Don’t Take Shortcuts With Your Reputation (Dallas Jackson from TipSee Music)
Dallas Jackson, Founder of TipSee Music and The Hondo Rodeo Fest, shares how he went from finance to building music tech and event startups. We talk about making song requests and tipping easier for musicians, learning by doing, using AI to stay lean, and why integrity matters when you’re building something from scratch.
Key Takeaways
Big ideas become manageable when you break them into steps and stay willing to pivot.
Solving a real friction point matters more than building something flashy.
Getting creators to adopt a new tool often starts with trust, demos, and proof of concept.
AI can help startups stay lean, but the goal should be efficiency, not replacing people.
Reputation and integrity matter, especially in creative industries where relationships drive everything.
Follow Dallas:
Website (TipSee Music)
Instagram (TipSee Music)
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Transcript:
Mike: Hey Dallas, how are you?
Dallas Jackson: Hey Michael. Doing well. How are you doing this morning?
Mike: I'm doing fantastic, thanks for asking. I really do appreciate you being on the show. I did notice in the background that you also have a little bit of a studio setup going on.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. Well, on the table, we're working on some Mother's Day stuff that I’ve got to sift out very last minute here. But yeah, we've got a studio here. We've got a podcast for TipSee Music called Talking TipSee. I built the studio myself and everything. It's been going well.
Then we had some difficulties with an overseas podcast there. I'm not sure if you've ever had that issue, but we're actually working on a big project that will be coming downtown now. So the studio behind me will just become an office again here soon. But yeah, be looking out for the new Talking TipSee show coming here soon.
Mike: Fantastic. Yeah, we're definitely going to get into what TipSee Music is and so forth, but I did notice pretty quickly right away that you had the podcast setup, so of course we have to talk about that, right?
I did want to start off because here's the thing: I’m doing podcasts, and we're going to get into that you've done so many things in the last five to six years, I would say, which I find really fascinating. But what’s really fascinating to me is not just how quickly you did so many things, but also the fact that you've done so many things.
So I want to ask you, what do you feel it takes to go from an idea to reality? Because it’s one thing to have the idea, right, of like, “Oh, this would be great if this were done.” But then to actually make it a reality and execute on that idea is a completely different thing. So what are the elements, if you will, from going from idea to reality?
Dallas Jackson: That’s a good question. First off, I appreciate you acknowledging that timeline because although you say short term, to me it feels like forever.
But yeah, getting something from start to reality, the way I approach everything, especially all these things that to some people seem impossible, is that everything’s a series of steps.
The way I like to think about an idea, like the Hondo Rodeo Fest, that comes down initially to financials. It’s such a big project to take on, making sure you have the right venue in place, the right artists, all that stuff, and all the production costs are in place. The financial situation there is really important.
With TipSee, that was more of a passion project. But at the end of the day, the way I tell people who are potentially partnering with us is, “I know this is a problem that will be solved one day, and I'm going to be the one to do it.”
How that’s looked over the years from beginning to now has changed tons. So while it is a series of steps, it’s also being able to pivot. I don’t know if that answers your question. Clear as mud, but yeah.
Mike: No, it really does. I think that’s what we always have to come back to, right? This is said over and over again, but I think it's important to reiterate this, which is if you think about the end goal, you're now thinking about thousands of different steps to get to that end goal, and now it becomes overwhelming and unattainable.
Whereas, as you mentioned, if you look at it from what's step one, step two, what's step three, and you just take it one at a time or a few at a time, you will eventually get to that point.
But if you think about all the things right away, you're just going to get overwhelmed and discouraged because you realize, “Okay, yeah, I can't do all this,” and nobody can. That’s the whole point. You don’t do all of it at once.
So taking it step by step is important. And then, like you said, pivoting as well, because you may be stuck on that one idea like, “Oh, this is the most genius idea.” And then all of a sudden something happens, whether it's something in your life or something happens in society or new technology comes out, and then all of a sudden that idea doesn't make sense anymore, and you need to change to that situation too. So I’m with you.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah, I’d say too, a big thing is it’s all about perspective. Our modern-day philosopher, Joe Rogan, has said that the hardest thing you’ve ever been through is the hardest thing you’ve ever been through.
