Mone On Da Beat is a one-of-a-kind music production experience that tantalizes your artistry and pushes your creativity to the limit.

Mone is a creator and an entrepreneur. He’s dabbled in film, enjoys fashion, and loves making music. He’s got his hands in a lot of different things, but music is his number one love.

In this episode I talk with Mone and his good friend, Skoon, about going viral on TikTok. We talk about what musicians aren’t doing on TikTok that prompted Mone to take things to the next level. We also talk about his daily routine and how many hours he puts in each day, and much more.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How TikTok helps musicians promote their music
• The value of music partnerships in the creator economy
• Turning feedback and traffic into business growth
• Going viral on TikTok by accident

Links & Resources

• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Follow Pico on Twitter
• Pico
• Follow Chikodi on Twitter
  

Mone On Da Beat’s Links

• Mone On Da Beat’s Instagram
• Mone On Da Beat’s website
• Mone On Da Beat’s YouTube channel
• Follow Mone on TikTok
  

Episode Transcript

00:00:00 Mone On Da Beat:

At first, when we started going viral, I’m like, “Yeah, whatever. Yeah. They like it. Cool, this is the goal. Let’s keep our mind on the goal.”

Then my business mind started to click in, and I’m like, “Alright, hold up. These are people. They want something. This could translate over to dollars.”

So, now it’s time to restructure this whole thing, but we got to structure it in a way where it’s passive so we don’t have to put so much time into it, because it’s still a goal that we want to achieve.

00:00:35 Chikodi:

Hey everybody. This is Chikodi Chima, and today’s edition of the Creator Business Show is a really special one. We’re talking to Mone On Da Beat, and Skoon.

If you are active on TikTok you may have seen them. They do play-on-the-spot videos where they actually improvise and make beats, live. They’ve been doing this for about two years, and some of the videos have up to 6 million views.

They’re working on a major project. What we’re going to talk about on today’s episode is how do you take massive virality on a platform like TikTok, and turn it into a business.

They’ve got some pretty big plans for the year 2022. I’m really happy that I got to talk to them, because I’m super inspired by what they do and to see their creative partnership, and to just vibe with them.

That’s what today’s talk is all about.

So, thank you, again, for joining us on the Creator Business Show.

Today We have Mone On Da Beat, and Skoon. I’m really, really excited that I have you in the studio today. Mone is one of the best dressed on social media, Skoon, you’re no slouch. So, this is just like, this is really special for me.

So, gentlemen, thank you.

Well, why don’t you give a quick introduction of who you are. I can’t really do it justice. My excitement, I think, kind of comes through, but no one does it better than you.

00:02:01 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, I am Mon On Da Beat. Multi-talented, super creative. Music is one of my favorite loves, obviously fashion, but I also dabbled in film. I’m an entrepreneur. I got my hands in a lot of different things, but music is my number one love, and yeah, that kind of sums me up.

There’s a lot more, but we can get into it in the questions.

00:02:25 Chikodi:

Please, I hope so.

And Skoon, before we started recording, Mone said he doesn’t even know your real name, but who are you? What do the people need to know?

00:02:36 Skoon:

Hi, man, I’m Skoon. I’m a producer, I’m a musician. I’ve always been out of the way. People would call me a best kept secret or whatever you want to do. Always been behind the scenes. I mean, you know, I love music. That’s been my life, and I’m just happy to be a part.

00:03:00 Chikodi:

Awesome. Awesome. And you’re in DC. Fantastic. Fantastic.

So, you guys have a Gogo. See, I guess that’s, is that more of a Baltimore thing? The Gogo

00:03:11 Skoon:

Not that.

00:03:13 Chikodi:

That’s DC. Okay. So how did you two come to come to know each other?

00:03:18 Skoon:

Ah,

00:03:19 Mone On Da Beat:

It’s funny. so we met in go-go, so probably It was a few moons back. I don’t know, 12 years, 12 years, about 12 years. I always was musical that I’ve always been doing music And where we’re from, like go-go at that time go-go was the. Premier music. So everybody wanted a band, like it wasn’t cool to rap.

It was cool to have a go-go band. Right. So, you know, I went through a series of different go-go bands and my last go-go band, I had a keyboard player and his name was Zach. And he’s just as sharp is a stone and he’s going to be coming in the mix very soon. But yeah, he was our keyboard player. And then we were short of a keyboard players.

I’ll be like, man, we need another keyboard player. And Zach was like, I got the guy. So it was at a show that we had real crazy show that we did. And Zach brought school and Zach was like, yo, this is going by here. This guy was telling you about, and then, when we met and I’m like, yo, what’s up? You gonna rock with that school kind of turned me down.

So the first time we met, it was like, no, I’m not really trying to work with y’all. Y’all don’t really got your stuff together in all of this. two weeks later, he came to one of the practices. I was like, oh, damn he down here. And ever since that day, he been rocking with me since. So it’s been kind of like one of those

00:04:43 Skoon:

Situations.

00:04:44 Chikodi:

And he got you into a chewing gum habit.

00:04:46 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah, I would never, I don’t even chew gum only to government

00:04:55 Skoon:

I’m with school.

00:04:56 Chikodi:

I watched, I watched a lot of your videos, so I got, I got all the questions. Yeah. So, okay. So, I have family from, the beltway and they love Gogo. I, don’t, I mean, I, hear it. I don’t get it, but it’s a, it’s a real passion for people in, DC and in the DC Metro. So briefly, I mean, cause most people don’t know what it is.

Like I still don’t really know what it is, but I know when I hear it, what is Gogo?

00:05:25 Mone On Da Beat:

What is. gobo is like that. I’ve never had anybody I can go though is just gobo is really based on percussions is very heavily based on percussion specifically, like, congos cause Congo driven and symbolic driven. And it’s it’s a lot of, how would you describe

00:05:47 Skoon:

Rhythmic parties and got end of the day Britain, MC potty music.

If you want to say that, I think they called it though because grooves

Never stopped.

So we keep playing and go to the next song without stopping. And that’s how the term came. And, it’s really just

Party music to me is the equivalent of new Orleans

Bounce music.

And they have their own lingo know language.

