Mindset is Everything | Cole Bennett | TEDxUIUC

it was like 7:00 a.m. I woke up to get a drink water I went to bed at like 5:00 a.m. because I was working all night and I got an email what's that Cole Bennett for TEDTalk and I was like I can't be reading this right and I looked at it again and I was reading it right however I ran into my living room my friend Bernie was sleeping on my couch I woke him up I was a yo I just got asked to do a TED talk and he jumped right up we jumped around about it in excitement and then I called my mom I said mom I got asked to do a TED talk she said no way and I said yes way and it's just a special moment I'm very thankful to be here it feels very surreal so thank you guys all for coming out not to mention Bernie and my mother are both in the crowd today so it's a moment I've been thankful enough to work with people amazing people have mentors such as Rick Rubin Jimmy Iovine Gary Vaynerchuk work on a creative level with people like Kanye West J Cole Mac Miller rest in peace we take moment sounds one thing that I noticed about all these people was a common theme it was their mindset their problem solvers there are optimistic thinkers it is very inspiring to me and it's taught me so much and it's made me realize that how you operate and how you feel yourself and where your mind is helps fuel your career and it helps you change the world people like to identify themselves as a glass half-full or a glass half-empty type of person this is a simplistic way of stating whether you are an optimistic thinker or a pessimistic thinker we all have bad days and we all have good days but what fuels a bad day fuels a good day we can't control our circumstances always but we can control how we handle our circumstances optimism is a positive way of thinking it's a subconscious way of prioritizing your happiness about five years ago just over five years ago I was in study hall at Plano high school about an hour and a half outside of Chicago a rural city surrounded by corn fields and I've been making music videos for friends and local talent and I knew I wanted to do more for the Chicago hip-hop scene here's what I loved it was all I was into I'd go to Chicago every chance I got every weekend attend any show I could and I knew I want to be more involved so I decided I want to make a blog so I went home and I started John an idea that went to school and I was jotting ideas and my mom was the only person who I knew who owned a website she owned a bar called Hard Day's and she had a website and really use it but she had a website and so she was the right person to ask who do I contact to make a website so she contacted um the dude who made the website and I got his info and he came up he was on its way over one night and I remember I was sitting on the floor of my kitchen floor and my mom was standing up by the refrigerator these are important details and we're just brainstorming ideas and she said lyrica lemonade and and I was like wait that's actually perfect like that's it and that's the night that lyrica lemonade was created the next day I went back to school and I was now able to put ideas to this paper that I've been jotting around ideas with and I was you know now able to put lemons all over it and really bring these ideas to life and I was so excited this piece of paper right here I have it with me today this is the paper that I had drew in study hall it was an outline of the website and what I wanted to look like and it was my first time seeing it come to life the next day heard that same day I went to my next class and I showed a classmate the paper and I told my ideas and he looked at me and he didn't understand it and he told me I was stupid and I could have took this two ways this was me super excited and the optimistic mood feeling good and excited about this idea I had coming across someone who's thinking negatively and was in a pessimist of mine state and I let it encourage me I'll let it motivate me and I went home again that night and I called the label a local label printing company and I heard a few hundred stickers it looked like this for twenty dollars and I went back to school the next day and I handed them off to all my friends people who I kinda knew people I didn't know at all and by the end of the week they were all over everyone's lockers and agendas and whether they knew about what it was or not the seed had been planted and it felt amazing and fast forward a few months things are going well the websites up and running I'm coming home from school every day writing about five to ten articles on Chicago hip hop local talent that wasn't being highlighted yet before and I was having so much fun and I knew that I want to take the next step so I decided I'm gonna throw show keep in mind I'm still being in play now I've never thrown show before I don't have any money and I have little to no resources so I figured I'd throw a free show and maybe the artists would come out perform for free so I did just that and I found a venue wasn't a venue is more of a room it was a rehearsal room that held 90 people on the fifth floor of the music garage and I booked it for five hours for $100 and I threw the event and throughout the night we had about 300 people come through throughout the night and it was incredible it was the best thing that I could have ever imagined and it made me realize that this was something special this is something I can do this is a lot bigger than I had anticipated all my goals that I set were always realistic it was just my way of never letting myself down and always being able to accomplish more this was an accomplishment that I'd never foreseen when I was sitting in that study hall room and I was wondering what's gonna have when I moved to Chicago