Pipo: If you are happy, you are doing what is self-fulfilling, things start happening in your favor. You feel excellent, you think excellent, your ideas become better, you feel better. The people around you, you start attracting naturally the people that you vibe with better, that are on the same page as you. Your life becomes better. That is the purpose of this game. It's like you got blessed with this thing called life, it's your birthright to be happy. This is what you're supposed to do.

Michael Walker: It's easy to get lost in today's music industry, with constantly changing technology and where anyone with a computer can release their own music. I'm going to share with you why this is the best time to be an independent musician, and it's only getting better. If you have high quality music, but you just don't know the best way to promote yourself so that you can reach the right people and generate a sustainable income with your music, we're going to show you the best strategies that we're using right now to reach millions of new listeners every month, without spending 10 hours a day on social media. We're creating a revolution in today's music industry, and this is your invitation to join me. I'm your host, Michael Walker. All right, so I'm really excited to be here today with Pipobeats. Pipo this is going to be a fun one. It'll be a little bit different from a lot of the interviews that we do, where we're interviewing traditional music mentors.

Michael Walker: But Pipo is actually a member of our gold artist community. He's someone who I think his story is going to be super inspiring for any of you who are musicians, who are looking to reach the next level in your music career. Specifically to really dial in on the importance of mindset and belief, and becoming the kind of person who deserves to have success. The stage that happens before the big breakthrough. Specifically Pipo is a singer songwriter from LA. He was a contestant on the NBC head show Songland, where he actually had the opportunity to work with Ryan Tedder from One Republic and to record the song Sway, which was ultimately chosen by Luis Fonsi, the writer behind the hit song Despacito.

Michael Walker: The song became the number one hit song Sway, and just an amazing breakout opportunity for him. I think that what's going to be really inspiring on the call today is hearing about it's easy to see the tip of the iceberg and see those big moments and be like, oh, they had a big break, or there's a lot of luck involved or something. But what you don't see is that huge amount of belief and work that went into that moment. Pipo thanks for taking the time to be here today.

Pipo: Dude, Michael thank you so much man. I'm so grateful to share this story. People thinking of the concept, I remember the first time I heard the song No Flex Zone by Rae Sremmurd on the radio. I had no clue who those guys were, and suddenly they had this one song. It was like these rapper guys. I was like, "Look at these guys with this one hit single never heard of them in my life." I was like they got so lucky. Guys had a nine year backstory until that moment. So I mean dude same thing for me. The realistic truth is I think Sway for me was, I don't think I know for a fact Sway for me was the first step on the ground where Pipobeats makes a mark. Out of eight years of doing the same thing every single day, Sway paved the way. That was the first big thing that's gone down for me so I'm grateful for that.

Michael Walker: I don't think you were intentionally trying to be poetic there, but that just came out and sounded really Sway paved the way.

Pipo: I kind of was, I do that [inaudible 00:03:37] if I could write a song about the things that I say I'm just go ahead snap one out.

Michael Walker: That's what I'm talking about. I'd love to start out by just hearing a little bit more about your story. I know that, like you just said really it was about eight years in the making. One thing that really stuck out to me on the episode and really through the conversations that we've had so far, is how you had written down before you even had the opportunity. For years, you had this goal in your head that it was a written goal, and that you really feel like that was the thing that drove you in order to realize and actualize that moment. Could you just share a little bit about your story and how you got to this point?

Pipo: Absolutely man. Probably the craziest story you'll ever hear in your entire life, because it almost has zero to do with the goal, which is the funniest thing of this whole situation. Because let's make X the goal, put anything in the front. The thing that I realized, and this is like I said, I feel like this game is rigged for me. I feel like life is rigged for me. I feel like I'm some type of simulation where everything is in my favor. I don't know why at 13 years old I ran into the grandma of my best friend that told me, "You should write your goals down." I don't know why that happened. You get what I mean? This is part of sometimes destiny weird thing that happened to me at a young age. But I realized that if X was the goal, it could be however big, however small you want it to be. It was about the person that I had to become in order to execute it. The habits that I had to drop, the habits that I had to take on at a young age made me do this.

