E51: A Journey of Building a Purpose-Driven Brand with Cush Arrue of Forever Dope Media Group

Jim: What is up? Promote Start Nation. I'm Jim Doyon, your host, and I wanna welcome you to another episode of Remote Start. In this episode, we're gonna be talking with Cush Arrue co-founder of Forever Dope Media Group, which is one of South Florida's most recognized media studios. Today, Cush and I are gonna be discussing how Forever Dope has had to evolve and change to continue to strive through Hurricanes, COVID, and other challenges out of his control. We're gonna talk about how he's brought in the community, we're gonna talk about building a brand, giving back, empowering others, and being a purpose-driven company. So without further ado, Cush, I wanna welcome you to the Remote Start Podcast.

Cush: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Jim. What's up everybody?

Jim: Dude, I'm stoked, man. I'm gonna follow you on LinkedIn, looking at your YouTube. Before we get into the business side of it let's talk to, let's talk about your weight loss journey. Man. This is exciting, this is cool.

Cush: Yeah thanks. About seven, eight months ago, I stepped on the scale and I was like, ah, babe, I weighed 365 pounds. And she's like, Anne, and I was like, it's a pound for every day of the year. And I told myself I had to get on a mission to lose all this weight by the time I hit 40 and my birthday's in a few days, I'll be 39. So I have a as of today, as of the record, I'm officially down 65 pounds, I've been, I thank you, I've been documenting my journey. It's resonating with people on Instagram, on YouTube, and even on LinkedIn, so I'm just grateful to, be able to, I hate this term, but I guess influence others.

Jim: That's to be down that much already and to have your goal. What's your goal, your final goal?

Cush: I wanna get down to 200. Yeah.

Jim: That's awesome, man, yeah that's exciting. I wish you the best. I'm here in your corner and I'm gonna keep following you on the social to, to follow along in your journey. Let's jump in, man. Let's jump into the business side of. What would you say in your business? What do you, what would you say that you're best at?

Cush: Definitely sales and branding. They, for me, they go hand in hand. But yeah, the, I would say those two things is like my strong suit.

Jim: Now, did you, as far as sales go, did you do sales before you started your own business or let's talk about that journey.

Cush: Yeah, so I actually, I got a pretty cool story. When I was 25, I went to work for this company that handles credit card debt. And I was 25 years still young, but I had three kids and I was like, all right, I gotta figure out how to make money fast. And I went in I interviewed, got the job, like two months. I wasn't even there for three months. Three months in, I'll say I realize I don't wanna be here. So I kicked my feet up on the desk and I was deciding to myself, am I gonna walk out or am I gonna tell him I got I'm giving my two weeks notice. And I thought to myself, you know what? I'm just gonna quit, this gentleman walks in, he goes, what's wrong with you? And I was like, this place is shit. And he goes, excuse me, and I was like, it sucks in here. He goes, do you know who I am? And I said, no. He goes, I own this company, I said, your company sucks. And he goes, come on into the office, and I said, all right. He calls the district manager and the office manager and he goes, listen to what he. He go, what'd you saying? I said, the office sucks, and the DM got upset. And he goes, how could you say that? And I was like, I have no reason to lie to you. Look over there, those cubicles people go there to die. I said, that's not me, I'm not a pencil pusher, and he goes, so what do you wanna do? And I said I can sell anything. And he goes, would you be interested in starting a sales team? And I was like, like an entire team. He goes, yeah go, yeah, sure, he goes, pick somebody. I said, all right Darrell, and he was like, perfect. And so we got tasked with creating a sales process come up with marketing for it implementation and execution. And at first, we were young, 25, I think Darrell at that time was 26, 27, maybe max, and man, it was like fourth of Wall Street scale down. We blew the business up really quick and it was a hell of a ride and I'm grateful for it. So that's my sell side, yeah.

Jim: That's awesome, and so did that, did you go from that job into starting your own business?