one day about half a year later I'm not freshman at DePaul University Chicago Illinois and I'm not living in the city yet I had always once dreamt of and it felt amazing and I thought now I can I can really do this I can I can be where I've always wanted to be I don't need to drive an hour and a half anymore I'm here I would have artists come through my dorm room every day we do interviews I'd shoot music videos in my dorm room all the time is utilizing everything I could I was always growing up I was always like a B average student not too bad not too good but when I was at college I knew I want to take so I knew I want to just prove myself wrong so my only priorities were school and they were Columba date I would sit in the front row every day and I finished my first semester with a 3.9 I made the Dean's List and that was better than I'd ever done before and it felt really really good um so my freshman in college I didn't really have a social life I didn't really have any friends because I was just working I had two priorities it was school and it was lyric lemonade and a few friends that I did have were always so confused that I was glued to a computer 24/7 and I just told them I was like I'm on a mission guys like you'll see one day you might it might not make sense now but it will one day I promise and I I just kept working that that's that's all I knew I just kept working fast forward to my sophomore year of college now I moved to an off-campus apartment with three of my friends but we had about eight people staying there at night sleeping on the floor on the couches we were doing what we could to make it work we're all friends we were all worked in and just surviving really and around this time I had started to get more traction I was doing more music videos I was getting paid more money than I had been before for them around two hundred to five hundred dollars of video and I had saved up around three thousand dollars in a span within six months and I was ready to do a show a bigger show not ever done before keep in mind I've done about four shows in between the first show I mentioned in the show I'm talking about now I wanted this show to be different though I want to bring an artist to city that hadn't been to Chicago before I just wanted to take it there I was a fan of an artist a local artists from Philadelphia named Lucifer and I didn't know Lucifer I didn't know his manager all the shows I've done before I would just contact the artists or the manager I couldn't do that now so I was like how do I book Lucifer so I googled how to book Louise very and an agency website popped up VP agency and I called them and I got directly in contact with his agent and then his manager and they said that he was eight thousand dollars to book with a 20% deposit so $2,000 I signed the contract now wired over the money that night and I had booked Louise Ebert the show would take place in two months within this two months his trajectory skyrocketed and he was a huge artist by the time of the show the show sold out and it was the most incredible feeling to see the turnout this is the biggest venue we had ever booked it was easily the best outcome and it was just it was a turning point around this time I was working with artists on videos like famous decks and Warhol's and kind of reinventing the DIY music video scene of low budgets like I said we didn't really have budgets a few hundred dollars here and there so we'd shoot in basements and you know on the street anywhere and through edits and animation is where we would have fun with it and it kind of introduced a new style to the music video game at the time the local internet music video seems this is this is wrong time where things aren't things are different in the music video were at this point they're high budget music videos are becoming less of a thing and the internet and YouTube is just thriving with all these young artists from all over the world and we're just attacking it and it was kind of we were changing it and before I knew it we're at the forefront of this new emerging hip-hop sub-genre that people like to call a sound pot rap I was building relationships with people like um he's a ver wolf and smoke Persky massive slump got a little pump and we his friends we're shooting video is not really thinking anything of it and before I knew it I was getting interviewed by publications like Rolling Stone in billboard magazine to speak on everything going on this in a moment where there was a blurred line between the mainstream in the underground scene the mainstream had the radio records and the big festival plays but the underground had higher streaming numbers and bigger fan bases it was a confusing time it was a time where like half the Internet and half the world was aware of it and the other half was completely oblivious to it it was really cool thing to be a part of as this is all happening things are getting more serious the company's growing I'm learning more and I start getting phone calls from bigger artists and I remember one day I got an Instagram DM from from quavo amigos and he he called me and yes if I come to Atlanta the next day so I got the phone I booked to take a tan landed the next day and I remember going there and being so nervous because I had never worked with such a major artist and this is keep in mind that the biggest rap group in the country if not in the whole world and all I had was myself and my little sony a7s 2 camera I didn't have a big production team I didn't have any crazy equipment as had myself and these are people who are used to all the glitz and glamour so I get there super nervous and I'm member a quavo showing my videos to offset and take off and he's like yells kids he's like he's something special