Pipo: Now let's go back to young, naive Pipo. Let's go back to young, 13 year old Pipo. No clue what he's doing, just freaking, getting kicked out of class, super happy kid. I was 13 years old my friend's grandma was telling me about this concept of manifestation. Not to get all voodoo hoodoo on you guys, but this is kind of what happened. She goes, "You can manifest anything you want." I was like, "What is this old lady saying? I have no clue." My friend Devin it's funny because I say this all time, and I don't think my friend Devin even knows this. But his grandma gives me the whole rundown on this. Then I'm like, "All right, that's so weird. You're telling me that if I can feel the way I want things to be they will become a reality?" She's like, "Absolutely." She said, "The beauty behind is if you don't believe me try it." I was 13 years old and I go to my room and I'm meditating in my room, [inaudible 00:06:23] I'm like 13 years old. I'm like, all right, let's try it.

Pipo: She said to meditate, calm my mind for 10 minutes. I couldn't sit still for two minutes, but I tried 10. I was just sitting there and I was all right, I'm going to demand $20 from the universe. But she said the best way to do it is you have to act as if it is. You have to say thank you for the $20 that I have in my hand within these three days. I did that. First day nothing happened. Second day nothing happened. We're going along the third day, and you have to be extremely specific too. I was like, "$20 tangibly in my hands for me to receive it for me to own as a human being." I was extremely detailed. Last day happens nothing goes down. I'm disappointed I'm laying in my bed. I was like, "I knew that grandma was lying to me." I was like, "Dude, I'm going to call my buddy Devin, I'm going to go back to her house to tell her off." Boom, boom, knock on my door. This is straight out of a movie bro. This is 9:00 PM at night. You can even ask my mom about this story she'll tell you the truth.

Pipo: 9:00 PM she knocks on the door she walks in. She goes, "Filippo," she goes, "Your auntie feels so bad because she was supposed to give you your birthday present." I was like, "My birthday was four months ago woman." I was like, "What are you even talking about?" She's like, "She was supposed to give you your birthday present four months ago. She feels really bad, so I just went over her house for dinner and here you go." She hands me a $10 bill and then a $20 bill. She gives me $30 in total. I stand up from my bed and I start yelling and screaming. That happened, let's put that in a little shelf of my life experience. Now let's bring on the music. Let's think about this Filippo, I was like you just got into high school or you're about to be into high school because I was 14. I was about to get into high school. I was like, "I've got to decide what I want to do with my life, or else if I don't choose something that I love, I'm going to be stuck doing something that I hate."

Pipo: I got this boom realization, I was like, "What can I do for the rest of my life that I'm good at and that I love?" Not even that I'm good at. That was not what it was. It was what do I love to do? I seriously think about this, this came into my mind. Like I said I have no clue where it came from, but it just did. Everybody knew me as the white rapper Eminem kid. I would rap, I would freestyle. I would beat all the rappers, all the seniors. I was this little white kid spitting bars. I was like, "Why don't I just rap? I feel great when I rap, I feel like a rapper and kid I feel like I could do this." Then boom, when I decided that I wanted to become a rapper, this unfolding of my life began to happen, where I didn't have anything at all to back that up. But things started coming in, whether it's experiences, people, learning opportunities, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They just started rolling in like freaking, I don't know, like freaking waves from the ocean.

Pipo: I didn't know how to rap, sorry, I didn't have money to buy my beats. After months of realizing that dude, these things cost money. I was like I got to get a job, I got to do this. I started working. I became the number one sales persons in the freaking high school of chocolates to buy a microphone. Then I was like, "Dude, you know what? I got to start making my own beats." I was like, "I can't afford to be buying a beat." I was like, "I can't become like the fricking person that goes to the grocery store, I got to become the farmer." You know what I mean? I started to make my own beats, no school, no nothing bro. I'm telling you I had no clue how to do a single thing. I just got the MIDI started on GarageBand and my dad walks in he's like, "You made this?" I was like, "Yeah, do you like this song?" He's like, " It's ll right." I was 14 I was like okay, nice, so my dad [inaudible 00:10:21] this is good.