Is this pretty much what.

00:06:20 Chikodi:

And it’s a DC Metro type of thing.

00:06:22 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:06:24 Chikodi:

Cool, cool. Nice. Okay. So, Mo you have the, the, the band you need, you need a keyboardist. Zach says,

Here’s the guy. And then spoons kind of like, not really not there. He’s not, he says this, isn’t it. So what was it about, Mons band at the time that was not

Delivering? And what was it that made

You change your mind? Cause you guys are now, you know, have a twelve-year

Creative partnerships. So like, what was that, that, that key moment.

00:06:54 Skoon:

Well, when I first met

Mo with struggling about him was confidence competence. And to me, your leader has to have that or the band. So, you know, around here, the bands are lonely focused around the leader of your bank. And so the personality of the bank, and before it was kind of, you know, they just didn’t have all the pieces, other things. And then Zack went back down. I was like, you know, what do my part, see if I can get them to the next level.

And at that point, you know, even 12, 12 years ago, even that ideas that he had at the time was so before his time, I believe we had a really, really stuck, stuck with the same thing we’re doing now. We probably would have done went on another path, but it was always this vision that I was attracted to always.

00:07:58 Chikodi:

All right, so, okay. So Mona, you said that it wasn’t cool to rap in DC. You had a go-go band. That was the thing to do. And then I dunno, maybe it was

12 years ago or so, Tabby, Bonnie,

Debbie , I’m sure you guys know him. I can’t imagine the music scene in DC is that,

That, that big, right. So, he was kind of like the breakout DC rapper.

And then, I mean, like that area is, clips, Neptunes,

00:08:32 Mone On Da Beat:

That’s actually Virginia, Virginia Beach. Yeah. Wally and Tabby

00:08:38 Chikodi:

Right. Okay. Yeah.

00:08:39 Mone On Da Beat:

Side, Lizzie, Rico nasty. Like those that are like the artists that came out of here.

00:08:48 Chikodi:

Gold link or is he,

Yeah. Okay. So then there’s this transition happening in the music, right? From go-go

To more broad-based, hip hop artists,

You know, with international hip hop artists, let’s say, there was also a transition to social media, right. So, you know, when did you start

Realizing that social media was important for the promotion of your music?

00:09:17 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, it’s kind of tricky. So even, even though me and Skoon knew each other we haven’t been working continuously for 12 years, it’s not what everybody’s seeing right now. That’s just as of recent, that’s probably two years. So I had a, I had a video production company, called Dreamcast And that was consuming all my time.

That’s, that’s one of my loves film it was thriving. Then the pandemic came and I already wasn’t fulfilling myself with film the music was calling me With my type of music Skoon is the only one that can bring it to fruition. The way I hear it the way I see it, and the way I feel it. So I hit up Skoon and I’m like, man, I got an idea I want to start working on some stuff. I hit him up. He came down, one thing was going to anything, anytime he’s always there for him. So I hit him up. I’m like, boom. And we get down here and start cooking. And then the one thing I was like, man, we want to keep the camera rolling. We just want to keep the camera rolling.

I felt like I missed the Instagram wave I felt like I missed the YouTube wave So the next best thing by now is TikTok So I’m like, you know what, We’re going to record everything and I’m going to post every day and see what happens I wasn’t really expecting anything like that We started doing that.

Over and over, and over again. And people were starting to gravitate towards itself. It was only recently is when I, was like we need to put this

Out there.

00:10:49 Chikodi:

That makes a ton of sense because you have a lot of videos and I watched one video of you actually, setting up the lights, and setting everything

Up. So you already had the camera equipment you had the studio and you said that you missed the Instagram a wave and you missed YouTube initially. but TikTok how did TikTOk finally make sense

00:11:11 Mone On Da Beat:

Like I said, I felt like I missed the YouTube way. Felt like I missed the Instagram, wait, TikTok was the next best thing. And it’s based on music, you know what I’m saying? So that was a one-two then I noticed a lot of people, they weren’t really using TikTok So you still have a whole community of people, producers and musicians.

That is not even on TikTok They still use Instagram, but TikTok has this massive hole in it where you can get all these fans you know? So I’m like, I just want to do TikTok and I hopped on it because I wanted to get something while it was fresh. I think it just turned from Musically to TikTok So I’m like,

I’m going to dive in I’m going to go hard and it went Boom

00:11:57 Chikodi:

Okay. So you use the hashtags music producer, musician beats. do you, how How much time. do you spend researching trends hashtags and, what’s popular versus Just doing your own thing and letting people discover it.

00:12:15 Mone On Da Beat:

The funny thing

Is those hashtags The very first time I set up the account, that were the hashtags I got. I never changed the hashtags I just copy-paste copy-paste copy-paste I’m super busy. So I’m like, whatever, the easiest way to me to do it is what I do, but I don’t spend time. I don’t spend time researching, anything

00:12:35 Chikodi:

So you So you just do you.

00:12:38 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah. I just do me post we have a camera up the whole time we’re down here and we’re probably down here for three hours every Tuesday and Thursday, we just leave a camera and we just record. Each piece of the beat that we make. that’s why we have so many videos because one beat can have 10 different parts and you got 10 different videos.

I just copy

Paste the hashtags. I don’t even write a description on that. it’s just the hashtags and I’m done

00:13:06 Chikodi:

I admit that I’ve only been following since maybe around Halloween or something, and it was something where the, TikTok algorithm put you in front of me. I was just like, oh, I get this. This is amazing. Because like you said, you roll camera, make beats. That’s what you’re doing already.

And then, as an, as a video producer as well, you have the ability to just chop edit and put it up.

00:13:32 Skoon:

Oh yeah.

00:13:33 Chikodi:

Yeah.

Okay. So, you said you were kind of a latecomer to social.

00:13:39 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:13:39 Chikodi:

Found a gap. You found a hole in a Tik TOK because he said people weren’t using

It for music. can, can you describe a little bit more?

He’s like, so what

Weren’t musicians doing on Tik TOK that, prompted you to, to take it to that. next level?