Cush: No, so actually I went from there and then Paul, that's the gentleman's name, he said This is where I learned about critical mask and the importance of relationships. He says, guys, you guys are doing great, you're crushing it, and he goes these are all one and dones. And he's an old banker from Wall Street, and I was like, what the hell's a oneand done? And he goes, these people are only sending us one client. And I was like, Oh, I said, okay, I got you. I said, Hey, I wanna start a relationship department, and that's where everything really blows up because I became borderline obsessive with human behavior. And we built a team, when we started it was just us two, and by the time we left, it was 15 of us. And the marketing material, the follow up, the traveling, just to make sure that these businesses are being maintained, these accounts, and that's where I fell in love with human behavior marketing because we had to come up with that ourselves. We didn't have Yeah, the capital to outsource and hey, we need, no, we were just literally smiling down, and so, to fast forward through that, after years of that, my passion just fizzed out and my passion was always music. And my wife just graduated with her master's degree and she was like, you gotta go to school from music. And I was like, not gonna happen. Said, I don't have anything more than a high school education and I'm making good money, I'm happy, and she's but you're miserable. And I was like, okay. She was like, do it. So I went, worked in some of the big studios down in Miami, I saw the landscape changing, came back to Palm Beach, met my business partner, and we launched Forever Dope.

Jim: That's awesome, man. Yeah. What did it take? So you're down, you're learning, was it one thing that did you, you were gonna do this for yourself or was it just something that happened? Like how did that that process work?

Cush: I'm big on writing my goals and plans down for, I guess you could call it like an affirmation, but I don't look at it like that, I look at it as more of a roadmap. This is what I need, this is what I need to do for myself, how do I get to it? And so I, this long list of things. I still, it's on my phone, I still carry it around because there's certain things on that list that I haven't checked off yet. But I met my partner, we were talking, and it was just sheer coincidence. He was like, what do you think it would take to open up a studio? I was like, he like, what are you talking about? And he's like capital, and I was like, we could do it for, with a shoestring budget. He is, like I said I went to school for this and I have some incredible mentors who are incredibly resourceful. And man, we opened up with 30,000 shoestring budget and awesome. I literally came up with a name Forever Dope. I fell asleep, we couldn't land on a name, I fell asleep and I woke up and I was like, Forever Dope, Forever Dope. We're young, I don't know how old you are, but you look like a young, our generation is the hip hop generation, so yep. Dope. Jim: I'm 40 by the way.

Cush: 42. Oh yeah, you're young, yeah. Dope for the crowd Mac and stuff like that. But yeah, dope Forever and forever is like forever. So we're like something that outlives us forever and that we landed on that and it was from the...

Jim: I love that name.

Cush: Yeah. Thank you, thank you. And our slogan is actually outwork everyone, remain dope. Awesome, awesome. So let's tell the Remote Start Nation what is Forever Dope.

Cush: So Forever Dope, we're technically structured as a media group but our focus is the music industry, and what we wanted to do is bring up the principles that I learned down in the big studio. So quality, structured and environment and provide it to the creatives here in our city, and the reason we structured as a media group is because anyone who has a friend or a family member who is either a musician, singer, songwriter, knows. That's the hardest demographic to serve, they're called struggling musician for a reason. But the last five years, thankfully we've been able to remain open just on our sheer efforts with the local arts community and the creatives. So we basically just provide, studio services to creatives around here without having to pay Miami prices. We're like the new standard in the city.

Jim: Now, let's talk about that for a minute, because it's Miami, you've been through hurricanes, you have a business model where people come in to record, so there's a lot of things that have changed that you've had to work around the last couple years in your area, obviously Covid everywhere, but for the hurricanes and getting hit like you did what are some of the ways that you've, gone past and succeeded, even though that was thrown your way?

