JESSE MICHELS: Welcome,
everybody, to Talks at Google. We are so happy
to have you here. We're very happy to have our
guest here, our esteemed guest, Scooter Braun. Scooter is one of the biggest
entrepreneurs and innovators in entertainment today. He started as a
teenage party promoter. He was the biggest college
party promoter in Atlanta while going to Emory. He leveraged that into a
director of marketing position at So So Def in its heyday. He left So So Def, found
a little-known artist named Justin Bieber, and
then basically leveraged that into creating the largest,
or one of the largest media empires in music and
entertainment today. SB Projects covers all media. It's not just music. So he obviously manages artists
like Kanye West, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, of course,
EDM acts like Martin Garrix and then models
like Karlie Kloss. It also has a tech incubator
arm called Silent Labs. We were just talking
about it earlier. They have really impressive
investments in Uber, Spotify, Waze, Pinterest, to name a few. So his track record there
is pretty impressive. And he's also all
about giving back. So he's on the
board of directors of his brother's foundation,
Pencils of Promise, as well as his wife's foundation. And I don't think we're
allowed to curse here, so-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Fuck Cancer. - There you go. He went for it. SCOOTER BRAUN: I
don't work here. - And that's his wife, Yael
Braun, also very impressive in her own right. Please give it up
for Scooter Braun. Thank you so much for coming. [APPLAUSE] JESSE MICHELS: Awesome. So I actually want to
start with your childhood and just set a little context. And I want to start with a
movie you made, a student film. When you were in high
school, you made a movie about the Jews of Hungary. And this had a special kind
of place in your heritage. And you actually
got some recognition from Steven Spielberg
on it, is that correct? Can you tell us that story? SCOOTER BRAUN: I went to school,
and my teacher in middle school said, there's something
called National History Day. And no one from our school
has ever gotten to nationals. But if you get to
nationals, there's an all-expense paid
trip to Washington DC. And I really wanted to
go to Washington DC. I wanted to see the monuments. I wanted to see everything
I'd seen about it. So I went home that
day and I said, Mom, I'm going to Washington DC. And then she said, you're crazy. She goes, what are
you talking about? And I came up with this idea. So my grandparents are
Holocaust survivors. My grandmother was liberated
from Bergen-Belsen, was in Auschwitz, and my
grandfather was in Dachau. And I was always
kind of fascinated by the story of how they could
just live in this country and live a normal life like
I was living at the time. And then suddenly, their
country just betrays them and everyone in their
family dies and they are the only survivors. So I decided to do a
10-minute documentary called "The Hungarian Conflict." And it was the story of how
hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported over
two weeks voluntarily by the German people
and the German army towards the end of the war. And I submitted it, won
regionals, won states. Lost in nationals to a
documentary about airplanes that make loud noises and fly
over a neighborhood in Chicago, because that is the most
important topic that can beat a story about the Holocaust. I'm not bitter. I'm 36. I've let go of it. [LAUGHTER] But actually, I had
an amazing time. I got to go down there. I made a lot of friends. And I was 13, 14 years old. And when I came back, my other
grandmother, my mom's mother, she was very proud, and she sent
it into the Holocaust Museum. And somehow, someone got
it to Steven Spielberg. She had sent it to his
office and everyone else, because he had the
Shoah Foundation. He was collecting information
about Holocaust survivors at the time. And I had no contact
to entertainment. No one in my family had a
contact to entertainment. We knew no one in the
world I now work in. And one day in the
mail, I get this letter from the office of
Steven Spielberg. And a letter typed
out on his letterhead signed by him,
talking about my film and encouraging
me to keep going. And I framed it and it's
been on my wall ever since. When I went to college,
it was on my wall. It's on the wall in
my home office now. And it made me believe that I
could really achieve anything. Like, if a kid who
had no contacts could get to Steven Spielberg,
I thought anything is possible. And funny enough,
about 17 years later, I was at the White House
press dinner with a client. And they moved us
into a private room with celebrities, because
they didn't want the press just hounding these
celebrities in the big room before the event with
the president started. And Steven Spielberg
was in the room and he started talking to us. And I said, listen. I don't mean to
interrupt, but I just need to tell you years
ago when I was a kid, I did a video about
the Holocaust. And you-- and before I
could get a word out, he goes, you didn't do the
Hungarian one, did you? And he remembered,
17 years later. And I was completely in shock. And it's just a testament to
who he is and how genuine he is. And it was just
very encouraging. I still have it on
my wall to this day. JESSE MICHELS: You mentioned
something pretty remarkable, which is that you
started off knowing no one in entertainment. Now you know everybody
in entertainment. So if the first inflection point
was Steven Spielberg giving you recognition and that giving
you just the belief in yourself to do anything after that,
a second inflection point is cut to Atlanta. You're throwing
parties for rappers like Ludacris and Eminem. How exactly did that come about? SCOOTER BRAUN:
Atlanta was racist. And that's the
reason it happened. I went down to Atlanta
to play basketball and broke my dad's
heart because I took a D3 offer instead of a
D1 offer, because D1 said, hi. You're 5'11" and can't
really jump or run that fast. So nice jump shot. You're going to sit the bench
for the first two years. And I didn't really like that. So I was like, OK, I'm
going to go play D3. I'm going to come out and
start to get playing time. And I got down to Atlanta and
no one cared about our team. And my best friend
was at Duke, and he was the star of that team. And we played AAU basketball
against each other, so that's how we
knew each other. And when I got down there,
because I came from an AAU basketball team where I
was a minority on my team, I was one of three white guys on
a majority black baseball team. And our team-- since we were
14 years old in our state-- every weekend, three to
four months out of the year, we were in hotel rooms
together as brothers. I mean, these guys are still
to this day my brothers. I have to explain to my
wife when one of them calls. Like, well I've never
even met this person. You're just going to let
him sleep in our house? And said, in my
childhood, this is family. So when I got to
Atlanta, I didn't really have that perspective
of white people went to clubs that played
techno and black people when to clubs that played hip-hop. And there was no mixing. So I didn't like that
and I saw an opening. And I needed legit money
because I was broke. And selling fake IDs was
not a long-term plan. So I stopped by this club
called Chaos in Buckhead back in the day. And I said, if you let me bring
people here, will you pay me? And he goes, well how
many people can you bring? I said, how many do you hold? And he said, 800. I said, that sounds about right. I didn't know what I was doing. I went to Kinko's,
I made flyers. I named my company
Kryptonite Entertainment because I liked Superman. [LAUGHTER] And I had a bunch
of freshmen girls pass out flyers for me, because
I had a high school sweetheart. So the freshman girls
weren't threatened by me because I would
dance and have fun, but I wasn't trying
to sleep with them because I was loyal to my
high school sweetheart. And where the freshmen
girls tell you to go, it seems like the rest
of the campus went. And next thing you know,
I had 800 people there. And-- this is a long story,
but sorry for taking so long-- that first party, someone
approached me and he was like, this party is amazing. Look at all these kids,
different diversity, listening to hip-hop. And I looked at him. I was like, you're
Michael Jackson. And no, it was not
Michael Jackson. But it was Jason Weaver,
who played young Michael Jackson in the VH1
movie that I would watch every single
year when they'd play it about the Jacksons. And he was like, yeah, I'm
on a different TV show now. That was like 10
years ago, dude. And he said, do you want to
see how the other half lives? And I said, what do you
mean the other half? He goes, black people. And he took me to Velvet
Room on a Tuesday night. This guy remembers old Atlanta. So the original Velvet Room. And there was a guy named
Alex Gidewon, who is now one of the biggest club owners
in Atlanta, who originally started off as an Ethiopian
immigrant parking lot attendant. And at that point, he'd
become a huge promoter. And he had a
stutter, still does. And he was so fascinated
that I was there that he said l-l-l-l-l-let the white boy in. And he let me in for
free instead of paying the $100 a head cutline charge. And I would put parties on
every Thursday for college kids and spend every dollar of it
on Tuesdays meeting people. Basically faking
it till I made it. And then I made so much
cash with the parties because Alex really
taught me how to promote. I learned what I really deserved
to make at those parties. I started making the
door a part of the bar. And he educated me. And I bought a purple Mercedes
with rims on eBay, cash. And I started driving
that to the party so I could really floss and
get everyone's attention. And they were like,
who is this kid? And I was like, you
should come to my parties. And I said, we're
playing hip-hop, too. And I started getting basically
all these rappers of Atlanta started coming to my events. And I wasn't paying them. They were coming for free
and having a good time. And the first artists I
ever worked at my parties was a DJ in Atlanta
called Chris Lova Lova, who had an alternate
personality named Ludacris. And he had a record
called "Throw Dem 'Bows" and that was the first
record I ever worked. And that's how I kind
of got on the scene. And then one day,
Jermaine Dupri called me. And he was-- when
you came to Atlanta, there was a big billboard
that used to say, Welcome, the Home of So So Def. And he was on top of his game. A lot of people don't know this. Jermaine Dupri is the