Pipo: I realized this concept in my head where I was like let's think humongous for a second. I was like yes, we can think small in the way of what do you want to do? I was like let's become a rapper. But I was like if I'm going to do this let's be crazy here. I was like, "Why shouldn't I strive to do and create the biggest records in the world?" I was like, why not? I'm writing music anyways. I was like, "Why not try to write the best songs that I could possibly write?" I started to study the concept of songs. I was like, "Why is it that every single song that is the biggest hit in the world, 96% of the time has some sort of singing." I was like I can't be a rapper, I have to start singing. Made the switch. Why is it that every single big song usually for the most part has real instrumentation? I was like, "Let's record some real instrumentation." Because it's human, I didn't realize any of the why's to these things.

Pipo: But I was just following the way that my desire was going at the time. I was in love with this Michael. To tell you that I was in love with this concept is an understatement. You're talking to the kid I hated school, I hated school oh my gosh. I would literally set an alarm for five in the morning so that I can get to play with my freaking setup, my MIDI and my mic all that stuff early in morning before I got to go to school. I would set an alarm, go write music, then go to school then come back and make more music. My dad would get super pissed, because I would be like my grades would be going down. It was just like a kid obsessed with Xbox, it was the exact same concept. I used to have an Xbox too when I was 10 years old. It was the same obsession except for something different, and I never stopped. That's exactly where I'm still the same freaking 13 year old kid, I'm the same exact, I'm not even joking. I'm the exact same kid, and that's what I've done man.

Michael Walker: So good. So much good stuff to unpack there. It sounds like one core thing that really drove you, and this is something we talked earlier about the monthly course we are both going through with Ryan Tedder right now, and how he brings up this concept of look I don't care how much formal education you have around music theory, that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is actually how it makes you feel. It sounds like a lot of your journey was not even understanding necessarily why you're doing some of the things that you're doing, but really things aligning and things coming into place because you had that higher vision and you had the willingness to stretch your vision and actually be like, "Well, if I'm doing this anyways, why not?

Michael Walker: Why not just write a number one hit song with Luis Fonsi for example?" I love having discussions like this. I think it's just fascinating talking about law of attraction or the manifestation side of things. I feel there's something so powerful there, there's something like it's not a secret that if you want to achieve something, you need to believe in it yourself in order to take the actions in order to do it, in order to align people around you to believe in the same vision. Also, it does seem like there's some sort of universal energy that things align into place, it just clicks.

Pipo: Michael, for you to say you love talking about this, it's like this is what I live by. The crazy thing that has to do with this whole thing is this is the way things are supposed to be. Have you ever heard Drake say, "You see the power of the mind is not a joke. You see I said that I would do it and I did." The crazy thing is I was always like I really want to do this my way. As far as the law of attraction goes in these things, there is no secret. It's just like this is the way that life is supposed to be, but we're so far removed as humans bro it's insane. We're killing ourselves. That's the best way to describe it. We are killing ourselves as human beings. Our habits, the way we are living, the way we are eating, the way we are thinking. Our mind is set up as if this is the way that things are supposed to be. Absolutely not. You think you're supposed to be stressed out? The concept of being stressed, the feeling of being stressed. Back in the day if we were like, what do you call them? Cavemen, you only get stressed if there's a fricking bear in front of you.

Pipo: Right now we're getting stressed that there's a car cutting us off in traffic. That is not detrimental at all. But we have let it reach the same stress level as a bear that's going to kill us. Stress causes sickness to the body. Bringing it back to the main point of this whole thing, everything works in divine order, which means that it just does, it just happens. It doesn't just happen by accident. There's no such thing as a coincidence. The word coincidence is something we came up with to describe the undescribable, and luck, as you know, is when your preparation meets the opportunity. There's no such thing as luck, there's no such thing as that. Sway is my luck. That's how it went. Eight years of preparation met the opportunity, and I think the biggest thing that people need to realize is the crazy thing that I wish people were to understand is never think about the how. This was something I had no clue about. But the how is what once again, getting that lightning strike down.

Pipo: You're like I know what the what is, I know what I want to do. I want to become a freaking firefighter. This is going to be phenomenal. I'm going to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like great. Now, how is it that I'm going to do it? Then on top of that, Steven in class is saying, "Bro, you have no freaking muscles, how you supposed to stop a fire?" You're like, "Oh shut up Steven." Then all of a sudden Sally is like, "Yeah bro, you're freaking short. You would never blah, blah, blah." Then boom, slowly but surely we compress it and we let it go down and we let it sink. Because these cats around us and even worse, not even them around even worse is you telling yourself, suppresses it down. Originally what was once supposed to be this flower of divine destiny, this is supposed to be what you wanted. Whatever you want is supposed to be the way that it is. But we shut it down.

