I Don't Follow a Path" - Joe Budden | Lab172

"I'm not sure that spotify knew what they were getting into when I got there lol... but then y'all showed up, like you always have. It's invaluable... The sum will always be greater than its parts."

After a 15 plus year career as a rapper, the former artist now media mogul, Joe Budden is trailblazing through the media world and is making moves on his own terms. A fellow creator and advocate for many of the issues creators have long faced such as fair earnings and ownership of your works, Joe has built a portfolio of media platforms that includes The Joe Budden Podcast, Pull Up and State of the Culture.

Budden hosts "The Joe Budden Podcast," or "The JBP" along with Jamil “Mal” Clay, Rory Farrell and Parks Vallely, released bi-weekly through Spotify and YouTube. 

Since its humble beginnings as a audio only podcast in 2015, the show has now grown to be the number one podcast on Spotify and a staple in culture. 

Before the millions of viewers, the Revolt and Spotify deals and the multi-city tour dates, Joe was on the verge of retirement as a hip hop artist and beginning his entry into the media business. 

In 2017, it was announced that Complex Media would be premiering a daily morning show called “Everyday Struggle,” featuring Joe Budden and DJ Akademiks in a debate style show about current hip-hop topics. The show was a hit and was starting to pick up steam, with Joe and DJ Akademiks constantly at odds with each, which became the highlight of the show. By the end of the year, Joe ended his tenure with the show to go full time with the Joe Budden Podcast, something he had full creative control over including the production and other financial responsibilities of the show. 

This separation from Complex Media represented much more than the loss of the main seat of a top hip hop show and steady income stream, it represented a new beginning and a big step into the crazy and everyday changing world of business, this time with the creator in charge.

Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Revolt

To be specific, in the words of Joe himself, "I'm alright, I don't have any worries. But that's not the case for a lot of other creators. A lot of creators, unfortunately, when we get into this corporate atmosphere, around some suits, around execs, and some people who just don't really understand our culture, it puts creators in a very compromising position."

As creators, we all have and for some, had that experience of working our main job, building someone else business and/or brand while putting your creativity and dreams on hold. Many times you go day in day out without getting the recognition and more important, the reciprocation you deserve. And without a doubt, there's that lingering everyday thought of taking that step and jumping ship. 

For those that ends up taking that leap into the strange unknown landscape of the entrepreneurial world, it comes with a heavy price. Long days and nights working on different aspects of the business, lots of doubt as to whether or not the business will work out or am I going in the right direction, stress from the time commitment it takes to get your business operational and you’ll work harder, longer hours. 

Also, the financial risk you will be taking, the resources needed to start and grow a business can sometimes be extensive. Another major factor is the fact that you may not get paid for a while because you will be reinvesting the profits in the early stages of the company in order to grow and expand.

The upside however, is sweet especially when creators are able to create their own way in the same sense as Joe did. One dream and goal of many creators is for their works to not only be appreciated but to be able to make a living off of their works. 

"Follow your dreams, do something you love and its not going to feel like work," are all quotes you will hear from many successful entrepreneurs and creators who, for the most part, followed their dreams and it paid off. Joe stating the quote, "I'm don't follow a path, I'm creating my own to leave a trail" carries a lot of weight and speaks to the transformation or the re-brand of Joe, which shifted from an employee-centric career to a owner of a thriving media company. 

Keeping true to his words, some of the best JBP episodes is when the guys dive into topics such as the changing business of the music industry, navigating life as one of hip hops top media personality and giving insight into the spotify podcast deal and the revolt deal for his series, State of the Culture. 

This added with the fact that many of us got to see the entire grind from the bottom to the podcast being the number #1 podcast on Spotify, all 300+ episodes! 

This gives creators alike a sense of path to take, the grind, the time and dedication it takes to get your creations to a point where it takes on a life of its own while flourishing. 

Being a witness to these types of stories is what keeps creators going, creating their art, their music, their designs, their products, their inventions, knowing that one day, all of the hard work will pay off! It will take some time to get there and if we have learned anything from Joe, it doesn't matter what you are going through at the moment, ride it through because the comeback is always stronger than the setback. And as Joe likes to say, Creators Create!

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Atlis Motor Vehicles, Inc Raising Funds on StartEngine | EquityCrowdfundingDeals

Atlis Motor Vehicles is raising funds on the equity crowdfunding Engine Start. The new startup company, Atlis Motor Vehicles is an electric vehicle development and manufacturing company that specializes in consumer and commercial light, medium, and heavy duty trucks.

Atlis Motor Vehicles was born in founder Mark Hanchett’s garage, ignited by curiosity and personal motivation. Mark’s goal: take his energy-guzzling diesel pickup and transform it into an electric truck.