00:13:55 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, before I got on six, I actually did do some research on what are the platform that’s popping now, because just, I do research on the next best thing and the next way things that get music out there Cause I’m I’m really in the marketing as well. So the resource that I did find it was saying that Tik TOK used to be musically.

I think I’m saying that. Right. And then it, and it turned into Tik TOK, but this is kind of like the app where you pick music and people dance to wherever. Right. but it also was saying that there was a big, it has a lot of reach. It has a lot of organic. And that was the main thing that I wanted to to see, because you know, Instagram right now, your organic reach is kind of like, there is no more organic reach.

Like YouTube is really, there really is no organic roots, but the beauty about Tik TOK. Now you have the organic reach, but then from that organic reach, the people that see there, they then go to Instagram, they then go to Spotify. They didn’t go to YouTube. So as you’re building a tiptop, remember this massive hole I’ve taken advantage of that.

And then those people are now going everywhere else to listen to the music and see what I have going on on Instagram to see the long form videos that we put on YouTube, because in the city I have one long recording. That’s probably about two hours. Then we chopped that down. But the long record, and I just put that on YouTube and then we chop everything else down.

When we make that the Tik TOK videos and like the Instagram video and just repurpose it.

00:15:28 Chikodi:

Amazing amazing. I mean, it’s like, No shortage of experimentation, but from my perspective, you guys really just nailed it because it works so well with your creative process already. And then you have this massive amplifier where you’re going to be in the studio cooking anyway. So why not just roll camera?

Like spend some time editing, okay. So you’ve got this amplification with tick-tock, it’s very algorithm

Driven. Once people like it, then it’s going to show it, share, show

More content, similar content. It’s going to recommend it to their friends.

So as you mentioned, you said that you have Instagram, YouTube, et cetera. So what are the kinds of spillover effects? what are the, what are the, the side effects of having this, massive morality on Tik TOK?

00:16:23 Mone On Da Beat:

Man, there’s a lot of different side effects. So, I mean, for one you’re growing organic cult following, you know, we may beat, but a lot of, fans just like the beats people, like you hearing songs, but a lot of my fans is like hearing beats. We got artists that want the beat. So, you know, we got a bead store.

So what happens is you get honest, that love beats. get honest. That wants to be, to get producers that wants. You get an artist that’s reaching out to you that want beats for their artists. Then you’ve got labels reaching out because they want to form a relationship. So it’s a lot of, a lot of relationship building, a lot of, email list gathering to have a cold following is just once you have a cold fondling and anything, that’s where you really win and take time. The massive spillover, the main spillover that I like is following because there, every time we post something, so right now we would post something.

Then the minimum about a views is doing is probably ten five on a worst. But that even data, that amount of people looking at your video. And I just put my site at the bottom, it’s almost like the type of free attention that is. It’s almost, it’s almost like unbelievable. You know, it was like, this is a lot of traffic, but you get spillover.

00:17:43 Chikodi:

Has a Wrigley’s, reached out to sponsor you for gum yet.

00:17:48 Mone On Da Beat:

We’ll make that happen though.

00:17:52 Chikodi:

And who are you checking for right now? Who would you like to reach out?

00:17:55 Skoon:

You mean,

00:17:56 Chikodi:

So you have this cult following, you have videos that have 6 million views all the way down to 10,000 views. So anywhere from

6 million to 10,000 people are seeing every video you put out and it’s organic.

So then, you know, you’ve said you’re not doing a ton of research into hashtags You do the same hashtag every

Time. And you’re getting a lot of inbound interest. Is there anyone who you would like to reach out who has not contacted you? Is there any

Type of person, a business, a musician that you would like to see your content and then contact you?

00:18:29 Mone On Da Beat:

The funny thing is like, I will always been a person that kind of like, got it out the mud, you know? So it’s like, I’ve always developed a mentality and that’s kind of like why this is booming. Now. I’ve always had a mentality to. where I feel like I don’t need, I don’t want to reach out to anybody.

I want to be able to have the power for my presence to be known. And everybody comes to me. Now, I say that to say that a lot of people, they base their success on other people and not try to make themselves be the golden ticket But once you’re the golden ticket You got, you have the upper hand in the deal. So my main focus right now, I don’t even really care to reach out to anybody because as funny as it is, this is only 5% of the big picture of what we have going on.

This just happened to happen how it’s happening, but this is only 5% of a whole other main plan we’re working on I’m not really trying to reach out to anybody right now, but I’m trying to just, I really just want to pet and cater to the cult following because that cult following is going to follow us in every endeavor from here, moving forward.

So that’s my main thing. I don’t really need anybody big right now. I just want to cater to this cult following and keep building that up once you’ve got that you’re always going to have, that ticket

00:19:49 Chikodi:

There’s that bandleader confidence. You’re talking about Skoon

00:19:52 Skoon:

No doubt

It

00:19:54 Chikodi:

Yeah. Yeah. So, so you to have a creative chemistry that is so incredible to watch you just have like a telepathic, you know, you kind of like compose a refrain, you know, so for folks who haven’t seen your content, I highly encourage people that are seeing this and haven’t seen MoneOnDaBeat on TikTokon and all the platforms to go and watch it.

You have a creative chemistry that is really unparalleled. You come up with refrains

And then Skoon and you are like Oh you’re talking about this. tinkle it out and hit record

Quantize, boom. You know, Played on the spot.

So talk about that. What is it like to have a creative partner in Skoon in Mone that you make magic

Happen. What is, what is it like to have that creative partnership?

00:20:49 Mone On Da Beat:

Like I told you before, like the musical essence that’s inside of me, I’ve always been influenced by real music and bands like go-go bands So I like bands I like, I like big music. I myself alone can’t produce that So Skoon even from back then, he always was here with it in terms of musical ideas, stretching the bar pushing.

The bar to where our brains are started to link. now it’s like, a telepathy thing I tell him,"Go Skoon play this. Give me some vibes he’ll play. As he starts to play my spirit, my musical spirit will hear it. He’ll take it, he’ll shape it he’ll bring it to me. And I’m like, Alright Skoon this is how we’re going to do it boom that’s the beauty about our relationship, but it’s like, it’s also the where it’s just like, it’s not, it’s like no love. I mean, that’s really what I mean,

00:21:50 Skoon:

He’s the architect. and I’m the builder That’s the best way I can look back

The great Michael. Jackson most of his music was made that way.

