Brian Esposito
Diamond Lake Minerals
Brian J Esposito is a 25-year entrepreneur who has built and scaled companies across more than 25 industries, from nail polish to minerals to space technology. He grew Diamond Lake Minerals from a $1 million market cap to nearly half a billion in three years as a public company. His core insight: the right people multiply your capacity, and the wrong people drain your tank at ten RPMs. He refuses to use AI in ways that eliminate human jobs, instead building tools that enhance human capability and protect creator IP.
Brian has what he calls an “allergic response” to AI in its current form. The concern isn’t the technology itself—he’s been building tech since the late 1990s and operates on an “adapt or die” mentality. The problem is the absence of regulatory guardrails, the erosion of creator income, and the wholesale replacement of human capital with automation.
He sees a direct threat in music and entertainment, where AI-generated songs are now charting without real songwriters or creators involved. This isn’t innovation. It’s destruction of people’s livelihoods at scale.
His approach: use AI to enhance people’s jobs and give them additional tools and resources, never to eliminate their role or their vision. On that boundary, he doesn’t compromise.
We use it to enhance people’s jobs, to give them another tool or resource, not to eliminate their job or vision.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
As social media isolates people despite giving them thousands of followers, human connection becomes scarce. That’s why live entertainment is the one space where AI cannot and will not dominate. You can’t fake a live concert. You can’t replicate the energy of a sold-out show.
Brian is all-in on live venues, live music, and live creators. He partnered with Taylor Sheridan on music and entertainment strategy last week. He’s also backing Journey, a platform that fundamentally changes how creators and fans connect.
Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube—they all have massive amounts of data about who listens to your music, when they listen, and how many touches happen before a purchase. Creators see none of it.
Journey fixes this. It’s Adam McKinnus’s company, co-founder of Sons of Legion, a band that went from zero to over four million fans in a year and sold out a global tour. All while making real income from merch, tickets, and music. Journey gave them the tools to own their fan data and deepen direct relationships with listeners.
The platform creates what Journey calls “portals” where creators can pull fans out of the social media machines and into direct communication channels. No more broadcasting into the void with zero visibility into who’s responding. Fans want this. They’re already taking the action—following, commenting, subscribing. Journey just gives creators the ability to actually know who they are and talk to them directly.
They don’t have access to the person that subscribed to them and paid for their channel. There’s no way to deepen that relationship.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
Watch how someone treats a waiter, a bartender, a maid, or anyone they cannot benefit from. If they treat these people poorly, they’re an opportunist. Move on.
Also watch for bragging. Anyone constantly boasting about materialistic possessions has made money their north star. That person will do anything to maintain and grow that lifestyle, which means they will put you at risk. They’ll compromise your mission for their gain.
Brian speaks from 25 years of constant experience and trial. These patterns are habitual. The golden rule itself is his filter: treat people how you want to be treated. When someone fails that test, he avoids them like plague, regardless of how much money he could make with them.
If somebody treats somebody they can’t benefit from very poorly, then that person’s an opportunist.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
Drama, stress, constant negativity from people in your inner circle—it runs your energy at ten RPMs and destroys what you could accomplish. Brian has had near-death experiences and lost people when he was young. He knows time is precious.
If someone in your life is constantly bringing turmoil, even a family member or spouse, he believes you have to eliminate it. There’s a difference between someone having a bad day and someone who is habitually negative. The latter is toxic and must go.
When you remove negativity, the shift is dramatic. You get more positive. Energy flows where it needs to go. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you’re not putting out fires or dealing with problematic people. Run 25 companies at once? Pick the right people and eliminate the rest.
That drains your tank so fast. When you pull back on that, you feel better and accomplish extraordinarily more.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
Brian’s first company sold nail polish, hair care, and shampoo in the beauty industry. He now has his hands in minerals, music, space technology, NFTs, gaming, and more. To most people, this looks like chaos. To him, it’s a competitive advantage.
His model is simple: build balance sheets and grow businesses. Apply that anywhere. Industries and businesses are all interconnected if you know how to see the connections. When you’re comfortable with adaptation and you understand unit economics, you can move between sectors and create opportunities that specialists miss.
He’s involved with Space Born United on reproductive technology that could save humanity. He’s tokenizing space assets so passionate fans can own fractional pieces. The Moon Coalition is putting a cross on the moon. Skinwalker Ranch is investigating UAPs and advanced materials. None of these are accidents. They’re all expressions of the same operating principles applied to different domains.
When Brian took over Diamond Lake in August 2023, it had a $1 million market cap. In the last few months, it hit $500 million. He and his president Michael Reynolds built a new vision.
They’ve only raised about $1 million total across two years. That’s lean. That’s strategic. And that’s the secret to staying in control. Most founders get diluted out because they raise too much money too fast from too many people. Brian and Michael kept ownership tight.
The company now calls itself a “Berkshire Hathaway of tokenization”—a hybrid model that uses equity, debt, and tokenization to fund businesses across TV, film, music, IP, consumer products, hospitality, healthcare, and fintech. Every board member is an icon in their space. Every partner is mission-aligned. Every capital partner has to sign up for the long term.
When you lose control of your company, the mission dies. Even Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett understood this. You protect your founder shares, your voting structure, and your ability to say no to money that doesn’t fit.
When you lose control of your company, whether private or public, you lose the mission.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
Every founder who comes to Brian says the same thing: “I need money.” He has to rewire them immediately.