only producer in music to have a number one on the
Billboard charts for 16 years straight. JESSE MICHELS: Crazy. SCOOTER BRAUN: More
than Quincy Jones. And Jermaine asked me
to come meet with him. And Jermaine is not a tall man. So we met, and his feet were
dangling from this chair. And he was talking to
me and I was just so fascinated that his feet
didn't touch the ground. And he asked me to come
help him run his company and do marketing. I was 20 years old and I became
the vice president of marketing at So So Def Records. JESSE MICHELS: Amazing. SCOOTER BRAUN: That was
a long, roundabout way of answering one question. JESSE MICHELS: No, that's-- SCOOTER BRAUN: By
the way, he told me before we started that
when it's about crypto, this place is packed. [LAUGHTER] So should we just
talk about crypto? Just put the word out. Just be like, yo, it's
not what you think. It's not about Kanye and Bieber. It's about crypto. Get in there right now. We're talking about Ethereum. It's getting crazy in here. JESSE MICHELS: That's awesome. This is actually-- SCOOTER BRAUN: The guy has tips. He's got information
on Quantstamp. JESSE MICHELS: No ICO
talk, unfortunately. But that was incredible. I don't think I've
ever heard that story at that level of detail. OK, so you're director of
marketing at So So Def. Talk about your decision to
leave So So Def and then-- SCOOTER BRAUN: You want the
truth or the nice version? JESSE MICHELS: I want the truth. SCOOTER BRAUN: What
do you guys want? AUDIENCE: Truth. JESSE MICHELS: What do we want? SCOOTER BRAUN: How
many people see this? JESSE MICHELS:
700 k subscribers. SCOOTER BRAUN: OK, just us? JESSE MICHELS: But you
have final edit right. SCOOTER BRAUN: Jermaine
changed my life because he gave
me an opportunity. And he knows this. I actually just
was down in Atlanta and we spent the night
hanging out together. I'm incredibly grateful to
guys like him, Shaka Zulu, who was Ludacris' manager,
who put me in. A guy named Shakir
Stewart, who unfortunately is no longer with us, who
brought me into the music game. Guys like Steve Rifkin who
gave me my first record deal for Asher Roth. And these guys really
changed my life. But at the time, I had all
these ideas about social media and how to break acts. And Jermaine wasn't
listening to me. He was really focused on
what he was focused on and just wanted me to kind
of promote what he wanted. And I had to go to London for
something, some other project I was consulting for. And while I was over
there, I ran into Lil Jon. And a lot of people don't
know this, but for nine years, Lil Jon worked as an A
& R at So So Def Records before he became Lil Jon. And we started talking and he
said, don't take nine years. He goes, I wouldn't
have become Lil Jon, I wouldn't have the success I'm
having now if I took this long. And we had just had
"Yeah!" with Usher. And he produced that, we
executive produced that album. And that was really
resonating in my head. And when I came back, I would
say I had one foot out the door but I was scared. You know, I wanted
to chase my dreams. I wanted to pursue what
I wanted to pursue. But I had built this
identity at 23 years old, over the three years I was with
Jermaine, you know almost 24 at that point. And I was afraid of
stepping away as much as I didn't want to be
there, because I think a lot of people-- you know,
you guys work for a company, so a lot of you probably
have entrepreneurial spirits and want to do something. But there's something
about the steady paycheck that's crippling. And Jermaine's mother
came into the office. She had an office. Don't ask why. And for some reason that
day, she was just in a mood and wanted to tell
everyone who worked there that her son doesn't
need any of them, and he makes all
the money, and all you people are just overhead. And I said, look. With all due respect, I have
my own company and promotion separately for this. But I love your son. But I don't have to be
here and I don't really appreciate you saying
that, so could you chill it a little bit? And I was being respectful. And she looked at me
and said something that out of respect for
him, I will not repeat, because that's his mom. But it was disrespectful
and completely inappropriate and hurtful. And not just to me,
but to people beyond me as an individual. And I decided instead of saying
something back, I just left. And when I got back to
the office the next day and kind of calmed down,
didn't worry about it, she had a letter in
my mailbox firing me. But what killed me was it
was signed also by him. So I went over to see him
and I'm like, what the hell? And he's like, man, it's my mom. Just give it two weeks and
I'll straighten it out. And that was all
I needed to know. And I remember taking my
car, driving over to Kroger by my house, sitting
on the hood of my car, and realizing as
scared as I was, this was the opportunity I
actually really did want. And the universe
forced it on me. The universe has a way of
doing that in your life. Like, you really
want to do something and you're holding back,
you're holding back. And then you think
something bad happened. It's just the universe usually
correcting something for you. And that sent me
out on my own track. And I'm grateful she decided
to say some crazy shit to me. Sorry, Google,
for cursing again. You know you can search
curse words on Google, right? JESSE MICHELS: That's true. They do show up and
you can search them. Yeah. SCOOTER BRAUN: You guys
actually don't block anything that you're saying
you can't say. JESSE MICHELS: That's true. I actually don't even know what
the official policy is on it. SCOOTER BRAUN: Well,
my question is-- especially with
so many languages you have around the world-- I would challenge you
right now with the cameras. I want you to pick any
curse word you want. But I want you to
say it right now, because I want to
release this for you. I want to give you
this freedom back. So we're going to
just count to three and you're going to
say a curse word. JESSE MICHELS: I'm
going to say curse word? SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. One, two, three. JESSE MICHELS: Shit. SCOOTER BRAUN: Give him
a round of applause. [APPLAUSE] That was very scary for him. And I want to let you
know that you were let go about two seconds ago. JESSE MICHELS: You realize
I went for the most PG curse word. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah,
it was pretty weak. But it's cool. All right, keep going. JESSE MICHELS: Thank
you for that, Scooter. SCOOTER BRAUN: Crypto. We're talking about
crypto in here. JESSE MICHELS: That's right. Get in on it. Scooter coin is
coming up, actually. SCOOTER BRAUN: Oh, hell no. That one will not make
it past the bubble. JESSE MICHELS: OK. So you leave So So Def, kind
of an abrupt ending there. Talk about the time
in between So So Def and finding Justin Bieber,
and then how exactly-- you found Justin Bieber
on YouTube, right? SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. Thanks, guys. Well done. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. That worked out well for me. [LAUGHTER] Just a grown man in the middle
of the night in his underwear looking at the internet,
staring at little boys singing. And look at my life now. I wasn't even arrested. It was good. Actually, I did get arrested. That's not true. I got arrested in Long
Island for Justin. So maybe that was the reason. JESSE MICHELS: Got to
ask about that later. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah,
that was just a mall that things were crazy. I was the first arrest in US
history for refusing to tweet. JESSE MICHELS: Jesus. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. Long story, we don't
have to go there. You guys can look it up. My record is expunged so I
can get global entry again. It's awesome. All right. In between, I needed
a calling card, so I went back to the
original guy, Ludacris. Bill O'Reilly, he
had said Ludacris is a gangster
rapper and companies shouldn't work with him. And suddenly, companies believed
Bill O'Reilly for some reason, and Ludacris lost
all his endorsements. Pepsi, everything. And I was like, if you
guys give me a shot, I'll find you something. And he was in an
amazing movie called "Crash" that was coming out. And my buddy knew
someone at Pontiac and said, hey, maybe go there. They're doing the Solstice. I heard they have a budget. So I called to pretend I was
a college reporter trying to do, how do you guys
do endorsement deals? And they told me the
name of their agency. I went to the agency
and said the same thing. I'm a college kid
doing a report on this. Would you like to speak to me? And got to the woman, said,
look, there's no report here. This is what it's really about. And she goes, I don't
know about Ludacris. And I said, look, come to the
premiere of "Crash" with me and you'll see. And when she saw "Crash"
and saw him in it, she said, I love this. And we did a deal for
the Pontiac Solstice. I took his song
"Two Miles an Hour." I've never told this
story, so this is-- I'll never get another deal
with Pontiac after I tell this. So like I said, I really
didn't have anything. Like, I was kind of
going week-to-week, I started throwing parties
again to kind of get paid. And I got them to agree to let
us shoot the video with one of our music video
directors, and we would make a music video
with the Pontiac Solstice and then give them 30-second and
minute clips to actually make into their commercial. And it was a huge
$10 million campaign. But the Pontiac, at the
time, was still a prototype. Like, they hadn't started
sending out the actual cars. So if you know
anything about cars, the prototypes are
like $2 million each, because it's not the actual car. It's the model. So we needed it for the video. So they sent it down. And you're not
supposed to drive it. It drives. It's a car, but it's a
$2 million prototype car. But I didn't have money
to put it on a flatbed and take it across town. So I drove the $2 million
car down the highway, literally like freaking
out the whole way, and got it to the video. And to this day, no
one knows I did that. But now, 800,000
people just found out. And that was kind
of my calling card. And people were like--
this was before Jay-Z had a deal with Nike. And rappers and hip-hop didn't
really have endorsement deals, so people started
hearing about the fact that I was able to pull it off. And then, I did a party for
him for the Anger Management tour with Eminem and got
Showtime to sponsor it with their show "Soul Food." And I started using
this as a calling card. And I was doing consulting and
