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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

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Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

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Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

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Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

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Speaker 1: Donald J.

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Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.

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Speaker 1: I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 1: Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the

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Speaker 1: lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal

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Speaker 1: aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your

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Speaker 1: next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned,

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Speaker 1: and deported. You will never return. But if you register

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Speaker 1: using our CBP home app and leave now, you could

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Speaker 1: be allowed to return legally. Do what's right.

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Speaker 2: Leave now.

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Speaker 1: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back. We are in the home

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Speaker 4: studios and we have a special guest today. April Showers

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Speaker 4: rings made flowers.

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Speaker 5: That's a fact.

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Speaker 4: That's what they say.

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Speaker 5: How many times you heard that growing.

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Speaker 2: Up less than a million.

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Speaker 5: Maybe somewhere around there, somewhere around.

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Speaker 4: There, is that your real name? Born and raised April Showers.

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Speaker 2: My first serf, Herman Showers, is my father.

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Speaker 4: So what what? That's why they named you April Showers.

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Speaker 4: Got to the same.

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Speaker 2: Yes, because if I was a boy, I would be

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Speaker 2: Thunder because I'm born in July.

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Speaker 4: Thundershower.

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Speaker 2: That's crazy, you know, a running back or something like that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, thun the Showers off boxer box definitely in a

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Speaker 4: w W. You don't even need a boxing name. That'll

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Speaker 4: be a boxing name and think about that. Yeah, Thundershowers all.

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Speaker 5: You could work for. Okay, see, okay, some of the possibility.

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Speaker 5: It's a fat and I just had everybody know. She

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Speaker 5: walked in with a different type of energy.

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Speaker 6: Today we'll get into that, but there's definitely a West

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Speaker 6: Coast flavor.

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Speaker 5: To it for sure.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, West Coast states on you.

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Speaker 2: I have been oh last before you got here.

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Speaker 4: All about my take on this battle. Shout out to

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Speaker 4: the West Coast.

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Speaker 5: Yo, I'm happy for y'all. I'm happy for hip hop.

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Speaker 4: Shout out to l A man.

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Speaker 7: But we're from New York, so.

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Speaker 2: I know, I know We're good though, all right, your

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Speaker 2: birth park.

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Speaker 7: So that's a fast let's not forgot we're claiming that.

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Speaker 4: So April is a pioneering entrepreneur, founder of Afro Unicorn,

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Speaker 4: are the first black woman on fully licensed character brand

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Speaker 4: and major retail And this is simple.

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Speaker 5: Oh, in case you were wondering, wondering, Yeah.

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Speaker 4: In case you were wondering. So you know, it's groundbreaking brand,

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Speaker 4: celebrates diversity and empowered women and children of color, and

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Speaker 4: has sold over twenty million of sales. It's part speaker.

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Speaker 4: You've been on numerous platforms like over thirty. I saw

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Speaker 4: in the bio, Yes, sir, everything from.

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Speaker 2: This was it though I saw it on the board,

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Speaker 2: like this was on my board.

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Speaker 7: So I saw it in the bio. It said at

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Speaker 7: least twenty twenty four. Yeah, I said, we spoke this

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Speaker 7: into first, and we've met before. I think at the

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Speaker 7: time you were about to do or you had just

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Speaker 7: done CBS in.

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Speaker 2: The morning, right, Oh you remember me. We met at

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Speaker 2: what's it called New York Fashion Week Haarlem at Apollo.

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Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, and you had just done it. Yeah, that's true.

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Speaker 4: So this is going to be a dope conversation talking

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Speaker 4: about you know, the motivational speaking the products entrepreneurship, your journey.

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Speaker 4: So thank you for joining us, appreciate.

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Speaker 2: It and thank you for having me.

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Speaker 4: Yes. Sure, so all right, let's get into it. Where

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Speaker 4: does this start? Right? Because you're from La, south central LA.

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Speaker 4: We just found that out.

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Speaker 5: The albums might have given it in a way as well.

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Speaker 4: Shot to my La family all money and you know

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Speaker 4: those guys the ice cube. You know, we got a

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Speaker 4: lot of friends in La. But okay, how do you

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Speaker 4: get the vision to become an entrepreneur? What's the first

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Speaker 4: steps to actually, you know, achieve this goal and explain

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Speaker 4: the actual product behind the unicorn?

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Speaker 2: Okay, that's a lot so first off, entrepreneurial it was

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Speaker 2: in me. It's a spirit that I've had since I

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Speaker 2: was about fourteen years old. My first gig was I

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Speaker 2: was nineteen and I hired a bunch of young ladies

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Speaker 2: that were like my mini means to be PA's for

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Speaker 2: other people in the entertainment industry. So I started that

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Speaker 2: at nineteen and then from there I just was always

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Speaker 2: trying to find a hustle. I really do think it's

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Speaker 2: in you because a lot of people think when they

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Speaker 2: work nine to five, like I just don't want to

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Speaker 2: work for nobody else. But if you not working the

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Speaker 2: nine to five, how the nine to five is supposed

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Speaker 2: to be worked, you're not going to work for yourself

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Speaker 2: more Like, I think that that's so false. Fast forward

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Speaker 2: a little bit too where how I got to afric unicorn.

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Speaker 2: I own to operate a state farm agency about to

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Speaker 2: hit year thirteen. I'm also a licensed real estate broker.

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Speaker 2: So a friend kept referring to me as a unicorn

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Speaker 2: on the Most Important Single Mother Too Amazing Young Black

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Speaker 2: Boys on a row student boys shout out to Jesse

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Speaker 2: and Christopher and so my friend kept telling me I

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Speaker 2: was a unicorn. He was like, you're a unicorn. Your

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Speaker 2: unicorn said for like two years, Like why you keep

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Speaker 2: calling me that? He's like, well, because you have the

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Speaker 2: businesses that you're maintaining, you're raising the boys. You know

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Speaker 2: you're doing it. I said, well, I'm a woman. That's

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Speaker 2: what I'm built to do. Like He's like, nah, April,

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Speaker 2: you do it an extraordinary level. That's what makes you

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Speaker 2: a unicorn. So the idea of being a unicorn came

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Speaker 2: from my friend. I googled it because I didn't really

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Speaker 2: know what unicorns were. I saw they were unique. They

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Speaker 2: were I'm like, I'm definitely unique. I'm all things black

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Speaker 2: girl magic, and I started using the emojis in our

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Speaker 2: phone until one day I was like, dang, why is

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Speaker 2: it white? Like it don't resonate with me anymore. So

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Speaker 2: I actually went to go find one that looked like me.

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Speaker 2: I couldn't find one, so I said, complaining about it,

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Speaker 2: I said, I'm gonna create one that looks like me.