The VC-backed hamster wheel is simple: raise money, run out of money, raise money, run out of money. Repeat until you’re diluted so thin that you no longer control your own company. By then, you’ve lost the ability to pursue your mission.
The alternative: earn money. Build a business that actually makes revenue. Solve a real problem for real customers. Once you have cash flow, you can borrow against it. You can leverage it. You don’t need to dilute.
Brian’s first move with founders is house cleaning. Strip out advisors who took equity but do no work. Give them 30 days to perform or get the shares back. Remove partnerships that don’t add value. Then help the founder focus on a sound business model instead of chasing the next funding round.
Most founders are split in half during fundraising. You can’t raise money and run a business at the same time. Pick one. If you pick the right people and structure, you earn your way out.
A founder’s friend or old colleague took 5% of equity because the founder was excited to have them on the cap table. Now that advisor does nothing.
Brian makes the conversation simple: you said you’d help. Do it, or the shares come back. No anger. Just accountability. He’s good at getting shares back because he’s willing to have the uncomfortable conversation that founders won’t.
He doesn’t do this out of ego. He does it because the founder trusted that advisor and that advisor broke trust. The ethical and contractual obligation isn’t optional. Either perform or step aside.
Brian wasted years trying to hire and develop people who thought exactly like him. It doesn’t work. No one will ever think 100% like you or have your exact life experiences.
People will do things differently, say things differently, act differently. That’s not a flaw. That’s what makes the world interesting. Be grateful for what you get instead of frustrated that it’s not a clone of you.
Don’t ever try to replicate yourself. Nobody’s going to think like you 100% of the time.
Brian J Esposito, Diamond Lake Minerals
My whole mindset is adapt or die. But for whatever reason, when it comes to AI, I have this allergic response to it
really
because I'm very adamant against the amount of money that's been pouring into it. The zero regulatory guard rails around it. And now you go online, you don't know even know what's real or what's not that you're seeing. So when you have songs and creators that are on charts now that are not even real people or real songwriters that are involved in that that's very concerning for an entire industry.
How are you operating with AI in human capital?
We use it to enhance people's jobs to give them another tool or another resource not to eliminate their job or to eliminate their vision.
Talking about the right people. You have a mission. How are you finding the right people to join that mission?
It helps when you I'm Luis Scent and this is who we hire. Today's guest is Brian Espazito. Brian is the founder of Espazito Intellectual Enterprises and the CEO of Diamond Lake, which they took from million-doll market cap to nearly half a billion in three years. It's a public company. And in addition, Brian is spending most of his time advising and growing CEOs to be majority equity owners of their companies and controlling their mission aligned companies. Really excited to have you on the show, Brian. Thanks for being here.
Thanks, Luis. Pleasure, honored to be here.
So, tell me a little bit more about when you first decided, hey, I I want to do more than just be an operator. I want to work across these different industries and I want to do more. So take me back to when that started.
Yeah. Hey entrepreneur starting building acquiring companies for over 25 years now. So as a teenager I started off on my entrepreneurial journey never in the corporate world never um theory never had a boss right I was my own decision maker leader my own visions but also that also carries all the risk and uh sleepless nights and nervousness and anxieties that come along with it. Really enjoy building. I enjoy creating value. I love partnering with people and companies and creating win-win situations. But throughout my journey, um, some of the most rewarding parts of it have been watching people within my ecosystem start to really thrive and I really was that was a contagious feeling. Not saying they wouldn't have done it without me, but because I actually got to see it and it was part of the opportunities that I was creating or the risk that I was taking and see someone go from taking a train to one of our businesses to then being able to lease a car and then be able to get an apartment and they get engaged and they get a house. And it was real that type of stuff was really cool to watch and inspiring for me too, right? to see that somebody's actually working hard, dedicating themselves. They're also taking a risk by believing in me. I'm taking a risk in giving them the chance. So with the right people, it's pretty magical. And that's been something I've just constantly tried to rinse and repeat. And then when it comes to CEOs and founders of startups, I know exactly what they need because I needed it my entire career. And I couldn't get the support that I wish I could have gotten. So for me to be able to return the favor and help people navigate or open up opportunities for what I believe are really amazing and talented and passionate people, that's very rewarding for me as well. Also, one of the reasons why I'm so concerned about all these AI initiatives and all this money going into AI that is completely eliminating certain skills in certain industries that people have spent either a little bit of their life or their collegiate career or a lot of their life building. Hey, this is who I am. This is what I do. And when some technology comes in to completely wipe that out across multiple different industries, that's very concerning for me and that's something I'm very cautious about how and where we operate with things like AI when it comes to human capital.
Well, how are you operating with AI and human capital? I mean, usually when when we interview a guest, uh, I can be a little more focused, but when I look at your background, you know, you're from the Harlem Standard where you're, you know, talking about jazz and then there's NFT and at Zappy and the ecosystem for gaming. You're doing so much. So, I I uh you're like Elon Musk here with the all all the different businesses that
that you're running. So, doesn't AI help with that?