Pipo: Never worry about the how, because you think I could have described there's going to be a show called Songland that's going to come up randomly, they're going to favor people just like you. You remember that guy Luis Fonsi you've been trying to chase down for three years? You bumped into the director, you bumped into his musical director in Miami two years ago, you tried to give him the song Sway. You bumped into the producer of Despacito at a Juanes concert three and a half years ago, you tried to give him the song Sway it didn't happen. Great, well all those guys are going to be right there. You're going to be able to give it to them on a silver platter, that exact song literally presented for him. Think about how easy it could have been for me to question why it's not. It's the most beautiful story because I never questioned the timing. That's something that I've realized myself at all.

Pipo: It's something that I've realized for myself right now, is that think about I could have given up after that first try. I was going to give this guy, the producer of the song Despacito my song Sway three years ago to give to Luis Fonsi. The guy was like, listen, blah, blah, blah. I literally created a letter, I drove to this guy's studio, thinking it was his studio it wasn't his studio. I was bummed. I was like bro, I thought this was my chance I met the guy. I was like the next year happens. I'm still writing music, I'm still doing my game. Boom another opportunity happens. Oh, what's the name that I hear? Luis Fonsi. Who's the guy? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, musical director. I was like this guy knows Luis. Finally, here we go. Meet with the guy in Miami. This time I told myself maybe I shouldn't. Because the relationship to me meant more than what I could get out of it.

Pipo: Because I met this person that I had a phenomenal connection with. It did not sit right with me to be like, great do me this favor right now, AKA what does that teach you as a human? Don't ever force anything bro. Force is different than a small little push. The doing part if it's no, then it's next. That's something that I heard the other day. If it's no right now, then it's next. I didn't want to force this, because if I would have forced it everything probably would've went down the drain. From the second time round, I realized, I feel like there'll be a third. Boom I'm in Spain 2020, there's going to be a show, it's going to be Songland, blah, blah, blah. I was like of course. The second that there's a video, there is a video, but I don't have possession of it. But there's a video when we're all in the room at the hotel where they call me after the show called Songland there's going to be an artist. I was like, bro, I'm submitting country songs right now. I was like, I'm submitting country songs, I've got pop records.

Pipo: I was like dude I've got the whole plate scattered out. I was like who am I going to get Florida Georgia line? I was like who am I going to get? Julia Michaels, I was like I'm going to get Julia Michaels. I was like that's crazy. No clue who the people were, keep that in mind, no clue who was going to be on the show. Get there, we were in front of the whole staff, everybody's there. Like I said there's a little video camera I'm sure for legal reasons for whoever said whatever they said. They go, "All right, so congratulations," because this was just for our episode in front of the staff, so the four people are sitting there.

Pipo: They're like, "Congratulations, your music artist is going to be Luis Fonsi." If you look at the video footage, you will see a kid stand up from his chair, do five laps around a room in a professional setting. This is a professional setting though. Everybody is serious, absolutely this is going to be the way that it is. I was like of course it is. Then from then on it was history. I never doubt myself, ever, because you're shooting yourself in the foot. That's not the way it's supposed to be. You know what I mean?

Michael Walker: What's up guys. Quick intermission from the podcast so I could tell you about an awesome free gift that I have for you. I wanted to share something that's not normally available to the public. They normally reserve for our $5,000 clients that we work with personally. This is a presentation called six steps to explode your fan base and make a profit with your music online. Specifically we're going to walk through how to build a paid traffic and automated funnel. It's going to allow you to grow your fan base online. The system is designed to get you to your first $5,000 a month with your music. We've invested over $130,000 in the past year to test out different traffic sources and different offers, and really see what's working best right now for musicians. I think it's going to be hugely valuable for you. If that's something you're interested in, in the description there should be a little link that you click on to go get that.