Cush: I would say pounding the pavement, it for anyone who bootstraps a business anyone who's familiar with that process knows that when it's good, and when it's down, you're down. But you, that's when you're down in the trenches, that's when you have to just keep your hand on the till and keep working. So our year one is when a hurricane hit us and we had to close for, I don't know, like two, three months, and that was crucial because we were brain, we're brick and mortar, right? As if revenue's not coming in and we still have to, send money out, then you, it puts us in a tough spot. We went to traditional marketing medium, so we printed up flyers, just handing out flyers, and I'm a marketing, I don't like to tilt myself as a marketing wiz, but I know a thing or two, and so I started implementing some stuff for our business, and before you know it, like it, it just grew and now the brand is bigger than us. And COVID was another learning experience for us because how do you pivot when the world shuts down? And I looked at my partner and I was like, we're a media group. He goes, yeah, and I was like, we need to start offering digital content assets to our clients. So we, artist and, excuse me, and producer interviews, songwriter interviews engineer interviews, DJ interviews, and on the grand scheme of things, it's eh, it's just an interview. But when you brand it and you give it to them as a digital asset that they can use, now your brand is growing cause. Hey man, what do I gotta do for an interview? Can I pay you? Will you travel? Can you come in? So it opens doors that and plant seed that you don't know are being watered. So yeah.

Jim: Are you still doing some of those things now or now that it's back to normal? You're just back to the brick and mortar.

Cush: So we did stop our, I don't wanna say stop, we slowed down our interview process because our purpose is changing again. COVID almost took out my business partner. And I know there's people who said that, and I'm not saying that to downplay it, I'm saying like the doctor called us and said, make arrangements, he's not gonna make it, and since then both he and I have been exploring faith. Him and his wife, me and my wife, and he's more faith driven now, which is cool, and I'm steering the ship in another direction as well, but more media focused because the thing with artists and creatives as a whole is the vetting process is extremely cumbersome because, everybody's doing something until it's actually time to verify, right? So I don't wanna just create content for people who are doing this as a hobby, and then it dies down and then you'll never hear from them, I want to invest into people who are invested in their talents or in their crafts or whatever the situation is.

Jim: So what's your approach to finding those clients?

Cush: It's usually like word of mouth, one tales, two, two tales three, three tales, four. And it just grows, and right now, recently we had to trim down the team because we're going in another direction. And so right now our immediate focus isn't creating interviews. What we talked about earlier, like my fitness content is getting traction, there's people who love it, it resonates with people, but we also do studio content and that resonates with people because I think most studio owners or entrepreneurs think great, I'm just doing it. But people need to know the journey, like you're not alone. They need to understand, okay, the toilet and they're, you're arguing with the city over a $1,500 bill because you have to explain to them you're not in aquarium, you're a media group, stuff like that, this is real stuff that has occurred for us. And there, I'm sure there's other business owners who've experienced similar situations where it's just out of their control, but you have to figure out. I gotta keep my bookings up so I can keep us beyond the float, but also in case something sets us back, we have enough to cover. So it's been praying, but like I said, knock on wood we're here we're moving forward, we're growing, and like I said, it's just, it's an incredible experience.

Jim: When you said earlier you think, branding and sales, they go hand in hand, with your brand, what are some of the things you've done that have helped you to get to the level you're at that maybe some of your competition is not?

Cush: Slow down, we've slowed down, there's an expression that I've heard several agile teams use before. Go fast and break things, great a hundred percent. But when you're building a brand slow and steady, the tortoise and the hair, that's how you win the race, and we've we're intentional with the content we put out, I'm intentional with like our ad words and. It's incredible how many people don't use near me. How many people restaurants near me, studios near me. I use near me and capitalize off of it, and then the branding it's to a point now our walls are, some of our walls are painted, our signature orange, where people like see the picture or they're on FaceTime with other people and they're like, yo, how did you get in there? I thought they were invite only, and it's not that, it's just we offer a certain level of exclusivity and that's been translated through our branding in our the cons, putting out, so.

Jim: That's really cool. I know community's huge with you and community integration, and you had talked about, you're outside of Miami and you're in a place where it's more affordable and how uh, talk to us about how you're integrating with the community you're in.

Cush: Yeah when I was a child and my brother, I have a twin brother, we went to the Boys and Girls Club and I still have some friends there, lifelong friendships that were forged at the Boys and Girls Club, and I've always known I didn't want to just be a small business owner, I wanted to do something that's more meaningful and I'm very purpose driven. And so two years ago we partnered up with a local Boys and Girls Club here, actually three of them, and we were teaching the children about Media services how you can become a news broadcaster or clean audio and post-production or you can run the studio or you can open up a facility that's centered around media that involves graphic design, video, audio, post-production, pre-product, like from A to Z. It's not just, sports, the streets, or religion, you can actually go get an education and in real life become whatever you wanna be, you just don't let your dreams scare you, no matter how big they are.