Now, I get this conversation comes up all every day the last two years across all these different industries I'm involved with. And again, it's over 25, but my mind works better with more. The more dots I have, the more touch points I have, the more opportunities I can create. Some people can only just do one thing and do it well, and God bless them. Sometimes I wish that was me. But if you do that one thing and the market doesn't need it or want it anymore, then you find yourself in a in a really, you know, terrible and desperate situation. But the conversations we have, yes, you I'm an I'm a technologist, too. I've been building technology since the late 90s. I my whole mindset is adapt or die. For whatever reason, when it comes to AI, I have this allergic response to it. So
really,
that may be something that I need a psychiatrist for because I'm very adamant against the amount of money that's been pouring into it. The zero regulatory guard rails around it. And now you go online, you don't know even know what's real or what's not that you're seeing. And you're seeing people create, you know, whether it's business plans, images, videos, music, which is really concerning for me with the music and
uh IP industry like this. This is multi multi-billion dollar industry. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are just saying in music are that's their livelihood. So when you have songs and uh creators that are on charts now that are not even real people or real songwriters that are involved in that, that's very concerning for an entire industry. So I
these are things that I'm constantly thinking about. So I can't it's hard for someone like me that has all all these different industries to be so adamant against cautiousness around AI over here but let's use it over here because my brain doesn't work like that. I don't want to ever be a hypocrite out in the market for my own branding and who I am and also my own belief system. So we need it very limited exposure to it and from from the stuff that I have control over and we use it to enhance people's jobs to give them another tool or another resource not to eliminate their job or to eliminate their division. That's present day. That's where I have to be and hopefully I can continue to to stay on that same wavelength. It's a it's a common theme that we've seen on this show where I interviewed Ran Fishkin. He had started MA 20 years ago and he wrote a book Lost in Founder and now he he runs three different companies. Um he's got a little to catch up to to get to year 25. He runs Snackbar Studio, Alert Mouse, and uh Spark forro. So, Snackbwire Studio, he was telling me that the game industry, they penalize you if you are using AI to create games. Like it it you have to label it. It drops game sales and obviously music as well, right? People want to hear people. I'm in real digital neighbor right now. There's incredible sounds coming out of Rio, but AI is not going to go start beating the drums. I mean I maybe in China they got the robots go going out there but
at least in real that is not going to be acceptable there the robots are not going to dominate carnival in February.
No same thing with sports right so there's certain industries at least live performances are always going to be that exact thing that you mentioned on human connection which is why we believe the live venue and live performances industry is going to start exploding. Yeah. Uh cuz with this whole further isolation that we all have because of social media, even though we may have thousands or millions of followers that are connected to us, we're so isolated as human beings. We have social skills that are kind of eliminated. You could see that with younger generations because
not out playing with other kids to raise or not out building relationships. So I'm of of the belief that human connection people are going to start really craving. And so we are all in on lease things like music and entertainment, which is why we made our that Taylor Sheridan partnership last week. We're all in on live venues. How can we further support creators? What tools and resources and strategy can we give these creators? And how do we protect the IP? How do you properly monetize the IP? And what does the future of music cataloges and you know again content and IP look like with all these new technologies that are being dumped on us that you know everybody's saying if you don't use it now you're going to be left in in the dark and poor right or not have any access to capital like these are the things in the fears that are going out there and it's it's just not the right messaging you know I mean we've come a long way with technology we've come a long way with major advancements sometimes I think the technology has gone way too fast for human brains and our own skill sets to be able to properly utilize. So that's where regulatory components I think are so important.
100%. I love that you're you're talking about that. Got this book next to me. Uh don't know if you have heard of it. It's called Incorruptible. So Eric Rise, the the author of Lean Startup, one of the best books I've read in my life. I'm 10 pages away from finishing.
And it's so relevant today. It's he's talking about how Enthropic is setting themsel themselves up as a public benefit corporation and the goal is to create human flourishing from AI and not and not put AI in the power of a few and you have this novel concept called a spiritual holding company where the mission is embedded in the company charter and they're not focused on these short-term three to six months profits to impact the stocks. They're focused on decades, 50, 100 years. So, it's it's about making an incorruptible company that can outlast us last hundreds and hundreds of years. And to me, the the way that they're talking about AI and governance, it sounds a lot like you or where they're just be more cautious with
like if there's no governance for it, then it then it's it's going to be chaos. And uh you know I I used to be more on the the side of hey just you know full full capitalism just let let the businesses and the markets decide but the the way this technology is going to change us and and change the world it is important to enable that. So as you're moving slow is that one of the reasons why you haven't seen the governance that you want right now or is it specifically more in just like it doesn't like you don't want to use it in music? I think a lot of the governance on a lot of on a lot of needed industries is paused because there's other agendas that are happening or you whether I don't care about the administration who they are what they are. I don't I don't get into those conversations but there's always an agenda and then that's the agenda that needs to be attended to and then there's then there's the counterparties that are fighting that agenda. So when all those resources and time are being used on that, sometimes certain things just slip through the cracks like maybe some sort of governance and regulatory component around AI at least in in an industry where you can then say this is this is a good foundation that could be industry agnostic. We need that. We completely need that. I mean, I think go back to the early 2000s, you had the can spam act because everybody was getting spammed all the time. We still are. But at least more so now with AI,
even more so now. But at least at least there I remember a time in my career and history that there was a problem and it was attended to in certain components and governances that were, you know, maybe certain countries limited to certain countries or regions, but at least there were those initiatives that went out there and and got it done. Now it's so much chaos and noise within the political system that it's very hard to keep on top of everything that's happening. So I can understand and I can sympathize with that. But I will tell you there's there is a major problem now when it comes to IP and content creation and ownership of that creation placing that cop copyrighted uh creations that AI is replicating and monetizing. That needs to be fixed immediately because it's it's carrying over into the music industry. is carrying over into TV and film. I mean, scripts are being written now with this type of technology. So, there's a lot of people's lives and livelihood that are going to be greatly affected that I'm sorry, have a domino effect to that is is an e an economic crisis whether locally in those states or cities where this is prevalent. But I I believe it's more of a national and a global problem. Like we don't start taking action items to say no, we got to we got to protect creators. Simple as that. We got to protect IP and creators and the live shows and the live entertainment side. That's always going to be a benefit for them because you can't, like you mentioned, you can't copy that. But they're not going to be popular or they're not going to have distribution of their new songs if this machine of AI creation is just pumping out new content faster than humans can do it.