Michael Walker: The other thing I wanted to mention is, if you want to do us a huge favor, one thing that really makes a big difference early on when you're creating a new podcast is if people click subscribe. Then it basically lets the algorithm know that this is something that's new and noteworthy, and that people actually want to hear. That'll help us reach a lot more people. If you're getting value from this and you get value from the free trainings, then if you want to do us a favor, I'd really appreciate you clicking the subscribe button. All right, let's get back to the podcast. So good. It sounds like what you're saying is that really the natural way that it should be for most people is that we have desires and there's like a flow and you could call it God or the universe or whatever, but there's an alignment and there's an energy that naturally goes out, and it goes in the direction of our desires or our goals.

Michael Walker: For the most part, what gets in the way is internal blocks. I think there is something really powerful about the practice of one, writing down your goals or thinking about the things that you truly want. Then sitting with them and noticing what happens inside when you think about that? Is there something that comes up that's like, oh, you don't deserve that, or there's blocks or there's just a feeling of anxiety. Or there's something that's holding it back. From what you're saying, it sounds like in a lot of cases that might come from within, might come from your surroundings of people that don't necessarily believe in you. It's a really important thing to cultivate the sense of trust in your intuition, in your sense, and in your belief in yourself being able to accomplish your goals. One thing I wanted to share that came to mind, because I love that story of the $20-

Pipo: The best story in the world.

Michael Walker: Your first foray into a manifestation.

Pipo: Ask my mom bro I swear. Real quick Michael, two seconds. This is the crazy thing about it. It's either what you want or something better. That's where people get it twisted. Think about that. If there was not a better way to describe the rules behind this whole game, was that first encounter. It was either what you want or something better. I didn't get 20 bucks I got 30. Think about that that's nuts. Anyways continue.

Michael Walker: It's so good. I think for anyone who is listening to this who might be a little bit skeptical, I can understand it. I think that there is a balance. Because I've seen people who are on the extreme, extreme and who it's like they think, "Oh, I don't even have to do any work at all. I'm just going to manifest everything and just sit down, and just everything's going to come to me." But I think more what you're pointing towards is that the first thing that you need to do to get right that's more fundamental than anything else is that work with the vision and with the belief and that all of the how to stuff is important, but it's not as important as that fundamental stuff. Because all that stuff clicks into place.

Pipo: You can't, it's hard. It's practically impossible. Even Kanye West says this, "You make plans and God laughs."

Michael Walker: I love that quote.

Pipo: I heard him say that the other day. I don't know if it was Kanye West who created that quote, but I heard him quote that the other day. That reminds me of the how. That my how is what I plan. Dude, I hardly create how's anymore, but I sure as hell create the biggest ones you've ever seen. Well, my what's are huge. I'm like my what's are humongous. But ever since the Songland situation, which like I said I've just taken this theory on recently, I've embodied the mental concept of what has gone down over the past years. That's the best way to describe it. It's something that I just realized. Just like I said, people have it completely twisted. The other craziest story that I realized, which is the last one I'll share on this that I know for a fact it's just one of those things. I remember they did a test, I think it was on the NBA, where the best way to describe it is its just the word believe, if you believe.

Pipo: I hate how cheesy that word has become now, because it's almost if I were to die right now, and I'd be like, "You just got to believe," and I fade out. You're like, "What is he talking about?" It's literal, it's literal. It's like the word believe. There's an NBA team I forgot what it was, maybe it wasn't the NBA. They split the team in half. They had half the team practice the real thing, and the other team just practiced in their head. Now, the other team that was practicing the real game in physical form, they were hustling, they were sweating, they were doing the whole thing. They were trying to shoot. They would make 75% they did all right that day, they did all right those days for practice.

Pipo: But then you have the team that practiced only in their brain, but not practicing in their brain, you had a guided psychologist just saying, "All right bro you just scored. How does the team feel?" Yes. All right now you just got the winning shot, you got that three pointer. Let's go, everybody's freaking hyped. Go look at your freaking mom in the stands bro she's hyped as well. You're like yeah she's hyped. Your eyes are closed you're doing the whole game. They did that test like 10 times. The team to the left won every single time without even practicing. How nuts is that? They didn't even practice, it was like five months. They didn't play at all. They didn't shoot a single hoop, but their mind believed that it was so it became, it's nuts.