So if I look back to how I’ve developed over my lifetime, I started scuba diving at 12 years old, which going into that, thinking about a 12-year-old like my son when he gets 12, I’m like, “There’s no way I’m doing that with him.” But for some reason, my parents pushed me to do it, and I was diving 100 feet or deeper at 12 years old. It’s just kind of wild to think that.
Then I started flying airplanes at 16, and then kind of like the other things that we’ve discussed off the record here. Once you get past one thing, you're like, “Well, I was able to accomplish that. I never imagined I'd be able to.” That’s why I think you see a lot of repeat entrepreneurs. Once they do something amazing or crazy, they understand what’s attainable and what's possible.
Mike: Do you feel that learning diving and flying at an early age built that sense that, “I'm going to accomplish anything,” essentially? Did that help you aspire to be an entrepreneur? Or did you already have that even before then?
Dallas Jackson: I would say it developed a whole new level of responsibility and maturity. At 12 years old, I was doing math that I probably wasn't even learning in school yet because you have to learn all the things to get licensed, like oxygen mix and all that. It’s been 20-something years now.
Then going into aviation, getting my driver's license around the same time I got my pilot's license, it’s just wild to think about looking back on.
I think it isn’t necessarily directly correlated to entrepreneurship, but I think the challenge and overcoming it, and especially, I will tell you, I was never a straight-A student at all. So I think being able to accomplish those goals, which obviously took studying and preparing for, created a new mental barrier of strength, if you will, in terms of adapting and learning how to do stuff that otherwise I’d think was impossible.
Mike: I would respectfully disagree. I think that this actually definitely applies to entrepreneurship, because if you think about it, you said it yourself. Not only are you learning things that were beyond school, but on top of that too, the responsibility. You said it best, the responsibility of it.
I mean, literally your life is on the line at 12 and 16 years old, right? So there is a great sense of responsibility that you have to have there. I feel that does translate into starting your own venture, your own company, because there's a lot of responsibility that comes along with it.
I think of the analogy of stepping into a pool, right? There are the people that tiptoe in but then never actually do the full jump, and then there are the people that do the full jump into the pool. I feel like same thing with you, right? You went full in to doing scuba diving, you went full in to take flight lessons.
Even though your parents encouraged you to do those things, it kind of helped build up that resistance, if you will, so that you can push through those challenges.
Dallas Jackson: I know what you're saying. Even going through each of those different things, I almost had the expectation or the fact that it's going to happen by X date, based on the parameters of the courses or whatever. But going through it, I'm like, “This is impossible. Is this actually going to work?”
I also did have a few life-threatening experiences in both of those as a child and young adult, which is another thing too. I went through some challenges earlier than expected. Definitely conditioning, for sure.
Mike: Wow. So it's so interesting because you’ve done all these very intense roles as a kid, then you go into finance. I find that really interesting that your background before doing any of these things was in finance and investment. So I’m curious why you decided to go that path to begin with.
Dallas Jackson: Well, even before finance, I wasn’t even a finance major. I was in school, like I said, not an A student. I was working in the capital at the state of Florida in Tallahassee, and for me, politics, the lobbyist stuff, all that was not for me.
Going into finance was the “safe route” to me. I was like, all right, if you can pass the licenses and you get into finance, you can make a good living. And if you decide to pivot from there, I feel like it's a much wider breadth of opportunities afterwards versus the other way around, going down a path of limited job scope and then trying to get into finance down the road.
So I went down that path. While I did struggle on the licensing part, I passed all of them the first time out of the gate real quickly, which I surprised myself on.
Then I went right into the part where I thought the people who were getting A’s on all the practice tests and got the highest scores on the exams were going to be the guys that ran through the company. But no, it was the people who could actually do the job.
I ended up getting promoted in the first three months, and then six months, and then just started moving quickly from there. It was more about, you see the tests of finance, pilots, all that stuff, and people who can get an A on that, but in reality and practice are not the best at what they do.
Sorry to get off on a tangent there, but yeah. I’ve never really been prepared for what I got into before I got into it. It's just always been adapting and learning as I go.