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Speaker 2: And then during the creation of it, we had different

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Speaker 2: shades of it, and I'm like, Yo, this looks like

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Speaker 2: a movement, and I bet it's so many other women

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Speaker 2: out there that felt like I was feeling, didn't know

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Speaker 2: that they had the unicorn within them. I'm gonna go

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Speaker 2: find my tribe. So that's how it kind of started

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Speaker 2: with me creating a platform in twenty nineteen to highlight

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Speaker 2: other entrepreneurs, to shine light on them, to let them

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Speaker 2: know that anything is possible, and to give them something

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Speaker 2: that represented who they were that they could physically wear.

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Speaker 2: So at the first drop was just apparel. It was

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Speaker 2: just a T shirt, and then the like to Tiffany Haddis,

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Speaker 2: Sherry Shepherd, Lisha Keys, all of them jumped on board

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Speaker 2: immediately because I would just be in their comments and

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Speaker 2: DM saying, hey, have you ever sent after Unicorn? Before

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Speaker 2: I created a brand of women of color who hustle

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Speaker 2: follow the movement, they already resonated themselves with either Black

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Speaker 2: Unicorn or super Mom or super entrepreneurnewers. When they slid

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Speaker 2: over to my page, they were like, dang, that Unicorn

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Speaker 2: represents who I am. So now fast forward maybe a

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Speaker 2: year or two later, and I'm skipping the line. We

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Speaker 2: could always go back, but Walmart reaches out after a

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Speaker 2: video went viral of a little girl wearing afric Unicorn

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Speaker 2: shirt and they saw all the comments. I said, that's

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Speaker 2: Africancorn's baby, that's after Unicorns apparel. And she reached out

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Speaker 2: and was like, hey, can you what you consider doing

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Speaker 2: party supplies with us? And that's what got me into

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Speaker 2: licensing again. I said a lot, But we could go

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Speaker 2: all the way back, because it's it's.

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Speaker 5: Deep twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 6: We launched you, right, but then twenty is the pandemic,

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Speaker 6: So how are you navigating through that?

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Speaker 7: Because is it just is it still T shirts during

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Speaker 7: the pandemic or did you have to change the business.

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Speaker 6: Model or adapt to Obviously e commerce might have worked

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Speaker 6: into your benefit. What was that like during pandemic time

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Speaker 6: as you had just larger Brent?

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Speaker 2: So at first I was printing shirts right, and then

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Speaker 2: I realized that that wasn't gonna get it for me

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Speaker 2: because the orders were coming in. There's three different shades.

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Speaker 2: I couldn't figure out, Okay, how many at the time

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Speaker 2: I have vanilla, Mocha and caramel, Like, how many Vanilla's

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Speaker 2: gonna be three xls? How a man gonna be two xs?

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Speaker 2: So it was very complicated. So I immediately switched over to

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Speaker 2: print on demand. And when print on demand, they have

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Speaker 2: other accessories that I added. As soon as I dropped

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Speaker 2: the shirt, people were like, oh, do you have this

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Speaker 2: on a notebook? Can I get it on the backpack?

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Speaker 2: Can I get it on this or that? And so

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Speaker 2: I was like, well, whatever, they got it on print

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Speaker 2: on demand, I'll find it and I'll get it out.

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Speaker 2: So my focus from day one was just to put

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Speaker 2: it on as many people that's possible, so I could

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Speaker 2: have walking billboards, gotcha.

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Speaker 4: So talk about all the product lines that you actually

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Speaker 4: have within the umbrella of the Unicorn. You have the

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Speaker 4: merchant tell.

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Speaker 2: By everything, so there's We've put out probably about five

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Speaker 2: hundred different skews categories about twenty five. So we have haircare,

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Speaker 2: have a full line, magical tresses, sham food conditioner, edge control.

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Speaker 2: Then we have toys, plush, coloring books. I just dropped

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Speaker 2: another book with Random House yesterday, stepped my step into

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Speaker 2: reading book. That's my sixth book with Random House. Graphic

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Speaker 2: novels with Andrews McNeil coming out in July. Of course,

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Speaker 2: the apparel, backpacks, suitcases, fruit snacks, cakes in every grocery store, cookies,

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Speaker 2: I leave pajamas. That's a whole different category in itself.

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Speaker 2: Women's lines a different category. Am I leaving out? We

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Speaker 2: had and pellines at one point. We're working with ride

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Speaker 2: alongs right now, so you'll be able to have like,

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Speaker 2: you know, the little RVs or whatever they call the kids,

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Speaker 2: some cars, like the little escalades and stuff.

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Speaker 4: Oh like the toy trucks.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the toy trucks. We're getting into that, ya said.

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Speaker 2: The hair hair accessories, so like you got bowls and

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Speaker 2: clips and all of that. And I know I'm leaving

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Speaker 2: a lot of things, puzzles, trying to walk out. I

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Speaker 2: got bandages, So how does this okay?

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Speaker 4: So you have an idea for a unicorn, right, just

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Speaker 4: the symbolicness of a black unicorn, which represents strength and

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Speaker 4: uniqueness and black women pretty much paraphrasing, right. So then

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Speaker 4: you start with a T shirt, which that's easy to

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Speaker 4: print up. Anybody can do T shirts, right, and people

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Speaker 4: start wearing a T shirt? Right, So how do you

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Speaker 4: go into all of these other different are you just

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Speaker 4: licensing your name to products? Like is it like white labeled?

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Speaker 4: Like how are you going to like all these other

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Speaker 4: different verticals?

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Speaker 2: So I love that we're going to dive into this

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Speaker 2: because I always say that licensing it's a ninety eight

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Speaker 2: billion dollar industry, and forty six percent of that is

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Speaker 2: character licensing. But it's still like a two percent of industry, right,

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Speaker 2: so only really two percent know what licensing in the

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Speaker 2: character space really is. But so now I tell people

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Speaker 2: I'm the owner of a fully licensed character brand, They're like,

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Speaker 2: oh great, now, what is that? My direct competitors are Disney, Marvel,

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Speaker 2: and Nick. So to find out for Unicorn, wherever you

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Speaker 2: see Mickey Mouse, you will see after Unicorn next to it.

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Speaker 2: Those companies they are licensed character brands, meaning that they

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Speaker 2: are the license sore they own the intellectual property, and

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Speaker 2: then they find licensees who either directly manufacture or they

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Speaker 2: have manufacturing facilities abroad or domestically where they ship directly

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Speaker 2: into retail. What they do as a licensee, they get

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Speaker 2: the license Sore, Disney, Marvel, and Nick. They give them

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Speaker 2: an upfront minimum guarantee to be able to say, Hey,

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Speaker 2: if you allow me to do I have underwear too.