Michael Walker: Mental rehearsal yeah so good. I feel like I've heard the same thing about Michael Phelps too, is like a big part of his coaching practice was about mental rehearsal in addition to his practice. One story that I want to share that I think is really relevant to what you're sharing as well. I feel like I've seen this reflected across most of my mentors, or most of the people I see as the most successful people in the world. They really understand fundamentally the value of a vision and belief in it, and the willingness to adapt and to learn. But one example, when I started Modern Musician, I was and we've talked a little bit about this book Think and Grow Rich. But really this book is grandfather of a lot of the ideas that we're talking about right now. I highly recommend for anyone who hasn't read this book yet to check out this book Think and Grow Rich. There's like a-

Pipo: Dude I'm getting it right now.

Michael Walker: It's so good. There's just an energetic shift happens when you read it. It's really powerful. I remember reading this book when I was just starting this business, I was just starting my family. I was on the back end of touring full time, and I wanted to figure out how I could provide for them without traveling. I was about $36,000 in debt and really needed to figure out how am I going to provide for my family? I remember reading this book, and then there's this opportunity to attend this business coaching event called product launch formula. I happened to fall in with a couple of people who were going to this event so I went to the event. I remember literally going to the bathroom and pulling open my phone and reading the difference I forget what he calls it in the books, but there's essentially a form of affirmation. I remember reading this it was all about-

Pipo: What were you reading?

Michael Walker: Oh my gosh, it was so good. There's five principles that he basically talks about, which is all about what we're talking about right now. One, believing and having faith and having a clear vision about what you want to achieve, and it being definite. Ethically about realizing that in order to do that, you need to create the most service as possible for other people.

Pipo: It says that? You see, this is why I want to read it. That's great I love that.

Michael Walker: That's a big part of one of the five principles. My goal for that was $100,000. My definite goal is to bring in $100,000 by the end of this year. I read that every single day. I really visualized it and I put myself into it. At that event, there's an opportunity to join this $12,000 coaching program. I didn't have $12,000 to invest in a coaching program, but I knew that that was the right decision. I basically was resourceful and I figured out a way to make it. There's a monthly payment plan, I did it. I didn't know how I was going to afford to do this, but I worked my ass off. You know what? A year later I didn't make $100,000 a year later.

Pipo: You're right, because you made freaking triple.

Michael Walker: Well, no. That's the thing now. It has a happy ending, but a year later probably about the first nine months, man, I worked so hard and I did several different launches for the business and it didn't really click. I was about to be a dad now and I was in more debt, and I was struggling. I remember going to one of the events and sitting at a table with all the people who were really successful and feeling like a fraud and feeling like who am I to sit at this table and having a conversation with someone in the table? Then I had an opportunity to have a coaching call with one of the coaches on the team, and things started to turn around. I started gaining some traction around nine months into it. About a year later, I think I had made maybe $15,000 or so. Every single day I had been doing that visualization practice, and a year later I didn't hit the $100,000 goal. At that moment it would have been really easy to be like, oh this stuff just doesn't work. I had this goal, I didn't hit this goal.

Pipo: 100%.

Michael Walker: But you know what? I didn't stop, I didn't give up and I kept working hard. That was really a turning point about a year in where things really started to grow. This last year we just had our first million dollar revenue as a business for this year. Looking back, it's easy to in hindsight to put things together and be like, yeah, I could see that. If it wasn't for that vision and that work and that energy and doing that, there's no way I would have taken that leap of faith and joined that coaching program, and put in all that work and effort and energy getting into it. I think what reminded me of that was when you were sharing that sometimes you have to be willing to allow things to fall into place at the proper time, not to force it as much as just being aligned with it. It's easy in retrospect to see that I was on the path. It was like planting a seed and the seed is starting to germinate.

Pipo: Yes bro.

Michael Walker: Sometimes it takes some time for the fruit to really start to develop, but you still got to keep nurturing. You got to still keep nurturing.

Pipo: Bro, that's what I was going to tell you. That's what I was going to tell you. I think that's a perfect example of this visual outlay that you can visualize in your head, is this picture flat soil. The concept that you have to make $100,000 that gets planted, and it grows underneath the soil. It's going, it's going, it's going. But when it doesn't go your way, Michael Walker's way, the way that it's supposed to 100% be, it's supposed to be $100,000. This level of control that you're trying to do. What happens when you don't reach the $100,000 let's say in that year? What did we talk about as far as Sally or Stacy or you start doing the whole maybe I can't, or maybe this... I'm not saying this is what happened to you, but I'm telling you what happens to most people. What's very easy to do is, oh, this must not be real. Then things start going back down into the seed, let's call it the plant underneath the soil goes underneath the seed, before it gets to the way it's supposed to be.