marketing for hip-hop and R&B acts all over Atlanta and
then around the industry. And I decided, I'm going
to start my own company because I have all these
ideas about social media. And I found a kid
on Myspace named Asher Roth who didn't
even have a mix tape out, but I just liked his lyrics. And I had an idea about a part
of rap that is very common now but wasn't being
represented at the time, because you had Eminem, and that
was just it from white boys. And flew Asher down to Atlanta,
got him to move onto my couch, and we just started
that process. Then I got him a house
around the corner that was, like, filled with rats. And got my old college DJs-- when I was a big party
promoter in college, they were two guys that were
going to Clark and Morehouse, and that was DJ
Drama and DJ Cannon. And they had become
big mix tape DJs, so I got them to do a mix
tape for Asher, because we kind of came up together. And when Asher wrote
"I Love College," four months after finding Asher,
I found Justin on YouTube, flew him and his mother
down on the first plane ride either of them had ever been on. Put them illegally-- Donald Trump-- into a house. It's Canadians. He's not as threatened. We'll talk about all that later. And had them living around it. And when we wrote
"I Love College," Justin was actually sitting
there as a 14-year-old kid. And it was kind of this little
family unit that we had. And since I see a lot
of young people here-- it's strange. I didn't know Google had
so many young employees. It's so against your reputation. And I was 25. I had Justin living
in a townhouse under my name with
Aaron's Rents furniture that I bought and Asher living
in a house around the corner from him in this
decrepit, rat-filled house with his buddies that
just came with him and dropped out of
college with him. And I had my apartment. And I had money for 13
months before I went broke. And I wasn't doing parties. I was pot committed. I was in it. Burn the ships. I was there and that was that. And I was in month 11 and my dad
called me just to kind of check up. And I remember being 25 and
just breaking down, hysterically crying on the phone, saying,
I'm a failure and nobody in Atlanta knows. Everyone thinks I'm killing it. Everyone thinks I'm doing
it, and I'm two months away from losing it all,
and I haven't done anything for these guys yet. And he goes, well
you've come this far. Two more months, let's
see what happens. And the next day, Asher
wrote "I Love College." And within the two months,
I was able to pull off hyping a publishing deal
at South by Southwest. I had one publisher meet me at
a restaurant across the street from the other, so I made
sure they saw each other and created a bidding war. Got Asher a
million-dollar pub deal, took the commission to
that, saved my company, and never looked back. And that's pretty much the
way I would describe to you, that's how close failure
and success actually are. There's a very fine line. And to get to success, you have
to walk right next to failure. And I've paid for
pizza with change. I've cried on the
phone at 25 years old. And it's funny to
actually think I'm 36 now. It's been 11 years, and
my life is very different. And I'm glad I
learned that lesson. JESSE MICHELS: This is awesome. This might be the most candid
interview I've ever given, so I appreciate it. SCOOTER BRAUN: Am I
better than my brother? JESSE MICHELS: Yes. I don't know. I can't-- no, I
can't take sides. SCOOTER BRAUN: You said yes. It's on record. JESSE MICHELS: Sorry, Adam. SCOOTER BRAUN: Adam, if
you're watching, I'm sorry. JESSE MICHELS:
Adam, you did great. SCOOTER BRAUN: He interviewed
my brother in SF last week. Last week? JESSE MICHELS: A few weeks ago. SCOOTER BRAUN: A few weeks ago. My brother is very impressive. He's mom's favorite. I'm older. He's a lot more impressive. If you guys look into
MissionU or Pencils of Promise or the
fact that at 32, he was the UN Global Education
Crisis Committee head, yeah. He's like, yeah. He's like that guy, 100%. Mom loves him. And my sister? Mom loves even more
than both of us. It's not even close. JESSE MICHELS: " He says he
gets very competitive with you in basketball. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. I mean, our dad's a coach. JESSE MICHELS: I
didn't know that. SCOOTER BRAUN: So we grew up
playing competitive basketball our whole lives. And Adam is a better athlete and
definitely has a better handle, but his jump shot's weak. I definitely have the best
jump shot in the family. He won't contest that. But that's all I got. JESSE MICHELS: Taking shots. SCOOTER BRAUN: But it's real. And that's good. And as you get older, my
game is more efficient. Because as you get older
and you have a jump shot, you can survive three-point
line to three-point line. I like how there's like
three people in here who are basketball fans
and everyone else is just like, get back
to the crypto talk, bro. Get back to the crypto. JESSE MICHELS: We
have more Velvet Room goers than basketball fans. OK. So that's crazy. It's almost like Asher
gave you the runway to do what you did
with Justin, which is maybe a little-known fact. Which is-- that's
pretty incredible. When you saw Justin on
YouTube, you flew him out. You flew him and his mother out
and you got this trial period, and you got them to
take a chance on you. How did you know that
this kid's special just from seeing him on YouTube? SCOOTER BRAUN: You know, a
manager of a great new rising artist actually came to see
me last night at my house. And it was our first time
meeting, and we kind of just wanted to get to
know each other. And we were talking. He's a really good dude, and
we were talking about data and different things. And I just looked at
him and I said, look. I remember when Sean
Parker woke me up one night to tell me that he was going to
create an algorithm for a hit song. And it's not the first time
I'd heard something like that. You know, when you
asked me how did I know, I like going with gut. Data is a great thing,
but going with gut is a much better way to live. And if everybody could take
data and figure it out, then there would
not been hit songs. There wouldn't be movies. There wouldn't be innovation. We would just be following
data and following some kind of timeline of how
we're supposed to do things. And then, there's no
sensation of discovery. And I think data's
very important, because you can learn from
it and you can go with it. But if you go through life-- I mean, everyone in this
room will understand this-- if someone gives
you a ton of data but your gut just tells you it's
wrong, but you follow the data and it's wrong,
you're miserable. You are like, I knew it. I absolutely knew it. This drives me crazy. But if you go against the
data and you follow your gut and you're still wrong, you
actually don't feel bad. You're like, you know what? I tried. I went with my gut. And what's the point of
really doing anything? The real point is being
content and finding happiness, because you can win 100 times
and not find happiness and then be even more depressed. So I just think going through
life and going with gut is the best thing. And when I saw Justin,
my gut went off and I actually saw
from start to finish how to take this kid
on YouTube that, when I showed other friends,
they were like, cute kid, but I don't get it. I knew exactly how to make him
one of the biggest pop stars ever. Like, it all, like, flew in. And I am a spiritual
person, so I think it was someone upstairs
that kind of gave me that plan. And then I used data. Then I used YouTube. I knew I had to
convince people who didn't think the way I thought. So I was like, OK, I'm going
to use the data from YouTube and the analytics that YouTube
is now sharing with me. And I'm going to prove
it to the naysayers. I'm going to take him from
60,000 views to 66 million. JESSE MICHELS: You hear that-- SCOOTER BRAUN: By the way, my
nose is itching like crazy. And in Los Angeles or New
York when you itch your nose, people completely
get the wrong idea. So I just wanted to say
I live a healthy life. I just have some allergies. That's it. I'm not that entertainment guy. I just want to itch the nose. JESSE MICHELS: Scooter is
sober and lucid right now. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. Very honest. The only way to go through life. JESSE MICHELS: Wow. Ariana Grande, in
my mind, is probably the closest thing we've seen
to Mariah Carey since Mariah Carey. Mariah Carey was a So So
Def artist back in the day. Talk about how you
met her and got her to sign on board, and
then your journey with her-- SCOOTER BRAUN: She
was never So So Def. Jermaine produced her album. JESSE MICHELS: Oh,
I didn't know that. SCOOTER BRAUN: He produced
"Emancipation of Mimi." JESSE MICHELS: The Velvet
Room guy knows too. SCOOTER BRAUN: It's OK. I wasn't going to correct,
you, but I was like, no, I'm going to correct you. JESSE MICHELS: You know way
more about this than me. OK. Got it. SCOOTER BRAUN: It
wasn't it a big mistake. We're good. Keep going. JESSE MICHELS: But how
did you meet Ariana? How'd you convince
her to sign on board? And then talk about the journey,
because she left and came back. SCOOTER BRAUN: I saw
Ariana on YouTube do a cover of a
Justin Bieber song while she was playing
a secondary character on a Nickelodeon show. And I was blown
away by her voice. And I was like,
this girl is a star. And I wanted to meet her, and
I couldn't really get to her. And then I saw that she
wanted to make music, so I reached out
to a buddy and I was like, look, I know I might
be a jerk because now she just wants to make music and
I've never reached out before, but I've wanted to
for a long time. And it turned out that
she had been wanting to meet me for a couple years. And people that she
was asking to set up were kind of blocking it,
because they didn't want me in. They wanted to be in. And we met and
completely hit it off. And I said, let's do this
and went on this amazing run. What shocked me is
that Nickelodeon had a deal with Sony. And I was like, how are
you not signed to Sony? And it turns out she said,
hey, I want to make music. And they heard her sing. And they were like,
well, she's not a star. We're not going to
give her a record deal. And Sony actually
passed on Ariana. Their loss, our gain. And we did the deal, and
we started working together and we had two
number one albums. And as you can see on the stage,
I don't really hold my tongue. And there were some other people
in her life that were kind of-- as you become more and more
popular and famous and more success, people just
start showing up. And they want to