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Speaker 2: If you allow me to do underwear with your logo

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Speaker 2: on it, with your character artwork on it, I'm going

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Speaker 2: to pay you X amount of dollars in advance in

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Speaker 2: addition to also a royalty for every item. So so

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Speaker 2: that is what licensing is. I always try to bring

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Speaker 2: it back to a little bit of hip hop to

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Speaker 2: make people really understand that infamous interview with Kanye and

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Speaker 2: Sway when Kanye was saying, look, I'm trying to get

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Speaker 2: like the Ralph Laurens and the Calvin Kleines of the world,

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Speaker 2: and Sway was like, but you're rich, Kanye, just go

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Speaker 2: take all your millions and make your own products. Kanye

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Speaker 2: was like, you ain't got the answers, Like I lost

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Speaker 2: twenty seven million trying to do it that way. That

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Speaker 2: ain't it? They doing something that I don't know what

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Speaker 2: they're doing to get it out to mass distribution. Fast

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Speaker 2: forward six or eight maybe eight years later, he does

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Speaker 2: the licensing deal with Adidas and becomes a billionaire. On paper,

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Speaker 2: we could talk about how good or bad his deal was,

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Speaker 2: but in essence, licensing allows you to get mass distribution

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Speaker 2: very quickly without having to have the upfront cost.

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Speaker 5: All right, I got that.

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Speaker 6: So you said your item Unicorn is going to be sold.

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Speaker 6: So I imagine the a's a shelf. Disney is licensed

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Speaker 6: to Mickey Mouse, right, Nigga's going to license doorally Explore,

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Speaker 6: and I got Spider Man. And then you're just sitting

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Speaker 6: on the shelf. You take it to somebody, you stay,

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Speaker 6: say here's the amount of money.

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Speaker 4: Now so you oh, so you are licensing or you're

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Speaker 4: not licensing?

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Speaker 5: Our license?

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Speaker 4: Your license.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm the only black woman to have a fully

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Speaker 2: licensed character brand.

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Speaker 5: Now you choose the retail or. How does that work?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 6: So we get in Walmart, how do we get the target,

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Speaker 6: how do we get to how do we get into

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Speaker 6: those How does that work?

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Speaker 2: So traditionally it will work with the licensees would have

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Speaker 2: the relationship. So there's one there's one guy that does

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Speaker 2: underwear for everybody, for all retail, for the majority of it.

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Speaker 2: He does all the underwear for every single character that

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Speaker 2: that you see. If you flip over the package, you'll

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Speaker 2: see I open into this new world. Like now I

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Speaker 2: know when every I go through the stores, all I

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Speaker 2: do is flip over packages because I want to know

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Speaker 2: who's actually distributing these packages. I mean, this product. So

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Speaker 2: the way that it will work is that in your

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Speaker 2: contract you will specify the retail channels that they're allowed

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Speaker 2: to sell into.

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Speaker 5: Gotcha.

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Speaker 2: But being new to the space and not really we

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Speaker 2: learned it from the gate. So me and my partner

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Speaker 2: at Skia Fountain, Hey, Skia, Me and the Skia watched

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Speaker 2: the toys that made us on Netflix and that was

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Speaker 2: the behind the stories behind the scene of like Ninja, Turtles, Hello,

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Speaker 2: Kitty he Man and all these other great properties. Right,

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Speaker 2: and it talked about licensing because I didn't know anything

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Speaker 2: about it when Walmart presented it to me. Right, So

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Speaker 2: we learned that we had to build relationships quickly and fast.

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Speaker 2: We understood that if we wanted to get to target

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Speaker 2: or we wanted Okay, I think the first thing we

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Speaker 2: first thing we had was party supplies, right, So I

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Speaker 2: had two licensees to prepare the party supplies, and when

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Speaker 2: we dropped in Walmart, we had twenty two skews. So

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Speaker 2: when you say party, you're like, you know, napkins and plates,

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Speaker 2: but that those plush that was also in party. And

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Speaker 2: then from there we went to apparel. The unique thing

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Speaker 2: about licensing, it's such a small industry. They all know

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Speaker 2: each other. That's what Kanye was saying, like they got

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Speaker 2: this information that's not getting out. I say, it's never

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Speaker 2: lack of talent with us, it's always lack of information

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Speaker 2: because we always have what it takes to succeed, but

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Speaker 2: the information does not trickle down to us. And I

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Speaker 2: felt like, look, I know how it works, so we're

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Speaker 2: gonna go out and find as much information as we

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Speaker 2: possibly can. So I just started going to stores and

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Speaker 2: flipping over packages. I would see who manufactured. I would

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Speaker 2: go on LinkedIn. I would find that company. I would

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Speaker 2: search the people that worked there. I would see who

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Speaker 2: were the buyers. I'll DM them saying, hey, Walmart's bringing

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Speaker 2: us in. We're a new brand. I would love to

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Speaker 2: have a conversation, but they were already talking, so they're

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Speaker 2: also like two degrees removed. So if you're on the

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Speaker 2: underwear side, you know the pajama guy because he's probably

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Speaker 2: your cousin or your uncle. And then the pajama guy

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Speaker 2: knows the shirt guy. And that's how it's just word

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Speaker 2: of mouth really, but it's the information that we just

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Speaker 2: don't have and that doesn't come down this way.

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Speaker 5: So what's the first product? Right?

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Speaker 6: Because I imagine and people listen to the story, Now

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Speaker 6: out your trademarket, right, and then the first product is

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Speaker 6: what after the T shirts?

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Speaker 2: In retail party supplies parties, Walmart reached out and asked,

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Speaker 2: can we create a line for party supplies?

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Speaker 6: So after they do the party supplies, they see the

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Speaker 6: sales of that, they say, do you.

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Speaker 5: Have more what?

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Speaker 2: They didn't even see the sales. So we were in

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Speaker 2: a unique position after George Floyd and we were part

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Speaker 2: of that whole push for DEI right where everyone wanted

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Speaker 2: to bring something to check the box off. And I'm okay,

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Speaker 2: I'm okay with being brought in like that. I'm just

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Speaker 2: gonna make sure I stay in right. So I believe

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Speaker 2: that they were trying to find diverse properties at the time,

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Speaker 2: so it aligned that they found after Unicorn, and they

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Speaker 2: brought us in that way, right, So that's party Supplies

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Speaker 2: was the first and immediately when Walmart is the largest

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Speaker 2: retailler in the US. I don't know if people know that.

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Speaker 2: They think target. Target has about eighteen hundred doors, Walmart

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Speaker 2: has about four thousand. They're huge. So if Walmart has

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Speaker 2: your attention, everyone's talking now. So before we even went

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Speaker 2: to sales, we already had our deal for apparel before

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Speaker 2: we so Walmart reached out August of twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 2: We launched in May twenty twenty two, and we were

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Speaker 2: already in maybe four categories before we sold anything.

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Speaker 5: Okay, so each category you're getting the check.

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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, So how does the licensing actually work? Like?

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Speaker 4: Can you break it down? Like the deal structure?

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Speaker 2: So you get a minimum guarantee. It could be anything

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Speaker 2: from ten thousand to a million.

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Speaker 4: That no matter even if it doesn't sell anything, you're

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Speaker 4: gonna get That's what minimum guarantee means. You're gonna get

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Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars no matter what, or you get a

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Speaker 4: million dollars no matter what.