"To build a better future, we need to create better alternatives. We created Atlis Motor Vehicles because pickup trucks are some of the most popular vehicles on the market and a vehicle that can benefit significantly from electrification. To deliver an all-electric pickup truck, it must not compromise the existing experience." - Mark Hanchett, Founder.

Similar to Tesla Motors, Atlis Motor Vehicles is designing and building a fully plug-in battery electric pickup truck. 

The XT Pickup Truck will be one of the world's first 100% battery electric full-size pickup truck. Capable of up to a 500 mile range and with subscription options that include maintenance. Every truck is custom built to order starting at $45,000. The pickup is built on a 100% electric vehicle platform, The XP Platform, that is capable of integration into RV's, box trucks, delivery vehicles and beyond. Capable of extending range, adding accessory battery power, and adding tandem axle configurations for medium and heavy-duty vehicles.

Capable of delivering enough power for our 15-minute charge times today, and 5 minute charge times tomorrow. The company is also planning on deploying Advanced Charging Stations along major highway corridors to enable long-distance travel, and key metro areas where Atlis customers are concentrated. The pickup charging ports will also be compatible with existing charging standards. 

Atlis Motor Vehicles is currently in the Test the Waters Phase for Title IV investments.

Make Your Reservations on

StartEngine

Fear Is Not An Option - Gary Vaynerchuk | Lab172

"I sometimes secretly hope that my companies go out of business to zero,

I lose everything and all of you write things on social media that I actually suck and was full of shit!"

Everyone of my favorite rappers are what I like to think, natural born hustlers, from Jeezy, Jay Z and the late Nipsey Hussle. I started listening to Jay Z heavily back when I was starting this blog while working at the insurance company that I am also currently a licensed life agent for. I went back to Reasonable Doubt, his first album and worked my way thru his older music within his catalog. I did this in an effort to capture the essence of his hustle which was around that time he was making that pivotal transition to what he has become today or what I like to call “the come up.”

I did the same thing with Nipsey Hussle’s catalog right around the time he was doing his deal with Vezt, a digital marketplace for artists and songwriters to share a percentage of a song’s royalties to fans and brands for royalty-based financing through an Initial Song Offering® (ISO™).At that time, I was about a year into investing on equity crowdfunding platforms and I was looking for other alternative ways of investing small amounts of money. I found out about Vezt and after going through some of the videos on YouTube about the platform, I stumbled upon an interview with Nipsey, which he referenced the platform and his partnership with them. 

With Jeezy, it was different in that I’ve been following Jeezy’s career from right around the Streetz iz Watchin mixtape. At that point, he had already dropped his second independent album “Come Shop With Me,” a 2 disk album that features tracks such as 22’s or Better, Rainy Days, Thug Ya and more.

One thing I can say is that I love a good story of someone rising from the bottom to the top but what is most interesting to me within those stories is that transitioning point where someone’s grind and everyday hustle scales and comes out of the mud and becomes a life of it own. When you look at people’s and companies success at that cusp within their journey, you tend to look at the details of what they were doing and how they were doing it and start to realize that it was their consistency that got them to the point their at today. They realized their why, and used that as a source of motivation to keep going.

I can name other artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs and companies that I was able to witness their starting stage, the growth stage and their established stage. But I named the 3 rappers specifically because not only do I admire their career, but I can name specific points in my life where their music and business acumen inspired much of the content I produce, the investments I’ve made and some of the businesses I’ve started. Basically, you can say that their are a partial source of my motivation throughout the everyday grind being that I am still working through the mud!

Two of those rappers have also sat down with one of my favorite entrepreneurs during a filmed, one on one where in both videos, the conversations centered mainly around building brands and acquiring other businesses. Both equally packed with tons of great information, however one of them now plays as what can be called, the soundtrack to an entrepreneurs everyday life.

Recently on Friday, Jeezy released the highly anticipated TM104:The Legend of Snowman. 

And to get straight to the point, guess who's dropping jewels on the intro of the album. If you don’t know by now, it’s the one and only Gary Vee, and it couldn’t have been anymore perfect. You got Jeezy talking in his trapstar bag and you got Gary talking in his typical business bag! The track which is the intro, is perfectly titled “enTRAPreneur” and from 0:01 to 0:22, Gary starts on top of an uplifting, violin laced melody, shedding his opinions of losing and fear—

Jeezy's Thug Motivation 104: The Legend of Snowman

“Fear is not an option

I prefer to lose

I sometimes secretly hope that my companies go out of business to zero

I lose everything and all of you write things on social media that I actually suck and was full of shit

And then in the dirt, with a fuckin'— the pain

I'ma rise like a fuckin' phoenix and kill all you motherfuckers

I mean it, yeah"