Jim: That's huge, man. That's so cool. Love the fact that you're giving back like that, that's so powerful.

Cush: Thank you.

Jim: What neighborhood are you in?

Cush: We're situated, nestled right on the corner of 47th and Broadway. We're on the cusp of two cities, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach. Traditionally, these cities have been at odds, but lately the landscape is changing. I don't wanna say lately, like within the last 20, 30 years, but on the creative side we have people coming in from all sides of the neighborhoods, and there's a sense of like, okay, this is a safe space we can create. It's not anything where we have to worry about who's where, hanging out here or there, because, the music industry brings on a lot of ugliness with it too. And most guys that we record are really talented, they just, sometimes they just don't think it's a real solution to make it. But, we're here, man, we're pumping, we love it.

Jim: That's awesome. Do you think being part of the community and submersing yourself in it and really having open arms to, bring people in and help them out, you think that's helped to grow the brand?

Cush: Absolutely, absolutely. I know a couple years ago when the protests were happening, our building specifically wasn't touched and when we came to the neighborhood, the neighbors around us were saying, no, we made sure nobody was touching the building, and I'm very big on you can't situate your business in the middle of a neighborhood and just take. You gotta give back, and I think part of being a human and having real human experience is being selfless when you, resources that other people just don't have, right? So instead of gloating and walking around and saying, Hey, I did this, it's nah, the door's open, some in, come learn, come see, come, touch, come feel, come smell. It's, we pride ourselves on our rooms, you still have what's that old expression called grand opening Look daily, the gold look. So people walk in and it's the same as it was on the first day. So that's pretty cool.

Jim: That is, man, that's really cool. And the fact that you're empowering others and giving back to the kids and giving back to the community that's huge. And in your case, like you said it, it paid dividends where, buildings are getting destroyed and your building's untouched and the neighborhood was looking out for you cause you look out for them.

Cush: Absolutely. And, yeah, I don't, just gratitude, that's the only feeling I can think of or descriptive word that I can think of to express what I feel and what I think, about those times, just gratitude.

Jim: So what's in the future for Forever Dope? You've hinted at some things that you're changing up. What can you share with us?

Cush: Yeah last year I rebranded a really big ammunition company, and I got my taste of the Second Amendment space. I am gun owner, I am a advocate for Second Amendment, responsibly, of course, and I realized that there wasn't a lot of like me in the space. And so I have an identical twin brother and I told my business partner, I wanna div diversify the space through representation, and I did that by empowering some of the biggest black social media influencers in that space. And now for what we're doing on our side is we're gonna start creating content. Not to be content creators, but to like professional services. Spanish product reviews for some of the biggest companies. And right now we're just in the process of launching another site. It'll be under the umbrella of Forever Dope because we are the brick and mortar. We have, a few studios in here and green screen room, and we have a light box for products photography, we're a self-contained machine. We do it, but that particular thing really lit a fire under me because, growing up, I think every boy played with a toy gun, a handgun, or whatever. And you just don't think, there's always the two instances, you're either a cop or you're a robber, there's no in between. And I'm not a law enforcement officer, I'm not a veteran and I'm not a hunter, but I'm, I like guns and I go shooting with my son. So this next year and moving forward, I'll be putting more time into diversifying that space through representation. And that includes content, product reviews, and everything, A to Z.

Jim: That's cool. So I know what would you say if there's one big takeaway today that you can give the Remote Start Nation something that you know, you've seen and you've overcome, or something that's changed and you wanna make sure that someone listening today doesn't make the same mistake or has an upper hand, what would that advice be?