Mike: There's definitely something to be said about that. To jump ahead a little bit, you went into this field and, like you said, you moved up quickly to become a VP at Merrill Lynch. That’s quite a bit of a jump. I just want to emphasize that fact, because that's a massive achievement on its own.
Also, you mentioned that you weren't even a finance major. You learned as you went and adapted as you went. I mean, that's incredible.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. When I was going through the first company, which was Fidelity, and then in Jacksonville, where I grew up, Merrill Lynch has a campus right across the street. So I went over there.
Of course, I’ll just say this as a blanket statement for all corporate America, including finance: what they promise you on the job interview is never always upheld. Even though I tried to make sure there were certain guarantees, it wasn't upheld.
I always wanted to move to Nashville, and I think part of this path was maybe meant to be, or however you want to say it. The quote-unquote “dream job” opened up, which was that VP position. It was a new section of two Bank of America and Merrill Lynch companies coming together, and we thought it was a dream role on paper.
It brought me to the brand-new corner office downtown Nashville. I was like, “This is a dream.” So I applied, and a lot of people applied, and I somehow got it. I shocked myself on that one as well. But yeah, that's also what then pushed me into the entrepreneurship space.
Mike: That's what I'm very curious about, because you've been on this path now, right? You said yourself this sounded like a dream job on paper. What made you decide not too long after that that you wanted to go off on your own and be an entrepreneur and start your own company?
Dallas Jackson: Going through the financial ladder of different roles and companies, it was kind of a mindset and things they put in front of you. Like, “Oh, you can become an entrepreneur essentially within the company,” and the entrepreneur mindset.
But at the end of the day, the goalpost is always moving because a big corporate entity like Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, they’re going to be taking care of themselves before the individual advisor.
Now, the people who have been around forever, who have a big book of business and all that, it’s a little bit easier, I would say, because they got kind of grandfathered in. They used to make way more money back in the day, especially when you had trade commissions, higher fees, and all the different things.
But yeah, it’s an arbitrary system that’s always changing, and I was like, “I just don't see this getting better in my next 20, 30 years.”
I didn't know what I was going to do, but the reason why I moved to Nashville was my love of live music and music production. So I started TipSee Music mainly as a passion project. I was like, “I want to help artists.”
I look at Broadway as a miniature concert. When people really get into Broadway their first time, their bachelorette trip, guys trip, whatever, they kind of lose themselves in the moment for a little bit. They escape and they're having a great time. The bands are creating that moment.
However, the friction, the experience between the two, for the artist to walk around a bar and deal with drunk people, carry a bucket around, and have to negotiate $20 at a time, is painstaking.
So my goal has been to reinvent that wheel and make it less friction and what I call drunk friendly. That’s where people utilize TipSee Music and they don't even realize they're using us, because it's not about us. It's about making more money for the artist at the end of the day, and then everything else will fall in place.
Mike: That's awesome. I appreciate the fact that you have the passion for live music. I know I've been in the music industry for over 18 years, so yeah, I can vouch for that.
It's challenging. I would say it’s a couple of things too. One is that not everyone has cash on them either, especially these days. Not everyone’s going to have 20 bucks where they go, “Hey, I don't have cash on me, but do you take Venmo?”
Some do, but not everybody does, and some people are not comfortable using their own Venmo for tipping. Or they ask them, “Do you have merchandise I can purchase?” But not every artist will have that available to them, right? So that kind of removes that friction, as you mentioned.
The other aspect of it as well is, again, I like how you said drunk friendly, because that’s great. They’re just being rowdy and having a good time. They might love the music, but that little bit of a reminder, and just making it easy to take out your phone, scan a QR code, and tip them, that makes a difference.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. Because you mentioned Venmo, and obviously with any business you're going to have competitors. I’ve seen competitors come and go in this space.
I remember this is something that’s been a learning factor in the entrepreneur space. When you have competitors, it stresses you out, especially when they raise a bunch of money and they look like they're definitely going to win.
I had one for sure that was that big. They raised a couple million bucks or maybe more, and they flopped so hard. Their app I thought was beautiful, everything was great, and they didn't get one or two users. I don't know what they're doing, to be honest, at this point.
