- What would be the next step to grow my brand?
- The right answer is at this second,
and you may ping me in like six months
and be like,
'now'
and I'll be like it'll be totally different.
But right this second,
my actual answer is to...
(dramatic inspirational music)
You got your perspective.
I just wanna be happy.
Don't you wanna be happy?
YouTube what's up?
So, so grateful that you clicked
and you're about to watch a new YouTube video.
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And now to the video you've been wanting to watch.
- Hey
- Hello
- Hi
how are you?
Hi
- Marc D'Amelio, man, How are you?
- So nice to meet you.
- Heidi D'Amelio.
- Hi Heidi, how are you?
- This is Marc's sister.
- Hi I'm Meme D'Amelio.
- What was your name?
- Meme.
- Hi I'm Charli, nice to meet you.
- Hi Charli.
Hi.
- Dixie.
- Hey Dixie. How are you?
- Good, how are you?
- [Camera Man] Can I sit in on this?
- Yeah, sit in.
How can I help?
- So I'm on TikTok.
- Yep, I'm aware.
- Over the past,
not even a month,
I've gained 4 million followers.
And it came at me very, very quickly.
- Clearly.
- I went from nothing to people knowing who I am,
and with that is a lot of hate.
- Yep.
- And I was just wondering like from in school to comments,
like,
what's the best way to deal with that?
- My belief is the best way to deal with that is compassion.
If somebody at school or in the comments,
is taking the time to watch your videos
and tell you that you're ugly,
you suck,
you're stupid.
They're in a very bad place.
I mean it.
I've been taking hate for a decade.
And everyone is like,
'Fuck haters.
You know,
like, delete it.'
I've actually only seen it one way,
from the first day is 2006 to now,
which is 13 years.
I feel bad for them.
Like, I'm not even kidding.
And, I'm not talking like,
bad for them like you're now cool
and have 4 million,
they don't have it.
I actually mean,
think about how much it would suck
to be in a place in your life
where you are so hurting inside
that you want to drag somebody else down.
Compassion and empathy.
I actually feel warmth toward the people
that hate me the most.
Yeah, it's an unusual answer.
But I think it's why I've been able to persevere
for so long,
with so much judgment thrown at me.
And my whole career has been innovating
in the wine business,
in Silicon Valley,
and now in the ad world.
Like,
I get hate from people that are well established.
Not from anonymous accounts.
Because I'm disrupting,
and that's not fun.
But,
you should be pumped that
you are even in a place where people can hate.
Listen,
I think if you're fortunate enough,
even in the 43 seconds that I've been here,
if you're lucky enough to have an infrastructure
around you that you've already grew up
with a good starting point.
Like,
you're already...
You're more than halfway home.
- So my next question is,
as of right now I'm just doing TikTok
and Instagram.
What would be the next step to grow my brand?
- To quadruple down on TikTok.
TikTok is in a place similar to
all the platforms before it.
Where right,
this might be a little bit boring of an analogy,
but I'll give it to you anyway.
This is like real estate,
and in the 1800s people bought up
the land we're sitting on,
for nothing.
The attention is so under-priced on TikTok.
As you know,
there is no version of you getting
4 million followers on Instagram in a month,
starting tomorrow.
TikTok is so unique,
right now,
the right answer is at this second,
and you may ping me in like six months and be like,
'now'
and I'll be like it'll be totally different.
But right this second,
my actual answer is to massively triple down on TikTok.
- Do you think,
like,
YouTube is a thing?
Or should I?
- Everything's a thing.
As you know.
Right?
Everything's a thing.
What I don't know is
I don't know you well enough
to know how you translate from TikTok to YouTube.
Some people translate great,
some people don't.
- Yeah.
Yeah that's like,
mostly on TikTok...
- Don't do YouTube because you think you have to,
do YouTube because you have something to make.
Got it?
- Yeah.
- Gary,
I have one question.
So we run a clothing line.
I'm 51.
Wife is...
- Not 51.
- And we kinda were,
you know,
I'm in the clothing business,
we're going in our groove.
- I almost gave you a huge compliment on your jackets.
- I got you a little something there.
- Thank you, brother.
Go ahead.
- So we're plugging on with real life,
things are going great living the American dream,
when all of the sudden this happens.
- Yes.
Are you guys scared?
- We're kind of trying to figure out,
like,
what's the end game.
Like...
- Well the number one thing to definitely do.
Is to not do the cliche thing
that you know all those like Hollywood parents did.
If you're not scared...
I love...
Notice what my first question was,
and as soon as you answered
the way you did,
I just got happy.
Now the only thing you have to do,
is not do the horrible things
that parents do when these things happen.
Which is think they've got a golden goose.
- That's so funny.
That's what he keeps saying.
She's not the golden goose.
We don't need her to pay the bills.
This is all just fun.
- You guys ...
This is super awesome.
Right?
A lot of parents do need.
You know,
I'm in the sports representation business now.
These kids are the lotto ticket.
And I'm watching these parents and kids,
and I'm fuckin' devastated.
That's exactly
And not only that,
like you know this doing your thing,
like there's also your own pride.
Like,
you don't want her to be the golden goose
even for your own fucking manhood.
Right?
So honestly,
now you just have to care.
And like,
if she decides to like,
it's all just being there like you've been.
If she decides to quit
after she has 44 million followers,
and you're like what!?
That's what she wants to do.
She's the one that got em.
She's the one that got the 4 million followers.
I think it's really a very,
very easy moment.
You know care,
make sure nothing crazy happens,
but like the world is good.
This whole...
Like, there's nothing to...
People don't get it.
- I feel like we're all just feeling the negativity.
Because there's all these great things being thrown at us,
that we're trying to navigate through.
But none of the perks have happened yet,
that go along with this.