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Speaker 2: Right, right, And then you get a royalty. So hopefully

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Speaker 2: the licensee will be able to recoup that minimum guarantee

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Speaker 2: based off of sales, and then once they get that

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Speaker 2: minimum guarantee back, then you start receiving your royalties from that.

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Speaker 2: Royalties for a character bran can go anywhere between eight

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Speaker 2: percent to about fifteen fifteen percent.

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Speaker 4: So okay. So you get let's say a half a

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Speaker 4: million dollars no matter what happens, and then you get

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Speaker 4: a fifteen percent royalty. But now that fifteen percent doesn't

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Speaker 4: kick in until the first half a million dollars is

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Speaker 4: actually recooped. Correct, That's how it works.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 4: After that five hundred thousand is actually recooped, then you

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Speaker 4: start to earn in the royalty. You don't earn royalties

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Speaker 4: from day one.

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Speaker 2: Only against the minimum guarantee. I don't receive. I earn it,

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Speaker 2: but I don't receive You don't.

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Speaker 4: Receive it until the minimum guarantee is met, correct, and

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Speaker 4: then you start you personally start to get paid or

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Speaker 4: whoever personally starts to get paid. So okay. So in

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Speaker 4: your opinion, why is that better than like actually starting

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Speaker 4: a shampool brisoness yourself.

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Speaker 2: Well, let me explain something. With licensing. I'm the one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent owner of the brand, so creatively and quality control.

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Speaker 2: Nothing moves without me. So it's one hundred percent owned

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Speaker 2: by afro Unicorn, which is owned by me.

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Speaker 4: So, but it's produced by somebody else. And right, so

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Speaker 4: it's produced by somebody else, You own it, but they

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Speaker 4: they'll get the majority profit because they're actually producing it.

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Speaker 4: They're putting all the money up, right in a sense.

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Speaker 2: In a sense, but like Kanye said, he lost twenty

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Speaker 2: seven million trying to do it the other one. No.

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Speaker 4: No, But I'm trying to educate the people. So I'm

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Speaker 4: not saying that that's a bad thing, but I'm saying, like,

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Speaker 4: why is that more beneficial to me? It was more

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Speaker 4: beneficial because obviously it's less overhead, right, and you don't

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Speaker 4: have to put the money out yourself. It's less risk

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Speaker 4: and you can scale quicker as opposed to you focus.

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Speaker 4: Like if you try to do everything yourself with one

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Speaker 4: particular product, that might take five years to get that

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Speaker 4: product off the ground, where now you can do thirty

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Speaker 4: different products. Right, but you have other people that's actually

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Speaker 4: putting up the money, doing all of the the labor

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Speaker 4: and stuff like that, So that allows you to move quicker.

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Speaker 4: So you're getting less money, but you're moving faster.

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Speaker 2: You could expand faster, and now you can really be

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Speaker 2: a CEO and market the business because once you're once

402
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Speaker 2: you have a warehouse and you're trying to you know,

403
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Speaker 2: you got fork lips and boxing and moving units and

404
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Speaker 2: this got to go out. And then also is capacity

405
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Speaker 2: because if you got a call today that that little

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Speaker 2: notebook that y'all have right there, the little sticker book.

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Speaker 2: Target ordered over a million of those, So it's also capacity.

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Speaker 2: So if someone called and said, I will I love

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Speaker 2: y'all shirts, I need y'all to deliver five hundred thousand

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Speaker 2: of them in two months.

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Speaker 6: Let me so as you were saying, I'm thinking to

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Speaker 6: myself on top of everything Shaty just said, because I

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Speaker 6: think those are all brilliant points as to why.

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Speaker 5: It makes sense.

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Speaker 6: It's a lot of times when we start businesses, we're

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Speaker 6: not ready to scale, right. We don't have the infrastructure,

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Speaker 6: we may not have the capital to scale.

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Speaker 5: Right. So you're saying that a video went viral.

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Speaker 6: A lot of times in our businesses, we go viral,

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Speaker 6: but we don't even have the inventory to match the demand.

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Speaker 6: Sorry for the unicorn, right, But in.

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Speaker 7: Your case, you don't even have to worry about that, right,

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Speaker 7: because they're going to match the demand because they're the

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Speaker 7: retailer that's providing the actual product.

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Speaker 2: Yes, not the retailer directly, but the licensee. Yes, licensee

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Speaker 2: is going to But one thing. When I build Afriancorn,

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Speaker 2: I built it to sell. I believe every business should

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Speaker 2: be built to sell, and there's certain things that you

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Speaker 2: have to set into place. I didn't know about licensing again,

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Speaker 2: so the only option that I knew because I knew

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Speaker 2: day one, twenty nineteen, I said, I've been recorded after

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Speaker 2: yourcorn wild be a household name in a worldwide brand.

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Speaker 2: I knew that from the beginning. I just didn't know

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Speaker 2: how it was going to happen. I thought the only

435
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 2: option at that time was to sell it to a

436
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:27,400
Speaker 2: Mattel or to a Hasburrow.

437
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:27,959
Speaker 4: Like.

438
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,199
Speaker 2: I had no clue that Disney did not manufacture their

439
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 2: own products, that Marvel did not manufacture their own products,

440
00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 2: no clue. I thought I had to sell it to

441
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:41,280
Speaker 2: one of those guys in order to get it out there.

442
00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,240
Speaker 2: But hell, they're selling it to other people. Well, they're

443
00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 2: renting it to other people. Basically, that's what licensing is.

444
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 2: So yeah, what are you gonna say.

445
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:51,680
Speaker 5: Well, I was gonna you brought up those two.

446
00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 6: So I'm thinking to myself, at some point, if you

447
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 6: already knew I want to sell this thing, at some

448
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:57,679
Speaker 6: point where you approached by those brands, because those are

449
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 6: the two largest toy companies that I know, Hasbro and Mattel.

450
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:05,159
Speaker 6: Were you approached by them as they saw what was

451
00:24:05,200 --> 00:24:06,439
Speaker 6: happening inside of retail?

452
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:11,879
Speaker 2: So again they're like me, they are intellectual properties. So

453
00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:18,719
Speaker 2: Hasboro is a toy company that I would do a

454
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:25,560
Speaker 2: licensing deal with. Again, I didn't understand how they operated

455
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 2: to even know that that wasn't even really an option. Okay, So,

456
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:36,200
Speaker 2: like we had conversations when we first launched with Nickelodeon

457
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,280
Speaker 2: and they wanted to work on the animated series. Now

458
00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 2: that's where it gets a little bit different. So like

459
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,640
Speaker 2: Disney can come in and Nick can come in and say, hey,

460
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:50,800
Speaker 2: we want to make this a series. What will happen?

461
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 2: Sometimes in those deals you'll lose ownership. But so that's

462
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 2: not something we were interested in because Nick definitely wanted

463
00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:00,439
Speaker 2: the property in the beginning, but they knew that I

464
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 2: didn't want to lose any type of ownership in the brand.