He knew his Parts Mike didn’t play And he would get into people that had the ability to get out

What was in his head. It’s just a reincarnation of that situation. That’s all we do. And you can’t do that without trust though, I trust his musical mind even when a lot of times I don’t hear it I know I can trust that he hears it.

Then it’s all I have to do is get it

Out

From my side of the equation. It’s a wonderful thing. Wonderful thing on my side, because you’re in the midst of it happening in a real time, and that’s a great feeling.

00:22:36 Chikodi:

In the pocket.

00:22:42 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:22:43 Chikodi:

Okay. So going back to the kind of business aspect of this creative partnership, I imagine now that you say you come from Gogo, which is, you know, maybe not massive because it’s more of a regional music, but it’s party music. So it’s

Gotta be accessible. It has to be in major keys. And,

You know, it’s

Just, it’s upbeat.

So when you’re making these beats, I feel like they are maybe

For, musical, like commercial musical libraries. Are you

Making them intending them to sell

Them to a catalog or put it out there at this point? And then people combined.

00:23:23 Mone On Da Beat:

So the, the music that we making is not necessarily cutting a lot of people think that we’re just producers and we’re just down here making music, but that’s actually not. So the cases we’re working, we’re actually working on a project for me and everything that as the camera’s rolling, everything that we’re recording, that we’re not using, that’s what we’re putting out.

So it’s a music project that will work for me and anything that we’re not using, we just, we put it out there just to, you know, just to gain this following that we wanted. And now we have now. So there really wasn’t in the beginning, there really wasn’t no incentive, like let’s sell this, let’s get it to music libraries.

It wasn’t really nothing like that. But I mean, now that we’re getting a lot of people asking for beads, asking for this actor for that, now we’re kind of like, structuring everything. So we’re kinda like works that way, but where it runs itself, kinda like passive, but we don’t have to put a lot of time into it.

And we still have a, we still have a main goal

00:24:28 Skoon:

That we’re working towards.

00:24:30 Chikodi:

And what does that go?

00:24:31 Skoon:

So

00:24:31 Mone On Da Beat:

Pretty much like we have, we have, I’m working on a project where I’m the artist. So I have an artist even myself too, and I don’t like anybody beats. I can only make the beats that I feel like I want to use because there’s certain things that I need to say on, on a specific type of music. And we can only make that. So the ultimate goal is a Grammy for this project that we’re going to be working on. And, the music that we’re doing, I mean, just judging by the variety of everything that we put now it’s going to be a whole month. So this whole year, starting in January with dropping the first one later on this year, each month, we’re going to be dropping a, new one. a new song that that’s part solid part visual, because this also brings in the film aspect of what I do. So it’s kind of like merging all my loves together and running straight out. And then in December we’re going to start on a movie. So it’s a lot, lot of things we got moved.

00:25:28 Chikodi:

Congratulations

00:25:29 Skoon:

Oh yeah,

00:25:30 Chikodi:

Yeah. Well, I mean, and having an inbuilt audience is so major to the success of it doesn’t matter how good it is. If people are already checking for it before it’s even out, that’s going to really propel.

00:25:44 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah. Well, we were in the longevity thing, so we’re in like a marathon. So that’s how we looking at it because it’s, it’s not, it’s not really like an if or, or we hope it’s only a matter of time before that’s happened. That’s, that’s how we, that’s how we plot and

00:25:59 Skoon:

Everything.

00:26:00 Chikodi:

You’re, a multi-talented entrepreneur, filmmaker, bandleader musician,

And now

A viral TikTok star.

00:26:10 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:26:10 Chikodi:

How, how are you managing the inbound, the number of requests? you just got back to me really quickly,

So thank you for that, but how are you managing the attention eyeballs and how are you translating that into business growth?

00:26:25 Mone On Da Beat:

So the well, the reason I got back to you is because I’m trying to get better at responding quicker because sometimes the amount of the amount of, promo, ad requests, like my email inbox is flooded. So I try to decipher through it. But I also have a young lady that, is part of our team that helps me go through that.

But as it relates to the, the growth of the business and what’s coming in. At first, when we started going viral, I’m like, yeah, whatever. Yeah. They like it cool, this is the goal. Let’s keep our mind on the goal But then my business mind started to click in and I’m like, Alright hold up. These are people.

They want something this can translate over to. dollars So now it’s time to restructure this whole thing, but we’ve got to structure it in a way where it’s passive. So we don’t have to put so much time into it because there’s it’s a, it’s still a goal we want to, achieve. So we’re actually in the process of that right now.

It’s about structuring a site to where they go to TikTok They see our posts, they got our website at the bottom. Boom. They go to the website, I got the link of the website in the bio. They click there too they go straight to the website and shop on the site.

So it’s almost like turning the website of that. Could turn it into a store for anything that anybody wants. For now it’s providing what they might want. you have beets. you have loop packs, you have clothes, and you have. hats Like, you know, the hats and clothes I’m starting to see, I’m just reading comments.

So it’s like, Alright this might, this might need to be turned into a place where you can get beats. get loops get dope clothes and get dope hats packs. that’s where I’m at with building it because people, the traffic is crazy. I’m getting a lot of traffic to the site but I never was focused on that because that wasn’t the plan.

But now that I’m seeing this happening, it’s only right to take advantage of the traffic

00:28:21 Chikodi:

Yeah. let me know when the hats come up because you, me and Skoon have the same barber. yeah. Okay. So

Very interesting topic for the

Creator, business owners.

They’re like how much time are you actually spending

Right now, going through your email inbox.

00:28:41 Mone On Da Beat:

I have to look at my email a couple of times. I got into my email of a couple of times a day, but not only my email, my Instagram DM, because I I’ve missed, I missed the opposites. I wouldn’t say Miss but what I’m learning with that is there’s been, there’s been five popular artists that it’s hit me up directly in the DM, but I’m so late to respond and, you know, I can only imagine they just, they find they way busier than I am.