And even before AI, I have some friends that they have music on Spotify and they they don't make any money from it. They need millions and millions of views and even there they Spotify is really collecting it all. I mean it's great for the consumer, right? I get to go in my pocket. I don't have to buy a song. I I pay a monthly membership. But how do we go and protect intellectual property of creators and and what like is there a better way? We have a a company I'm honored to be part of called Journey. JNY Journey Studio is the company. So that's announced in our Taylor Sheridan announcement and one of the fastest growing independent bands in the world right by now is called Sons of Legion. So Adam Jack really good friends, honored to be working with them since since they came out and started. So they went from zero fans to over four million fans in a year. Sold out global tour.
Wow.
Done all these things that no other independent band have ever been able to do. Making tremendous income and profitability off of merch and ticket sales and their music. And this journey technology is a big component of that. And the big reason why this is needed in the industry is the Spotify of the world, even Instagram, Tik Tok, every everything that these independent artists use, including mainstream pop stars and famous artists. The data is never shared back with the IP owner or the creator. They don't know who's listening to your music, when you're listening,
how many touch points before some sort of a transaction or merchandise sale or ticket sale or album sale. So, Journey corrects all that and we proved that out with Sons of Legion. So, very excited for this tool to go out into the world and really start helping artists. And to your point, how do you fight needing bajillion streams to make a dollar, right? That's not feasible for a creator to build a lifestyle or just a career around. But we can use all these things that have massive audiences and reach and pull people into a system or we call them portals at Journey where you can start to create and have full control and access to your fan base and have direct communication with them. So these are things that I'm glad that you know our team spent amazing amount of time developing and building and I believe a lot of other technology companies see the need for this and we got to start pulling back and fighting back all these gatekeepers like the Spotify, the Instagram, the Tik Toks of the world, YouTube, like all these streams and all these views and all these people watching. You can subscribe but you you still don't have access to that person that's subscribed to you and paid for your channel. You have access outbound by broadcasting, but there's no way to even further deepen that relationship. And the people want it. They're doing they're taking the action items to follow you, to comment, and to and to subscribe. But that's it. They leave you there. You got no other access to them. So, we're we're working on fixing all that and creating a brand new system where fans and creators can have a deeper relationship together.
I love it. So, this is Journey. This is uh I didn't I didn't see this one on on your your LinkedIn. uh we just just coming out parties now again it was Sons of Legion uh Journey powered Sons of Legion and that great growth and momentum and now we're also being very careful as to who we invite in. We're very mission focused and you kind of talked about this with anthropic and being a spiritual holding company. We don't want people using this type of tool that have the wrong messaging or pushing out things like violence or any the other types of IP or content. really want this to be a really something that raises the frequency of humanity. So, Sons of Legion does that with their music and their messaging and their entire vibe. So, we want to replicate that with other like-minded artists and creators.
I love it. So, is this like the journey stem from your experience in NFTTS and democratizing digital assets and smart contracts? Is that where this like or how the journey start? I would love for you very deep audience
from idea to company like
who's running this now? Who are you empowering and and and
what are you specifically doing to to to level them up so they can get this out in the market and and help a ton of people? Journey's vision and entire ethos is Adam McKinnus, co-founder of Sons of Asian built this because wanted to go and build this because he knew the problem and had the right the timing was right to fix the problem. The resources and people around him like our CTO Zuks is is absolutely amazing and he had his own amazing band him and Daddy Jack to be able to prove it out. So when you have all these pieces and stars align, you can go out and move mountains. Honored to be dear friends with Adam and I was like, I'm all in. I want to help you support this. Whatever you need, resources, relationships, what I do, I'm going to come in and help. So Adam is this is Adam's baby. I'm here to help support. And I want him to be the largest equity holder of one of the most incredible lifechanging groundbreaking platforms and technologies known as Journey in the world. And I'm here to help him achieve that. That's my that's my goal and dream with him. And from there, we just again invite the right people to come on and use this tool that further grow out their careers and continue to make a positive impact on the world. So talking about the right people, what you have a mission, how are you finding the right people to join that mission?
It helps when you find the wrong people. I think one of my most favorite things to say, it's better to know who not to know then it's to know. Uh cuz the wrong person in your inner circle can just disrupt everything, ruin your reputation, you know, take take the wind out of your sales. So, in order to find the right people that fit what you're trying to accomplish, you got to go through a lot of wrong people and know what to look out for. There's certain characteristics that I can identify from prior experiences in people that I can spot.