—GaryVee

Jeezy then starts rapping, giving us a glimpse into his world coming up as a young man before the success. Around the 2:18 mark, Gary comes back in to end the track giving his thoughts on what he thinks of Jeezy—

“I think you should buy Wheaties

Right

For, like, like— I'm being serious

F'real, f'real

Like, that's what I think you can do

I think a lot of kids are gonna make money

You're an entrepreneur

Like, when I look at you, I look at you f—

I look at you "Entrepreneur, comma, artist

Right”

—GaryVee

The two and a half minute intro, which is an exert from an episode of the #AskGaryVee Show, shines a light on Gary’s conversation with Jeezy at VaynerMedia’s headquarters and more importantly, the mindset that every entrepreneur and those aspiring to be, should have. That is to keep going no matter the circumstances, which I think is the true essence of the word Perseverance.

Fear is not an Option

The first words spoken by Gary on the intro, speaks volumes and that quote alone, can help you persevere through the everyday grind. However, I am aware that keeping one’s self going is a difficult thing to do and I can personally attest to that. 

There are a million distractions that occur every day which can distract us from staying on track with what we should really be doing. Self-motivation is something that does not come easy to many of us and that means that there are some steps that need to be taken before you can become motivated to the fullest extent. Of course there are some other matters that first need to be taken care of. If there are a lot of distractions that keep you from doing what you need to be doing then you need to make some changes. This is really the first step towards becoming self-motivated in any form.

When you have it set in you mind, wake up everyday and live, eat and breathe by the statement of “Failure is not an Option”, it means that there is no outside force or person pushing you to become what you want. The whole concept of succeeding lies within yourself and that means that you will need to make the effort yourself to be who you want to be. The doing away with the distractions means that you need to be completely self-reliant and if you have many distractions, then you will not be getting the things done, wasting time. I think Gary is trying to explain the things that he is personally doing which is taking the effort to make sure that you are completely absorbed in what you are doing, especially when it comes to dreams, goals, work, etc.. This will mean that everything else takes a back seat and you are working to the best of your ability.

To be self-motivated is to be the one person that gets things done and while things can get difficult at times, understanding your purpose and the want to better yourself can help you get to a point where failure is not an option, more of an obstacle you need to go through to get to where you want to be.

You can check out the original video which was posted on the #AskGaryVeeShow—

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Get $10 worth of Bitcoin with the Coinbase Referral Program

New users to Coinbase can get $10 dollars of free bitcoin after they purchase or sell $100 dollars worth of cryptocurrency (bitcoin, ethereum or litecoin).

If your familiar cryptocurrency, then you are very familiar with the the popular exchange, Coinbase.

For those that are not familiar with the exchange, Coinbase is a digital asset exchange that lets you buy and sell major cryptocurrencies on the market using various fiat currencies. It also serves as a Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin wallet, where digital currencies can be securely stored.

The exchange is the largest cryptocurrency exchange with over 13M users and operational in over 32 countries and supports USD, EUR, and GBP fiat currencies.

At the moment, Coinbase, through the Coinbase referral program, is giving new users $10 of free Bitcoin just for signing up to the platform, once you've bought or sold $100 or more of cryptocurrency. The best part, you can earn more by referring your friends and family to open an account with Coinbase and taking the same actions.


How it works

If you already have a Coinbase account, you can skip directly own to Step 1. If you don't have a Coinbase account yet, you will need to first sign up for a account. 

Start by clicking on link --------- Coinbase Sign Up

(Full disclosure, this link belongs to Lab172 and if you choose to use this link to sign up, we’ll get $10 worth of Free Bitcoin/BTC too!)


Referring your Friends & Family

Step 1. Start by visiting the referrals page. From this page you can copy your referral link and send it in a text message or send an invite email to a friend. However, we highly recommend using a laptop or desktop to complete the sign-up process.

Step 2. Once your friends has received the referral link, they can click the referral link and sign up for a Coinbase account.

Step 3. They will then complete their account and initiate a buy or sell in one of Coinbase supported countries.

Step 4. Once your friend initiates a buy or sell of $100 USD or more (or 100 USD equivalent of your domestic currency) within 180 days of opening his or her account, you both will receive $10 worth of Free Bitcoin (BTC) when the order completes.

Keep in mind that some orders can take up to 4 business days to complete.

You should also note that you are free to share your link with others, There is no limit to the number of friends you can refer. One great aspect of the referral program is that when someone clicks your link, you will get credit if they sign up any time in the next 90 days from that computer, even if they close the browser and come back later.

The Coinbase Referral Program is a awesome program that they are running and can be a great way for you to get started investing in the cryptocurrency world if you haven't started or it can be another way of getting free coins in your portfolio. Either way, there's $10 worth of Free Bitcoin (BTC) that's waiting for you to claim!