Then I started seeing these other things pop up and come and go, and I'm like, “You know what? I'm going to focus on what I'm doing because it's working.”
The biggest technical competitor is not, I wouldn't say Venmo as a company, but the use of Venmo. That's become the norm. It’s the lazy shortcut, and artists are using it because it's friendly.
But it also doesn’t get rid of that barrier of back and forth and price setting, because then someone Venmos you $5 for “Free Bird,” and now we’ve got to tell this guy it's $100. It creates this issue.
Whereas with us, they see it. About 80% of the people who use TipSee, around 10,000-something different requests over the last few years, pick from the list. We give them the option to pick an open request, tip the band, shout-outs, all that stuff.
Now we have four different ways that artists make money through us, and picking from a list makes it easy. It’s just how we're being groomed as a society nowadays. People don't really want free will. They just want to pick something from a list.
Also, to speak to what you're saying about merchandise, that’s something we're actually in the middle of working on right now. This hat is made by, I’m going to shout out High Pine, Maine. My top artist, who I wish was still on Broadway because he used to make so much money through TipSee, used to kill it. They set some of the records.
Being successful and running his show as a business, I would say, he created a merchandise company. Now we're working on essentially tying merchandise into the live shows. You send a song request, now support the band, buy a hat, ship it to your house.
It’s helping them make more money, get the brand out there, and really make that small concert, small experience become something bigger.
Mike: I want to touch on something you were talking about before, about the potential competitor of Venmo. Again, I like the fact that you mentioned the differentiation. Venmo is just an overall transaction between two parties, right?
In comparison, this is more than just that. It can also incorporate other elements, like you mentioned, working on merchandise, but also song requests, which many people are doing in Nashville. You could utilize that platform for facilitating song requests in addition to getting tipping.
So there's multipurpose there in comparison. But I also know, believe me, the challenge that it takes to convince your user base to use your platform, especially when there's something that is already popular that they’re already using.
I'm kind of curious, how did you convince musicians to start using TipSee?
Dallas Jackson: I will say, as much as I love music and musicians, they're not the most business savvy people.
Mike: Okay.
Dallas Jackson: It’s very...
Mike: I love musicians, but yes, I could jab on that too, because I've been in it for a long time. I ran a record label and managed artists for a very long time. So we love you, but we know how challenging it can be.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. In terms of follow-up, schedules, those things. To be honest, there have been some artists, I love them to death, but they would go around in a circle a few times.
Honestly, I just try to get them to say, “Hey, let's just do a demo.” Then it clicks, even though I explain it in so many different ways, with visuals, explanations, everything. There's a little bit of a challenge there.
But now that I have some of the larger and more popular artists on Broadway using the platform, it opens the door where people are like, “Oh, okay. So if they're using it...” It’s that proof of concept.
I did kind of take about two years off just because I couldn't support that and build The Hondo. So I relaunched it and rebuilt the back end to make it smoother and more secure this past December. I also secured my patent, so I have all the patented technology here for TipSee, which includes all the things that we want to do in the future, including PROs and all that.
There’s a lot of stuff that we're looking to accomplish in the coming years. But yeah, the artists, I love them to death. It's just a slow bleed. But once we get someone on board, they become a user, and they’ll text me and be like, “I want to give you a big hug. This is a game changer. This has made my life so much easier. We're making so much more money.”
I'm like, “I told you.”
Mike: Isn't that the greatest feeling when they mention how much this has changed their lives?
It's interesting because we kind of give them a little bit of a jab of how challenging it is, but I also get it too, being on that opposite end. They have so many things going on and so many things distracting them from what they want to accomplish or need to accomplish.
They also have all these other people bombarding them saying, “Hey, I have a tool for you to use,” or, “This is going to make your life better,” and right now, for the most part, that's noise because they're just trying to concentrate on practice and getting the gigs and so forth. I totally get it.
But then it's about filtering out, okay, these are the ones that actually can make a difference for you in particular. Even among musicians, some things will work for them and some things will not.
