Unbankable with Alex Shvarts

Welcome to Unbankable, the podcast for entrepreneurs who won't take no for an answer. I'm Alex Schwarz, and today we're talking about something that's reshaping the creative economy. How artists are building business empires that go far beyond their art. Because here's the reality. Being talented isn't enough anymore. The artists who thrive are the ones who think like entrepreneurs and build multi-revenue streams. Let's dive in. Today on Unbankable, I'm joined by Shifa, a music artist, a serial entrepreneur who's built his brand around the concept of being timeless, creating classics every day while building businesses that extend far beyond music. With over 250,000 followers on Instagram and a growing presence across streaming platforms, Shifa has turned his music, his artistic platform into a launching pad for multiple ventures. What makes Shifter different? [music] He's not just making music and hoping for the best. He's strategically building a business ecosystem where his music, his brand, and his entrepreneurial ventures all work together. See, I just said all that with with in one breath like a musician. He sings a song, he plays a note, and it doesn't stop. Almost like opera. Nice. [snorts] And so, Shifter represents the new model of artist, entrepreneur, someone who's building a sustainable wealth by diversifying beyond just their creative output. He's here to share how artists and creatives can turn their passion into a profitable business empire. Shifa, thank you for joining me. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Little uh music uh just drum roll. Oh my god. Oh, I love that. You know I have drums in the office. Did you see my drums in the office? You play drums? No. All right. Last guy said he played drums. I took him to the drums and he choked. He choked. He didn't do it. But he loved me. He loved me. He didn't expect to have drums here, right? Nice. All right. So, thanks for having me, Alex. Thank you. Thank you for being here. So, let let's let's really talk what this is about. So, um we're entrepreneurs. Absolutely. You're just talented and I'm hardworking. That's the big difference between us. You're probably hardworking too, but you like you have a gift, right? Like I believe people in music are talented. It's a it's God-given. It's, you know, something I don't have. Um, [laughter] but um, you know, one thing that we always have to deal with, especially in music or an entrepreneur or building a business, is no. Okay? So, I'm here to help business owners, entrepreneurs get past no. So, let's talk about the last no you heard. Um, honestly, I have a saying. If I don't ask, it's already a no. Okay, I like that. Yeah, I apply to anything. I mean, you know, at any opportunity, you know, you see a beautiful girl out and you don't know her from anywhere. You don't ask her if she wants to go to lunch or hang out. It was already a no. So, it doesn't make a difference to me personally, you know. Okay, you asked her to go to lunch and she still said no. Life goes on. My day continues. It was I wasn't planning to walk past and see this beautiful girl today anyhow. So, it was already a no. See, I was planning to have a fantastic day to meet beautiful people. They don't have to be just good-looking. Beautiful people to me are just beautiful people. Doesn't matter how they look. Uh I see beauty in everyone. I see something good in everyone. I mean, unless until they do something where the bad overcomes the good. Um, but no, there we do get no. I know you hear no%. So, I guess what I'm trying to give people that are listening to us right now, your fans, your following, and that, you know, the seven people in my family who watch this podcast, um, you know, I want to give them tools how to deal with no. So, I know you heard no. I know you try to close a deal. I know you try to get something done and you heard no. What I'm trying to get from you right now is and I heard it a little bit. You just move on, right? You don't let it. But sometimes it's a big no. Well, let me I'm going to give you a story. Okay. And just to help you. Perfect. I'm at a conference two months ago. I was one of the opening panel speakers and then they bring on this guy Dan Marino. You ever heard of Dan Marino? Imagine. Right. So, you know, I get up to ask a question and my question to him was this. I said, "You know, Dan," I said, "You lost the biggest game of your life, right? He only made it, you know, one time to the Super Bowl. He lost." I said, "You lost the biggest game of your life. How'd you get up the next morning, continue doing this for years to come, right?" And whatever he answered, so there are some big nos. There are lifechanging nos that we hear in business that we have to overcome. And I'm sure you had one or two. Absolutely. So you don't have to tell me the nos, but you can tell if you want you can. But I want to hear about how you overcame it and kept going. Well, what I will touch on is, you know, the beginning of your conversation in terms of let's just say natural talent then. Let's let's start there. So, you know, I I was introduced into music. My dad was a producer, you know, um as a young child. I was on tour. My dad You're still young, so Well, trying to be. [laughter] I'm a child. But but um my dad, you know, found a lot of, you know, the uh I