and that let me know I supposed to be there and it gave me the confidence that I needed now pushed through the shoot anyway incredible and I went home I started editing so excited it's all I could think about keep in mind I was never connected to a manager of the migos or label I was just talking to quavo so it was like he's on tour he's a he's a huge artist he's getting back to me like every three days or so with feedback on the video and what he wants me to adjust and change so about a month and a half goes by this and I'm working about 12 hours a day on this video and he kinda just tells me you know we're already work on our next project I think we're gonna shelf this one hopefully we can work on something in the future it was just like that and for me this was all I was thinking about for two months and I felt like I was at the tip top I could really feel like a new life and entering a new chapter and being able to reach new goals that I'd always jumped up and I just fell to the ground it was like I had it I tasted it and then I lost it and um my mindset and my optimistic thinking pushed me through it I had to remember that I'm a glass half-full type of thinker I could easily be half empty right now but I'd be half full so I'm working I'm working I'm hungry that I've ever been at this point things are going good I'm not working with major artists anymore I'm still working with the emerging artists I'm like back in my place and I get a phone call things are going good I get a phone call from will Wiz Khalifa's manager and he told me that Wiz wants me to do the video for his new single off his album featuring gucci mane and i was like yeah let's do it but the only way I'm gonna do it is if it goes on the lyric lemonade YouTube channel that's where all my content lives and I have to stay true to that and he said there's no way you know where's the signed to a major label that's impossible we can't do that but Wiz really wants you to do it I'd love she could do it and I was like I'm sorry man I just really can't and I hung up the phone later that night I was in my bedroom thinking and I was like these are my two favorite ARS growing up like what am I did I just decline a video with Wiz in Gucci as I am I got it I'm need to ground myself real quick so I call I call wheel back and I was like yo I'm in I'm sorry I don't know where my head is this I was getting a little head on myself and next week I fly to Miami I do the video and it's my first time having a crew and a big production and this all new to me I'm learning what things mean on set you know is it was pretty hectic but the day was going amazing the shoot was going exactly as planned Wiz was happy things were great I got a tat from will was his manager halfway through the day and he told me that Gucci wouldn't be able to make it to the shoot house okay like what does shoot the scene tomorrow with Gucci like no like you can't make it today's the only day we have you got to figure something out he's not here how we gonna do something if you're not here and saw sitting down and just thinking I was stressed out I didn't know what to do and and this this guy comes up to me one of our extras in the video one of the actors in the video and keep in mind it's a trailer park themed video so the dude has like short short jean shorts on a cut-off flannel and a big beard and he just looked me my this what he looks like what it was and he looked me in my eye and he said you are leader you must lead us he like looked me right in my eye so that and I was and I don't know what it was his he didn't know what was going on he just saw that I was stressed out about something trying to collect the thought and so it just ignited a fire in me and you know I was half empty there for a second he filled me back up maybe half full and I grabbed one of our guys working on the lighting team and I was like yo you need to learn Gucci's whole verse your Gucci for the video and he learned the whole verse and we threw him in there and he was go chief for the video a week later get call Gucci did want out of being in the video so we had to do a pickup day it didn't quite go as planned but I was really excited to have it go that way and it didn't quite go that way but it was a good moment so I'm still in I'm still in this apartment at this time and you know things are gonna last serious and school is inevitably becoming a second priority and I was like man I just I can't do this anymore I need to pick it's lyrical um an aide or at school and I made a list of goals and I said I'm gonna drop out and if I don't accomplish these goals within a trimesters term ten weeks I'll come back to school blew him away and never look back this is a time where I was kind of you know stressed out is a lot going on so I was like I'm gonna move back home with my mom for a little bit reset and just reassess myself I think that there are truly two types of people like I said we have our half full we have our half empty but I also think that there are people who like to be understood and there are people who like to understand and I've met two people in particular who I believe are a special blend of the both people who are understood to a great volume but still wish to understand more it's super inspiring I got called to meet with Rick Rubin one day if you know him you know him he's a legend and I go to his house and in Malibu and he's the most implicit men you could ever think of he everything in his house is white walls not super modern but but just clean and this you just felt free it literally felt like heaven on earth and I sat down and he walked up to me in a white t-shirt black shorts shorts and barefoot and he sat down and smiled and he said tell me about yourself and keep in mind I'm so