Pipo: But remember Sway was three years written in a row. First year was 2017. I want my song to get number one I want [inaudible 00:34:45] with Luis Fonsi, didn't happen. Second year, I want my son to go number one, I want to work with Luis Fonsi, didn't happen. Third year it happened. I realized another thing is it's not on your time. Because if it's in your favor, which it always is, the timing will be in your favor too. Because maybe God was like, "Dude, I'm going to give you some kids right now, you need to spend time there or you need to do this." He wasn't going to send you on a tour. He wasn't going to do this. Everything is orchestrated perfectly. You can't question the timing, because maybe it's, not maybe, it's always [inaudible 00:35:22] and manipulated in your favor for things to work out in the best way possible as you described.

Michael Walker: That's so good. It's like not stopping nurturing the tree, especially if the tree you see that it's blossoming and starting to grow. Who cares if there's other people who will come by and be like, "Your tree is small." It's like, well just wait. I think one thing I want to dig into a little bit is consciously choosing who you're surrounding yourself with. With people that are going to inspire you to grow and to reach the next level, and intentionally cutting ties with people that using this analogy, it's like when you are just starting out, especially when you're just starting out and the tree hasn't grown into a giant oak tree yet, it's in this delicate fragile place. You almost have to set some boundaries around that tree, and be careful with who you let into that space. Because it's so easy for someone to come in and just stomp on the tree when it still hasn't fully developed yet. What's your experience in terms of that? Have you ever had to cut ties and kind of-

Pipo: Always, absolutely. But the thing that people have twisted with it, is that they think that it's cool. This is something that I don't want to promote. People think it's cool to not have friends. There's this concept around it's egotistical like no, cut friends off, it's sweet. If you want to be successful, you got to cut them off. You see me at the top bro. No wrong, that is not the way this is supposed to be. But what happens naturally is if your desire outgrows your current mindset, your mindset elevates, your energy elevates, your frequency elevates.

Pipo: As you grow as a human, your environment will naturally change, not because you choose to cut it off, but what slowly will start happening is you will disengage in frequencies that you're no longer in. That's something that's my own personal diagnosis on myself. You will disengage with frequencies that don't align with your vision. Maybe going out to the bar doesn't align right now with my current frequency, because that's the way that I want to wake up tomorrow in the morning. I want to be on my A game for this blah, blah, blah. But it's different, you get what I mean? It's not so much about forceful cutoff more, more is it of a natural dissolving of wanting to be around that type. It's effortless for me.

Michael Walker: That's so good. You know what that reminds me of? I use this analogy sometimes, and this is my chance to bust out my keyboard for a little bit.

Pipo: Yes.

Michael Walker: It sounds like what you're saying is that you don't even necessarily have to force it. You don't necessarily have to intentionally cut ties with people, just naturally going to happen as you elevate yourself. It's like maybe some people are resonating at a certain frequency, like a C chord, and maybe other people are resonating with an F sharp chord. They both sound good on their own, there's nothing wrong with either, but you put them together it's like.

Pipo: That's some Buddhist shit right there. That is some Buddhist shit that you just said. That just gave me the chills bro. That is exactly it. That is so true. That's exactly what I'm saying, you just nailed it, makes me want to cry. That was the most nailed analogy I've ever heard exactly that, so good.

Michael Walker: I think that's my favorite time. I've used that a few times in conversations, but I think this is my favorite response to that ever.

Pipo: You just knocked it out of the park bro, I don't think you could have said anything more on the dot. That's exactly it.

Michael Walker: What's interesting too is that, I think that analogy works really well, also thinking about the way that you just described it was so on point with the fact that when you put those together naturally it's not going to stick, it's going to resolve. The same way that when you're playing those chords, if you hear that it just creates this dissonance, creates this sense of wanting it to move. Naturally, a lot of songs, they use this dissonance to create movement in the songs. Where it's like if all you did was just play this, then it creates this sense of pulling you towards resolution. But then if you go, it creates that release and shifts.