Oh, I don't want to just how you treat people. It's simple as that. The golden rule, the golden rule is the easiest thing to follow. Watch how somebody treats somebody else. If somebody treats somebody that they can't benefit from very poorly, then that person's an opportunist. And this is very easy to spot in the service industry or waiters or bartenders or people in hotels or maids or anybody. Anybody that they feel that they can't use to benefit them, that's somebody I avoid like to play. Anybody that's bragging or boasting about all their materialistic stuff, I I go death. I'm out because I know your god and your north star is money. And that's that's your issue. that's not mine. But I also know because of that, you'll do anything to maintain and grow that lifestyle. So therefore, you'll potentially put me at risk. So these are where I'm at. And this is only I only speak not from ever from opinion. I speak from constant experience, trials, and tribulations on what I constantly see that's habitual. And there's a lot of things that are habitual with people, especially if they're motivated by nice things and money. And again, that's their MO. So those people, I don't care if I can make a billion bucks with you. I am out because you're going to cause me grief. You're I I'm sure a lot of people around you don't even like you, but they pretend to like you because they want your money or your things. I don't play that game. I'm I'm the long run. Build great relationships, good people doing good work together. And money is a byproduct of that. I never go into anything with money being like my hand is never out taking in any conversation or relationship. My hand is out giving. Here's what I have. What do you have? How can we make more opportunities and value together? Simple as that. Again, golden rule. I only treat people how I want to be treated. So, those are some of the certain characteristics. That's not for everybody. There are people that love nice things, that brag about nice things, that are amazing, incredible people, and they donate a lot and they help people. So, there's there's a, you know, there's people that don't apply to that rule. I've only met a handful of those, so I don't want to generalize it for everybody, but for me, those things I look out for and I avoid I also avoid a lot of lot of different situations with people that like drama. There's just a lot of people that like drama, which I don't understand. So, if if you have this in your life, you have to eliminate it immediately. Now, there could be a bad day somebody has and you come together and you try to be there for them and you work it out. But if someone's in your life that's constantly bringing you stress or turmoil or negativity, and it could be a family member, it could be a spouse, it could be somebody very close to you, it could be a co-orker. I'm of the belief, and I think because I've had a few near-death experiences in my life, and I've lost a lot of people when I was young. Like, I know time is very, very precious. So, I don't want to be around that type of energy or that type of vibration if I don't have to be. So, I I avoid things like that, too. So, honestly, negativity I'm so allergic to as well. Like, if that's in my world, it's gone. And and as hard as it may be to put pe people in a corner or to borrow them from your life, I guarantee anybody listening, you won't believe how much you will accomplish when you're not putting out fires or dealing with negativity or dealing with problematic people because that that's that drains your tank so fast. That's running at 10 RPMs as many hours a day as you can. But when you pull back on that, you feel better. You feel more positive. And you can my god the the where the energy and the flow goes and what you accomplish is absolutely extraordinary.
You'll be able to run 25 plus companies uh if if you avoid
with right people. Yeah. There's no I mean today there's blast there wasn't one problem so far today and that's great. Now they come up here and there but right people around you missiondriven people just taking care of your responsibilities and help being held accountable. It's absolutely incredible. And I you're really reminded me of Naval there where you want to do long-term things with long-term people and where where you're focused on adding value and then the money is going to come. And I think that's really solid advice um for for the listeners here. So I I want to go back into these different industries that that you're in. So space uh minerals, music, what none really AI dependent, which is exciting. Uh, and I see how you set yourself up there. Uh, but what like talk to me about space, please.
We're we're involved that in a couple unique ways. Uh, Space Born United, uh, incredible company where technology and IP around the future of reproduction in space, which could be extremely important, god forbid, in the event of a major catastrophe here on Earth that would maybe harm or hurt all or most of humanity. seen a bunch of movies that this could happen. Uh so Spaceorn United, a lot of great initiatives in IP and I and I also believe the the IP and initiatives on being able to reproduce in space can carry over and help a lot of potential issues and problems here with couples trying to reproduce here on Earth. So I do believe the IP is not just going to benefit that mission and and the need of that mission, but I also believe that the creation of again IP is the only word you can use for that for helping people here on Earth. Uh we also have u another company I've been part of for a while on um the economy of space and being able to tokenize space assets which are very specialized and unique. So when you have that audience that truly loves that world, it's a very passionate audience of people to say, "We've identified this asset in space. We've controlled the IP of that asset." And then you start to do fractional ownership around that asset that really further brings that community together, but also creates a way for them to have an asset on their balance sheet and be able to earn from that asset. So these are some of the initiatives that that I'm involved with. There's the the moon coalition which is a pretty interesting one that they want to put across uh for any Catholics or Christians they want to put across on the moon which is a pretty pretty amazing initiative by the founder there. So, you know, something like that that can move billions of people and create, you know, maybe some another if you if you could see that from whatever technology and you can feel that maybe it'll help people do better and avoid some of the seven deadly sins when you have that type of visual connection to if there is a God, if there's a greater being and you're, you know, we're being watched for lack of a better word, maybe it'll help people do better. you know, these are some of the things that I think about, which is why I was interested in joining uh that team and helping them accomplish. That's a very very expensive ask. It's something that it could it could go it could have a lot of friction points with other religions. Like I I I respect and appreciate whatever you believe in. And as I get older, I become more spiritual anyway with how the universe works and all these things like vibration and energy. But those are those are some of the initiatives. I think I'm honored honored to have the owner of Skinwalker Ranch, Brandon Fugle, on our team and investor in my public company, Diamond Lake, and you know, the stuff and work that they're doing there on, you know, answering why are we here? Were there aliens or any type of species that were here before us and all the work and research and incredible technology that he's put on that ranch and monitoring it 247? Like there's there's these connections that I'm part of that maybe I can help answer a few of these questions. We have a we have a UAP company for advanced materials on these spheres or things that I've seen video footage and even on Skimwalker Ranch. They capture these floating around that ranch. You know, what are these? What are they made of? How can we learn from them? What's technology can we replicate to further help and advance humanity? So, it's probably all I kind of touch on with with what I'm involved with. But be cool. I used to sell nail polish. My first company was a beauty in the beauty industry is selling nail polish, hair care, and shampoo. So long story long is you just never know where life's going to take you. Worlds and businesses are all interconnected. You know, my my model is building balance sheets and growing businesses. So when that's your base, it could be applied anywhere, you know, and if industries and businesses that you feel passionate about, there's no reason why you can't have your hand in those and and be involved in those.
