and over and over again my mind was my mind was saying what are you saying
as in like joshua ramirez jack right you know i mean was conscious of like he's not saying he's
not in control of his mouth yeah you were aware it was just like i'm just rapid fire you know what
i'm saying and so i wrote down as best as i could the pronunciation of a particular word that kept
coming you know and i'm glad that i was allowed to remember that so you know i go on search engines
and i'm like okay what could this possibly mean i didn't go on chat gpt i went on the google
you didn't go on chat gpt no no no i didn't go on chat gpt i went on google not to say that's
no different but so but you know just you know trying to see you know piece together you know
what could it possibly mean and said uh it sounds like you're not speaking in language that you know
is obviously from now it sounds like you're speaking an ancient language and it could
possibly mean this and it said uh the fire of god is calling you now the fire and the spirit of god
is calling you to rise and something else but i was like yo that's crazy that happened to me in
the first night that i was there in israel and then a couple days later we end up going to
jerusalem and when you go to jerusalem you have to pass like the border of palestine
so i've seen like some real stuff you know what i'm saying that will humble your soul
to go to the gas station well it looked like a gas station because it looked like a couple
bombings happened for sure but it was a functioning gas station and i really i asked the driver i said
dude how long do we have before uh we get to jerusalem because i gotta pee you know i'm saying
like i really gotta go to the bathroom he's like this is not a good place to stop i'm like i don't
care i'm not gonna make it you know what i'm saying like stop and so we stopped at this gas
station which was real sus like the kids say right now yeah and uh I go into the bathroom I
I saw the old man at the counter I'm like toilet you know and he just kind of pointed but when he
pointed that man looked at me like you definitely do not belong here right now you know yeah yeah
um but I went real quick and then when I got out the driver was like you know I looked around me
and I'm like yeah there's definitely people here that are not happy that I'm here you know what
i'm saying and so i got in the car but then 30 minutes later you get to jerusalem and
it's a completely different world it's like you got jewish people muslim people and christian
people all living in jerusalem in harmony like you know a jewish person took us you know to hey
we're going to my friend's restaurant or whatever and you know and it was a muslim you know i'm
saying like it's like it wasn't like uh that i didn't feel at least i didn't didn't feel that
level of separation among religion uh for sure everybody seemed to get along and respect their
hey this is my religion and this is mine and this is mine we live here and we're cool you know
and then uh so we did the whole tour of jerusalem and all that and then you know ended up going to
the tomb yeah and yeah I'm gonna tell you right now whoever don't break down there don't got a
soul if you're a true believer yeah you know and you don't have a breakdown there of some level of
I mean I cry for like an hour hour and a half it's uncontrollable you go in there and you just
start spit firing as much prayer as you can and i didn't pray for myself i didn't like whoever was
popping in my head at that moment because you only get a certain amount of time in there because you
know it's a tourist and i don't even go at a time where it's too packed but i was just rapid firing
you know prayers for whoever was popping in my head they got one they got one they got one they
got one you know what i mean um and then i got out oh let me reverse the story because it gets
even better so to go into the tomb you can't wear ripped jeans and you can't wear shorts so i
actually wore shorts so to get inside the tomb you have to wear long pants so it was actually
a jewish person who came up to me and was like you didn't come all this way to not go in there
because i was actually about to not go in there i thought you omitted this part of the story
i wasn't gonna i wasn't gonna bring that up but that's another one of those things you posted that
yeah i did post up with me like yeah yeah i did post that so that man he he gave me his pants
i went in you know i mean and then i came out this is the part that i didn't omit you know
where you know like i got out he saw me emotional and he hugged me and he cried and he's like you're
my brother now i don't know this man you know what i'm saying like i just met him i know him
but you know he knew how important it was to me even though he doesn't recognize
jesus as his messiah right all right he knew how important it was to me right and that was the
human being inside of him that said i have to honor that for him and he did and so i'm grateful
for him you know what i mean and i'm still in contact with him to this day um but that's amazing
yeah still in contact with him yeah yeah absolutely it's funny because he actually looked like jesus
that's funny like it's kind of chubby jesus but he was because you know obviously i gotta fit his
pants, but, uh, yeah, yeah. He's a, he's a good guy. And, uh, so, you know, I, I got out of there
and, and, you know, I was calling my mom on FaceTime. Like, you know, I try to like incorporate
every time I go somewhere that's like Epic, I FaceTime my mom because my mom, you know, she's,
she's afraid of flying, you know, and, and, and she's older now, you know what I mean? So
there's certain things that maybe she wanted to see or accomplish and you know she she she lives
vicariously you know through me that's fine and so i may get a point to facetime my mom wherever i go