guess in today's world, you know, legends like Lady Saw, General Degree in the old school reggae platform. So as a kid, four or five years old, I was already on tour with him, you know, just carrying the backpacks, whatever they needed. Hey, hey, go get the some water kid and come back, you know, like. So, I grew up in the music industry, you know, and as a teenager, um, one day I I decided to say, "Hey, you know, I want to go into being a DJ, like playing music." Um, so I went to my dad, "Hey, for my birthday, can you give me some turntables, XYZ?" He's like, "All right, I'll think about it. You know, how serious are you?" Long story short, I started DJing up until maybe like my junior year, maybe like 14, 15, and I started getting a passion for creating music as an artist more so than I did for being a DJ. And then in the Jamaica and the Caribbean, we call them selectors cuz a DJ, funny enough, in Jamaica is referred to as an artist. So if you're a DJ, you're actually a musician. But you're a selector, that means you play the music. Uhhuh. So, I don't want to confuse you by saying DJ. No, no, that's okay. You know, my musical career in the beginning, to be honest with you, when I first started and I was in a group, it was three of us. I never forget it because a lot of times when we do songs, you know, a lot of people would say, "Hey, man, you're kind of like, you know, your your part is like the least best or my least favorite on it." And it it to me it was a no. it would meant, okay, it means I gotta try harder and keep working harder at having a better part on the song for the group. And you know, fast forward past that, you know, eventually everybody went on to do their own solo stuff and their projects. And in the beginning of my career, to be honest with you, you know, right out of high school, a lot of times I would ask DJs, "Hey, I got this new song. Can you play it for me?" They'd be like, "Yeah, yeah. I get around. I see what I could do. I listen to when I can listen to it or I'll play when I can play it. It was a lot of notes. It was a constant note actually. So, I sat back and I'm like, man, like I'm working hard in the studio. I'm recording music. I've, you know, I've gotten better at, I guess, my talent to become a better artist or better songs, but I'm still having a lot of nose in getting my music out there and getting it played. So, one day I sat back and I said, you know what? I'm going to do an event. I'm going to do a party, a single release party to at least guaranteed getting my song heard once and for all. Um, and that was the whole purpose of the event, right? Um, and that's when I created a company. I don't even remember the year, 2003, 2004, Timeless, which is still my company to this day. Um, you know, and I wanted something that I felt like could last forever. Um, so I put on I created the company 20 years ago. 20 plus. I created the company. It's timeless. It is 20 plus. I created the company. I put this party on or did the flyers back in the days was flyers and promotional CDs. That's when people actually played CDs, right? Promoting the party event. And in the CD, I put the song in there, you know, to get people kind of familiar with it. And it was all based around me just finally getting one of my songs to be played to be heard. And to be honest with you, that was where my career began from not hearing all the nos because it was more or less like, okay, I'm going to hire the DJs. I'm going to pay them to come play and I just have one request at some point in the night, you know, in the prime slot of the night. I would like you to promote this or play this song and tell them it's my song. And that was the whole purpose of the event. So, you know, I went on from there to do multiple events. I mean, we started doing, you know, monthly parties, weekly events, you name it. And I built a lot of relationships with DJs through actually having to become the promoter, right? The person to put on the events to get my music out there. Um, you know, and after a while, you know, a few years, it paid off. I finally got a breakthrough song. uh built a lot of good relationship with a lot of DJs and you know the music you know left Miami where I'm from grew up at the school at and started traveling to the Caribbean to Europe certain parts. So are you a a musician who does business or a businessman who makes music? I would honestly have to say a businessman who does music because like I said a while ago, I don't I don't truly feel I mean I've heard it many times over the years like you're talented, you make really good music, but I don't feel like it began that way. I don't feel like I just one day got up and went into the studio and had hit records or had music that everybody really liked. I I I crafted it. I worked at it. It was like a an athlete who had to go to the gym constantly, right, to be in shape. That's what it was. Look, music, making money on music is hard. Absolutely. Right. I mean, you got to have you're either like, you know, the the 1% of the 1% or, you know, you got to keep making hits, but you it it's hard and people don't realize that, you know, even the people that have a hit or two, man, they're broke. Like, they're straight up. So you're making more money from ancillary stuff, whether it's touring, whether it's concerts, whether it's promotions, whether it's appearances. Right. So what would you say today? How are you leveraging your music experience to create revenue streams? Well, I'm going to give you a story going back to like I said when I began my career going back to I don't know almost 20 years now. You know, my first breakout record I was probably 21 22 and I actually You're trying to tell us you're 40. Yeah, I'm up there. Yeah. Yeah, you're up there. I'm up there. Yeah, pretty close. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to be quiet [laughter] then. But you know, I'm going be honest with you. Listen, when I says I'm up there, oh my god, I'm really going to be be quiet right now. When I did the record and the record actually blew up right here in Miami, um I started getting calls to do shows in Europe cuz the record uh was made which record was that? Tell us. It was called Ganja Shop. Ganja Shop. Ganja Shop. I don't know if you remember 50 Cent had Candy Shop. Yeah, you created Ganja Shop. I remixed it and I put it to a Ganja version. I like that. Yeah. And the record got so wild. Yeah. Trust me. Ganja shop. You got a vinyl of that? Uh, I did. I don't know where though. I'm going to have to look though. I'm going to buy the vinyl. You're going to sign it. I'm going to put it up on my wall. Dope, man. You got a shop. I like that. Ganja shop. The record got so big in Europe at some point. I think the Universal 50s label was calling to say, uh, you guys are not playing the original anymore. You're not playing 50 Cents version that we're promoting. What is this new version? And they called Tough Gong, which is the Marley's family, and they were like, like, "What is this?" And remember that was my first record. So to be honest with you, did it also go I'll take you to the ganja shop. Just like that. Just like that. I'll take you to the ganja shop. Well, I'm going to get a little sign put on one of the guys stand over here. He's ganing out all day long. But all right, go ahead. Ganja shop. Ganja stop. Ganja shop. That's like you can have that's a brand right there. Ganja something. But but that's what happened. The record took off in Amsterdam, right? Because Because in Amsterdam, they have coffee shops. So the coffee shops, which we know sell marijuana and cannabis. Yeah. They were the first market that took the record and prostitutes. The coffee shop sells also, right? So the record got so big in Amsterdam, then it traveled to Belgium and so forth. So what I did was my first tour and at the time I was a brand new artist. I was young. my first tour, first anything really. The record just took off. I'm in Europe. I'm doing like five shows. And you know, back then it wasn't like obviously I had, you know, a massive budget. I was being paid. I was just, okay, all right, I'll take that for that show. I'll take that. So, I went over there, did the shows for a month, and I come back and this is my first real money I've made after investing so many year few a few years, two, three years. It felt great. It felt really good. But what I realized though even at that age extremely beginning of I guess you say the the music industry was that I noticed it took me almost 3 years to generate any revenue. So for me sometimes it takes a lifetime for me right it took that loan just to go on tour and make any money. So, I came back with this money and I'm looking at it like, wow, do I want to gamble and put all this back into my career or my music or do I want to diversify and do something else with it? And that was at a young age, the first of money I really made off the music, the fork I was stuck with, right? And and what I end up doing was I took half the money and I put a down payment on my first house and I took the other half of the money and I reinvested in my music. Okay. So very smart. So what I did was I realized at that young of age at 22 I think it was I bought my first house. I bought it pre-construction. Pre-construction. And I continued the other half of the money in my music. Two years later, that house Are you telling me you own the land that we're sitting on right now? I mean, is that what you're telling me? 20 years ago, you bought this land I'm sitting on. I'm actually sitting with my landlord right now. No, no, I wish I did cuz you have a beautiful office, by the way. So, yeah. One day, this is not my building. This is inspirational. But what I did and I noticed very young in the game is that two years later, that house had doubled in value. I had made six figures in equity in the appreciation of that of the house and my buddy, which still to this day is a friend was a banker at the time, was like, "Hey, why don't you take a line of credit or equity out against the house and go buy another pre-construction or another real estate opportunity?" And that's what I did. So, two years later, I used that money and bought a second house. and the money I'd invested in my music, just being honest and transparent, I hadn't had another hit record. So, I hadn't gone back on tour. I hadn't made or generated the kind of money that the other half of my money did for me two years ago. Sure. So what it what it did and what it began and stemmed from me at a young age in the music industry is I was started to use some of the money from now my other investment to continue funding my music career and my businesses to get another hit because really and truly unless you have a hit record. Did you get another hit? I did. I did shortly after maybe like three four years later. Chasing the Dream though. You didn't give up, right? Chasing the Dream. So, okay. You know, I guess you know what was the name of the second hit? The name of the second hit after that was on a a rhythm. It was called Like This Before. It was on like a It was a very famous rhythm that one of the songs blew up on. Um and then I went on to do, you know, other records with collaborating with other, you know, major artists. Um to this day, I've done stuff with Two Short. I actually did Two Short's first regga song ever. He never did a regular song up until recently. I did a song with him. I did song Did you do anything with 50 shekels? 