create dissension because they want to create
opportunities for themselves. And there were people who were
creating dissension between she and I. And instead of just
kind of succumbing to that, I said what I felt. And in that confusion,
we went separate ways. And six months later
when those people showed their true colors, she
called me up and she said, can we meet? And we met up. And we had stayed cordial. And it was nothing. It was a hug, forgiven,
forgave each other for anything that was said, and back to it. And then we had
incredible success. And then I'm sure
your next question is we went through some
really trying times together. JESSE MICHELS: Yeah. And talk about-- switching,
actually, to Kanye-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Oh, I
thought you'd go there. JESSE MICHELS: Well
actually, yeah. I should go there. You kind of teed me off. Well, can you talk about those
trying times with Ariana? SCOOTER BRAUN: Look, it's-- yeah. Glad you asked. I didn't see that coming. Look, Ariana-- very well
known-- had a terrorist attack at her show in Manchester. And over 20 people were killed,
including a 9-year-old girl and other kids. And she was there. And these people were
there to see her. And there's that guilt you
carry when that happens. And I was angry. Because of my grandparents
being Holocaust survivors, I always knew that kind of
evil existed in the world. And I'd kind of waited my
whole life for an opportunity to take it on. So I was, like,
rearing and ready to go and filled with anger. And I was like, we're
going to do a show. We're going to go back. And when I got to
her the next day, she, rightfully
so, was torn apart. And she was like, I don't
know if I could ever sing these songs again,
let alone go on stage. So I had to kind of pull
myself back and realize this wasn't a moment for me. And I worked on
canceling the tour and worked with
her insurance team. And the insurance
company was British, and they completely
understood and actually said, we're going to pay the
full fee for all her shows for the rest of the tour. We're going to fully
cover the insurance. And think about that. So now she's getting
her full fee, but she doesn't have
to pay for production. She doesn't have to
pay for the costumes. She doesn't have
to pay for staff. She's actually going to make
more money by not performing for the last two months than
she would on the entire tour, by just accepting the insurance. And by the time I flew
home two days later, I got home to 16 text
messages saying, call me. Call me. Call me. And I called her up. And she knew that
financial point. And she said, if I
don't do something, I'm not who I say I am. And all these kids
who come and see me and all the things I tell
them, they're not real. So what's the plan? And I said, look, I-- she goes, I'm ready to
go on tour tomorrow. I want to go back. And I said, look,
I think you need to take some time to make sure
you're strong enough, because I think you're excited right now. But let's go back in two
weeks, because that's Paris. We'll cancel six shows
because you need time to heal and really take this in. And Paris is where the Eagles
of Death Metal happened, and I thought that
was a great statement. And I said, but I
have a crazier idea. Before Paris, instead of waiting
three, four months, a year, we should go back to
Manchester and perform. And she goes, do you think so? Why? And I said, because
the reason terrorists do this is they want to
change our way of life. They want to scare us. And the best way to stop
it from happening again is answering right away
and answering in defiance and letting them know
they're not going to change our way of life. And she, without even
pausing, was like, I'm in. And we had two weeks. We put the show together. And I put a tremendous
amount of pressure on a small Italian
girl's shoulders. And she stepped up
and she handled it. And there were a lot
of amazing people who stepped up for that show. And that will always
go down in my mind as the most important
and most incredible show I've ever been a part of. To give you a little context,
we finally got back to the UK. We were rehearsing
the night before. Staying in Manchester, we
rehearsed at Wembley Arena the night before. And that night was the night
of the London Bridge attack. So the second terrorist
attack happened the night before our show. JESSE MICHELS: Wow. SCOOTER BRAUN: And that was
the first time I was thinking, is my excitement and arrogance
going to get people killed? And before I could even think
about canceling the show, Chris Martin from Coldplay--
he was in the show-- sends me a text. Please don't cancel. And then Marcus
Mumford calls me, because I'd just seen
him at rehearsal. And says, do not cancel. It's more important than ever
that you guys do this show. Ariana, I never everyone
even talked to about, didn't even go there. She had already gone to sleep. And I spent the night,
talked to her mom. We decided to go
on with the show. And the Greater
Manchester Police wanted me to release a
statement on behalf of our team that the show was
going to go on. I spent the whole
night writing it. Woke up, put it out,
and I said that we have a greater responsibility
now more than ever to continue on this journey. Not only for the
victims of Manchester, but the victims of
London, to honor them and be on that stage. And then the Manchester Police
put out a statement saying, the show will go on. However, please understand
that the alert is now at high, which means
there is, quote, "likely going to be an attack." And we were going
to be on YouTube-- thanks-- Facebook, Twitter,
Capital Radio, BBC Radio, and the BBC. So you could watch our
entire show from your home. I was convinced no one
was going to show up. And when Marcus walked
out to open the show, the Mumford guys
weren't in town. It's the only time Marcus
Mumford has ever performed without Mumford and Sons. And he did "Timshel," and he
changed a couple of lyrics to honor the victims. And when he walked
out, there were 60,000 people in the place. It was packed. And it was chills because it was
about to be a three, four hour show. And he and I talked beforehand
about how to start it. And we asked for a
moment of silence. And at the end, he said,
let's not be afraid. And the place roared. And it's something I'll never
forget for the rest of my life. JESSE MICHELS:
That's incredible. That's awesome that you guys
were able to stay the course and make it happen. Yeah, give it up. [APPLAUSE] OK. So I want to talk about Kanye. You've had a relationship
with Kanye for a while, but you signed him kind
of later in his career. Can you talk about what Kanye
means to you as a friend and as a colleague now and what
the future holds for Kanye? SCOOTER BRAUN: Look, he is
the most interesting person I've ever met in my life. He is a genius. And I've witnessed
and experienced that he truly is
a creative genius, because all my other
clients, a lot of it kind of comes on the
creativity, the ideas. A lot of it, myself
and team members, it's on us to kind of come up
with and then work with them. Kanye's always the person,
he's like, yeah I like that. But what about this? And you're like, damn. How did I not see that? But he's even made me
see colors differently. Like, we've spent
so much talking about colors and
palettes that I actually see colors and
aesthetic differently because of his education
of hours and hours and hours of conversation. JESSE MICHELS: Doesn't he
have synesthesia, like-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah, he does. JESSE MICHELS:
--sounds are color? SCOOTER BRAUN: When he hears
sounds, he sees colors. JESSE MICHELS: Crazy. SCOOTER BRAUN: And we were
friends for a long time. If you look up the
Ludacris "Stand Up" video, I am the promoter, club owner
jumping around dancing in it. And Kanye produced that song,
and he makes a cameo in it. And we actually met then before
he had just signed to the Roc, and he was a
producer, and no one knew who Kanye West
was other than if you'd worked with him as producer. And we met on that
set and were friendly. And kind of over the years,
always knew each other. His original manager, John
Monopoly, was always good to me when I was a younger guy. And then when he put up a
tweet saying he was $52 million in debt, he's my friend. So I texted him, are you OK? And I guess a lot of people
didn't ask him if he was OK. So he called me
back just to talk. And after talking
for about an hour, he said, you know, you
need to come work with me. And I said, Kanye, we've
talked about this before. I don't want to do that. Like, I'm afraid
of working with you because I don't want
to lose the friendship. I love you, dude. No, no, you need to
come work with me. You need to manage me. I'm going to call Izzy. You need to manage me. And I said, no,
no, no, we're good. Why don't we--
when are you back? You're back in a week? OK, you're back in a week. We'll talk about it then. And I thought this is like
the eighth time he and I have had a conversation like that. We're going to get it. We'll stay friends. The next morning, I get a
call from Adidas and Def Jam. So we're told you're the
manager and to deal with you. And that is how I became
Kanye West's manager. But he's become like a brother. And I joke around that it's
been 2 and 1/2 years now and I think we'll
always be friends and we'll always find
ways to work together, because we both have
this feeling of, art can change the world. And I joke around all the time
that I'm his manager today, but I might not be tomorrow. Like, I've lasted
longer than most. But I'm going to be
with him next week and I saw him last week. And he knows it. He's like, someday
when you're older, you're going to say you managed
Kanye West and that's cool. And I'm like, it's
cool right now, bro. I mean, we walked in, you
were like nice Yeezys. I was like, you're
goddamn right. JESSE MICHELS: He's
like, I got a hook up. SCOOTER BRAUN: But he
really is a genius. And here's a thing I like
to say about him publicly, because I don't like
to talk about it too much publicly out of
respect for that's not really his thing. But Kanye West is
the best listener of any artist I've
ever worked with. JESSE MICHELS:
That's incredible, because I feel like that's
probably the biggest public misperception. SCOOTER BRAUN: Biggest misperc-- Kanye wants the information. He wants to learn everything. If you interrupt him and say,
hey, my bad, he goes, no, no. What did you want to say? He is the best
listener of anyone I've ever worked
with, hands down. And he's also someone who