Cush: I'm gonna have to go with discipline. You gotta be disciplined, your dreams deserve discipline, your business deserves discipline, like I said earlier, when it's up, it's good. When it's down it's down, and you gotta be disciplined through each of those moments because when you have a little bit more capital, you wanna, oh, let's invest in the latest gear, or let's invest in, we do stuff like give back to our team. Like we'll give them bonuses or, things of that nature will do, like team outings. But when it's down, it's like, all right, guys we're working, and when I mean down, I mean the fluctuations of things you can control, case in point, COVID, like we literally can have more than five people to a room. So it's okay, we have five rooms, so how does that work for us? And the state of Florida was like, eh, still five people under the ceiling. And so I was like, all, all right, cool, yeah, when it's down, you have to pivot, you have to be disciplined about it because if you constantly look up and you're comparing or looking in other directions versus your end goal you'll constantly fall short of where you need to be. And just discipline, wake up, do the work, make your phone calls, establish those relationships, respond to those emails, do everything in your power you can to generate a new lead. Three new contacts a day is my theory.

Jim: Let's talk about that, do you have a daily routine? Do you have something that you follow that you're disciplined on?

Cush: A hundred percent. I wake up every morning at 4:30 in the morning, I'm in the gym from five to usually about 6:45. From there, I go home, shower, take my children to school, and then I'm here at the studio responding to emails, making phone calls, I try not to spend more than an hour on anything because I don't wanna work myself to a point of monotony. So if I give myself deadlines, like I have an hour to respond to, let's say 30 emails or 40 emails, or 10 emails or five, that's my timeframe, because there's also, there's content we're creating. There's our Google profile, our ad words, our marketing, our partnerships here in the city that we're currently working on, everything requires time, and time is very valuable. So if I sit here all day and I'm just either hit and record or doing this or doing that for eight hours a day, I'm not really driving my business forward, and I am a hundred percent an operator, I believe, I gotta be here as much as I can within the capacity that I should function in. So if I'm not out, yeah.

Jim: How would you say your work-life balance is, I know you talked about, obviously you in that morning, you get up and you have that you time and get that done and you spend the time taking your kids to school, outside of that, do you shut it off at a certain time to go home and be with a fam, or is it?...

Cush: Absolutely. So our Sundays we're closed hard. No, there's no exceptions. But I'm usually outta here, so my kids get outta school at three o'clock. So for three hours I'm the one who makes dinner ‘cause I'm a foodie at heart, so we mandatory since the day my kids were born, non-negotiable, we eat family at or we eat dinner as a family. That's really cool. Phones down, we just talk about how our day was and I really pour into my children the importance of face-to-face time because in the age of technology, you know that old look at how we are right now, it's cool. I think if we hung out in person, it'd be a different experience. So I try to plant season my children to empower them for real life relationships, ask real questions, put your phones down. And so the question you're looking to have answered is, yes, I do have a hard stop. But then I come back and then I'll have another hard stop, and then I'm home for the night, absolutely. Work life balance is good.

Jim: It's hard to find, but once you do, it's incredible. I wish more people out there would understand the importance of it.

Cush: Yeah, it, look man, I'm not gonna say I had it right the whole time because the first three years I lived in this place, yeah, I was, day and night.

Jim: And I think to that point too, like I think it comes in stages, right? And it's okay. I just, for me personally, and if for Remote Start Nation, those of you that have listened from the start like I started this podcast on the road as I was traveling for two years and, I was in an RV with my kids and my wife. As we traveled for two years, we thought we saw 30, 37 states, and I was with them a ton. In fact, like I had to leave the RV to get work done because it was so much my personal, my family time and then now that we're settled down in Salt Lake and I'm really focused on building the brand to another level. They understand I'm not gonna be there as much, I still, every morning, I have a very similar schedule to you. I get up around four, I get my personal stuff done, by the time the kids are up, I'm making them breakfast, I'm helping them out the door. And then it's back to, it's back to work, and then same thing, man, they get out early and it's like, all right, cool. Let's have some family time. Yeah. And so I think that's important. But there are days where I am working late still and grinding and they get it. They understand. I think that's important to have.

