Show Notes:

How Flo got into music. “The first love I had was basketball, but that showed me that with having a dream, you have to put in the ultimate effort. So then it became music. Growing up, my household was full of music. My sister sang in a gospel group. My dad played almost any instrument and he sang. That fell right over into my lap into doing music. Growing up in my neighborhood, I had guys who loved hip-hop. I grew up in the home of 2 Live Crew, JT Money, Trick Daddy, Trina — those artists who I looked up to. I just played with the music at first, and then when I got the response that I got, just traveling and doing shows around the neighborhood, I noticed it was something serious, and I noticed it was something that I wanted to quantum leap in eventually after applying myself.”

Go all-in. “I think anything you apply yourself to, you should be passionate about. You should make sure if you’re in, you’re all the way in that there’s no plan B. I like to surround myself with people that are dedicated, who will definitely to go overboard for what they love. And this was my passion.”

The lowdown on the Celsius lawsuit. “This was about teamwork. We started off, and this was a thing that we were going to do from day one as a team. I knew my value. I knew all of the effort that I put in, I knew the sacrifices that I made, and I knew that this was something second nature to me. That’s why I chose to work with Celsius. This was my baby. I nourished this thing. So it definitely was a thing where I got emotional about it because of the fact that I thought we were family. But even more so, I think it’s not about how things happen; it’s how you react. So my reaction was still out of love — and it’s still love, regardless.”

How Flo chooses entrepreneurial ventures. “I make sure that anything that I’m involved with is second nature to who I am and what I stand for, because I never want to be a part of something that I don’t see the vision and I don’t see it being successful. So it makes my job easy. It makes the person that I’m working with’s job easy. That way, even in music, I knew the sacrifices that I made early on, so I just applied that as well as me being a fit guy. Anytime that I went to the gym, the more pain I went through, the more I gave. Definitely giving myself to anything that I was passionate about…I already know that I’m going to be successful. I’m a risk taker. But for the most part, I like to dip and dive into things that I have the wisdom and knowledge about.”

How to know you’re on the right path. “You know when you tell yourself you’re going to do this thing regardless of what people say. You have to be self-motivated, self self-driven, and all of those perks. It definitely motivates you. But you just know when you know. I’m a guy who believes in the gift of God. People will say, ‘I deserve this or that,’ but I know we all really don’t deserve certain things. We just are fortunate to have gifts, and when you have a gift, just like if a friend in the streets gives you a gift, you definitely appreciate it. But when you have a God-given gift, that’s something that’s very special.”

Advice to his younger self. “My advice would be, in order to be blessed, you have to accept the process. I wouldn’t change a thing because the process has made me great. The process has helped so many people around the world. Sometimes in the process and what I wanted wasn’t God’s time, and I’m on God’s time.”

Big Dreams for Kids. “I loved playing football, but I was always shy. Even with me doing the music, I was always shy. I recall going out to a youth football league and since I didn’t want to play football, one of the coaches used to carry a radio and get the team hyped. So he let me take on that position to get the team hyped, playing the radio and everything like that. Basically, that motivated me to start my own youth football league. Right now I have over 10,000 kids for the Florida Youth Football League. That’s cheerleading, that’s track and field, that’s basketball, and that’s football. We work with the kids every day, and more importantly, we let them know that education is first. We have a couple kids down in the NFL and some that are on their way.”

What does being a game changer mean to you? “To me, that’s totally disruption: being disruptive and making sure that you leave a mark in history. When I woke up today, I told myself I’m going to make history, and that’s what a game changer means to me.”

EPISODE RESOURCES & REFERENCES
2 Live Crew
JT Money
Trick Daddy
Trina
Flo Rida jamming in court TikTok
John Uustal
Celsius
Flo Rida vs. Celsius lawsuit
Kelley | Uustal
Big Dreams for Kids