By the time I respond. It’s like, I missed that connection. You know what I’m, saying? All the way up until like three days ago, it was a major artists. Miss that because I responded quite like 16 hours later. You’re like, you know what, it’s really, it’s really now me tightening up on, you know, looking at my being load time, replying to people back as soon as they, as soon as they hit us up.

That’s kinda like some of the stuff that I need to, that I’m, that I’m working on now. And I’m getting people like things in place to be able to patch it up because the flow of traffic and people, you never know who’s anybody in the amount of people that we’ve had reached out to some powerful

Player.

So

It’s just tightening up

00:29:51 Mone On Da Beat & Skoon Audio: on

00:29:51 Skoon:

My side. No,

00:29:52 Chikodi:

Yeah. Well, what tools or what process do you have in place today to manage your, your DM flow? You email flow.

00:30:01 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, like I said, I have a young lady that helps out with that, so I, because I’m constantly like. I’m constantly on the go. he helps out with finding like, different methods and then also like different platforms that can help facilitate the flow of traffic that comes in, whether that be

Emails or whether that be Instagram, the way we could capture the lead quickly and execute the sale.

00:30:24 Chikodi:

So

Right now, your sale, what

I’m aware of is you have

Some beat packs that you’re selling. and then you can buy individual songs. Is there any other form of

Commerce at the moment?

00:30:36 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, I mean, the main, the main thing is streams. I mean, everything is streaming. So Tik TOK, you got YouTube streaming, you got Spotify streaming. So that is kinda like, passively everything that I’m wanting to do. I want to be passive and it’s crazy. Really as a recent, like, as of like last month I started, started to Dawn on me, like, oh, you have to take advantage of this chapel because some people would think that we went down here, we trying to make this, like, we’re trying to be the biggest producers and all that, but it’s really nothing. It’s literally as simple that keep the camera rolling and let’s just post to say, put it out.

We not using, let’s just put it out. So my mind always was, I’m not, I don’t want to make no beats. I don’t want to sell them no beats. I’m not really into that. I want to keep my mind focused on this project and this goal, but, you know, you can say, I’m starting to see the numbers. It’s like, you got to do business mascots to talk to me like, yo, like, what are you doing, bro?

So it’s kinda like coming back and getting everything together to where you can actually maximize the opportunities.

00:31:49 Chikodi:

So as a viral. Content creator. I mean, it doesn’t sound like you intended to

Be, but you’re not mad. You’re not mad at it. to on TikTok but you know, you have a bigger goal and you’re viral, but as a viral creator,

What are some missing pieces of the platform that has helped you?

What, what could TikTok do better to support you as a viral content creator?

00:32:17 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, it’s funny. Cause thick top, we actually go live a lot. And one of the things I like about TikTok live is that, the reach is crazy. the highest we’ve had 50,000 people come onto live at one time, which is, which is crazy. That is equivalent to being in front of a concert of 50,000 people. And.

The direct sale that I can sell. Like, yo, this beat is up right now. check it out right now. What’s up. Boom, boom, boom That directness TikTok is super, super organic Itsorganic reach is still dumb and that’s what every other platform doesn’t have. They don’t have that organic reach going on. And because of that organic reach, we’re able to get this influx of traffic

And

Fans We’re getting a follower every second.

Like I go to my tip top just now, just now, just now followers all the way down. And I’m like, wow, this is crazy. then we hop on live you’re going live. We have 2000 people looking and 3000 people. By the end of the live session we have 50,000 people that have tuned in. You have people giving you gifts from the TikTok Live it’s crazy.

On top of that in TikTok now, think they put on the post, you can, you can give on the post. If you like the post you can give on the posts. That’s crazy They’re just rolling out a lot of stuff. Somebody from TikTok actually reached out to us and we had a meeting that was crazy.

They want to, they were going to do some, we’re going to be building a lot of great things coming up. So it’s this crazy,

00:33:58 Skoon:

You know?

00:33:58 Chikodi:

That’s a really amazing, what you just said is that you can go on live on TikTok and have an arena show

From your studio in DC. So, you know, Drake and Kanye, they were doing some shows recently and they didn’t probably have 50,000 people

In the arena. and

The two of you, because you have figured out how to make TikTok work for you.

You can have the same

Crowd as the most

Popular musician in the world right now,

And get paid directly. That’s really incredible.

00:34:33 Mone On Da Beat:

At any moment, you can just turn it on right now I can just turn on the light.

It’s crazy. It’s a very, very, it’s a very, very, very good blessing. And it’s like, I’m seeing it more and more every day. Now I’m at the point where I’m taking advantage of what’s coming in redirecting and refocusing my mind to, take advantage of that.

00:34:56 Chikodi:

That is really incredible. Okay. And so, and how long did it take you to get comfortable with the technology of a tech talk?

00:35:05 Mone On Da Beat:

Anything, I don’t know, always just look it up. So that was the one who wasn’t really nothing crazy. I just needed to know how to post, because my thing is I have a daily routine and I just wanted to keep that formula going that consistency. So as they roll out new things every month, I might take some time and I’m like, all right, what’s new. what’s the new. Money avenues that they might have. And I just keep that on the forefront a lot of times when they’re rolling out things constantly. So I just do the research to

00:35:29 Skoon:

Figure that out,

00:35:30 Chikodi:

And what does your daily routine look like?

00:35:32 Mone On Da Beat:

Daily routine is wake up, meditate, do some physical activities, listen to some motivational videos, then getting to creative writing, like writing down ideas, writing down plans. And then I dive into some

00:35:50 Skoon:

Music in the summer.

00:35:51 Chikodi:

How many hours of music are you working on in a day?

00:35:55 Skoon:

Oh, like

00:35:55 Mone On Da Beat:

When I’m, it can be all day, like all day, like if I’m not doing anything, that’s what I’m doing. Like, I don’t really watch TV or anything like that. That’s like I do it all day.

00:36:05 Chikodi:

That’s amazing.

00:36:06 Skoon:

00:36:07 Chikodi:

And so, I mean, again, the pandemic has been real bad. For all of us in different ways. And then there are ways in which certain people have been able to thrive. If you are out there doing film production in person, this probably wouldn’t

Happen. Right?