465
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 6: So if they actually made an animated show about the character,

466
00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 6: they own the IP of the character now or just

467
00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,200
Speaker 6: the show, because even if they have the show, don't

468
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:13,720
Speaker 6: you still own the license for the products.

469
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 2: That's why I did not pull the trigger on it.

470
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,040
Speaker 2: I figure if we build as much as we could

471
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 2: on our own, once we get to the table, there's

472
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 2: not much they can negotiate with as it relates to

473
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 2: owning the IP. They could only own the rights for

474
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,640
Speaker 2: the animated series because we have too much product out

475
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 2: in the marketplace for you to own Afro Unicorn.

476
00:25:35,280 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 4: So you said you started with the attend to sell right, Yes,

477
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 4: so what you do early to set up systems in

478
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:45,199
Speaker 4: place that you knew that you would be beneficial to

479
00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 4: actually sell it?

480
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 2: On first thing trademark. A lot of people aren't prepared

481
00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 2: because they don't own their products. And I knew from

482
00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:56,640
Speaker 2: the gate if I have to sell them, you can't

483
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,399
Speaker 2: sell anything you do not own. So even if like

484
00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,399
Speaker 2: you're talking about viral moments, people could have them all

485
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:04,239
Speaker 2: the time. But if you're not ready, I'm from LA

486
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:05,920
Speaker 2: you stay ready, ain't got to get ready. Shout out

487
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 2: to sugar Free we side of Promona. But knowing that

488
00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 2: in order for me to sell it, I have to

489
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:16,159
Speaker 2: first own it. So my first step was, I know

490
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 2: this is gonna be big, I need to own it.

491
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,560
Speaker 2: So it was the trademark. The first person I actually

492
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:25,760
Speaker 2: hired was an accountant. I am terrified of going to prison,

493
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:29,200
Speaker 2: so I'm like, I've heard too many stories of taxes.

494
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 2: So I got my account on from day one, just

495
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 2: to make sure the books were clean because I know

496
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:35,919
Speaker 2: that's what they're going to want to look at to

497
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,200
Speaker 2: see you know your numbers. And then I worked, I hustled.

498
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 2: I wanted to get my numbers up so I could

499
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 2: make sure that there was a there was a valuation

500
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 2: for the company. And so that's what my focus was,

501
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 2: just to work hard and eventually someone was gonna notice,

502
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 2: and they did. They just showed me a different route

503
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:57,239
Speaker 2: to get it.

504
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:00,880
Speaker 6: So every time you added another vertical, another category, you're

505
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 6: adding to the valuation of the company. Is there a

506
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,359
Speaker 6: number that you're looking to get to, Because we talk

507
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 6: about technology companies and we always hear, oh it's a

508
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 6: fifteen xt multiple, it's a ten x multiple in this category,

509
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:18,040
Speaker 6: Like what is the multiple for this industry? And is

510
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,119
Speaker 6: that the goal to build as many categories to have

511
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:21,199
Speaker 6: that valuation go up.

512
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 2: So my goal is not to sell afric Unicorn. It's not.

513
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 2: We have opened up different legs and arms like African

514
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:35,359
Speaker 2: Corn Entertainment where we will build the hotels and the

515
00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 2: live location based entertainment like the family attraction centers, and

516
00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 2: that is something that we want to get funding behind

517
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 2: and eventually sell and make that public. But the IP

518
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 2: itself will forever just be owned unless they come in

519
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 2: with one hundred billion. Then I'm like, okay, want to

520
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,720
Speaker 2: be hundred bees. Because the thing about Afro Unicorn and

521
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,600
Speaker 2: what I really believe in is that it is a

522
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:10,879
Speaker 2: It's true. The reason why the buyers love it is

523
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 2: because it's organic, like we built this from the ground up.

524
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 2: It's not a major, major mass Sudio pushing it, and

525
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 2: it's really owned by a black person, and if you

526
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 2: remove me from the equation, it kind of just waters

527
00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:32,440
Speaker 2: down the brand, and I don't want that.

528
00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 4: So you talked about Kanye and he became a billionaire

529
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 4: because of Yasy licensing deal with Adidas. He owns one

530
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:46,400
Speaker 4: hundred percent of Yeasy, but it was distributed through Adidas,

531
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 4: and when Adidas dropped him, he lost four billion dollars

532
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:57,760
Speaker 4: in his net worth right, So what does that speak

533
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 4: to as far as on a licensing side, did he

534
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,000
Speaker 4: have a bad licensing deal?

535
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 2: One thousand percent?

536
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 4: Explain?

537
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:11,720
Speaker 2: So, if I remember correctly, in his contract, he gave

538
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 2: up creative control, and which means in his contract he

539
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 2: also didn't have the language stated that anything that was

540
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 2: developed by the licensee was owned by the licensere. So

541
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 2: when I go to the table with my licensees and

542
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 2: like we're looking at haircare like bowls and stuff, right,

543
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,320
Speaker 2: and they'll develop a different look of the unicorn, maybe

544
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:42,479
Speaker 2: a different polls or a different pattern or something, I

545
00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 2: still own it. So when they made any variation of

546
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 2: his product, they immediately grabbed ownership. I'm dealing with a

547
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 2: situation right now with the company not on the consumer

548
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 2: product side, but it's on a different side on the

549
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 2: production side. And I saw how in the beginning they

550
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 2: were trying to change the look of the unicorn and

551
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:07,719
Speaker 2: trying to change a lot of things about the unicorn

552
00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 2: because they wanted to own as much of the property

553
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 2: as they possibly could. So they probably tried to pull

554
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:17,400
Speaker 2: that on him, and I believe he said something like

555
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:21,600
Speaker 2: he don't read contracts, so.

556
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 5: Have there have there ever been any issues in terms

557
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 5: of trademarking. We're like when when I mean we come

558
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 5: from everywhere.

559
00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 7: It was like it was my little pony right like

560
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:31,960
Speaker 7: that that was and then it was I guess my

561
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 7: daughter kind of fell into this like Rainbow Dash and

562
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:37,800
Speaker 7: all those things. And so have you come into contact

563
00:30:37,840 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 7: with with people trying to make a similar product or

564
00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 7: similar trademark and how's that process been.

565
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 2: I did. It's hurtful for one, Like I take this

566
00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 2: personal because what I we didn't talk about how I

567
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 2: started the whole, why Nipsey and Tupacer up here, like

568
00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 2: how my arathon continues, How I have this ad gas

569
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 2: no breaks mentality that I launched this brand. My son

570
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 2: was in the hospital for twenty days. When he got out,

571
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 2: my favorite uncle died a massive heart attack. Seventeen hours later,

572
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 2: my uncle died. Six months later, my grandmother died, and

573
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 2: then we were in a global pandemic. I have a

574
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:20,400
Speaker 2: lot of heart and soul into this brand. So when

575
00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: someone tries to come out with their version of Afro Unicorn,

576
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 2: it's a serious problem. And so yeah, I had to

577
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 2: first I tried to ignore it. My thing was, I'm

578
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,239
Speaker 2: just gonna work harder, Like, I'm just gonna outwork them.