I love it. I can't believe there's a cross that's going to the moon. I mean, I'm I'm here with a view of Christo Heador. So, the Jesus Christ is in Rio. I I can see it right now. Um I I was supposed to sit up by the window to get some good lighting. So, you you don't get the view, but that is next level. Uh that is a whole that that's how we can get tourism to the moon. People are going to go want to see this cross. This is amazing.
I'm doing whatever I can within reason to make that a closer reality. But you might as well go out and try to make an impact with this life that we're given. We none of us know the the expiration day. So do your best to leave a mark, a positive mark.
I love the the think bigger advice, right? It and and that is about that is huge. That is thinking huge. Um you partner with SpaceX to do this. How do you how do you get this? I'm excited to to follow this journey and see more.
It's it's a payload, right? And also how does it get this a lot of moving parts? How does it get a how do you raise the money and the approvals to get that material and what it's made of to be able to be on that payload and then and then sent then you have the risk god forbid of any issues or an explosion or it crashes down the the rocket or it doesn't reach its destination. But if all that works and everything is perfect and it gets there, okay, now what? How does it get deployed? How does it raise automatically? How does it how does it actually accomplish the final mission? And then how does it light up? Right? So all these things have to work and that means a lot of time, a lot of planning, the right partners. Um there's SpaceX, there's Firefly, there's NASA obviously and all the other uh private companies that are sending payloads into space or working somehow in space. So finding the right partner, mission aligned, and then all the other things that have to happen for it to actually be successful. So the last thing you want to do is get it there and then not be able to raise or or be seen. So you know and when you're dealing with fate, you also have the marketing aspect of it. Well, I guess it was fate that it didn't get there and not supposed to happen. You know, you don't want any of these negative pieces, especially when it comes to something as important to as a cross to a lot of people around the world.
Yeah. Billions billions of people fundamental impact on humanity that will have that. That is incredible. So you talked a little bit about your public company. This is Diamond Lake Minerals.
Yep. Yeah. We're rebranding Diamond Lake. Again, much like my personal career, it's an industry agnostic multi strategy operating company. Uh credible team and board and investors that we have since I took over in August of 23. And the focuses that we have are TV, film, and music and IP, consumer products, hotels and hospitality, healthc care, building out a lot of IP and technologies and fintech. Uh so if you look at our board, they're icons in those spaces. They're dear friends and colleagues of mine for a long time. They're here helping me accomplish this mission. And we've grown the company tremendously. Had a million dollar market cap when I took it over. Uh we hit a high of half a billion dollar market cap within the last month or two. So the momentum and the growth and the strategy around us is working and and the tokenization aspect. I believe we have the right hybrid model of
three years. I'm three years it went from a million to how much
to I think we t I think we won over a half a billion a couple months ago but this is market of its perception in the market based upon our stock our outstanding shares and and that's our and our messaging into the market and who we are and how hard we've worked to really build what I believe is I think we have an incredible company with an incredible mission. We've been called the Birkshshire halfway of tokenization which is very humbling thing to be called but I actually believe we could accomplish that type of impact and and who we are because we are very aligned. My my uh dear friend and president Michael Reynolds he had he took it over in a in 2016. We aligned in 23 and we built this new vision of what Diamond Lake looked like going forward. And again it's the right people. We're not there's no egos between us. We're not materialistic. We're not greedy. We just want to build something very special and that's exactly what we set out to do and we continue to do that. So, we're very very selective who we bring into our team, any capital partners we work with, everything has to be aligned with our mission and desires and always what will maximize shareholder value. That's what's where we live and breed. How do we bring diet to our shareholders? So that's Diamond Lake and again we just made a great announcement with Taylor Sheridan last week on the future of music and entertainment and we have I believe the right strategy on tokenization or crypto or digital assets whatever everybody buzzword that they know on how do you properly apply it to businesses across multiple different industries and also how do you properly legally and within regulatory component apply it to a public company. So, how do you stay mission aligned and go public? Has that become harder now that you do have these quarterly earnings and reports that people are looking at and u oftentimes employees and board members, they're, you know, they're looking at the stock price and and their happiness is equated to that. How did you find the right people to really stay long-term on that that mission and vision while still be being an asset that trades on a a stock exchange? We um very very strategic on any capital partners. Everybody has to be in this with us long term, including myself. This is there's only one class of shares. So, we're all in this together. I don't want to brag, but we only raised a million bucks. I shouldn't say only, but in the scheme of things, that's not a lot of money.