00:36:24 Mone On Da Beat:

Exactly the right motor.

00:36:32 Chikodi:

If you’re doing shows, you’d have to drive to the gig, you know, do the rehearsals, dah, dah, dah. But instead it’s like, Hey, let’s just like practice music. We’ll be practicing music. Anyway,

Turn the camera on. I can

Turn the camera on anyway.

You know, because I saw some of your videos where you

Were going to schools and teaching kids how to do a beat production.

So, you know, these are, these are your teacher, educator, entrepreneur, all of these things. And it really just the way that it came together is not an accident because you guys have known each other for 12 years already. So it’s not like you just,

Hey, what do you do? You know? It’s

Like,

00:37:07 Mone On Da Beat:

Oh, yeah, it’s going to be, it’s a big picture. And this is like I said, this is 5% of the big picture. So what this meant, I say 5%, but now all these people coming in, this is like, this is a big part of it now.

00:37:21 Chikodi:

And so how has this influx of attention

Eyeballs interest? How has that changed? The big picture?

00:37:28 Skoon:

Well, it

00:37:28 Mone On Da Beat:

Hasn’t changed. The big picture is actually adding to the marketing formula of the big picture, because one of the things that, one of the things I know that because people like the music that just lets them know that we are already on the right path. Because they’re liking what they’re hearing and they’re not even hearing anything, no vocals, no song music.

So when we get into a certain topic, when, when I started doing my thing, it’s like, they’re now going to be able to take that and take this content words of wisdom, put it together. And that’s just when I make legendary music. And that’s when we that’s, when legendary, we were making music, that’s going to last, but it also has a message.

We also want to let, we want, we want people to feel it. We want people to remember it from the visual and from the musical aspect of the lyrics, all of

00:38:19 Skoon:

That.

00:38:21 Chikodi:

And so how are you? I think I

Might ask this before, but how are you keeping track of the cult? Are you, you said you are experimenting with different platforms. Are you using something like

A mobile monkey to, capture

People’s, info from, Facebook and from SMS? Or do you have an email list?

00:38:38 Skoon:

Yeah. So

00:38:39 Mone On Da Beat:

Pretty much I have a marketing guy that kinda like, kinda like handles like all of my platforms and he I’m telling me the best things to use and he kind of sets all that up. And then I was running ads for a long time, as well as, anytime I come out with a new product, we run like run ads, talk ads, but it’s getting to the point now where it’s like, like, I don’t really even need to run ads no more because it’s like,

It’s just identifying what those people want and then delivering that because you got people, all of these people are artists. There are people that just like me, like the music once I can figure out what else they want, they’re going to buy it just because it’s us,

00:39:22 Skoon:

You know?

00:39:24 Chikodi:

That’s interesting actually, cause it’s like, I am a huge fan, but I don’t really know personally how to support you,

00:39:32 Skoon:

Exactly. And.

00:39:35 Chikodi:

Yeah, we had, we had a guest Rebecca zone on the show and she has a YouTube channel with about, 320,000 people. And she, her specialty cause she was an attorney. So her specialty is how to deal with toxic people and narcissists in your life.

And she is projecting that she’s wanting to be a hundred million dollar creator in the next couple of years because people pay attorneys tens of thousands of dollars. And if you have a toxic person in your life, there’s no amount of money you would pay. you wouldn’t pay to have a better handle on that situation.

Right.

00:40:13 Skoon:

Yeah,

00:40:15 Chikodi:

But then her audience is a fraction still of your potential audience because everyone listens to music. Everyone has that, desire for, for inspiration. So, you’re figuring out

What to, to match size of your audience with what people will pay for, like how, how do you kind of navigate that?

00:40:37 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, I mean, the person that, I’m the first thing I would do am and pay more attention to, I’m terrible at this, you know, the video go viral it and it’s 10,000 comments and it’s like, you can’t even really answer the comments the more time I post don’t even look at it. But as of recent, I started a post and I will find a common denominator with the comments.

And one of the comments is where can I buy beats working at Bobby? And I bet beats, wow. The hats you always have, you shouldn’t be selling hats, hats like yellow is chewing gum, gum, fly life, you know, so shirts. So it’s like, it’s going through the comments with all the answers already. So what’s happening is it’s like the community.

Our, our platform is building a community within a community and all the answers are right there. And I have all of the data right there and it’s just for me.

And then just take these common denominator and make a product out of what I think will work. And that’s what I’ve been doing. And that’s, what’s in development right now.

00:41:45 Chikodi:

Yeah. Cause I, I, you know, last, played on

The spot. I, I think I saw, I was maybe 171. and that was only a couple of days ago. So probably

Up to 180 or something. So yeah. What you said about the common denominator of a hundred and you know, hundreds of videos, and yeah, people that just discover you because of the

Tick-tock algorithm probably have the same questions as people have been rocking with you for quite a

00:42:08 Mone On Da Beat:

Exactly, exactly.

And I’ve been so much in my world. It’s like, I need to do more. I need to do more videos and things talking about like us, our relationship. More outside of the

Music. the young lady that works with us, she’s been telling me that for the longest, but I gotta get on there

00:42:26 Chikodi:

Yeah.

00:42:27 Mone On Da Beat:

Sometimes I’m step

00:42:31 Skoon:

Back a little bit.

00:42:32 Chikodi:

It must take a very

Special person to understand

Creative process, social media and entrepreneurship. What’s the, what’s the special blend of. the people that are helping you take the creativity and scale the business.

00:42:49 Mone On Da Beat:

The main thing is the main thing is just having a basic understanding of how everything works and I’m, well, I’m an entrepreneur like all my life. So that’s one of the, that’s one of the main things that already know how to make something out of. And just that alone only allow me to align myself with the same type of people.

So the people that I have that I work closely with while I let even come in the studio and I even share ideas with, we all kind of like align on the same level. So to make that merge and to make that mess, it’s not, it’s not a hard, it’s not anything hard. I just have to have the master plan. And then from that master plan, I’ll take the professionals that surround me, and then I assign them their tasks as the professional.

So I can just be the mind and create one side. Once that formula is all the way clicking and lock them together, everything will flow smooth to where money.