579
00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 2: I'm gonna outwork them, but it starts to become confusion

580
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:40,760
Speaker 2: in the marketplace, and so the trademark attorney was like, April,

581
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 2: you have confusion in the marketplace because people were purchasing

582
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 2: this other brand believing that they were buying Afro Unicorn.

583
00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 2: So then we had to take it to We had

584
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 2: to sue. Yeah, we had to the year.

585
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 5: Because it's domestic trademark or is it international as well?

586
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 2: Only some countries. You know, you have to trademarket in

587
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 2: every single country you go to. Right now, we're only

588
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,520
Speaker 2: in the US and Canada, so we have to strategically

589
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 2: get to the other countries and we're working towards it.

590
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,360
Speaker 2: But it's it definitely is a process. But this particular company,

591
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,400
Speaker 2: it took us a year to get to to get

592
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:22,680
Speaker 2: to a positive resolution that I'm still not really that

593
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 2: much happy with. But I'm back to my tham, I'm

594
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 2: just gonna outwork them, So.

595
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 4: So don't worry about the how. Yes, what does that mean?

596
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 2: I didn't know how it was going to be. On

597
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,720
Speaker 2: this interview with y'all, I knew it was gonna happen

598
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,880
Speaker 2: because I saw it. So you have to as an

599
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,280
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and well entrepreneurs, that's what we're speaking to. You

600
00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 2: have to see the end goal what it is. I

601
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:50,560
Speaker 2: knew African Crome is gonna be a household name in

602
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:53,320
Speaker 2: a worldwide brand, point blank period. You couldn't tell me

603
00:32:53,360 --> 00:32:56,080
Speaker 2: that it wasn't. I didn't know how it was going

604
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:56,680
Speaker 2: to get there.

605
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,200
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638
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640
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641
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642
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643
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644
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645
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647
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650
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651
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Speaker 1: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.

653
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland.

654
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:53,319
Speaker 2: Security is getting there through licensing right. I'm just a

655
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 2: real manifestor. I truly believe that whatever I see already

656
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,839
Speaker 2: exist in the future. Because you cannot see anything, you

657
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:04,840
Speaker 2: can't like. You can't tell your right foot to go

658
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:06,680
Speaker 2: like you got it. In order to walk, your brain

659
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 2: gotta tell your right foot to take the step right.

660
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:12,959
Speaker 2: So I truly believe that before anything can happen, because

661
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 2: it already exists, and I prove it to you. I

662
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,600
Speaker 2: know there's so many people out there that have seen

663
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 2: ideas that're like, dang, I had that idea because the

664
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 2: moment you thought about it, it already exists. The problem

665
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 2: is are you going to be there to see it through?

666
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,600
Speaker 2: So I don't worry about the how once I see it,

667
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:35,400
Speaker 2: and everybody knows this around me, they know it's April.

668
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 2: If April says it's going to happen, all money in,

669
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 2: all money in, that's a fact.

670
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 4: No money out. So are you using different companies for

671
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:48,440
Speaker 4: like the licensing or is it the same company?

672
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 2: I have over forty five different licensees. Licensing is by category.

673
00:36:55,760 --> 00:37:00,600
Speaker 2: So there's a company that does underwear, handcraft, there's a

674
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 2: company that does apparel, mad Engine, every single category. When

675
00:37:05,640 --> 00:37:08,520
Speaker 2: you start going into stores, start flipping over those packages.

676
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 4: So how'd you find these companies?

677
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 2: Flip over the packages? And I literally was in the stores.

678
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 2: I would shoot pictures to a ski and be like,

679
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 2: this is who I'm gonna get on LinkedIn. I'm gonna

680
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 2: find this company and we're gonna find who handles licensing.

681
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,440
Speaker 2: And then you reach out to them, yep, directly.

682
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:30,960
Speaker 4: And then you so you negotiate with being that they

683
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 4: didn't reach out to you, you reached out to them. They

684
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 4: have more leverage in this situation, right.

685
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 2: Sometimes, But once you have Walmart. So my my spade

686
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 2: was Walmart, like that was my eightes. I have Walmart.

687
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:47,200
Speaker 2: And once you know you have the attention of Walmart,

688
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:50,359
Speaker 2: their antennas are up. Okay because everyone wants to get

689
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 2: in Walmart. And people I know look at Walmart like

690
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 2: it's Walmart because we don't really shop at Walmart. I know,

691
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:56,799
Speaker 2: it's not a big thing here in New York. But

692
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:03,359
Speaker 2: for retail, they are the god. Walmart is the god

693
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 2: the retail and if you can't get your like everyone

694
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 2: it used to be is different now, but they're like,

695
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 2: in order for a property to be successful, it has

696
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 2: to be in Walmart.

697
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,320
Speaker 4: But so the relationship with Walmart is for every product

698
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 4: that you have, for one product, we have.

699
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 2: About fifteen categories at Walmart.

700
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:23,320
Speaker 4: So explain that deal though. So you go to Walmart

701
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,960
Speaker 4: and they're like, Okay, We're going to give you open

702
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:28,400
Speaker 4: range for a variety of different whatever you want.

703
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:33,560
Speaker 2: Every category has a buyer. So even at Walmart. Walmart

704
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:38,200
Speaker 2: is located in Bentonville, Arkansas, and I want to say

705
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:42,400
Speaker 2: they probably have shoot out. They own the city, like

706
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,799
Speaker 2: that's how many campuses they have, and every single category

707
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:48,919
Speaker 2: like that button there, there's a button.

708
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:50,479
Speaker 4: Buyer, So you got to go pitch to them.

709
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:52,680
Speaker 2: You have to pitch the actual buyer. So this is

710
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:56,879
Speaker 2: what happened for us. When the buyer that brought us

711
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 2: in for party supplies. I remember that Hot Topic had

712
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,759
Speaker 2: reached out to me the spring before, right, and I

713
00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:05,520
Speaker 2: didn't respond to them because when they told me the

714
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 2: royalty rate, I was like, that don't make no sense.

715
00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 2: I'm making more on my own, like I'm not doing that,

716
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 2: And I didn't really respond. I just let it hang.