If you use our link to sign up, let us know which coins interests you the most!

Coinbase Referral Link  – $10 Bitcoin Bonus

Get a Free Stock worth up to $1000 with Webull Free Stock Promotion

These days, when you hear the word Free, most will assume that it comes with a catch attached to it. And in the era where the words Freebies and Freemium are tiers synonymous to just about every type of service and product available to you, you can best believe that the value of Freemium services and products are not made the same.

Although it doesn't happen everyday, it is rare to know that you can receive a service and a product 100% Completely FREE, and thanks to Webull, by simply singing up for their platform, you can receive a Free Stock in a company as part of their Free Stock Promotion.

Not familiar with Webull? It’s a commission-free investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks for free!

Now, I know most are thinking exactly what I was thinking when you hear something like this– freebies always come with a hidden cost, so exactly what is it? 

Well in this case, you do not have to give up any of your cash, trade your precious time or share any of your personal information either, just sign up for the platform and open your free brokerage account, and once your account is approved, you can claim your free stock!

This is what's so awesome about Webull’s free stock promotion– it's 100% Free. Just sign up for a free Webull account and claim your FREE SHARE of stock. It’s that simple.


One of the great things about the Free stock promotion is that once you open your Webull account, you’ll get your own referral link that you can share with friends and family and when they sign up, you’ll both get a free stock when they sign up!

How To Claim Your Free Share

1. To be eligible for your free share, you must be new to Webull. (If you’ve already opened a brokerage account with Webull, you won’t be able to qualify for the new account free share, however, you will be able to still get free shares by referring friends and family.)

2. You need to sign up using a special referral link like the one below.

(Full disclosure, this link belongs to Lab172 and if you choose to use this link to sign up, we’ll get a free share too!)

Get Your Free Stock Now!

When you click the link above, you will be taken to the sign-up screen where you will have the option to provide either your phone number or email address to sign up. Depending on which method you choose, Webull will send you a verification code via text or email. Once you enter the verification code, you are half way there!

Now, similar to many other apps like stock trading platforms, Webull is an app-only platform, so to move forward you will be required to download the app which is available for iOS and Android devices.

Once you’ve downloaded the Webull app, it’s time to register for a brokerage account.

To open your free brokerage account, you must be 18 years old and you'll need to provide some of the standard, but basic information like your name, address, and date of birth , including your SSN and your State ID or Drivers License number. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes and once you've filled our all required information, submit your application. 

Approval of your application, for most, usually takes less than 1 hour, but depending on when your application was submitted (like over the weekends) or the information that was submitted, it can take 2-3 business days.

Once your application is approved, you will get a notification from the app letting you know that your account is approved. After that, all that is left to do was claim my free share!

To do this, you will open the Webull app, click on the Menu tab, then click on My Free Stock!

That's it!

From here, it usually takes about 5 trading days for the stock to show in your account, then you are free to sell it and withdraw the cash, buy stock in a different company or you can just let it sit and grow. Its all up to you!

What kind of Shares are you getting for the Free Stock Promotion?

The free shares that's rewarded to you are valued anywhere between $3 and $1,000, depending on market activity, but the average share rewarded is valued around $5. Webull randomly select stocks with a minimum market capitalization of $10 billion and is listed on either the NYSE-listed or NASDAQ-listed markets.

As stated in Promotion Rules-

"Stock allocation is random and determined by an algorithm. As such, odds of allocation of specific stocks can vary at any given point in time according to the composition and levels of the program inventory. At its discretion, management reserves the right to adjust program parameters. The current program inventory is composed of widely held, recognized brand names and consumer & service-related industries."

To get an idea of the value of stock you may receive, here is a breakdown of the approximate odds of receiving shares within certain ranges:

Stock in the $4/share - $6/share range- approximately 1:1
Stock in the $10/share -$20/share range – approximately 1:24 
Stock in the $50/share -$100/share range – approximately 1:200
Stock in the $150/share -$250/share range – approximately 1:333
Stock in or above the $1,000/share range – approximately 1:1,000

Referring Friends and Family

As mentioned earlier, Webull also gives you free stock for referring friends and family members and the referral program allows you to earn up to $1,000 in free shares. Once your friend opens an account using your referral link, you’ll receive a notification. Then simply log into your Webull account, go to the Menu option tab, then go the My Free Stock option to claim your free share.

The Webull Free Stock Promotion is a awesome program that they are running and can be a great way for you to get started in the investing world if you haven't started or it can be another addition to your portfolio. Either way, its a no strings attached free share that's waiting for you to claim! 

If you use our link to sign up, let us know. We will love to know which random stock you were awarded!