00:43:45 Chikodi:

And have you experimented with any of the new commerce tools that a Tik TOK is supporting directly in the platform?

00:43:52 Skoon:

I actually haven’t,

00:43:54 Mone On Da Beat:

I really haven’t. And I need to I’ve seen that, you can link Shopify with the Tik TOK, which you have to turn it into a business account, but then I know with a business account, it could kind of like, it kinda messes something up

With the algorithm. So it’s still something that I’m, that I’m looking into.

But again, even if I’m getting a million people looking at one video and I can just have my site at the bottom, just put here, you want something go here. I mean, it’s like the people, that’s one of the people that I want to see, go to the site and say the 1% of that, and then you could get sales.

Once you have, once you have a few products up

00:44:30 Skoon:

There, you know,

00:44:31 Chikodi:

Yeah. I mean, next year, the ugly sweaters, the, you know, the, we’re, we’re recording and it’s the first week of January. This will probably come out, February, but it’s like, was it, was it a two chains? And he did the dab in Sante sweater and made like multiple millions of dollars off of that.

Because there’s commerce integrated into the tick-tock platform, you could do at least that,

00:44:53 Skoon:

Yay.

00:44:54 Chikodi:

In a year from now

00:44:55 Skoon:

Yay.

00:44:56 Chikodi:

Excellent. Excellent. there’s Tik TOK, Taj, you know him?

Yeah. He does the dance battle against

Himself. Yeah. He’s, he’s great. He’s a producer too. I think it might be T a T a H J And he actually has a shirt that says battle Mika and it’s, it’s,

So funny.

00:45:20 Mone On Da Beat:

And we’ll probably make some clarity on a spot.

00:45:23 Chikodi:

Yeah. Yeah. So then, Have you

Collabed with anybody from TikTok tick tock, Tosh is a producer. have you followed anybody and be like, Hey, let’s cook or is it, is it really just you and Skoon right now,

00:45:39 Mone On Da Beat:

It’s really just me. and Skoon not to sound away But I mean, I’m not like it might look like, like we’re creators I, guess that’s the term you get once you pass a certain level of success on social media, but I’m not really a creator though. Like I’m not like a, I’m not a social media creator.

We’re just documenting the journey. That’s the easiest way to create though, because you don’t have the think you just let the natural essence do it. But yeah, I would like to win the future, but right now, Like I said, this is 5% of a major goal that we trying to reach right now. So with certain people at this point.

It’s not anything I’m looking to do, but in the future, I would definitely want to do something

Like that.

00:46:23 Chikodi:

So you guys are accidental creators.

00:46:25 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, I mean, the, the The talent from what I’m understanding is undeniable So I guess the consistency with, keep with posting and making it be known that we’re here has generated this, you know, this following. So, if you want to call that accidental creators I guess,

You could

00:46:45 Chikodi:

Yeah. You know, Gary Vaynerchuk, GaryVee Have you’ve heard of him, he says, Don’t create document.

00:46:52 Mone On Da Beat:

And that’s where I got it

From. That’s where I got it. I used to listen to him every day. Remember I told you I wake up and listen to motivation that they used to be part of it. We’ll put this camera up and just let it roll.

Just move like

00:47:10 Skoon:

That. So,

00:47:11 Chikodi:

Then you have some creative partners, you’ve got school, I’ve seen you work with some opera singers, making videos.

00:47:17 Mone On Da Beat:

Oh yeah. I got a lot of dope. come from a family of music. Music is

00:47:22 Skoon:

Life.

00:47:23 Chikodi:

I mean, so, so basically though

You have your own plan, you’re executing

The plan daily and documenting the execution of

The plan and the mission and the mission continues to grow,

But you’re not looking for instrumentalists or anybody from the, the widening circle of, attention. You’re getting you, you got it. And you’re just focused.

00:47:48 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah. Yeah. But anything we touch though throughout the course of just anytime we go in anything, it always materializes into something Greater than what we can see. So like, again, this started out with a goal, Hey, we’re working on this project and it’s turning, it’s turning into having a cult following before we even drop anything.

It’s like me focusing on that one goal is generating and attracting everything we need. So I don’t want to divert the program. I’m just boom. But when time comes and it gets there, we’re going to do that.

00:48:27 Chikodi:

Yeah, well, the universe is listening, right?

00:48:28 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah it’s

Always listening

00:48:31 Chikodi:

Yeah, admire that too, because you know, I’ve got this as a platform. But mostly I work with startups on a day-to-day basis and 95, 90 7% of what I do is never see an accept on a zoom call. And so it’s like, what can I document besides this journey of me getting more comfortable in front of the camera, having these amazing conversations with folks like yourselves.

But, but yeah, you know, it’s like, I guess I could document myself watching YouTube videos and learning might not be as interesting. but it would be real. It would be genuine. Yeah. Okay. Well, okay. So you have got the charisma and the vision. You have, been a band leader, a visionary for a long time, and this is a progression of it.

You miss. Some of the earlier platforms, but then Tik TOK really started to fill the top of the funnel. And at the bottom of the funnel

Is you can sell beats. You, are thinking about commerce. Definitely. I mean, those hats will be major, major, major, major.

Yeah. And it played on the spot. I mean, it’s like you kind of have, if you haven’t trademarked that, I would definitely

Recommend,

00:49:47 Skoon:

Yeah,

00:49:47 Chikodi:

Attorney, because that’s, that’s you, you know?

00:49:52 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, it’s kind of like the universe is telling me everything was showing me. So this play on the spot, some

00:49:58 Skoon:

Need to look into.

00:50:00 Chikodi:

And are you comfortable

Talking either in

Specifics or general? what kind of, revenue, what kind

Of income is being generated from the gifts and the streams?

00:50:12 Mone On Da Beat:

So like when it comes to like when you’re talking about,

00:50:15 Chikodi:

Yeah, tech talk and the other.

00:50:17 Mone On Da Beat:

Well, I mean, you know, like with, like with tick tock, tick tock is not really they have a creator fund, but they create a plan whereby they don’t really pay that much. So it’s, it’s kind of like, The gifts that you get, like, so after we get off alive, you can get like $20 and gifts.