717
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 2: They came back around the same time. Walmart came to

718
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 2: me and they said, hey, you never you know, rolled

719
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 2: this back. You didn't complete the contract. I said, okay,

720
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,120
Speaker 2: hold on. I went back to the buyer Walmart. I said,

721
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,719
Speaker 2: Hot Topic is interested in the after Unicorn product, which

722
00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:32,359
Speaker 2: was apparel at the time. I said, I wanted to

723
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 2: let you know before I respond to them, and her

724
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,920
Speaker 2: response was, wait a minute, give me to Monday. She

725
00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:41,160
Speaker 2: then sent the email out to all of her friend

726
00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,880
Speaker 2: buyers to tell them about this property after Unicorn, so

727
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,359
Speaker 2: then they reached out to me, and I didn't have

728
00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:51,879
Speaker 2: Like when the fruit snacks got reached out, I didn't

729
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 2: have a fruit snacks manufacturer at the time. But you know,

730
00:39:56,640 --> 00:39:58,720
Speaker 2: stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. So I

731
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 2: went to the store and I flipped th some fruit

732
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 2: snacks to find out who could I work with. But

733
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 2: that's how it works. And again, it sounds complicated, but

734
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:10,960
Speaker 2: it only sounds complicated because it sounds so easy. So

735
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 2: you're like, it can't be that easy. It is once

736
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 2: you have the information on how it actually works. But

737
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 2: every single category has a buyer. And what you were

738
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:29,759
Speaker 2: saying is when I reached out to the on LinkedIn,

739
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:33,839
Speaker 2: So true. I'm very very strategic. I'm a marketing genius.

740
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 2: So I knew when Walmart brought us in with party supplies,

741
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,160
Speaker 2: and then Apparel came in. We met with a Parel

742
00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 2: buyer and she immediately was like, I'm ordering this for

743
00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:49,279
Speaker 2: all doors, one hundred thousand units. It's needed. So I knew.

744
00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 2: I had Party, which you had two licensees. Apparel had

745
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 2: three licensees, and I think Party pulled in like cups

746
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 2: or something, So we have four we were meeting with again,

747
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:02,839
Speaker 2: so agents were coming to try to meet with us,

748
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:05,080
Speaker 2: and I would listen to what they were saying, like,

749
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,160
Speaker 2: I didn't understand how why we need to pay y'all

750
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:13,360
Speaker 2: X amount of percentage for bringing business that we have Walmart.

751
00:41:13,440 --> 00:41:13,560
Speaker 4: Like.

752
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:15,760
Speaker 2: So they're like, well, we're gonna do a press release.

753
00:41:15,800 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 2: I'm like, what, I could do a press release? So

754
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:20,920
Speaker 2: that's what we did. We did a press release to

755
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 2: the licensing trades that said we couldn't say Walmart. We

756
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,239
Speaker 2: just said new property is set to launch in one

757
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:30,880
Speaker 2: of the largest retailers. Everybody know who's the largest retailer

758
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:34,680
Speaker 2: and this is their property out for unicoranties are the partners.

759
00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 2: So once that went out on the trades, there's like

760
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:41,839
Speaker 2: six six magazines in that trade. They all read it

761
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:44,239
Speaker 2: and then they started to reach out. And the ones

762
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:46,080
Speaker 2: that didn't reach out are the ones that went to

763
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 2: the store and started flipping over packages to let them know,

764
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,800
Speaker 2: and then they just verified us with their cousin and

765
00:41:52,920 --> 00:41:56,200
Speaker 2: uncle because they all know each other. It's a real

766
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:57,280
Speaker 2: small knit community.

767
00:41:57,800 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 5: Yeah.

768
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 7: So in terms of because we spoke about twenty million

769
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 7: in sales, do you have a say, in the price

770
00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 7: points for each of the items in the categories, How

771
00:42:07,239 --> 00:42:09,320
Speaker 7: does that work or does the retail decide this is

772
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:10,680
Speaker 7: the price point we're going to put it out.

773
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:14,239
Speaker 2: The margins decide to the retail. The Walmart they have

774
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:15,960
Speaker 2: at a dollar amount that they don't want to go

775
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:18,320
Speaker 2: over because they are the low cost leader.

776
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,160
Speaker 7: And so in terms of the sales then, is that

777
00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:26,759
Speaker 7: they are obviously tracking the sales you have.

778
00:42:26,760 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 5: Privy to that. How was that first.

779
00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 7: Year when you were in the retail, right, because you're

780
00:42:31,040 --> 00:42:35,240
Speaker 7: talking about this is quick twenty nineteen we launched obviously

781
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:35,840
Speaker 7: the pandemic.

782
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:38,080
Speaker 5: You know what happens with Jeordan Spoyd. They're looking for

783
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 5: products twenty twenty two year in the stores. This is

784
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 5: three years. How are we looking in that first year?

785
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:46,440
Speaker 2: It was five million from July to December. Wow, fifteen

786
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 2: million last year.

787
00:42:48,040 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 4: So when they buyt a product, they're buying it it's

788
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 4: on consignment or they're just buying it, and then they're

789
00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 4: buying it for a certain price, and then they're just

790
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 4: selling it for whatever price that they want and then

791
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 4: they get the product on that.

792
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:06,160
Speaker 2: So Walmart buys it from the licensee at whatever the

793
00:43:06,160 --> 00:43:10,480
Speaker 2: the price costs over. So like let's say that plush

794
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:16,000
Speaker 2: cost the manufacturer a dollar twenty five to make, they'll

795
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,959
Speaker 2: probably sell it to Walmart for two seventy five, and.

796
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 4: Then Walmart sells it for five dollars and keeps the difference.

797
00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm actually when I say twenty million, I'm

798
00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:29,360
Speaker 2: giving you the price that we're selling it to the retailer,

799
00:43:29,640 --> 00:43:33,200
Speaker 2: not the manu not not the actual sales price at

800
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:36,719
Speaker 2: the retailer store. That's a whole that's higher, that's way higher.

801
00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 4: But you're not included in that. You're included in it.

802
00:43:38,880 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 3: Ok.

803
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:43,319
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so would the price be the same. Like

804
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 4: let's say this for instance, right, you sell this outside

805
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 4: of Walmart or only in Walmart?

806
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 2: We can we sell it outside on a website. I

807
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,800
Speaker 2: think that's a store called Kangi and some other stores

808
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:55,640
Speaker 2: it pops up at.

809
00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:59,560
Speaker 4: Is it the same price everywhere or it's Walmart's price.

810
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 2: Walmart always wants to be the low priced leader. So

811
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 2: even with my hair care line, like we always got

812
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:09,840
Speaker 2: to make sure even if it's one penny less, that

813
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:12,760
Speaker 2: Walmart is a low price leader.

814
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:14,640
Speaker 5: So you can sell it for four ninety nine, but

815
00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 5: they can sell it for four eighty nine.

816
00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 7: Yeah, are their product exclusivities inside of the other space.

817
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,640
Speaker 2: So when we first launched with Party with Walmart, they

818
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 2: asked just as a courtesy, there's nothing in writing that

819
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,880
Speaker 2: we gave them a six months exclusivity. I knew it

820
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,240
Speaker 2: was game time when the buyer came to me and said, April,

821
00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,880
Speaker 2: you need to get this out to different retailers, because

822
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,480
Speaker 2: they truly if you're smart, you believe that you understand

823
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 2: that competition it's healthy. That's why I don't know how

824
00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 2: it is out here, but in La every Chick fil

825
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 2: A you see now they're building a raisin Canes directly

826
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:58,479
Speaker 2: across the street. Every McDonald's has a burger king, Every

827
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:03,799
Speaker 2: Starbucks is a coffee bean. Competition is healthy.