50 Cent. 50 shekels. Oh, who's that? [laughter] Who is that? [gasps] 50 shekels is actually 50 cents, but in in in Hebrew. But anyway, it's the in Yiddish. It's the Israeli. It's the all Jews in the all Jews in the studio audience today. I just want to tell you, right? I'm just joking. 50 shekels. But anyway, um Okay. [clears throat] I do like the perseverance from hearing that, but there's a there's a deeper story there. Um, you realize pretty quick that, you know, you need an asset that can grow for you that you can leverage um instead of, you know, going by and bling. Yeah, that was you went out and you bought some real estate and you started to to grow in that. And I tell that to young people today. All right, you made a dollar. Yeah, you should enjoy life. Go buy something. Go buy some fancy clothes, whatever. But that should be like 15 cents of that dollar. Absolutely. Maybe another 10 cents on going out. 30 cents you got to put away for a rainy day. But 50 cents of that back to 50. It's like 50 shekels day. Uh 50 you got to put into something that can can build uh stability and long-term wealth. And it sounds like you you caught on to that really early. Absolutely. And it sounds like it worked for you. So music is hard. takes a lot of time and it's I know how hard music is more than more than you can imagine. But how do you manage you're still involved in you know that that world but you're also managing other companies. So, how do you balance and you seem like a very focused, balanced person, by the way. I don't I don't see that much emotions out of you. Like I think you're very also methodical in what you do. You think things through. Absolutely. Which is very important for the, you know, young people or old people that are listening to us or watching us. Um, how do you find time? How do you wake up in the morning? How do you balance the time? Okay, I got to do this because a lot's going on, right? And then you found time to come sit with me for a few minutes. So, how do you find the time? And what do you how do you pray? What tools do you use to prioritize your day? Honestly, I mean people who know me very well, I'm I'm very [snorts] uh calculated. Like my schedule is made literally the week before. So I keep it on my notes. Like I literally know, okay, next week Tuesday, I got to take care of the car insurance. Got to take my daughter to gymnastics. I got to interview at this time. Like I literally planned my week the week before. Obviously things like that as a kid. You know what I actually can say I've been like that for a long time. I used to I used to have it on my notepad. I used to have a notepad literally in my backpack when I went to school. I would carry a notepad and Monday agenda Tuesday like I can pull up my notes on my phone right now. You'll see Monday my agenda Tuesday all the way to Sunday. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Because if not there's no way I can remember. You clean freak too. OCD. Yeah. I could tell OCD. My my wife could tell you in my house I'm like they're like you sure how okay how does someone like how does someone like you multitask you don't I have to I I have to have a schedule. I want to touch base on something that you said earlier um when we first walked in before we even began the interview which I really could resonate with and feel and it's the influence and the information and the ability to help others who may not have the same access or know. So what I mean by that is for example like me having a passion for music and growing up in it with my dad and obviously over a period of time like I like to consider myself not naturally talented but like an athlete I built my body or built my voice or built my drive constant ami um ambitious ambition to perfect that craft. A lot of it was because I just knew the type of influence that musicians and artists have. Oh yeah. And what I mean by that is because you automatically become a public speaker for the masses. Yeah. And and this was one of the most to me at least touching or lifechanging moments in music. And it wasn't financial music. It wasn't the money part of it. It was like I don't know in the beginning of my career, you know, I'm there doing a video shoot and I'm on a set and this lady comes over and she's just like, "Hey, you know, that's when Ganja Shop was blowing up, right?" And if you watch the video, you'll watch. I can't remember. You'll watch it on YouTube. You'll see it on YouTube. In the video, in the video, everybody's having a good time. They're smoking weed. We're driving bikes, convertible