excited to meet Rick Rubin this is a a childhood hero of mine and I'm just excited to ask him all these questions and ask about all these stories you know what was it like working with Johnny Cash what was it like working at the Beastie Boys you know I mean he's done everything and he didn't want to talk about himself at all he just wanted to ask about me and learn about me and he didn't want anything in return he just talks he's let me talk for three hours he's wanted to learn and he was so amazed and something about it let me take this guy screen real quick something about it which is so inspiring to me because I was like how can you have accomplished so much and you're in the same room as someone who's so young and inspiring in the same field as you and he's asking and you don't want to tell a single thing you know I mean you're proud of those moments if you're if I'm Rick Rubin I'm gonna want to tell some stories you know I mean um I do think that it's no coincidence that he is wearing a white t-shirt black shorts and barefoot every single day he is himself he's happy and he lives life how he wishes to he's very in tune with the world he's happy and I really appreciate that another man like Rick Rubin is Jay : I got a phone call from Jay Cole I'll never forget it I was sitting in my office and he called me and he we were talking about doing a video and we got off topic of it real quick and he just wants to know about my story and and asked about me and we talked for about an hour and a half just about me and I was just so confused I was he keep asking me questions and he just wanted to know about me and he just wanted to learn and understand and it was it was inspiring to me and I also think that it's no coincidence that when Jay Cole and I did work his artist writer this is where you request this were the artists request what they want to eat drink and technical whatever it may be on the video set most people will request bottles Belair and Ciroc and five pizzas and 60,000 chicken wings and he just requested a PB&J and it was the craziest thing and something about that just showed me a lot about himself and it it made me think that he's grounded he's accomplished so much but he's grounded and he has an optimistic way of thinking I truly believe that both these men are half-full the type of thinker I'm very thankful to have gone through all the experiences that I've gone through and learned all the things that I've learned but I truly don't think that I would have gotten to this point if I didn't think with the mindset that I have you have to be a problem solver and you have to understand that sometimes there's no way to solve the problem and that's part of problem-solving you know when I went and that when I went to Atlanta and got excited and really got to taste that and then fell to the ground I needed to get back up I needed to tap into my mindset when I was depressed and I was figuring out whether I want to stay in school or not and I couldn't balance things I needed to tap into my mindset when I was at school and I was getting this off the ground I need to tap into my mindset to take it there it's all about your mindset and how you think and I truly believe that anyone could do it it's all right here and it sounds cliche but it's but it's the truth I think that you need to view things and appreciate things truly for what they're worth one moment that was really special for me it's kind of unrelated but I want to speak on it we threw our first fuss last year and we had 11,000 people in attendance no sold out the lyrica lemonade summer smash and I remember stepping on the stage and you know looking at this sea of people and then looking right over the sea of people and seeing this lemonade stand we had a lemonade stand there and my family was working it my mom and my sister my brother-in-law they were working lemonade stand and like knowing that they were there and like this was all happening at once it just like really made me realize what happened because I was looking at my mom over 11,000 people and it made me think of when I was looking at my mom across in that kitchen you know what I mean and she said lyrica lemonade and it's just like it was a moment and and it just made me realize that you can really really truly do anything you put your mind to and I honestly wholeheartedly believe that I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a glass-half-full type of thinker and

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 3,381,225

Rating: 4.9246321 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Art, Music (topic)

Id: X_9cyPIvdyo

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Love__Scars]

Wow. this shit is inspiring as fuck. I can't imagine the feeling of booking uzi , and then him blowing up over those few months.

[u/usedtimecapsule]

I watched this whole thing a couple days ago. So inspirational.

[u/feelsalchemist]

Watching this makes me want to start making music again and work on stuff I actually care about. Cole seems like such a stand up dude and its awesome how humble he is for basically helping to kickstart the new wave of internet rap.

[u/sonQUAALUDE]

j cole with just the pb&j on the rider is the most j cole thing ever lmao. much respect to pb&j tho.

[u/taj_uchiha]

Very inspirational video. Doesn't matter if you're an aspiring artist, producer, videographer, whatever. This TEDTalk will widen your perspective and help you achieve the mindset required for achieving your dreams.

[u/joeytman]

This video is dope, but it's actually not a TED talk, it's TEDx. The TEDx talks are locally organized and not held to the same standards as a TED talk. It's still dope tho and his message is great.

[u/kuizan]

really good watch. I recommend this to anyone