doesn't keep you on the phone. If I say, hey, my kid needs me. I'll call you right back. No problem. He's actually incredibly,
in his own way, empathetic and considerate and
is a really, really, really good listener. When he gets frustrated,
his passion might take over and he goes what I call Full Ye. But he has a heart of
gold, and he really is an amazing listener. And that is, yeah, I think
100% the biggest misconception. JESSE MICHELS: I'm going to name
some people you've worked with, and you just give me the first
word that pops into your head. OK? SCOOTER BRAUN: OK. JESSE MICHELS: Justin Bieber. SCOOTER BRAUN: Why did hair
come to the first thing that came to my head? No, that's family. JESSE MICHELS: Usher. SCOOTER BRAUN: Also family. Brother. JESSE MICHELS: Karlie Kloss. SCOOTER BRAUN: Kindness. JESSE MICHELS: Martin Garrix. SCOOTER BRAUN: Wild man. JESSE MICHELS: BloodPop. SCOOTER BRAUN: Martin's
also jump into your pool, fully clothed. BloodPop, brilliant. JESSE MICHELS: The Wanted. SCOOTER BRAUN: Hmm? JESSE MICHELS: The Wanted. SCOOTER BRAUN:
Um, Glad You Came. JESSE MICHELS: Kanye. Last one. SCOOTER BRAUN: Genius. JESSE MICHELS: Love it. OK. SCOOTER BRAUN: You
didn't ask Ariana. JESSE MICHELS: I
didn't ask Ariana. Ariana. SCOOTER BRAUN: Brave. JESSE MICHELS: Awesome. And it feels like right now,
you represent mostly pop, would you say? You came from a
hip-hop background. Yeah. How do you reconcile that? Do you want to do
more hip-hop stuff? SCOOTER BRAUN: I am in business
with more hip-hop people than I let know publicly. And I'm also in business
with a lot of country music that I don't talk
about publicly. Our company has a
branch of it that owns a piece of a bunch of other
companies within our business. So we own 50% of a lot
of other companies. We just don't talk
about it publicly. It allows me to
touch other genres, be involved with other genres. And we've done EDM. We've done country. But there's people that
they'll see me at shows and be like, I didn't know you
were friends with this person. And sometimes, I'm in
business with them as well. But it's funny, because
probably of any manager in music history, I've
probably put myself out there probably
the most, because I thought it was a new world. And if you can create
a brand for yourself, then you can launch
other brands. And social media
was changing things. So I made a conscious
decision to do that, knowing that it would
put a target on my back and it would be something
people used to criticize me and kind of judge my
character and assume that-- people that don't know
me, they might assume, oh, he's doing that because he
wants to become a public figure or be consumed by that. And the truth is, the majority
of the successes we have, we'll never speak about. And the majority of my private
life isn't very public. I choose to show my
family in certain aspects publicly only
because when I came into the industry, fast women,
fast cars was a stigma that you thought of when you thought of
a successful entertainment man. And I wanted to
change that paradigm. I want people to
see me, and I want them to know you can have
success in this industry and be a good husband, a good
father, a good friend, a family man. And I also think--
especially with what I'm seeing now with "Time's
Up" and the "Me Too" movement, that this movement can't
just be about women. This movement needs
to be about moving the needle on men
in the industry so they treat women better. And-- [APPLAUSE] --I think the only
way you do that is you move the needle on
what a man's goal is. If you tell a young man
coming into the industry that success doesn't
look like that, that's actually
not a good result. Success is being someone who's
honorable to women and someone who is honorable to their
family and honorable to their commitments of family. Then I think you're going to
see more young men not acting so inappropriately and
becoming like the generation that we're seeing
fall right now. And that is something I want. Because I was raised by a
strong woman, and I married one, so I don't want the next dude
coming up looking at my success and thinking, oh,
I want that car, and I want that young girl. No, that's not what it's about. That's actually a very
shallow life, in my opinion. Sorry I talked
about this too long. JESSE MICHELS: Well,
you're a good role model. No, that's great. You talk about a lot of your
success going kind of unspoken and unrecognized or you kind
of keeping silent about it. Fittingly, the tech
arm of the SB Projects is named Silent Labs. Can you talk about-- we
were talking earlier-- just the history of your
involvement with tech, to the extent that you
can talk about that? SCOOTER BRAUN: So the
itch came because when I was a big college
party promoter, Emory was one of the first eight
schools to launch the Facebook. And I was like, what a great
way to get my parties out there without having to
hack the school database. So I got in touch
with the contact page and the master of dungeon
ceremonies, Mark Zuckerberg, whatever the hell
it said at the time. And he wrote me
back, please talk to Eduardo, who I saw was the
master of coin or something like that. And Eduardo and I,
for about four months, negotiated 10% of
Facebook for $100,000. I still have the email. Dear Scooter, Mark
wants to launch 32 more schools in two weeks. So unfortunately
at this time, he refuses to take any
outside investment. Let me know if you're
coming to Boston so we can catch up and see if there's
other stuff we can do together. Now, I joke around in my head
that I know I'm a closer. And if I would have
gone to Boston, I probably would have
closed that deal. But remember that high school
sweetheart I told you about? Well, she ripped my heart out. And she went to BC. So the idea of going to
Boston and running into her was not happening. So I was like, aw, man,
screw this Facebook thing. I'll have to find another
way to promote my parties. And a year later, it
was like, Peter Thiel invests a million dollars
for 10% of Facebook. And I was like, I could
have made a million dollars. JESSE MICHELS: That's
an unprofitable breakup right there. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. But I didn't know
what it was going to be so I can't claim credit. But when it continued becoming
this giant conglomerate, it made me say, well
there was something there. And it actually made me start
investing in tech very, very early before the
music industry in LA wanted to start going
up to the Valley. I started going up and
not really telling anybody because I didn't want
anyone else going up. So I was able to get in
early in a lot of really amazing companies. And they were personal
investments for me. And then we had our incubator
if I wanted the company to invest as well. But I was able to-- I went up and I was meeting
with another company, and they ordered me an Uber. And I'm like, what
the hell is this? They're like, it's a new
thing here in San Francisco. It's really cool. And then a friend of mine
said, I met this guy, Travis. And I have this great picture
of Travis in my living room here in LA pitching me
about Uber coming to LA. And I was already
an investor when it was just in San Francisco. And seeing that whole thing,
and then his competitor came up, which I got
into also, which made him mad at me for a little while. But John Zimmer went
to my high school. John Zimmer was the
same age as my brother. He played soccer
with my brother. When that thing happened,
at first it was Zimride and I basically passed
because I was an Uber guy. But later on, I had
some frustrations and I decided, John, OK. You know, let's go do this too. And I was on a 30 under 30 list
in Billboard when I was 27. There was a 24-year-old
kid on the list. And I called up Billboard. Bill Werde was the
editor, and I said, can I have the name and
number of every single person on the list? Because I feel like my
peers are the people that I want to grow with,
not somebody I aspire to be. We're going to come up together. Because whenever you meet
someone powerful, they say, oh, of course I know them. I'll call them. We've known each other 30 years. And you realize that the
people sitting next to you when you're working your
way up are the people that you actually are going
to need when you get there. So I called everyone on
the list, and one of them was a young guy from
Sweden with a startup that was just in Sweden. We became friends,
and he let me invest in his startup called Spotify. And along the way,
different friends got me into different companies. And it worked out. JESSE MICHELS: You
make it seem easy, like you were like
accidentally friends with all-- that's crazy. SCOOTER BRAUN: No, listen. I just think-- I don't really think I'm
that good at this stuff. I really think I'm really lucky. When I was a kid and
I didn't do homework, there'd be like
a freak snow day. Because I've got
a lot of friends who work really, really
hard, and they just can't catch a break. And I'm the dude who goes on the
internet in the middle of night and finds Justin, or
my friend sends me a funny video of an
overweight Asian dude dancing and I'm like, oh, it's
like the Macarena. I'll sign that. And it's Gangnam Style. And the things that have
happened to me in my career, it just doesn't
really make sense. So I don't really
think it's on me. I think somebody-- I'm going to
get real spiritual on you guys, but I actually
really believe this, because when you cry
to your dad at 25 and then you wake up 11
years later next to who I get to wake up with, with
my two kids and my life, you can't just sit there and
be like, OK, this is normal, because it's not. So I believe that
you get blessings to give them to other people. Otherwise you stop getting them. That's actually my
personal belief. And I believe as long as
we keep doing philanthropy, as long as we keep giving back,
as long as we wake up every day and find a way to make
sure somebody else gets an opportunity,
then somebody upstairs keeps opening the door
for more opportunities. And that's just my
personal belief. And there are
really shitty people who get to win along the way. I'm not interested in
paying attention to them. We've just got to do what we do. JESSE MICHELS: That's beautiful. [APPLAUSE] Do you have time for a couple
questions from the audience? SCOOTER BRAUN: I've
got time for whatever. We didn't know how long
this was going to be. And originally when
we planned this, we didn't know we'd be in our
new office in Santa Monica. So we thought coming out
here was going to take hours. So I don't really have anything
to do for another hour. And Zach has my phone, so I have
no idea how many clients have called while I'm up here. And I'm actually really