cars, there's women everywhere, wearing a ball. I'm like 22, 23 at the time. I'm living the the dream. The smile you have right now remembering that is priceless. The island dream. the Caribbean Island Boy Dream. I'm living. So, in the video at the time, I think I was like number one for like 12 weeks, 13 weeks. Ridiculous. Like the song was the biggest song for the whole summer. Call it. But I remember I was on a set shooting a video and this lady comes over to me, her son. He's young. He's maybe like seven or six. And she's like, "Hey, like he has your posters in his room. He just he like is a diehard fan. Like could you just like take a picture with him?" And then the picture turned into, you know, he hasn't been doing good at school. could you just speak to him for a minute because like maybe he'll hear it different coming from you like he just wants to be just like you like he watches your video constantly on the TV and the kid really came to me and thought like the video he watches every day of me driving around smoking weed having fun on the bikes was my everyday life. He didn't realize until I explained to him, I said, "Listen, kid. I went to college. I went to school, right? I got a degree. You know, I have a, you know, a home, a family, like I live a regular life." That was just a one video shoot. Like, if you want to be one day able to be like me, like you say you do, or you look up to me, you need to get good grades. Cuz I got good grades. I'm not ashamed to say it. I, you know, I graduated at 3 point something. As a matter of fact, my friend Wy here, you're a chess player. We went to college. I'm not. Okay. I'm not. But you know, my good friend Wavy, who brought me on the show today, we went to college together, you know, and and it was so crazy to me at that moment because I could really see the kid confused like I thought you just smoked weed and hang out with a bunch of girls and on bikes and cars all day. And then I explained to him about how important school was, which his mom asked me, of course, you know, and left it alone. Went on about my day. Like four years later, I'm at a concert. I'm backstage and my security comes and says, "Hey, there's this lady. She wants to see you. She's by the VIP gate. she can't get whatever. So I'm like, "All right, give me a second. Let me, you know, like finish getting ready getting ready to go on stage, whatever." I perform. I'm done. I'm backstage. Like an hour or something later passes and the guy comes back. He's like, "She's still there waiting." Like I was like, "Oh, it's not the first time you heard that there's a lady waiting at the backstage, but okay, go ahead." I'm like, "Oh, snap. I forgot." You know, not not perfectly, but I'm like, you know, I was getting ready. I'm focused cuz it's time for show. So anyhow, I'm like, "Oh yeah, bring her over here. Like just bring her real quick, you know, let me sign whatever, take a picture, whatever." So the lady comes and she starts like pray basically crying and I'm like what's going on here? Like I'm like like what's what's and she's like yo I just wanted to thank you like you don't know how much you changed and affected my son's life. And I'm like what are you talking about? She's like remember the video shoot? And she reminded me she's like I brought him to you and after that conversation you had whatever it was he started getting all good grades. His whole everything just changed. and she's like, you know, you like really made a very big impact on him. And I say that to say, listen, yes, of course, when you make music or when you do anything in life, you want to benefit financially from it. I'm I'll be a hypocrite telling you no. But the payment for that was to me, there's no dollar sign. you know, I felt like that little conversation and that's what being a musician and an artist represents and stands for. So, I always told myself and I always said in all the interviews like I don't put on this portrayal to be like this guy from the ghetto or the gangster d like I grew up in a nice house, a family, went to school, went to college. I just love music and I sing about things that I think people relate to and that relate with me, you know, but I'm not ashamed to be comfortable in who I am and express that to the younger generation who look up to me and sometimes that they see me smoking a lot of weed on a music video, they might really think this is my everyday life when it's really not. You know, I say that um if you can make a difference in one other life, just one, then your life was worth living. If you're enjoying this episode of Ganja Shop Unbankable, please uh click sub, hit subscribe, and leave some comments. Um, pretty interesting conversation here. Um, you know what an accordion is? Is that an instrument? It's an instrument. Yes, an accordion. We're going to have to put up a picture of an accordion because most people don't know. So, I'll tell you the accordion story. So, my family was very much into music. Um both my parents played uh piano but my dad was an accordion player. It's a instrument that you would it looked like a keyboards and then there's buttons and you would in order to for the sounds to produce you would have to squeeze it and open it and the air would blow an accordium. So my dad and uh both my brothers are musicians and Oh really? So you and they