But once you hit it, right, once you convince them to at least try it out, and then once you have that proof of concept where other known musicians are using it and that trickles down, once you know you're making an impact, it's the greatest feeling in the world.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. Even though I know it works, and works really well, every time I'm onboarding an artist, I'm always concerned about their experience because it is a startup. I am micromanaging every aspect of it.
It's hard to have that big corporate feel. Also, we can't really do that in this space, I feel like. Eventually when it becomes more mainstream, we will have that Uber-esque feel, I feel like, and maybe a Yelp feel is kind of the goal down the road.
But for now, it's a very hand-holding experience because I want to make sure I understand how they're getting onboarded, what their experience is off the bat, what questions they have, because then I'm tinkering and making those little changes week over week. Slowly making it better and shaving down the ice to make the sculpture perfect, if you will.
I’m a little bit of an overkill perfectionist on some of that stuff, but it seems to be working for me.
Mike: Now I'm kind of curious because you don't come from tech. You do come from finance, which I think is extremely important. I think that's the most important, to be perfectly honest.
If you are doing a startup, coming from finance, especially from where you came from, I think is probably by far the strongest asset you could possibly have because you can bring other people in, right?
So I assume that since you don't have a tech background, you had to bring people in who had that experience to build out your team and build TipSee Music.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. Originally I started with an outsourced group. I did a mobile app at first, which is a whole other story.
An artist, my first artist, Cassie Daniels, she’s well beyond Broadway now. She’s on some TV show, The Road, and I think she's on the new Yellowstone. She's killing it. So congratulations to her.
She was my first guinea pig, and I had her download the app, and we did a test run. She was like, “Oh, I love this. This is great.”
I'm like, “Cassie, I wouldn't even use this myself. Let's be honest here. A mobile app downloaded in a bar? No one's going to do that.”
So I spoke to my friend Patrick, who's in the tech space. He's a really smart guy, and maybe this was a blessing from COVID. He was like, “Let's just do a web-based app.” I was like, “Yeah, I've never done this before.”
So I started researching and learning, and I tried the QR code thing. As I was rolling out QR codes, COVID happened, and now it's the mainstream thing. So it actually worked in my favor.
If COVID hadn't happened, TipSee probably would’ve stopped way back when because it probably still would have been the normal thing to download an app, and there was no bridge.
Eventually, I do think there will be a mobile app. We're actually working on one just for artists. But as far as the fan goes, we want to make it as passive as possible and make that experience super quick, super easy, gamify it a little bit so it's not a burden. As soon as we hit a fan with “download that app,” it’s not going to be a good experience.
Mike: Right. Also, the times have changed. Even pre-COVID, there was a time when everyone had an app. So it was normal for us to just download apps. I remember at the time it was like, “Oh, cool, new app, download it.”
But then it got to the point where everybody was asking us to download apps. Now it became more of a burden, if you will. There was now friction in downloading an app, where originally downloading the app prevented friction because we were able to do other things because of it.
But the request for downloading apps was so high that now it became like, “Ugh, another app I have to have on my phone? This is app number 372 on my phone. I'm not even going to use it.”
Dallas Jackson: Oh yeah. A lot of it is just learning by doing. I feel like a lot of people get stuck. They just keep talking and planning. It’s like the steps, taking steps.
I did hire a local group here called DevDigital in Nashville. They no longer exist, but if anyone ever needs a good project manager to hire, Daniel McMahon was incredible.
Working with him, the firm was pretty good, reasonably priced considering what we were doing. But as we were building, like you said, I had no background in this space, so the details, I mean, I was pretty detailed in explaining what I wanted to do, but then thankfully, he was really good at coming back to me asking questions like, “Well, what if this happens?”
It really developed a new critical thinking loop. Also, I did my own QA because they had a QA team, and everyone does, but at the end of the day, no one will do more thorough QA than yourself in terms of building out a project or company.
Over time, even when I moved on from them and was slowly fixing things, I would just have to figure it out.
Then I did bring on a CTO eventually, who's great. He helped me source one of our developers who's up in Canada.
As of recently, the last year or so, I've really taken a deep dive into AI. It’s funny because when I first thought about getting into these different startups, you think about raising money and all that. My raise for TipSee back then was so much money, and this development would cost all this.