enjoying the fact that I don't have a phone. This is like when I
went to Burning Man. JESSE MICHELS:
Google Burning Man. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah. JESSE MICHELS: Do
you have anything-- SCOOTER BRAUN: This
is nothing like when I went to Burning Man. JESSE MICHELS: They
do say Burning Man is the new Davos though, like
it's all just tech execs. SCOOTER BRAUN: I liked it. I rode a bike around. I don't do drugs. And for those people who have
this stigma that you do drugs at Burning Man, not true. I don't do drugs,
but I do ride bikes. And I rode a bike
around that desert like I was 15 years old
at Bible Street Park. My phone wasn't on. I was a wild man. I was riding that thing
straight into oblivion, and it was awesome. So if you like
bike riding, I will tell you there's a great trail. It's called Burning Man. JESSE MICHELS: OK. I'm going to pass this mic
around for audience Q&A. Before I do, do
you have anything you want to plug or promote
that SB has going on? SCOOTER BRAUN: I'm good. You guys are Google. You don't need anything from me. You've got a tea
shop in your office. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: Oh, you're
going to toss it. That's part of the fun. JESSE MICHELS: And feel
free to pass to the next-- AUDIENCE: Yeah. JESSE MICHELS: Cool. AUDIENCE: Diana [INAUDIBLE],,
thanks for being here today. You are an amazing storyteller. I've learned so much just
from listening to you. You've talked a lot about using
technology like social media to discover new music
and new artists. Thoughts on super new technology
that could potentially be used to discover new music? Like robots, self-driving
cars, drones? And to give some context, I
work at Google X. I'm just-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Blockchain. No, I'm kidding. AUDIENCE: Blockchain. Yeah, I think that will work. SCOOTER BRAUN: Technology
has actually always shaped how we see the music industry. So before Tesla really created
what we know as radio today, there was no music
industry because there wasn't a way to distribute. So technology actually was the
creation of the music industry. And then if you look at
whether it be vinyl and then the adaption to 8-track and
then CDs and cassettes and all these different things and then
going to MP3 and now streaming, technology has
always built, lifted, and saved the music industry. I have no idea what
it's going to be next. I know that I think
we're actually in the infant
stage of streaming. Because if you actually
look at it and we're like, oh my god, this person
sold 5 million albums. That's mind blowing. But the amount of people
on the planet that listen to music, that
actually isn't mind blowing. We've never created
a way where, when there's such a great separation
of wealth in this world, to be able to distribute music
properly amongst all people. And now we have streaming,
which is changing that. So I don't really know,
necessarily, what's next. I know I think
we're in round one. I mean, I think
it's $8.6 billion that streaming is now creating
for the industry, which has brought it back up to where
it was and a little bit above. I think we're in,
literally, the first inning of a nine-inning
game of streaming. I think it's going to
take the value of music up in a way we
haven't seen before. And then I think as far AI, that
is the most interesting part for me, because that's
how we're getting a lot of this playlisting
and everything else that's becoming so influential. But I still think it's
missing the human touch. Because AI can kind of
identify what songs go together or how we put stuff
together, but a human touch can identify a human's
interaction with music in a timeline of life. Because if I say to
you, tell me what you were doing when
you were 11 years old, you're probably not going to-- maybe something influential
happened when you were 11. But a lot of people are
like, I'm not really sure. But if I play you a really
big song from that year, it's going to take
you right back to when you were 11 years old. And there's something
special that AI can't do about identifying that. But also there's so many
people we're going to need AI. So I'm interested to
see what someone like yourself comes up with next. And hopefully, by
the time you do, I will be out of
the music industry. No, I'm kidding. [LAUGHTER] AUDIENCE: Thank you. SCOOTER BRAUN: Good throw. AUDIENCE: So, Scooter, what
are your thoughts on blockchain technology? SCOOTER BRAUN: My thoughts
are blockchain technology is amazing, and it's going
to be innovative in 100 different industries. But coins aren't needed
in every single industry. So I think having
a coin associated to every piece of
blockchain technology is why 99% of the
coins will disappear. And the ones that make
sense for the technology that they're associated with
and make sense for the industry that they're going
into will survive. And those coins will be
the Amazon of this bubble. But I think that there's
a very big difference between blockchain technology
and cryptocurrency, in my opinion. And I think that the actual
use of blockchain technology-- listen, if they can break
blockchain technology, we're all screwed. Because that means
that people can break our entire financial system. But I think it's going to
make all of our systems more efficient. But I think that people should
start educating themself on the difference between
crypto and what blockchain is, and actually
understand that it's way too easy to make coins,
and that's why most of them should disappear. But until then, I'm going to
have as much fun as you are. JESSE MICHELS: [INAUDIBLE]
right in front of you. Oh, right there. AUDIENCE: Scooter,
this has been awesome. Thanks for coming. You're a tremendously
successful entrepreneur across a range of industries--
tech, non-profits, music, media. What excites you the
most in your business? SCOOTER BRAUN: I'm really
cheesy now that I'm a dad-- bed time. [LAUGHTER] I mean honestly, I get
excited by challenges, and I get excited by insults. So when everyone is like,
oh, you've done so well, I get really bored, because
I don't know where to go. Insults have
usually led me where to go because doing
the unreasonable thing has always led to
the great thing. Doing what everyone
expects-- the status quo, the reasonable-- doesn't lead
to any kind of greatness, doesn't lead to a good story. And I always said I wanted to be
my own story instead of reading everyone else's. But what gets me
excited at this point-- who here is a parent? OK. So the people that raised their
hand are going to get this. My kid, my 3-year-old,
woke me up this morning, slapped me in my forehead,
and said, Daddy, I love you. So much better than a Grammy. So much better than,
you know, an IPO. There's no real describing it. Because you do all
this stuff and you don't really understand. You're like, what am I here for? And then you have kids. And then you understand what
you actually are here for. You have a purpose, when you
have children, that you just didn't have before. And there's no good
time to have kids, because you're always
planning your life and seeing it through
your own eyes. And then when they finally
show up, you're like, I don't really
understand what life would have been without you. Yeah, I know I sucked. You guys are leaving? You guys want to leave? Yeah, I know. I saw Dave Chapelle do this
one time at The Comedy Store. He did, like, a [INAUDIBLE]
when people walked out. And he did this. Everyone give him a round of
applause because they hate me. [LAUGHTER] I like [INAUDIBLE]. What makes me excited
is either the first time I do something, being with my
family, experience like that, or when someone I
work with has a first. Like, the first time I saw
this guy, Mike George, who works for me, receive his first
platinum plaque in our company, I had, at that
point in my career, received a lot of
platinum plaques. They're in the garage. Seeing him have the
joy of that first time reminded me of what that felt
like, and that gives me joy. So I'm kind of at
a point now where I feel like my life
is kind of absurd, and I have everything I've
ever needed and a lot more. And I only got there
because I stood on the shoulders of all these
people that believed in me. So now it's my turn to
kind of work for them and make sure I pull
them up to where I'm at. AUDIENCE: Awesome. Thanks. AUDIENCE: So what
was your response when Kanye West showed kind
of support for Donald Trump? SCOOTER BRAUN: I disagreed. I mean, it's-- here's the thing. Living in Los
Angeles, I'm really grateful that I lived
in Atlanta, Georgia until six years ago. Living in Los Angeles
and New York is amazing. And living in the
state's amazing, because it's probably the most
forward state in the nation. But we're not without
fault. The largest separation of wealth in the
country is in this state. And people acted like they lost
their damn minds when he won. And to me, when he won,
I didn't freak out. Because that's the process. Someone needs to
win, and then you're supposed to heal
and come together. A lot of things
that he's done since have disappointed me to
a place that I'm not OK. But I was going to
give him a chance in the beginning, because
I think that's the process. And if you don't, then
you're a hypocrite. Because if Hillary would
have won and they said, oh, we don't want to
support her, we would have been yelling at them. So when he felt that
way, I said, look, that's your opinion. But I also felt like he
was feeling that way when at a point where he was sick. And I felt like there
were people around him-- it was very frustrating-- I thought were taking advantage
of a time where-- like, if you saw Quincy Jones'
most recent interview, nobody should have
let that person in the house at the time. Like, sometimes people
need to be given privacy. Just because they're
public figures, they need to be given
a moment to process. But I know his heart. And I know that
he's a human being that I don't always agree with. But I respect him. And he said what
he wanted to say. And I'm allowed to
have my own opinion. You know, just because
I manage someone doesn't mean I need to agree with them. Me and Vic Mensa, who I
manage, had a big disagreement recently. And I was proud that he put
up on his Instagram-- he said, I know Scooter Braun
vehemently disagreed with me, and he's my manager. But I appreciate him at
least having a conversation. I think we've messed
up in this country. And really around
the world, we've forgotten how to
speak to each other. And we're forgetting
the same people who were yelling at other
