BRAYDEN FIGUEROA

2024 was a year of growth—a year of betting on myself. I left my dream job with the Lakers to chase a bigger one: building @bluestripestudios from scratch and leveling up @the505podcast . I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a nonstop grind since the day I quit, but this week between Christmas and New Year’s finally gave me the time to sit back, reflect, and appreciate just how far we’ve come. If your year didn’t go the way you hoped, that’s okay. Growth isn’t linear, and the toughest seasons set you up for the biggest wins. Keep betting on yourself—it’s always worth it. A few snapshots from a year of big changes and bigger growth. 1️⃣ Walked away from the Lakers to take the leap. 2️⃣ Worked on multiple Nike campaigns with @bluestripestudios 3️⃣ Helped hundreds of rocks go full-time in their creative careers. 4️⃣ Hit VidCon with my guy Sam and the crew @artlist.io 5️⃣ Went to Austin with @messenger & @facebook 6️⃣ Focused on my health @monarchclubs 7️⃣ Took a pod trip to Utah—still dreaming about those views. 8️⃣ Ran my first marathon (and haven’t touched running shoes since, lol). 9️⃣ Filmed a passion project about my family’s horse racing business, coming in 2025. 🔟 Uploaded 48 pod episodes with @the505podcast None of this would’ve been possible without the rocks who’ve supported me along the way. To everyone who’s been a part of this journey in any way—thank you. Here’s to building even more in 2025. If I could give one piece of advice heading into 2025: bet on yourself, but be prepared to work for it. Ask yourself where you really want to be a year from now—and then go all in. One speed all gas no brakes. 🦶 ⛽️ Here’s to 2025 and everything ahead. HAPPY NYE 🎉

3.5 years of hard work to get here. And we’re just getting started. Thanks @garyvee for coming on the show 🤝🏼 The rocks are gonna love this EP 🪨🎙️ 📷 - @isojordin

10 years ago, I started posting online. Since then, a camera has taken me courtside at Lakers games, to the end zone of an Oregon Ducks overtime win, on stage with world-class artists, to remote islands in Indonesia, and into conversations with people I’ve looked up to. Over the last decade, I’ve made thousands of videos for brands, worked full-time for the Lakers, built two companies, and put out over 156 episodes of The 505 Podcast. I’ve been chasing this dream since day one, even when it made no sense to anyone else. We started @the505podcast to be a resource for creators and business owners figuring it out. We built @bluestripestudios to help brands actually stand out in a social-first world. Both were dreams for years. And now they’re the focus of my everyday. I’m fortunate to do work I care about, but more importantly, I’ve tried to share what I’ve learned along the way. Because I’ve been the one searching for answers, cold emailing, watching tutorials, hoping something would finally click. So here’s what I’d go back and tell my younger self: 1. Slow is fast 2. Comparison is a killer 3. Keep your ideas close 4. Stop trying to convince people just go 5. Consistency compounds 6. Surround yourself with people doing cool things 7. Fitness should always have a place in your life 8. You’ll regret inaction more than failure 9. Boring work wins 10. Burn the damn boats there’s never a perfect time to leap Thank you to every person who’s watched, listened, shared, hired us, or believed in the vision. And a special shoutout to my mom, Brenda, the person who told me to drop my major and go after what I really wanted. None of this happens without her. Appreciate you all. See you tomorrow 🪨🪨

Nike Swim Spring Campaign x @bluestripestudios Director: @sheefy_ap DP: 🪨 First: @rt.pitts Producer: @omarjmurphy 1st AD: @_wilmink Gaffer: @dittydays Kg: Wayne Vespi Grip: @jakeviespi Editor: 🪨 VFX: @jacehardwick Art: @nick_vawter Wardrobe: @whoaitschlo Adult Talent: @katieseriale PA: @juliagiordano_ PA: @danny.s21