Then it got to the point where now, going into early this year, I started knocking off so many different costs and needs. I'm like, “All right, well, I'm going to stop the raising of money because I don't need it. I'm not going to raise money to dilute myself and then not need it.”
So the goal is to continue to build what we're building and maybe raise down the road and reapproach that. But yeah, it's been quite a learning experience.
Like I said, I'm only pro-AI in terms of making things more efficient. I'm not trying to replace anyone in the music space.
Mike: Right. I think that's the important thing too. We're getting to a very interesting point right now where normally you would have had to raise all these funds to accomplish even just a prototype or getting something out the door.
Now, on the other hand, with AI, you can make things far more efficient. So you can do that now without necessarily needing those initial funds, which I think actually is better overall in the long run.
You can have a proof of concept, and then if you need funds to bring it to the next level, where it's beyond what AI is capable of doing, because obviously there are a lot of resources involved once you start expanding. The bandwidth you're going to require, the marketing that's involved, and the teams that support all that, that's a whole other level.
But at least then you can say, “Hey, we already have the product done.” It's not even just something that is conceptual. It's, “Here’s the product, and here’s the data to prove that it's working because of all these users who are currently using it right now.” So we want to now expand that.
I feel like coming to the table with that just gives you more leverage.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah, for sure. Going into the beginning of this year, I was having conversations with investors and different groups. The chunk I was going to give up, having not raised even up to this point with a very working system, technically an MVP I guess, but it's a very working system.
We're all over the country, and people are using it. But it was still a decent chunk I’d be giving up.
Now going into the end of Q1, after I made the changes and got the patent and all that stuff, and had reporting of 700% growth quarter over quarter, I'm like, “I'm just going to keep this momentum myself and go to my limit of what I can do by myself.”
Then my ask is, I'm giving up less of the company a year down the road versus now. So yeah, I'm just trying to milk that for all I can and see how far I can get it by myself, because it's kind of a challenge now, and it's going well.
Mike: Awesome. I did want to also mention that you talked before about hiring third parties to accomplish this, but you not only did this in the tech space, you also did this in the event space too. You were talking before about The Hondo Rodeo Fest, and that's in the event space. That's not even in the tech space. You dived into that area as well, where you also didn't have any experience doing events prior.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah. The Hondo was just a crazy undertaking. It actually originated in Nashville.
I was at Rodeo Houston in March of 2022, and unless you've been there, no one knows it exists until you know. Then once you see it, it's like, why is this not happening in Nashville? This is crazy.
It's a giant 21-day rodeo with a huge carnival, all kinds of events outside, livestock show, everything, and of course, live music every night. So it's like, why does this not exist in the heart of country music, which is Nashville?
The goal was originally Bridgestone. Putting it together, the budgets and all that stuff, at this point I'd been involved in the Relic Tickets thing that we talked about briefly, and then TipSee Music. I also had my finance background, so I understand how to structure raises in terms of using SAFE notes, convertible notes, all that stuff.
We were dialing the numbers, but in the music production side and the artist booking side, we couldn't really get firm numbers or hard numbers or anybody who could actually work with us, or maybe even took us seriously, to be honest, because it was such a wild idea.
I was like, we're either going to do this or we're not. So at the time, I reached out to an old friend and mentor of mine in the professional sports space. I don't want to name anyone in particular, but he gave me two recommendations.
One guy was the president of the Music City Grand Prix here. I was like, if you can build a giant race in a city, you can build anything. So I was like, all right, let's go down this path.
I talked to him, and he actually used to run Bridgestone, the event center we were trying to get into. Then I interviewed Jason Rittenberry, who owns TriStar Production Group, who was the COO of the Music City Grand Prix at the time.
After sitting down with both of them, with Jason having a little bit more experience on the music production side, I opted to go with him and advocated for him for about a year or so. We finally ended up moving forward with him.
Before we landed on him, there were a lot of other people that came in the mix. I just got impatient. I was like, all right, I'm going to reach out to my network and figure out how to solve this problem because there are a lot of people who will promise things, especially in startup or music spaces, and not deliver.