people we're claiming that we're supposed to help. And I think we need to
start having conversations out of respect again. Otherwise, nothing
is going to change. AUDIENCE: Cool. SCOOTER BRAUN:
You've got to throw it all the way over there. You have to throw it. Oh, good catch. I thought she was going
a U. She went deep. She's got a Kirk Cousins arm. AUDIENCE: So first of all, I
was a college student in Atlanta from 2002 to 2006. So I probably went to
some of your parties and didn't even know it. But you mentioned about
how when you have success, you get bored, and
you're kind of always looking for that next challenge. So is there something
on the horizon for you that you feel like is some
sort of moonshot thing that you think
you'll go after next? Or is it just going
to be bringing up those people behind you
and all of those things? SCOOTER BRAUN: I think
it's a combination. If I want to bring them up,
then I've got to keep going. So the way I look at it,
here's the challenge. I'm 36 years old. He's like, you've
got a cool story. If this is the end of
my story, then I failed. Because I'm 36. The average entrepreneur
hits their stride at 39. So to me, I'm just
getting started. So I don't know,
necessarily, what it is next, and I don't like talking
about stuff before it happens. So there's things
we're working on. But I also know part of my story
is going to include failure. Because the last decade of my
life has had so much success that statistically-- if I'm
really not being a moron and paying attention
to a little data-- statistically, I should
have some serious failure on the horizon. You know, the Wall Street
goes up, it goes down. There's always got
to be a correction. So what I'm excited
about is regardless of what that correction is,
it's not going to stop me. It's just going
to be a pit stop. Because now, where the
universe messed up is they gave me too much. Now that I got my wife and kids,
I'm playing with house money. So you can't really take
anything away from me. If I lose some money, or
like lose some popular-- you know, if I drop the
ball and some naysayers who wanted to see me fail are
all like, I told you so, they're going to be super
disappointed when they find out I'm not that upset. But I'm just going to keep
going and see where it takes me. And whatever comes
next, I'm ready for it. And I get bored. But I also, I'm a workaholic. I can't really shut it off. The hardest challenge for
me is work/life balance. I'm constantly getting better. But my wife-- she was
the one who said to me. She goes, there's a difference
between being present and being present. And that's the thing I'm
working on the most at home, putting the phone down
and being present. AUDIENCE: Good luck. SCOOTER BRAUN: Thanks. I hope you enjoyed the
party back in the day. AUDIENCE: Thanks. This has been awesome. I'm curious. Do you think you could have been
as successful had you pursued a completely different path? Like, how much of
your success is attributable to your
passion for music and your craft, as opposed
to just your inherent drive? SCOOTER BRAUN: I
mean, I don't know. I know that I didn't go
into life being like, you know what I want to do? Music. I just wanted to
be an entrepreneur. And that's the way I've always
kind of considered myself. And I read a book
about David Geffen, where he said music
was the fastest way in. Because music takes a night. And movies and TV and
entertainment take years. But the one song can change
your life in a night. I was like, I'm in Atlanta. Let's go. But I don't know what
my life would have been. I think there's so
many points in my life I look back and
think, if I would have turned that way
instead of that way, what would have happened? You know, if I would've stayed
in that relationship, what would have happened? You know, there's so many
different ways I look at it. All I know is I thank
God every day I wake up, and this is where I ended up. Because I'm 36 years old,
and whenever I get depressed, the one thing I remind
myself of is, like, if you put my life against
any 36-year-old on the planet, I'm going to take my life. I'm going to choose this. This is good stuff for 36. I'm working with this. This is fine by me. Except for the Jets. We never win. [LAUGHTER] I see you with the
Steelers shirt. Sorry. AUDIENCE: This is great. And I actually listen to
you on [INAUDIBLE] as well. So I'm one of your
three basketball fans. SCOOTER BRAUN: Nice. AUDIENCE: Yeah. SCOOTER BRAUN: That
was fun with Bill. AUDIENCE: Yeah. SCOOTER BRAUN: He's got to
show up at my pickup game now. AUDIENCE: Yeah, and there's
not too much overlap today. Curious-- you said
that Facebook was kind of like the one that
got away on the tech side. Curious if there's something
on the artist side-- oh, I saw this person. They didn't come with me. SCOOTER BRAUN: I mean, there's
a bunch of different ones. But I really--
it's like Facebook. I don't have a regret. I feel like it just led
me one way to another. I mean, a funny story is I knew
Macklemore before he blew up. We were friends, and I
knew about him in Seattle. And he had the mix tape, and
it was just all the hits. But it wasn't out yet. And he sent it to me. We were talking. And I was just like,
is there any way I can get you to sign over here? And he said, look, the only
person I would sign with is Drake. So I hit up Drake. And I'm like, you
should do this. And he's like, OK, hit. And he tells me one
of his guys, you know, to hit-- who he trusts
on the A&R side. And Drake and I weren't in
business the way we are now, but we were friends. And his guy just didn't
pay attention and passed. And when Macklemore's album
went number one, they were like, don't tell Drake. [LAUGHTER] But, like I said, I wake
up and I look at my life. I don't want to look
back and have regrets. I think the only
thing you should have regret about is things
that you do that were malicious. Missing out on stuff
or anything like that, I don't have regrets. That's part of the journey. But if you do
something malicious-- I'll tell you something
I have regret about. I was at basketball camp when I
was in seventh grade or eighth grade-- like sleep away camp-- and these older kids, a
year older than me-- they were real cool. They were like,
come hang with us. Because I was good. And they were like, man, this
kid in our hall, he's a dork. And I'm like, dork-- I'm a dork. But OK. And they broke into his
room while he wasn't there and they put all his
shorts on the ground. They're like,
Scooter, pee on it. And I knew it was wrong. But these older kids
were peer pressuring me, and I peed on this
poor kid's clothes. The camp-- it gets reported. Kid's having to wear his
bathing suit to play and stuff, because there's pee. And I just felt so bad. I was like, screw these kids. So I went up to him and I
said, I did this to you. I'm so sorry. Screw these kids. I reported myself. They didn't let me play
in the all-star game even though I had
made the all-star team at the end of the week. And to this day, even
though I made it right, kind of, I never
forgot that, because I was like, that's regret. I knew better. I shouldn't have done that. But everything else in my life-- if I missed out, I missed out. I didn't do anything bad. I shouldn't have peed
on his clothes, man. What seventh grader does that? Also, his mom-- he didn't tell
his mom that we made good-- so I didn't tell my
dad what happened. He didn't understand why I
wasn't in the all-star game. And the last day of
camp, the parents come. And the mom-- I'm sitting there,
and she comes up. You disgusting little kid. How dare you pee on
my son's clothes. I'm like, what? He's like, no, mom. We're good now. We're good. And my dad's like,
what are you doing? And I was like,
I don't know dad. [LAUGHTER] And then he goes, how
dare you say my son. She goes, he peed. He goes, he did not pee. Tell them! And all of the sudden,
he looks at me. And I'm like-- and he
goes, oh, you're dead. And that was not
a good interaction with my dad at that time. Coach Braun was
not happy with me. AUDIENCE: Hey, Scooter. Question-- what are
conversations at the dinner table like with your family? The Emanuels bring
their work to the table, and their narrative reminds me
a lot of your family's as well. So I was curious if your
family has a similar-- SCOOTER BRAUN: So, question. Do you want to know what
it was like growing up or what is it like now? AUDIENCE: Let's
do the growing up. SCOOTER BRAUN: Growing up-- it was very important
to my parents that we sat down at the
table and had a family meal. And my parents
were 9:00 to 5:00. Because my dad was a coach
and then he was a dentist. And my mom was an orthodontist. So they could be home
every single night when work was done. And it was always important
for us to sit around the table and have a conversation. And me and my brother
were very competitive, and we'd get into fights because
we were only two years apart. But if we fought too much,
then dad got involved, and he was bigger and
stronger and fights better. But it was very much challenges,
extremely competitive challenges. Me and my dad were
definitely the loudest. My mom, when she spoke,
everyone shut up and listened, because she was the quiet boss. My dad would talk a lot, but if
my mom spoke, it was like, OK. We're done now. But it was always,
what did you do today? Very competitive, kind of
pushing each other, but also a tremendous amount of love. There was high praise. We were appreciated
for our achievements, and we were always told-- every night before
we went to bed, my dad used to come to
my room-- as long as I can remember-- and say, hey. Brauns are different. And we were like,
what does that mean? And he would always
say, it doesn't mean you're better than
anybody, but you're different. And I hold you to
extraordinary standards because I think
you're extraordinary. And after a while, you begin
to believe the propaganda. So we went into
life just believing that we could do anything
because he had ingrained that into us. What our conversations
are like today is, Levi will usually say, ahh. [TONGUE FLAPPING] Ahh. Daddy. Mama. Go. Jagger has a new song
called onion man. The lyrics are, onion man,
onion man, onion man, onion man, onion man-- over and over and over again
for about half an hour. AUDIENCE: Sample that. SCOOTER BRAUN: And
then my wife and I are just trying to have a
conversation while they're awake, and then we usually talk
once we get them down asleep. But actually, I'll tell
you a good conversation about my wife, because I haven't
spoken about her a lot today. But I want to give
you an understanding of why I am the way I am. So, she didn't want to