Half a billion dollar company. That is insane. That is
Yeah. So year one we we raised probably under a million and we're very lean and mean and very strategic on how that capital is used and what we do and then because of our successes uh year two people wanted to continue to support our mission and be part of it. So I think and then we disclose all this. I think we raised another I don't know 800,000 again very selective very strategic and the control of the company is myself and Michael. So that's how it helps uh on staying mission focused when you don't have to when you lose control of your company whether private or public. I mean, even Duckerberg, even though he sold a lot of his shares and created liquidity event, his class B shares, he still controls the entire company, the preferred shares. So, even though public companies of that magnitude, there's still controllers. And I and I think Burksar Hathaway must be the same type of uh situation of Google must be in the same type of situation. But I just typically Facebook did that because that was part of their IPO. So there's ways to do it in a public company where you have control, but that doesn't mean that it's still mission focused. The control still could be greed depending on that leadership. But for us present day with who we are, Michael and I, and what we're doing, the mission is to create a model of a public company, industry agnostic, which we've we've checked the box on that, include tokenization correctly and properly, and create a model that we believe all their public companies are going to replicate. That's what we set out to do. So now we're into that next phase of growth and showing the world who we are and doing great partnerships and opportunities with companies around the world that want to work with us that need our support and guidance. And then again using us a map on what's the future look like?
What does that future look like? You said tokenization correctly and properly. What does that mean for for somebody listening to this that has no clue what tokenization is?
Yeah. Well, there's different there's so many different voices out there talking about tokenization. My my model and thought process on it was always the same. How do you bring people around the world into a company that never had a chance to buy in or be part of that company? So, you have this idea of a token or or a large crowdfunding. Now, I also have the strategy that I don't want the token to be attached to the asset. I want the token to be attached to a revenue share of the company which would make leadership of that company ensure that that company is profitable and earning. So they're going to have an even further fiduciary duty because they have distributions to make their token holders. So when you have that as your foundation where you can go out to millions of people around the world and raise millions of bucks and fuel an idea, a company or a division of your company rather than going to dozens of people to raise millions of bucks. That's the net now. and an illegal financial mechanism that's again governed by regulatory that's attached to a profit or revenue share. So that's the token component and you're talking to people that understand tokens. But when it comes to our model which is a hybrid, we also have the equity component that people that understand buying and holding public equities or stocks or equity into a company. And then we also have the debt component for investors that like participating in convertible notes or debt instrument where they're getting their interest and the principles paid back or converts over. So our approach is uh growing companies and growing from cash flows and assets on your balance sheet issue selling equity to investors around the country or world that want to participate in it and also issuing debt to individuals or investors that like that model and oh by the way tokenization. So that's
a great alternative to the traditional VC model.
Yeah, that's the model and so you're talking to everybody that can understand whatever aspect of the company or opportunities that you have in the market. So great, that's the formula. And then and then I think each company within the umbrella or asset, you just tweak the formula. It's x amount of equity. It's a little it's x amount of debt, x amount of tokenization. And you have this hybrid model. Most tokenization companies out in the market or the world or crypto companies are just that. They don't own the asset. They're a financial trading mechanism. They're collecting fees. and some big ones like Circle and Bullish. There's ones that have gone public that are doing amazing. But that's their world. If you're not doing billions of transactions or trillions of transactions, then you're not making money. It's the Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Like, there's only a couple of those credit card logos that we know out in the world. And I think the same thing's going to apply to crypto financial transactions. Then you have Moonay, which I think is doing amazing job. So for us, use and work with these companies and invite them into great assets, great management that have a tokenization model where their audiences can participate in really sound businesses with great management and seasoned management that are growing these companies or these assets.
Love it. So go going back to, you know, you're you're you're giving back. You're going in and helping founders and you want them to flourish and be the biggest equity holders in in in their companies. Um, I think that's a an amazing uh mission and initiative. How like what are some common themes that they're coming to you about about hiring, about growing their teams? What what are you seeing? What are you seeing there?
Well, everybody's first thing is they need money. So, I have to I have to rewire that ass because if you're not creating a business that um that you raise money for that isn't making money, then I think you're already shot yourself in the foot because you're creating this hamster wheel that most people are just brainwashed into for the last 20 years. raise money, run out of money, raise money, run out of money, raise money.
Rather than raise
Well, that's what we're brainwashed to think. But when you do those steps, the the dreamer, the visionary that took the risk, maxed out their credit cards, took a second mortgage on their home to do this, at some point in that process on that hamster wheel gets diluted out of their own company because they didn't properly avalue the company. They didn't take the right money. They didn't have the right execution. And I and I also say you can't be half pregnant. If you're out raising money, it's very difficult to be home running your business because you it's not many people can do both at the same time. So some there's a sacrifice there. It's either you're running your business and you're running out of money because you're not raising money or you're raising money and your business suffers because you're not running your business. So I try to tell people, okay, here's what we need to do. We need to fix whatever you've got done so far. Do you have any advisors on your team that you gifted shares to that aren't doing anything? They got 30 days to perform. If they don't perform, we're pulling back their shares. Do you have any other equity that you distributed out for partnerships that they're not doing their part? We need to fix that and correct that and remove that and get those shares back or have them perform. So these are the things where it's easy for me to come in and do that because for the founder or founders they may be their friends or maybe relationship that they don't feel comfortable rocking the boat there. So that's fun and easy for me.
Rock the boat step one.
Well I come in and make people accountable. If an adviser took I let's just say a crazy number they took 5% of of the equity because that founder was so excited they get that name attached to well the that that adviser has a responsibility ethical and and hopefully a contractual obligation to perform. So
do you just do what you said you're going to do. I'm not I don't want to be an about it. Go out go to your network and get and help this entrepreneur that trusted you to help him. Go out and help him or her. So that's I don't it's not necessarily always a negative conversation. It's more of a go to work or or I'm getting the shares back and I'm very good at getting the shares back because you didn't perform.