wanted me to be a musician. I just realized I wasn't good enough. And uh so but I did play piano, guitar, I loved the drums because they were loud. Um I even tried the violin. I think I can still play Happy Birthday on violin. Um and I I still think I'm a fantastic singer, but nobody else thinks I'm a good singer. But who cares? I like my singing. Okay, let's stay on on business reality. Building a following is one thing. Monetizing is another, right? So, you're still involved in the music and performance and everything. How do you convert fans into dollars? Cuz today, everybody's trying to be Look, any brand today has to have an online presence, right? I mean, everybody has to be on Instagram or somewhere, and you've got to be able to convert that into chuch-ching, right? Like, it's got to the cash register's got to ring. um you know they've got to check out in the cart, right? Not just at the cart, but check out. So, how do you get them to check out, right? How do you get them to put to convert into dollars? I'mma be honest with you, Alex, because I I feel like in my 20s when I began my career, it was very important to, I guess, sell records and tour and so forth and so on, which I did. You know, I'm I'm grateful. I give thanks every day. You know, I was blessed enough for those doors to open. You know, after a lot of nos, I finally got a lot of yeses. I went on tour, you name it. I've toured Japan. I had a number one song on the the reggae charts for weeks, album charted. Um, you know, I was, you know, I guess you could say very successful in my uh music going a lot of places. Um, but as of recently in the last few years, I have not been as focused as really uh keyed in on necessarily as the artists or putting out music or selling records or even my followers to that. Um, I' I've more been focused on the chapter of my businesses. So, let's talk about that. What's your primary business and why? Well, I started a development company six years ago. Real estate. I've always loved real estate. I started in real estate in the beginning. Like my first real, you know, put your names on buildings like Trump did or No, like shifter one, shifter two. No, hopefully one day. One day. Why not? That's brand recognition, right? Everything is possible. I live at I live at the shifter. Yeah. Everything's possible. But you know, and then instead of listen and listen, you know how they have the amenities floor like all these buildings in Miami like they all have these crazy amenities. You could just call it the ganja floor, man. [laughter] The ganja shop. The ganja. No, the ganja floor. You know what I mean? Come here and smoke. I'm messing with you, obviously. So, look, you're good. Real estate. A lot of people um want to get into real estate, right? Because some of the biggest wealth is in real estate is in real estate, right? and stable is stability. So, um I am not an expert on real estate. Um definitely I mean I understand it. I don't know about investing or building. Um my biggest problem with real estate, it takes too long and uh you know contractors are are hard to deal with and things just don't go according to plan. So that's why I don't have the patience. I I guess I don't have the patience for it. Seems like you do. Well, it's funny you said that. So, it's funny you said that because like I said, I started my first money I ever made in music. I bought my first property and I use that property to buy my second property and my third property. Today, I own probably I don't know and I bought my first ga. So, I mean, [laughter] I'm sorry. But, um I it's just fun. It's just a fun conversation. So, what I end up doing is I always continued in real estate from the beginning of my music career. You got lucky. But I didn't because what I ran into, which is what you just said, I'm glad you said, is because, you know, maybe I don't know, halfway through buying properties and just renting them. And like you said, it's slow but steady, but you know, I I look at it like an asset that's always eventually going to continue to grow, go up as long as you get it at a good price. But I ran into the same issue, you know, bad uh contractors or hiring the wrong people, headaches, drama, whatever. So, you know, maybe like seven, eight years ago when I kept running into that problem, that's when I decided to start my own development company and get my GC license. So, that's why it became a situation where it's like, okay, I know there's an opportunity here. I know the wealth is in real estate as a tangible asset, you know, and I'm going to continue acquiring more and more real estate, but I also realized the thing I didn't like about the headache was relying on somebody else. But you have to know. Yeah. in the Yeah, for sure. And it's okay to rely on people. It's just getting good people to rely on is the hard part in that. So, um that was for me, you know, and that's why I even went into becoming a developer or a contra a GC because I noticed I liked real estate and was involved in it from the beginning of even my musical career. And then funny enough, which I'm I'm sure you know, goes back to our Gandh shop. Uh I also started a cannabis company about five, four or five years a business today, too, right? I moved to California. I was living there for like two, three years. I actually just moved back last year. I went