date me because I was in the entertainment industry. And I saw her TED
Talk on Fuck Cancer, and it made me want to meet her. And I had to trick
her into a date when I found out she was
single like a year later. JESSE MICHELS:
How'd you do that? SCOOTER BRAUN: Well,
she thought she was going to drinks
with a bunch of people. When she showed
up, it was just me. And I had my friends set it up. And then, like the
first date, we kind of fell in love pretty
quickly, and that was that. But now we're
together for a while, and I think some
of you in this room might have heard that
Justin Bieber had a turbulent time in his life. Things weren't always so
easy for the young man. And that was a very,
very, hard about a year and a half, two years. And one day, he and
some other clients were going through
stuff and it was just like four days of
just really bad stuff. And I was bringing it home
night after night after night. We're getting in bed. I'm bringing it home. And she is just like, look. You can't keep
bringing this to bed because I'm not
getting any of you. You've got to cut it
off when we go to bed. And in the classic
entertainment prick move, I respond with, look. You have to understand this
is what I do for a living. You don't appreciate what I do. This is how I provide. This is how I am able
to do everything. And my wife looks at me
and she says, OK, cool. You're right. So I was helping someone
with chemo today. I'm going to bring that to bed. And I shut up, realize instantly
how much I loved her and said, I love you so much. Thank you. Because my wife is
the number-one person who introduced in my
life the difference between problems
and inconveniences. When we work in this world
of tech or entertainment or wealth, you tend to
think that what you're doing is very, very important. And 99% of the stuff I deal with
is inconveniences-- high-class inconveniences,
but inconveniences. And what my wife deals
with is problems. And I think she taught
me the difference, so it's given me perspective. [APPLAUSE] JESSE MICHELS: That's awesome. AUDIENCE: I'm writing that down. Problems versus
inconveniences-- I like it. AUDIENCE: Throw it? SCOOTER BRAUN: Good. You guys are very athletic. Everyone has perfect throws. No one's dropped. AUDIENCE: First of all-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Can we
sign them to the Jets? Yeah, we need you. AUDIENCE: I appreciate you being
very honest and candid and not scripted. I like all the stories
you've been telling. So, a lot of people
like the entertainment industry in all its fame
and glory and wealth, and a lot of people want
to stay far away from it because of all the egos. In your journey through
the entertainment industry, what have you learned
to really like about it and what have you
really hated about it? SCOOTER BRAUN: What
I like about it is, most of the
stuff I do that I get paid for I would
actually do for free, like to be able to go to a show
or help someone make a record or make a TV show or a film
or advise someone on a tech-- that's fun. Most of that stuff
I would do for free. The bullshit is what I get paid
for, the stuff that I hate, the inconvenience
versus problems, and people not understanding
the difference. But the hardest part-- does that answer the
good part well enough? And also, when
you're in an elevator or when you're in a restaurant
and the background music is a record that
you were a part of-- that's actually a
really cool feeling. Because you're not really paying
attention and you're like, why do I know this? And all of a sudden you're like,
I helped put this together. That's pretty damn cool. Or I just made $0.25 because
I have the publishing. The hard part is
knowing your truth. And I think it's
highlighted in entertainment because it's so high-profile,
but knowing your truth is really the hard part because
people that even I think know my character, that have gotten
to know me, have been like-- because of their own
issues or whatever-- they will call you out
on your truth and say, well, I think you're in
it for the wrong reasons. They'll kind of put you down. They'll project their
negativity on to you. And because I decided
early on, OK, I want to build a brand
that I can build off of, I did put a target on my back. And having to know who I
am and what I stand for and what I believe
in and who I love and who loves me has been the
greatest challenge of holding onto that so I don't get lost
in other people's expectations and-- not even expectations--
their projections of what they want to see to
make themselves feel better. And understanding
that you don't have to be friends with everybody. You could be polite to everyone. You could be kind to
everyone, but you're not going to change someone. If they want to project
that negativity on to you, you have to just be OK with it
and know it's not your truth. And in my industry,
it's very, very hard sometimes to not get lost in
the amount of negativity that exists. People aren't happy
for each other. They want to break
each other down. They want to count your
money or your success and hope that you fail. And right before we
got on the stage, I was joking because we were
talking about people's success. And I said, look,
my thing is, I hope everyone's successful
because I don't want to pay for your vacation. I want to go on
vacation with you, and I want you to pay
for your own vacation. Do you know what it's like to
bring friends on vacation that can't pay for their vacation? It's very frustrating. [LAUGHTER] So yeah. I'm telling you, if we can
all go on vacation together and everybody stands on
their own two, it's great. So I want everyone
to be successful. One of my buddies just
launched his own company and finally left an
agency after 12 years. I couldn't be happier for him. I'm rooting for
him from the top. And originally, he
wanted to come in, and I was going to get 50%
of the company and fund it. And then he changed his
mind and goes, look. You'll be my first
investor if I need it, but I don't think I
need funding right now. And another friend was
like, are you upset? I was like, no. He's doing what's right for him. I want him to win. And at the end of the day,
if he becomes successful, he buys dinner. So, I think it's
just not getting lost and that's the hardest thing. You got to throw it
all the way over there. You got this. You got this. You got this. Yes. JESSE MICHELS: Wow. SCOOTER BRAUN: I'm telling
you, this is incredible. AUDIENCE: I'm British, so
we don't catch things well. We just run away. SCOOTER BRAUN: Use your feet. AUDIENCE: Big feet, small arms. It's interesting
hearing you talk, because you said you always
wanted to be an entrepreneur. But the way you talk
about your life, it doesn't seem like
your primary goal has ever really been about
business or about money. It sounds as though
you've wanted to go on a journey that's
allowed you to uncover what is valuable in life for you, and
now you've reached that point. Would you say that's true? SCOOTER BRAUN: Yeah, but I-- god, you guys got me telling
so many life stories. So when I was a kid, we moved
from the Bible Street Park area to this house out
in the boonies. And this guy from Greenpeace
showed up at the door and he asked us for money,
explained everything. And I was like, oh,
this is amazing. He's going to save the world. And I went and got
my mom and was like, we should write him a check. And she's like, look. We give to charities, but
we can't just give money to every single person. We got to pay bills and
put food on the table. And I was like, no mom. It's amazing. Give him a check. So I convinced my mom to give
him whatever check it was-- $25, $50-- to support Greenpeace. And he starts to leave, and
I'm like, where's his car? And my mom was like,
he doesn't have a car-- part of the cause,
he's walking from house to house because he's
supporting the environment. And I was like, but we
don't live near a bus station or a train station. He's going to be
walking for miles. And my mom's like,
yeah, that's part of it. And I was like,
this guy is amazing. But in that moment, I was
like, if my mom doesn't write him a check,
he's just a dude walking from house to house. He's too reliant on the check. And I always like to figure
out ways to skip steps, and that was when I
realized-- very young-- that money was an
avenue to freedom. And as I got older and got
to witness a lot of people with money, I realized a lot of
people don't understand that, and it ends up trapping
them even more. But I think being
an entrepreneur allows me to do everything
that you're describing. And that's why
I've always wanted to have financial freedom and
success because I don't ever want to be limited or have
my dreams or my passions or my wants for this world
to be blocked because I can't get a check from someone. And I'm seeing it now. We did the telethon last
year called "Hand in Hand" where we raised money for
the victims of the hurricane. And being able to go out and
do that because of the power I had as an entrepreneur,
that was liberating. And then people gave money. I agree with you. I think if I didn't
look at it that way-- the word entrepreneur
is funny, because we think, oh, it's someone who
wants to make a ton of money. But ask that person what they
want to do with the money. And if they don't know what
they want to do with the money, I think they're a pretty
shitty entrepreneur. I just know what I
want to do with it. I want to provide for
my family, my friends, and I want to be able to
make an impact in the world, because in 100 years, no
one's going to remember me. No one's going to
remember any of us, to be honest with
you, in 100 years. But I think they'll
feel our impact. So I want to be able
to have as much capital as I need to create impact. Does that answer it? JESSE MICHELS: All right, guys. That might have been
realest, best interview I've been a part of for
Talks at Google. So thank you. SCOOTER BRAUN: Over my brother? JESSE MICHELS: I
kind of implied that. I'm not saying it
explicitly, but-- SCOOTER BRAUN: I just
like repeating it. Like I said, we're
very competitive. By the way, before I leave,
would you mind standing up? Yes. Please turn around. Everyone, please, he put
together a wonderful outfit today and I want you to give
him a round of applause. [APPLAUSE] JESSE MICHELS: Give
it up for Sanjay. SCOOTER BRAUN: Yes. Thank you. It is not that cold. [LAUGHTER] JESSE MICHELS: Oh, man. SCOOTER BRAUN: All
right. this is fun. JESSE MICHELS: Scooter,
thank you so much-- SCOOTER BRAUN: Thanks
for being a good sport. JESSE MICHELS: --for coming. Give it up for Scooter, guys. [APPLAUSE]