Pipo: Yes. That first chord is like let's get out of this chord, chord. It sounds like we should not be here right now we've got to go to somewhere else.

Michael Walker: Exactly. It seems like that in our relationships that you're right, that if we grow as a person and we're just at a different stage then some of those things start to clash, and different lifestyles, different behaviors they start to-

Pipo: Quite naturally.

Michael Walker: Yeah awesome. All right so man, some really good stuff here. This is an interesting conversation because we really got to get more spiritual and to dig into... I think you're right in saying that a lot of the stuff we talked about today is so fundamental, and doesn't necessarily always get the light of day because it's not as-

Pipo: People want to hear the all right, what cords did you use to make that banger? People want to hear the stuff that fundamentally is so detailed, it's so oriented around what will not get you the success at the end of the day. Because the main thing that over wrap this whole thing is this entire game is the game of self-fulfillment. That's it. That's the only reason why you're here, self-fulfillment. If you do not self-fulfill yourself, you will lose, you will be unhappy, and you will lose the game of life. If you are happy, you are doing what is self-fulfilling, things start happening in your favor. You feel excellent, you think excellent, your ideas become better, you feel better.

Pipo: The people around you, you start attracting naturally the people that you vibe with better, that are on the same page as you. Your life becomes better because you are vibrating higher. That is the purpose of this game. It's like you got blessed with this thing called life, it's your birthright to be happy. This is what you're supposed to do. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and go ruin it like 99% of the human population. But that's the way I think, you got to play it for yourself, and you've got to learn this for you. That's the best way to describe it.

Michael Walker: I 100% agree that it seems like the self-actualization and self-fulfilling nature it's a really powerful... I think on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, self-actualization is really the core thing that drives everything. You're bringing things back to that analogy again with the tree and the blossoming and the growing. It's almost like people, of course it's natural for them to want to focus on the fruit, on the apple that fell from the tree and be like, okay, the apple. Sometimes it's easy to ignore the roots of the tree and what actually kind of... Rather than looking at the symptoms of success, really looking at the roots, the roots of success. The people really appreciate you taking the time to come on here and to share, and to talk about the roots of success. Give me a quick rundown, for anyone who's listening to this right now, where could people, if they wanted to connect with you or they wanted to keep up-to-date with you or learn more about what you're doing right now.

Pipo: Absolutely. You can find me anywhere. Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, everything at Pipobeats, which is spelled P-I-P-O-B-E-A-T-S. If you guys want to go to my website, it's pipobeats.com. Everything that I'm doing is all up on my social channels and my website. That's what I've got going.

Michael Walker: Heck yeah. I would highly encourage everyone to, if you're listening right now and you haven't checked out the show Songland yet, it's an awesome show, really inspiring.

Pipo: Specifically the episode where you guys could see that paper that I wrote as well. I think you've got to freaking on nbc.com to check that one out. But I did it the other day for the first time since the episode came out, and it's pretty shocking man. Some people really neglect that part, and then when they see these interviews and they hear the story, they go back and rewatch it they're like, "There's the paper. He did write it."

Michael Walker: That's good stuff. What was that episode that you were featured on?

Pipo: Episode two, Luis Fonsi.

Michael Walker: Episode number two, awesome. All right, well Pipo congratulations on your success. Clearly-

Pipo: You too Michael.

Michael Walker: You've earned it, you've worked really hard. Appreciate you coming on here to share this to inspire other people to be able to grow too.

Pipo: Dude, thank you for inspiring people as well bro. Take the same exact reflection that you just said to me, thank you bro. You're doing the exact same thing as me just on a different page bro. I appreciate it, and dude thank you so much for me to come on here and freaking talk it's a blast.

Michael Walker: Hey it's Michael here. I hope that you got a ton of value out of this episode. Make sure to check out the show notes to learn more about the guest today, and if you want to support the podcast then there's few ways to help us grow. First, if you hit subscribe, then that'll make sure you don't miss a new episode. Secondly, if you share it with your friends on your social media tag us, that really helps us out. Third, best of all, you leave us an honest review it's going to help us reach more musicians like you who want to take their music career to the next level. It's time to be a modern musicians now, and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.