- Meaning all the hates there,
but none of the money's there?
Like just interested most...
- Just like doing fun things
or being invited to this...
- But the hate is zero.
Like meaning,
the hate doesn't mean anything.
- To a 15 year old girl?
- To a 51 year old guy it does.
If you're willing to.
100%.
Of course it does to a...
Like,
I am empathetic to it.
It's why the first question is the whole fucking game.
All the time should be spent
on taking the steam out of the hate.
If I was the fourth family member here,
and we were hanging out every day.
I would just be pumping into her head the truth.
Which is what I'm saying.
The hate should be met with compassion.
Just honestly think about living a life,
where you are interested in hating on someone.
- That's crazy.
- It's ...
really I'm not kidding.
I think people sometimes when they hear me say it,
cause I say it once in a while like,
I don't think they believe me.
And, it's the thing I believe in the most.
I don't feel...
You know?
It's hard if...
- It's hard to see people comin' at your kids.
- Of course.
You wanna kill everybody.
Of course but,
it's hard when you're taking
affirmation from the outside.
You know?
Like,
in whatever form.
Right?
If you over value somebody complimenting you,
that you're a cool dad
and that you have Yeezy's on.
Then you're gonna over value the hate, too.
I'm like,
(clicks tongue)
Literally my comments are ...
- They're orthopedic by the way.
- Respect.
I love it.
And they look cool.
But like, literally.
My comments are literally,
like you're a snake oil salesman con artist,
and the next one is you're Jesus.
Like,
literally.
Like.
And, I'm just like no,
no.
(clicks tongue)
And the more she can practice it now,
the more you actually believe it,
and the more that's the conversation.
- Any advice like trying to,
everybody wants to be in her world right now,
like managers and this and that.
Like any advice on...
- Well what do you want to happen?
Do you know yet?
Cause it's fast.
You may not.
And,
that's okay too.
- Yeah,
I'm not exactly sure.
I just know I always want to
go back to my kind of home base
of just being a dancer and that's what I wanna do.
- Good,
so do that.
People overthink the moment,
back to the golden goose.
Especially if you don't need it,
like if she wants to monetize financially,
then she should learn that process...
Leaving her alone and like learning that
is even more valuable than whatever happens of it.
Yes,
there's brand deals,
opportunities,
there's things to be done.
My belief is that the longer you can stay pure,
the bigger you'll become.
Especially if you don't need it,
or necessarily are yearning for it right now.
Then there's no reason to monetize.
- Well she's liking all the stuff coming at her.
- Of course she does.
- But like,
we're like is this the right thing what do we do.
You know, so.
- Managers are going to care about manager shit.
They're going to try to whore her out,
so they can make their 10 to 20 points.
The end.
Managers do manager shit.
- And parents do parent shit.
And I say to her everyday,
'are you happier today than you were 2 months ago?'
- One day this is going to become very,
very clear to you.
You're a really lucky girl.
I mean it.
I really mean it.
I do this a lot,
I know what I'm talking about.
You're in a good spot.
This is good.
More of that.
- Dixie's got 600,000 too,
so she's not far behind.
- [Dixie] I'm at 700 now.
- It becomes a whole thing.
And,
like,
you know,
like,
honestly this is what everyone is gonna go through.
Everyone's gonna have followers.
Not everyone is gonna have 400,
4 million or 700,000,
or whatever it's gonna be.
But like,
and look,
these are young girls too.
There's so many dynamics.
They have to live their lives,
like,
you know,
like there's so much to go.
- Yeah,
she's ready to do online school.
She's a sophomore.
And, move to LA and like live her life there.
- I get it.
And, that's intense.
Now we're starting to get into
more interesting conversation.
That's what you really want?
You know,
that's now I'm looking at you two.
Like,
if I'm like the friend
and we're sitting having a glass of wine.
Like, that's intense.
Cause now I'm like
are you willing to go
with her for these two years,
are you guys gonna commute,
Like, can you uproot...
- We were talking about this stuff,
before any of this happened.
With dance.
- With dance.
Okay.
Got it.
Like, is that in the cards?
Will you move?
- Yeah.
- Oh great, well then.
Then it's not a complicated thing.
- Well,
I mean like,
I was out in LA on business.
And she's like,
hey dad I wanna go out and
meet some other TikTok friends,
and do some stuff.
I'm like, okay let's go.
- Love it.
And this is all intent.
If you don't intend on monetizing your daughter.
If you intend on focusing on her being happy.
Right?
You're fuckin' gonna moonwalk to success.
It's just intent.
How did we get here?
Yes I'm aware.
But how'd it happen?
- Yeah I saw them all on TikTok.
The whole family.
And, I reached out to Dixie through DM.
And then Dixie responded,
and then Jason,
good old intern is actually her best friend's brother.
- Yeah.
- That's awesome.
So that's how the connection was made?
- Yeah.
- Awesome.
I hope this helped.
- Yeah,
thank you so much.
- You're welcome so much.
Awesome,
cool.
- Yeah we just brought this for you.
Happy birthday.
- Thank you guys.
You guys are very sweet.
Very sweet.
Thank you.
Are you in this world?
- Yeah I've been the manufacturer.
I handle sales from this and that,
(inaudible) east coast.
So.
- I love it.
I actually looked at buying the company.
A couple years ago when they transacted.
I can't wait.
Awesome.
So I'll take a look.
I'm sorry I'm running a little late.
It's so nice to meet you guys.
Let us know if we can help.
By the way,
we're thrilled like if you wanna ask literal questions.
Like,
hey Reebok reached out to us
and offered us 25,000 bucks.
Is that good?
Is that bad?
Like anything we can answer,
we have a ton of data.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
Have a great day guys!
(Upbeat Techno Music)