Full spot dropping this week from @bluestripestudios for @nikeswim So hyped to show you how this one turned out. 🪨 BTS 👨‍💻: @uliabundis

The Business of @coachella I found out while making this video that year 1 they actually lost $1M… imagine if they shut it down right there. There’s a lot every business can learn from this machine. I could talk about it for hours. The amount of eyeballs on YouTube alone had to be record breaking. Just getting into the festival on day 2 took over an hour. Shoulder to shoulder the entire time. My biggest takeaway is how important world building really is. The second you walk through those gates you’re transported. The artwork. The stage design. The content. The revenue models tying it all together. It’s a well oiled machine that continues to dominate culture. They truly have something for everyone. Sit on a hill, get front row, or just hang and eat good food. From a content perspective, the fans do a lot of heavy lifting. Everywhere you look someone is filming or taking photos. Millions of pieces of content they didn’t have to pay for 😂 That said… the camera ops were on a different level. The frames on those screen were 🔥🔥 Creators w/ platforms = extended distribution Fans = UGC machine FOMO = future ticket sales That’s the real flywheel. Should we break this all down on a full pod? 👀 🪨

200 episodes of @the505podcast There are over 4.5 million podcasts globally. Only about 2.5% make it to 200 episodes. 200 times we set up the lights, mics, and cameras. 178 of those were in our first apartment. The OG 505. Apartment 505. That’s where the name came from. We were great at naming things. As you now know. Since then we’ve taken the show to New York to sit down with Gary Vaynerchuk in Hudson Yards, Hong Kong, Texas, Arizona and back to New York again. We’ve gotten pretty good at away games. Even though in Hong Kong, 5 minutes before our episode with Ali Abdaal, we blew the entire circuit using the wrong voltage. Still recorded a banger. 200 feels crazy!! 90% of podcasts don’t make it past episode 10. To be a top 1% podcast you need 4,177+ downloads in the first week. Grateful to say we’re there. 4 years. 200 episodes. This is what happens when you keep showing up. When you don’t quit. When you fight for something you believe can work. To the brands that backed us early and believed in what we were building. Thank you. Special shoutout to Dikla, Lea and Alaina for helping us push this forward. To every guest who has sat across from us. Thank you for going deep and sharing real knowledge with the Rocks. The level of people we’ve had on this show is still wild to think about. To the Rocks. You’ve been here through everything. Even the 2 month hiatus in year one. There is no show without you. To the 505 team behind the scenes. Uli, this engine doesn’t run without you. To my friends, familia, business partners, and Chlo. Thank you for believing in me. Grateful doesn’t even cover it. To the next 200!!! 🪨🪨🪨

Ep 198 w/ @greglavslife live now on YouTube This was one of my favorite episodes we’ve ever done on the show. Greg dropped so much game for almost 2 hours on the pod this week and it’s live now on YouTube! Comment “Bloom” and we’ll send you the episode 🤝🪨

Almave x BLUE STRIPE

@ghoffbrand was one of the most insightful conversations we’ve ever had on @the505podcast Decades of knowledge from inside the walls of my favorite brand, Nike. Here are just a few of the insights that I took away from our conversation. Also had to go digging for all my old shoe pics. Those are my high school wrestling collection of limited edition Nike shoes that I tracked down from resellers all over the country. Comment “Greg” for the full episode and I’ll dm it over 🤝

This week we’ll put out episode #197…. Over 4 years in and we’re just getting started. If you’re interested at all in business, entrepreneurship or building a personal brand online this is the show for you! So many amazing conversations with the best people. Go check it out now on YouTube!

So hyped that I got the chance to debut my short film last weekend but it really got me thinking about how many creators feel about their #’s online. We get so wrapped up on something “performing” to these made up expectations that we forget about the amazing people on the other side. This film fest had about 400 people in attendance and it felt like we were at Coachella 🤣 So next time a video doesn’t hit your expectations remember that those are real people behind those numbers choosing to spend time with something you created.