my wife wherever i go my daughter you know what i'm saying my son if he's not in school at the
time yeah i'm calling because i'm like look where daddy's at yeah you know what i mean look where
your son is at you know look where your husband's at you know my sisters i call i facetime my
sisters as well who you know my immediate family get those calls because i want them to see like
you know this does exist so you've been doing god's work for a while not only inspiring people
you may not even know but literally showing the world and showing like uh taking the care for
vision and for making people feel things obviously there's niche and business that you have to do if
this is what you choose to do but you are literally like i don't say making people famous
you always say i'm famous enough which is super dope there's the hat i usually wear every day
do you wear that every day mostly every day i mean i've been training off with this one and uh
and the famous enough one those are the two ones i wear the most now that's cool i'm not gonna take
it or say it but i i feel that way i'm like listen man if i meet you now it's because god put you
there. I'm not out looking for the person that I need to meet. Yeah. This year has been amazing
with the people I met. I interviewed the original vibe coder on this podcast a few months ago,
and now everybody's talking about vibe coding, vibe marketing. So we're going to be able to
look back when Rene goes and builds what he's been building. He's doing meetings in UK,
building something crazy. Nobody listens to the podcast now, but I'm creating a, I mean,
people listen thank you everybody listening and tuning in we're going a little over an hour here
but you get what i'm saying like he is documented saying things like ai in these sectors is going
to make a billion dollar company and it's funny because right on my instagram right now is like
predictions i made about ai and chad gpt and you know like it's it's nuts so how do you feel about
how do i feel about ai truthfully as a person who's you know dude you're a designer creative
you know so are you asking me how i feel about it on a human level are you asking how i feel about
it on an art level generally just generally you know like overall because there's a mixed feelings
of everything yeah no i'll take a stand on it i feel that there's money on both sides both fear
and both making it happen i think that the military is invested in training these things
I think that there's a much bigger picture, but when I went looking for how humans are going to
interact with AI, there's no roadblock. So I haven't publicly talked about the Nexus network,
but this will be a thing we're building. I'm in touch with vibe coders, AI enthusiasts that are
actually in the rooms helping this stuff get built. I'm going to get him like after the
podcast. Sorry. Excuse my French. I got to cut that. I'm going to cut that out so we can get
monetize. No, no, like without even getting on a soapbox, I'm helping to create how humans
interact. I feel that's part of my calling. I asked Chad GBT, how much do I use you based on
publicly available data? It told me I'm probably in the top 5%. So when I realized that this
company is putting out features that I've not only been asking for, but saying, this is how
humans could use this better who i don't want to say like johnny apples i don't know who the guy is
that like bridges worlds but i feel part of my calling is to help take people's fear away from
ai okay because they need to embrace it now is you you can't put the genie back in the bottle
so regardless of how you feel about it the genie's out of the bottle you can either choose to not
use it because you feel which i get because i'm all for creators and artists that's why i pay
for music that's why my son owns his masters so i'm on the side of the creator but i'm also on
the side of what ai can do for humans so i have my take on it like i just uh it's as simple as this
um we gotta be mindful of that uh we keep our human emotions that we control that we gotta be
you know what i'm saying we got to control the emotion on the ai and also okay you know about
classic cars muscle cars things like that a bit no but i'm just saying like you know it's kind of
cool it's kind of cool when you see one right yeah it's like oh look at that dope car right
look at that classic 1960 something or 70 something car guy but i appreciate how much
love they put into the yard back right and so those guys are still around they don't use the
new technology they're using the technology from 1950 60 70 to create that car to come into the
original way you know i'm saying and to keep it original um to keep it exclusive so i feel like
what's gonna happen with ai is like okay all right that's ai nonsense so that's gonna go over here
and that's going to be monetizable and yes great that makes a lot of money and and if you're able
to use it go ahead i i'll use it but i'm also classic too and i know how to separate it because
you're still going to want that classic facts so sure just know that people still want a classic
car and for anybody listening i've been public about it the last seven logo jobs that i did
one of them asked for ai four of them brought me ai concepts only one of them went with ai
assisted everything five of them took my human concept which was simpler easier to convey a
message so look will it get to a point that if you can accurately say what you want sure but
tippies i don't even think it's called tippies no more but they're still washing cars by hand
on Sumner okay there's oh yeah yeah yeah yeah people still want that detail care absolutely
yeah how many years ago could we have done this via StreamYard or any of this I mean where people
forgot what I did oh yeah like no it's like like I had to take rap forever off the like
do you understand it's like I I was way ahead of my time now this is where the little bit of