When I started doing that outreach, I wanted to make sure that I was bringing someone in who either could do it or wasn’t full of crap, I'll say, because I know we're PG here.
Mike: Wow, that's amazing. I appreciate so much the fact that you really did vet your team. It sounds like for both TipSee as well as The Hondo Rodeo Fest, you made sure that you had people on board who you were confident were able to pull through and get to what you need.
Again, you're relying on them not just for their experience, but their resources, their network, and all those different things that are going to need to be brought to the table to make something like this happen.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah, absolutely. It was quite an undertaking, for sure.
Mike: We can start wrapping things up here. I do have a couple of fun questions for you. The first one I have for you is, what is one of your favorite events that's not one of your own?
Dallas Jackson: That's a good one. Rodeo Houston is incredible. It's such a crazy, vast experience and event.
Mike: You mentioned that.
Dallas Jackson: It’s been around for 93 years, so there’s so much tradition there. The concerts, the productions, everything's awesome. The carnival and little events outside of the stadium are always expanding and growing every year.
I would say that's definitely one. When we had the Music City Grand Prix downtown, that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, we don't have that anymore. So yeah, those are probably two of my favorite events.
Mike: You obviously have a passion for music in general. Do you have an artist that you're listening to right now?
Dallas Jackson: Oh man. I listen to all kinds of music. Let me think here. Who am I listening to right now?
I’ve kind of been thrown down a classic rabbit hole because my son was born about a little under three weeks ago. When we were in the delivery room, obviously I'm going to play DJ and play some music, get the mood right.
We tried a few different things, and when the nurses and doctors started dancing and she was comfortable, I knew it was right. So Rocker was born to Hall & Oates when he came out. He's got some taste in music now.
I don't know. I've been going down the classic ’80s and ’90s rabbit hole lately. I listen to a lot of rock too, so AC/DC, Metallica, all that stuff. I'm actually going to Metallica in the Sphere here this year, so I'm excited for that.
Mike: That's going to be amazing. I haven't been to the Sphere yet. I'm in Phoenix, so I'm not that far away, but I haven't had a chance to get to the Sphere yet.
Dallas Jackson: Nice. That's where my fiancée is from. That's of course where we built The Hondo.
Mike: Very cool. That's awesome.
Last question for you is, if you're only able to give one piece of advice, what would that one piece of advice be?
Dallas Jackson: No matter what kind of pressure you're under, always sticking to upholding integrity is important. When you get under pressure, if you make a certain decision that could ultimately be a detriment to your career and/or life, you just can't take that back.
I'm trying to think how my dad always says it. You can lose everything tomorrow, so don't live as if you can't, like you're untouchable.
I've seen some people in the startup spaces and music spaces where they get a big head and they make crazy decisions that are going to be a detriment to them in the long run.
So it’s always upholding integrity and making sure you're treating people right, not taking shortcuts. I would say that's ultimately the most important thing.
Mike: I couldn't agree with you more. That's something that I always abide by myself too. There might be ways that I might have found a shortcut in the past, but in the end, it's never worth it.
That's why I'm able to still do the things that I love to do today, because I try as hard as I can to treat people with respect. That's why people come back to me to do things.
I cannot agree with you more. You never know what tomorrow is going to give you and who you treat today. I think just in general, not even with an expectation, you never know where people's lives are going to lead in the future, including your own.
Dallas Jackson: Oh yeah, absolutely. At the end of the day, it's all about taking the ride and doing things the right way. If you take a shortcut to jump ahead and that ultimately costs you, that could just throw everything off.
There's no reason to do it.
Mike: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much again, and congratulations, by the way, on being a new father. Congratulations. I'm so happy for you.
Dallas Jackson: Yeah, it's been great. Who needs sleep? It's been fun. He is hilarious. He is a busy little guy at night. I guess I should have known that. Naming him Rocker, he's going to be a night owl, I guess.
Mike: Yeah, his life is already set up for him. That's great.
Congratulations again, and congratulations on all your amazing ventures, especially with TipSee Music. Obviously, the more opportunities we have for musicians in this space, the better. So thank you so much for doing these things.
Dallas Jackson: Thank you, Michael. I appreciate you having me.