You could get like $16 in gifts, $10 in gifts. But my thing is, I don’t really look at, I’m not like I don’t, like, it’s not like I’m living off now. I need to live off that. But what I’m doing is I’m kind of just letting everything just build and build and pile up and pile up. I don’t really even look at everything, but actual after the lives is kind of like, I see what comes in after that.

And that’s how I know, but everything else is kind of like, whatever, whatever whatever’s building up, just let it build up because as your numbers grows, that that grows. So it’s more so just a focus on the numbers. If we’re, if I’m even poking pump sand, I’m focusing on something that’s really the it’s really the numbers and getting the numbers just the higher.

It goes the higher everything else though, like right now, when it comes to like, when it comes to generating. Like revenue. That’s kind of like where we at right now. Cause before, like I told you, it was more so like, alright, cool. This is the plan I stick to it. And I wasn’t really focused on trying to make money out of anything that we go in here.

But again, you can only get to so many numbers until you snap and be like, yo, you’re chipping, you know? And that’s kinda like that’s kinda

00:51:44 Skoon:

Like when we have,

00:51:47 Chikodi:

Yeah, because I’m thinking like you could probably, do a live stream on Twitch at the same time. You’re doing other platforms and that’s a whole other audience, but because it’s so successful on Tik TOK, that’s like, you don’t really have to,

00:52:02 Mone On Da Beat:

I mean, we stream live on YouTube too. So it’s like, I think, before, before he was even doing these, I was probably like 4,000 subscribers on YouTube now is like 21 pounds. And, you know, even with YouTube, like the more you more you post on that, the more the world. So by next year, at the time, my next year, this time, I would say, we’ll be like, well, in the six figures of, revenue, that’s going to be coming in just off of, off of the streaming, quiet alone.

But the e-commerce once I locked that down, definitely the two of them together definitely easily. We’ll bring in six figures the way I’m the way I’m looking at.

00:52:44 Chikodi:

That’s fantastic. Yeah. I mean, if you’ve got 50,000 people coming through a live stream and they can support you by buying a hat, buying a t-shirts a poster. And then, you know, if you want to open it up so that people can create artwork. That reflective of your brand. There’s just like many, many, many,

00:53:04 Mone On Da Beat:

Many possible.

00:53:05 Chikodi:

So many

00:53:06 Mone On Da Beat:

And that’s kinda like where my mind is at right now. It’s really taking, taking the following and really diving deeper in that kind of like monetize everything.

00:53:16 Chikodi:

Yeah, it was no accidents. I mean, you have, found something that you can document that really sparks an emotional connection. You have a very distinct personality, you know, you have the, distinction of being one of the best dressed, tick talkers. I think,

There is. yeah. And then your creative partnership with Skoon is really, it’s like to see that kind of friendship, that kind of creative bond is really, especially in a pandemic when

People don’t get to see their friends, they don’t get the.

Experience the joy of being with family

That might itself is like, you know, that could be its own channel, but,

00:54:00 Skoon:

That’s

00:54:01 Mone On Da Beat:

Fun. All of that comes out on videos and get all that

00:54:03 Skoon:

From the video.

00:54:04 Chikodi:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

00:54:06 Mone On Da Beat:

That’s crazy,

00:54:08 Chikodi:

Yeah.

00:54:13 Mone On Da Beat:

But I’m glad because we don’t really get to see and understand what people see, and that also is going to help with,

Monetizing. This was following.

I’m

00:54:26 Skoon:

Glad, I’m glad to know that.

00:54:28 Chikodi:

It’s very inspiring. Very inspired. Well, fantastic. I think, what you have shared about where this has really been only like a year and a half or so

Two years.

00:54:41 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:54:42 Chikodi:

I couldn’t even get, get to the beginning of your

00:54:45 Skoon:

Yeah.

He

00:54:46 Mone On Da Beat:

Probably won’t be able to is that

00:54:48 Skoon:

Many videos out?

00:54:50 Chikodi:

But that’s what it takes to just got to keep feeding the algorithm. And eventually it catches on,

I mean, it’s no more work because you got the studio, you got the light and you got the

Sound equipment. So yeah, right. Well, it has been fantastic to talk to you. I know you got to make some beats and at the, got this, world domination plan

00:55:14 Skoon:

Yeah.

00:55:14 Chikodi:

It’s taking time. I really am very grateful, for the time. is there any, any shout out you want to give or, you, know, any, any parting words.

00:55:24 Mone On Da Beat:

Yeah, I mean, I just want to set out all the dreams and I want to shout out everybody reaching for their dream and going for the dream. And I just want everybody that has doubts to know that faith is the ultimate. And when you got that, and then you listened to the voice and siding and you just go hard, there’s really nothing that can stop you, but you, so go for the goal. I got to say one thing, my father is the reason all of this is possible to get a bottle.

00:56:07 Chikodi:

The name of this project? It’s forthcoming.

00:56:13 Mone On Da Beat:

Johnny, should we give him the name? I had to consult with somebody real quick. So, it’s called P.O.R.N. and the acronym is Portraits of Relevant Nature. It dives into the raw nature of life.

00:56:29 Chikodi:

Outstanding. Alright. Well, we’ll be checking for that in December of 2022, early 2023,

It’s going to drop this year? Fantastic. Fantastic.

Well, I wish you all the success possible. You have an incredible following. You have really created something. You have that creative partner by your side.

I even noticed that Skoon sits on the right side when you’re making beats, because where I’m looking now, you turn that around, when you’re filming, he’s sitting at your right side. That’s a special, special thing.

I just wanna say thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for doing what you’re doing. Thank you for growing this following, because clearly there’s a magic they’re tapping into.

00:57:22 Skoon:

Right.

00:57:23 Chikodi:

Thank you for being on the show. I was really looking forward to all of the ways that you’re able to leverage the technology, the audience, the passion, and just very grateful for your time.

00:57:36 Mone On Da Beat:

You are our first real interview. So, you know, I appreciate that, because I wanted to see how Skoon reacts to interviews. I wanted to make sure he’s locked in.

I appreciate it, man.

00:57:52 Chikodi:

I appreciate you.