flex happens this is my flex it's late in the game you can say this from my little room in my house
when i lived here in the in a basement room yeah all right i did this in 2009 with tug mcgraw shout
out to tug mcgraw with boog nasty shout out to boog nasty you know i'm saying we did that
like for real you know i'm saying we used to have the guests in the microphone i was a guest
I know I know that's what I'm trying to tell you
like we did this you know what I'm saying
ULive I think it was and nobody had heard
of what or you did something and then moved
it to ULive so no so ULive
was uh you can
put it anywhere got you so I
built the website therapforever.com
yeah yeah and then I would just
the ULive thing was there
yeah it was like embedded
and shout out to my guy Tony Duncan
yeah shout out Tony
we can't mention like
bro i gotta hit up so many people because tony wanted to chill me today too man but
it's like i'm some unlimited time now yeah we're gonna start to land the plane chill for a little
bit afterwards but wrap up for sure no but uh yeah like it's crazy that i did this in 2009
and now this is the medium the this is the way it is now yeah people are building podcast studios
and making a killing shout out to chino out there he's building a podcast studio
chino gomez the podcast house i was just featured on a shout out to so laura podcast on that men's
mental health he called me he called me today you know and i'm you know hopefully i can get with him
you know what i mean um but you know i haven't been here in so long it's like i'll go i'm gonna
have to make another trip to come up here that's why i can tell you i appreciate you making the
time to you've asked me for a while and you even said that you were willing to do it virtually but
no i wasn't no that's people still like that old like it's we we hit we could end right now and
this is a banger you know so it's like it worked out the way it was i'm glad we didn't do it last
night get interrupted yeah yeah you know last night was a little crazy even today was a little
crazy for me but i'll have ai take the fly out you know or make them bigger be like yo he's right
here right right here all this all these gems you dropped and like that's gonna be the clip that
goes viral yeah no but uh as far as the lehigh valley it holds a special place in my heart um
i've always loved this place as far you know i it's my start of my like my career you know what
i mean and you know um i i take it literally i take it with me i mean i i literally take it with
me you know you've been in my house right in florida i mean dude i still hang up the lehigh
valley you still have that tug uh heard about me video like the set you had it in your presentation
at least for the class i did i know you didn't forget i don't forget it's very important to me
not to forget and um and all the artists that worked with me back then that you were you know
you didn't realize what you were cultivating with me you know trusting me with your visuals
um you were doing god's work without even knowing it too you know what i'm saying even though it was
a little crazy you know what i'm saying yeah but it was all part of the plan you know what i mean
so i think that's the best way to end this off you know what i mean yeah i normally tell people
drop your socials but you own google guys just google jack nine over a billion views
worked with plenty of artists traveled the world it's a seven billion now seven billion something
like that some crazy thing like that yeah at this point just say over a billion because it's it's
it's just say just yeah it's you know how much a billion is i know but what i'm saying is it's
like i've done the math and seven yeah seven billion billion people have seven billion people
i'm not gonna say seven billion people seven billion views seven million views as far as uh
people that have streamed or whatever something that i've done you know and i didn't realize
how impactful it was until i started going to different places and some of these fans they're
like super fans so when i started going to south america and you got kids waiting outside and i'm
thinking they're waiting for the artists yeah they are but they're also waiting for me like yo jack
i'm like they're pulling out all the videos that i was doing and that's so i'm signing autographs
And I literally told him, I was like, you know, in Spanish, I'm like, you know, I ain't shit, right?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, I ain't really shit.
You know what I mean?
I mean, it's great that you're humble and keep that and stuff, but.
No, it was cool.
And I got to bond with them.
Exactly.
So I get to bond.
I remember I was in Ecuador and I was like, yo, what you guys do around here?
Take me around.
And they ended up giving me the tours.
Like, it was like 20, like 18, 19, 20 year olds.
You know what I mean?
They were so, they were so excited.
Yeah, I can imagine.
And they're FaceTiming their friends or whatever. And, and I'm walking with them and they're taking me to the tourist spots and, and I enjoyed my time there. I had a good afternoon hanging out with them, you know what I mean? And, and because I gave my time to them, do you know how much they probably, you know, feel good? You know, maybe they inspired, you know, maybe I molded a kid there, you know, into doing something amazing. I don't know. You know, I hope, I pray I did, you know?
so and that's really it man it's just like i just want everywhere i go i just want to be like that
light like light for for god like and say yo look at this guy like he's you know he works with this
people but you know your shirt says it be a good human i wasn't sure if you read it or not man
this is it this is this is what it is be a good human thank you for listening to another episode
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