Cush: It's the ebbs and flow of being an entrepreneur, it's not all exclusive, and especially who holds you accountable, yourself, your family, good. I gotta if you're an operator, you have to be at your business, if you're, I'm a bit of, I'm both the operator and the driver, I dream, oh, this is what I wanna do, and then, I work it backwards until I can get to that point, but like my children, they're teenagers now. When they were younger, it hurt them, over the years, my son, my daughters, they've come in here and they've, I've showed them our systems, our how we collect money, or we've done several album packages for record labels and to see that relationship, and they're just like in awe and they're like, wow. Because for them I gotta go get a job, somebody go get a job or the teenagers, oh, I gotta start working soon. And I always tell them, nah man, you can do whatever you wanna do, I don't, right? You want my wife is a LCSW, a social worker. I'm like, you can go that route if you want mental health, or you can go my route and be whatever you want. If you wanna own a Burger King, be the best, Burger King franchisee that you can be, own six of them if you want, do whatever you wanna do, just be passionate about it.

Jim: And it's cool that and I'm like this with my kids, like they know what I do, they're ingrained in what I do, I make sure they know of it, I tell them stories, I talk to them about the brand, they see, the coolest thing ever when I own my clothing brand with my business partner and we'd be, somewhere and someone walks by with a shirt on for that, our brand and my kids like, there's been times when my daughter stopped people. She's my dad, that's my dad's company, I'm like, stop, they're like embarrassing me, stop, but it's cool to see because to your point, there's not that things have changed, there's not that I have to go to college and then work nine to five and then come home and then I see my family or I'm exhausted and no, you can do whatever you want. And social media and the way that, the web and everything is like there's opportunities out there to, do what you want to do, and that's what I love about it.

Cush: And you know what's cool? Like you just said something about how your daughter recognized some of your merch out on the streets and it made me think because I usually it's my son who comes with me to the studios, like the big studios down in Miami because I want him to see like what I own here can be scaled up and bigger. He's it's funny to see how people, I walk into the studio and it's oh, Cush, what's up? And he's damn, dad, everybody knows you, and I'm like, it is just from working, you just you just work, you establish real relationships, meaningful ones, and before you know it, like your name is in rooms that you haven't even been in yet, and he is dad's cool. He's 16, so he's exploring, what do I wanna do for the rest of my life? I'm like, kid, you got an entire lifetime to figure it out.

Jim: Yeah. Look at your story, you were 25 when you started the sales thing and, years later you, you started your own brand. So there's time, there's plenty of time.

Cush: Yeah, absolutely, a hundred percent.

Jim: Cush, it's been a pleasure, man. I'm stoked to have you on. And before we let you go, let the Remote Start Nation know where they can find you. And if there's a musician, an artist out there that's listening, tell them how to look you up and get in.

Cush: Absolutely. So our website is www.fdmgstudio, so the acronym for Forever Dope Media Group. Our Instagram is, the @FDMGStudios, same with our YouTube, is Forever Dope. My personal brand is Amazon Cush and Cush Arrue. That's where I'm tagging on my fitness and all my motivation stuff because I don't know if you've seen me on Instagram, but I'm constantly like, yo, you guys can do whatever the hell you put your mind to get out there and do it, and I don't do it from an unrealistic standpoint, like I'm, I get vulnerable on there too. I'm like, man, today's tough, but every day you gotta keep going. Those are our handles, my business partner's boombox Breezy, he's a producer, so if anybody wants to reach out to us, we're more than open to connect.

Jim: Awesome, thank you for that, and thanks again for coming on the show.

Cush: Yes, sir. Thank you for having me.

Jim: Absolutely. I got one more question for you, when you're working out, what kind of music do you listen to?

Cush: Oh man, lately I've been listening to modern Disco.

Jim: Modern Disco, no way.

Cush: Yeah. There's a Pete Heller. He has a song called Big Love Remix. It's like super four on the floor. Yeah, it was good wake up music.

Jim: That's I'm after tomorrow, Modern Disco, Search Spotify, Modern Disco Radio, there you go.

Cush: That's awesome.

Jim: All right, my man, thank you again, I appreciate it. Have a great rest of your day. And yeah man, we'll keep in touch.

Cush: Yes, sir. Thank you. Have a god one.

Jim: Absolutely. Remote Start Nation, I hope you learned as much as I did from Kush today, hope you could put some of the value he dropped to work for you, thank you for joining us. And remember, leave a comment, subscribe, but most importantly, share this episode with your community who you think could learn from what you heard here today.

Until next time, go start something, go start today and build a lifestyle you desire by taking action.