out there, you know, I I started this brand. I I continued to brand the company. It was called Timeless. Um I'll actually show you a picture of the video of it. It was in this this very high-end customized boxes. I didn't I we basically were launching like the Ace of Spade for cannabis. So like I we were in uh cookies, uh lemonade, green thumbs, a bunch of stores in California and we were literally selling uh our product for like 10 times more than everybody else. But it was more you got the box made more luxury and luxury uh lighters, the papers, the whole nine. They So I I keep hearing success after success with a lot of nose and a lot of walls. No, I don't know, man. You must have failed somewhere. No. Oh, I did. Tell me the whole way. Because this is about pushing through failure. This is about What do you mean the whole way? The whole way talking about Listen, Wavy could tell you he was there the whole way. Listen, first of all, I decided to launch that cannabis company 5 years ago. Did you make money on the cannabis company? I did, but I lost a lot, too. I made and I lost. I I would say it today's day if I calculated everything, I'm lucky if I broke even and I just walked away because the cannabis industry, you know, is not no longer what it was before, you know, but I started that company four years ago. And I'm I'mma tell you the nose. When I began designing it, because I I ordered the products and I shipped the container from China, just the design alone took me months. Once the design was done, then I had to figure out about the import, the export, the this, the that, then logistics, then it was an issue to get the the product here. Then it took almost a year just to get my product. Then the product arrives in Florida. I'm like, wait a minute, I need this whole container in California. It's doing me no good here. So then I went to California to begin the product and I realized, wait a minute, you can't just go into any of these stores and be like, hey, I got this product. That's not how it works. Now you got to have the product tested by the labs and you got to get the the like. So it's a tough business, right? Today it's a very saturated tough, you know, we provided funding to a lot of companies in that industry and and it's a tough business. We were the first Florida here. Do you believe in uh opened up? Fake it till you make it. Um, a lot of people in music are fake it till you make it. A lot of people do fake it till they make it. I don't necessarily go that route. Me personally, but uh I'm a strong believer I'm not going to if you know I've had a tough day or if right now, let's just say I'm losing or I'm not winning how it seems. You're not going to see me walk in here with my head all down and bring that negative energy. I don't believe in because perception is reality. So, I do believe that nobody be wants to be around a loser. No, nobody wants to be around a whiner. Nobody wants to be around someone who's, you know, miserable. No, like me. They want to be around a winner. They want to be around someone who's positive. That life is just happening. So, you know what? You do have to fake it sometimes till you make it because you have to give off good vibes, positive vibes. So, if you're having a bad day, it's okay. Don't let others know, right? Keep it to yourself. Maybe if you need some time. That's what I do when I'm having a bad day. I try to isolate myself, right? That's why I'm alone all the time. But, um, if you're having a bad day, you know, I tell people, businessman, you're going to have a lot of bad days. Don't let other people see it because, you know, they'll feel it. Something's off. So, just take some time out, go do something that will get you revived. Um, but in business, you know, especially today, you know, everything's out there, right? you know, with social media, FaceTime and everything and the Zooms and and you know, it's it's not just a a rotary phone. You know what a rotary phone was? Like uh iPhone? No, no, like a rotary phone. Oh, you know, like it was like around Can you bring a rotary phone? There's one all the way in in in in the reception. I'll get it for you later. Rotary phone. So, you know, when I was growing up, we had rotary phones, right? You'd have to call someone and nobody saw you. Nobody could tell how you're doing, right? But, you know, today everybody's in each other's face. So,% you do have to keep your composure and I tell uh business people, keep your composure. Don't let them see you sweat. And and if you can't, then just take a time out. Time out. Yeah. Um well I I I mean just to conclude that from my standpoint I I when I say you know I don't agree with the fake it till you make it. I'm not saying in certain aspects for example like hypothetically let's just say like I had a song in the top 10 for three days you know the host might introduce me and say um top 10 record for all last year coming to the stage now. you know, it's not a lie. It's not really faking it, but it doesn't mean that whether it was just there for a day or two, doesn't matter. We didn't say it was only So, in the music industry, I feel like a lot of people do exaggerate a lot of things and I feel like you do because it's show business. You do have to. You do have to have, you know, but I know I've always even real estate is show business. Oh, for sure. I