What are what are you finding though? Are you finding that most of the time they they do start performing or is it the timing is just not aligning anymore and they're not they're not able to give it their all that they promised? I I don't want to say this is it's a hell of a question and I don't want to sound arrogant or egotistical, but there's a little bit of a public perception about me, right? The stuff that we do, the people that I'm involved with. So, I'm going to answer your question in two ways. When I ask, there's usually limited push back, but I don't want to say that's across the board because if somebody else asks that doesn't have that perceived influence, and I'm saying perceived, I'm not saying that it's true or not, then it may be more difficult. Like I think people need to be afraid of looking bad if they're not doing what they're doing. I think I think that I think that motivates a lot of people just not to look bad. Um, and the world is very small. So there's there's always I'm always one degree or two degrees away from really anybody. So I think people say, "Oh I better go I better go on D." Rather than saying, "I should have been doing it the whole time. I should have been honoring my duties as an adviser or a team member taking these shares."
So um, I hope that answers your question. I I find it easier than me, but I I don't know. I don't know if that's always the case if somebody else is ass.
Yeah. Um, so that's that's the first part. The next part is, okay, I need them to start thinking about how do we earn money because we're not doing this nonsense unsustainable valuation. Just keep I hate this part. If I only get 1% of the total audience that pays me $10. I don't want to hear any of that. What is your product? What problem are we trying to solve? And let's go out and earn. And I can help with if it's manufacturing with my history there. I can help making sure they have the right manufacturing partners, the right distribution partners. Sometimes it's just a little bit of house cleaning to get them refocused on a sound business model and then off the idea of needing to raise money but more on the idea of earning money. And when you earn money, at least in today's climate, it's it's very easy to leverage that and borrow off of it or leverage it. But if you're raising money and you're diluting your equity and you don't have a sound business model, then you're you're destined to lose control of your own company at some point and and maybe disappear, which is very unfortunate to see.
It's crazy how many great companies get sold and then, you know, get sunset and their mission is is done because that founder lost control. So, uh, yeah, it it's amazing that you're that that's the number one thing that you're helping founders do is really keep control of their mission and company
and and the reverse shark tank. There's so many companies I could have just robbed because I knew they were they were destitute. I knew they had nothing else left. And I'm a believer that the stuff that we're doing in this lifetime is not it. And I better do the best of my ability to be a good person here on Earth or whatever is afterwards. Now, if there's nothing afterwards, I'm pretty pissed because there's been so many opportunities. I could have just don't raise a soul. I could just be like every other uh a-hole out there. But I I try to do the best I can. And my mom always said, "It's hard to raise a G-rated kid in an X-ray of the world." And that that statement always stuck with me. Uh so I try to best my ability to just do good because I' I've had people steal from me, take my social security number, and run off with it. Like I just had the craziest things happen to me. But I never blame those people. I blame myself for putting myself in that situation. That leads back to making sure you surround yourself with good people all the time. So, uh, when it comes to these founders, I know exactly what they need because I needed it or still do. I'm there to champion them. I'm there to replicate them as much as possible, which is the hardest thing in the world for founders. Don't ever try or any CEO or leader, don't ever try to replicate yourself because it's never going to happen. You know, just be grateful for whatever you get. Um because nobody's going to think like you think 100% of the time. Nobody's raised in your household or going through your life experiences exactly how you went through them. So people are going to do things different. They're they're going to say things different. They're going to act different. That's okay. That's what makes this an exciting world. But if you're if you're hard up on trying to replicate yourself, waste of time, which I I've wasted too many years trying to do it. So that's where I come in. and I come in with a fair slug of equity for me to be part of the journey with them. And you know, I I say use me and I and I say use me in a positive uh uh positive description. Use me to help you. Use me to help you grow. But I will not give somebody that uh cart blanch if they don't align with my mission, my integrity, my morals, my values, my own belief systems. So, if we don't align there, then I don't want you in my life.
I love it, Brian. Wow. Um, as we wrap up here, it's where can folks find you? Um, what kind of companies are you interested in investing in? If somebody came to you and said, "Hey, Brian, I have this brilliant idea. I want to uh, you know, take a I don't I don't even know. I guess the the nothing really can top the cross to the moon for me right now, but make maybe to Mars. Where can folks come and find you, Brian?" Yeah, and thank you, Isa. What a great conversation. Honor, honored to have this chat with you. So, Brian JS Espazito, every social that's out there except Facebook. I got off Facebook in 2015. Very proud to still have that have that uh I don't know that trophy. Um, so I love when people reach out to me. I don't have an assistant. I don't have any AI. It's me behind a keyboard on my thumbs responding back to everybody. Love questions. Love anything that may have inspired you on this discussion. I operate again. in over 25 different industries. So, there's nothing I really haven't heard or seen. I love when people tell me where all the bodies are buried because I'm very good at fixing those types of situations or creating strategies around those situations. And my model is not just putting money passively into something. I join as a member of the management team. I'm in the trenches with you and we build and we build for something great. And I there's no there's no better feeling than seeing an entrepreneur that felt like they were six feet under have a fresh breath of life. See them lighten up. See energy pouring into them. It's it's an amazing feeling. That's my drug. I could like I seeing that is like the best motivation in the world. So long story again long. Don't feel ashamed if that's a situation that you're in. Put your guns on the table. Reach out to people. Ask for help. You'll be very surprised who will uh who will step in and and and do do great things for you.
That's fantastic. Brian, thanks so much for coming on who we hire.
Thank you. We have a great build.
Oh, yeah. Let's build.