me personally and maybe this is the reason sometimes some doors have been closed or maybe I didn't get certain places like I still feel just as a person just how I am generally like I also want to be authentic and real and I got to be real myself. So when I look in the mirror pretty yeah I got to look in the mirror enjoying this conversation. Yeah. I got to look in the mirror and be happy with myself. Like I didn't come out there and be like, "Hey, um, Alex, I had four uh number one albums, Ray Ray, when I really only had one, you know, like I'm not I'm not doing that." Like because I don't want to come off as like like a If someone wanted to reach out to you and find out or speak to you and get your advice on whether it might be music, which you probably got a a zillion questions about, and some of them might be annoying, so please don't annoy Shifa. Um, if people wanted to reach out to you and talk to you and find out more about you, how would they do that? They could DM me. They could message me. Um, where's that on Instagram? What's your Instagram? Shifter Timeless. S H I F T- A T I M E L E S. Um, that's my music handle. Um, you know, anything related to music. And then you've got some you got a terrific new Caribbean restaurant you're recently opening. I do. Trilani. Um, let me give you guys the Instagram for that. As a matter of fact, it's Trilani Spices. Um I mean everything. Jerk chicken, brown stew, snapper, everything. Um we're open uh what? Six days a week. Yeah, we're open Tuesday through Sunday. Um you know, of course. Um shout out my sister, my brother-in-law Calvin. Working over there. Well, we're Yeah, we're part. So, they're working. You're sitting here. What's going on here, man? We're all working. We got a diverse. And then we got the beauty salon suite we also opened which is luxury beauty studio Miami. That's luxe e. You're a real entrepreneur. You're everywhere hy studio Miami salon. So if I want some nice braids like that you think I got a shot with the braids or no you can get me some braids going and the nose issue. Don't worry nose issue my nose too. All right. You don't have to worry about the itching and none of that stuff. Shift. I want to um I want to take a moment. Was there something else? And the last one. My development company. Oh, what's the name? That's important. Renovate um neighborhoods. Sorry, I got to go back to that cuz sometime I forget the handles. Renovate that. But yes, um and like I said, I'm working on some other stuff right now. We're actually working on a beauty line. Um just staying busy. Um you know, for me, you know, a lot of these businesses and companies is my mom, my sister, my son, my brother, my wife, family. Um yeah, I'm very big. I'm very big. We're Caribbean, so like I'm half Jamaican. My my mom is Jamaican and my dad's Ethiopian, you know, and and we have a saying like most Caribbean people, especially Jamaican, we literally have like eight jobs. And it's true because like I said, you know, it's multiple businesses, but it's it's it's no way possible I have enough time in a day to you find the time. But if it's family and if it's going to benefit us and we're going to grow, we're going to build, then I'm going to take the time out to help. Whether it's just giving my advice, whether it's investing, whether it's being a silent partner, whatever role it is, you know, I don't mind playing the pitcher, the catcher, and the first base. I'm I'm okay with it. I don't I don't I like to pitch more than I like to catch. But anyway, um at the ganja shop. Yeah. And the ganja shop. Yeah. Yeah. Don't forget that. Oh, where did you go to school? I went to school at FIU. Where does FYU Fational University? And when I went there, it was a lot smaller than it is today. A big school today, right? Yeah. I I we started there I started there in 2001 I graduated in high school 2002 I think. Shift I want to thank you for joining me today. It's um I expected more about music and I learned that uh you're one of the few in music that that's you know very diverse and you're doing good things and um you're all over the place but in a good way. Real estate restaurants. I'm going to be honest with you, Alex, just to be transparent and this is my advice to any young musician or artist because I would have wanted somebody to tell me this when I began my musical career. Tell you what, I know a lot of people in the industry like you said, you have one or two hits, you go buy the car, you go buy the jewelry, right? And a few years later, you see them, they're broke. It's sad. It's really sad to see some of my friends that we were in the record labels signing deals and doing tours and the kind of money we're doing. And I would tell him, I'm like, I only need one chain. I only need one watch. I only need one car. Like, I don't need 10 chains, 10 cars, you know, like I need it for the image. Yeah. It's the stigma. It's the stigma of the business because I think people think that the more chains they have that they look more successful. I don't know. It's It's a whole different conversation. You know how we're going to end this, right? Tell me. First of all, thank you for coming and I really appreciate. But we're going to get up, right? You're ready to get up? Yeah. Whenever you Yeah. You ready? And we're going to do Take it to the banjo is all we got. Keep smoking.