828
00:45:03,960 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 4: So what's the scaling model for your brands? Is it

829
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:13,359
Speaker 4: more corporate partnerships like Walmart? Is it online presidence? What's

830
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:16,920
Speaker 4: what do you look for as far as like you know,

831
00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:18,320
Speaker 4: taken to next level?

832
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:23,719
Speaker 2: Well, definitely expanding in retail, But what's really going to

833
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 2: help the brand is the production deals that we're going

834
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:28,239
Speaker 2: to get out of this because we have to have

835
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:31,919
Speaker 2: the content. We're the only licensed character that doesn't have

836
00:45:32,080 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 2: the actual show behind it. So we are working on

837
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 2: my show, Miss April's Book and Crown Shop Crown Store.

838
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:45,120
Speaker 2: But then the location based entertainment, so the hotels, the

839
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,839
Speaker 2: we want Chuck E cheesus. We want to franchise out

840
00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 2: our own Afronia places.

841
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,759
Speaker 4: So you own you own this unicorn. You own a

842
00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:57,000
Speaker 4: black unicorn.

843
00:45:56,680 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 2: Afro Unicorn. I gotta be very careful with that because

844
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:01,360
Speaker 2: that was the problem Afro.

845
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:03,520
Speaker 4: There's a black unicorn already.

846
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 2: Let's focus on Afro Unicorn. No, it was African Carl

847
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:09,560
Speaker 2: was always the original Afro Unicorn.

848
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 5: Yes, so we're black unicorns.

849
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:17,680
Speaker 4: So this, this, this image of this is what you're own. Yes,

850
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:20,680
Speaker 4: and this could be in a cartoon, a movie, whatever.

851
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:22,440
Speaker 4: Afro Unicorn.

852
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:23,120
Speaker 2: Yes.

853
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:26,120
Speaker 7: And then when you're talking about the retail space is

854
00:46:26,280 --> 00:46:30,840
Speaker 7: instant because I'm thinking Nintendo created Nintendo World, right, So.

855
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 2: Okay, I got excited because I forgot to tell you

856
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 2: about them stickers right there because we're talking gaming now,

857
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 2: you don't even see it. Pull those stickers out. We

858
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 2: launched our roadblocks. We have a full Roadblocks experience.

859
00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:43,719
Speaker 5: Yes, because I was going that's where I was going.

860
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:47,920
Speaker 6: I'm like, now, if it becomes the Afro Unicorn World

861
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,040
Speaker 6: where now you can see the characters, see them come

862
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 6: to life.

863
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,719
Speaker 5: The other part is that are you because we have

864
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 5: three unicorns, are we introducing more unicorns?

865
00:46:56,800 --> 00:46:59,560
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, so even in the books now, so we

866
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:04,320
Speaker 2: have we even have boys. We have our Afrosaurus line,

867
00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:08,040
Speaker 2: we have Rex, we have Sore, we have Madame Empress,

868
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:12,280
Speaker 2: we have Superior Majestic. Again, I just dropped the sixth

869
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:16,279
Speaker 2: book yesterday, So we are telling the stories of the

870
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:17,720
Speaker 2: unicorns for sure.

871
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,439
Speaker 4: How dodes Nipsy also come into play here? He said

872
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:22,359
Speaker 4: that was motivation or something. Yeah.

873
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:28,240
Speaker 2: So Nipsey died March thirtieth March thirty first, thirty first,

874
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:34,640
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, Africa. Acorn's birthdate was April twenty nineteen. So

875
00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:37,880
Speaker 2: he definitely resonated with me with what he was building

876
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 2: for us. And he was really all about the knowledge

877
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,239
Speaker 2: and the information, and once you have that information, you

878
00:47:46,280 --> 00:47:47,879
Speaker 2: were supposed to go out and you're supposed to share

879
00:47:47,920 --> 00:47:51,440
Speaker 2: it so that you could put somebody else on. I

880
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:53,560
Speaker 2: took it really, really hard, but I also took it

881
00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:57,400
Speaker 2: like I gotta I gotta carry what's it called the

882
00:47:57,440 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 2: little torch thing? Was it when you were in a mirror,

883
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,279
Speaker 2: you know, the the relay, the baton. I got to

884
00:48:03,360 --> 00:48:07,880
Speaker 2: keep it going. And so my whole theme when I

885
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:10,359
Speaker 2: brought When My Birth after Your in Corner On April

886
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 2: twenty eighth, I had a table similar to this with

887
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:15,920
Speaker 2: folding cheers around, and I invited twenty five women to

888
00:48:16,040 --> 00:48:19,840
Speaker 2: my house and I said, we're building, We're building a platform,

889
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,359
Speaker 2: or we're going to pour into each other to help

890
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 2: support your visions, to find out what you're passionate about,

891
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:28,839
Speaker 2: so we could find out how we commodetize what you're

892
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 2: passionate about. Those that had businesses, I purchased from them

893
00:48:34,239 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 2: to give to the other ladies. And I have volding

894
00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 2: cheers because there was a quote that said if they

895
00:48:39,760 --> 00:48:41,480
Speaker 2: don't bring you, if you don't get to see at

896
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:44,440
Speaker 2: a table, you bring your own folding chair. I had

897
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:47,200
Speaker 2: Nipsey playing. I'm like, you know, we're about to continue

898
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:49,879
Speaker 2: this marathon. We're building something. And I remember that day

899
00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 2: they were like, you know, volunteers, everyone was living in

900
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:54,839
Speaker 2: it goes what's the Instagram account so I can tag you?

901
00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:58,719
Speaker 2: And I'm like, huh, I didn't even have Instagram. I

902
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,799
Speaker 2: just wanted to start this movement. And then my son

903
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,680
Speaker 2: went into the hospital a few days later, so then

904
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:06,399
Speaker 2: we could back up a little bit to talk about

905
00:49:06,440 --> 00:49:09,680
Speaker 2: the nipsey and I remember I had a date to

906
00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 2: launch the e commerce business on May seventeenth. When he

907
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,239
Speaker 2: went in the hospital on May eleventh, I was like,

908
00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,560
Speaker 2: I can't launch the business. And three separate people came

909
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:21,840
Speaker 2: in three separate times. Was like, hey, I know the

910
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 2: devil was trying to distract you from launching what you

911
00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 2: was trying to do. You gotta move forward. First person,

912
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 2: I was like, no, he just got food poison. Then

913
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:31,799
Speaker 2: we're gonna be out of here soon. So I kept disregarding, disregarding,

914
00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:34,840
Speaker 2: until finally I was like, Okay, I don't know how

915
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:36,600
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this. I got an eight year old

916
00:49:36,680 --> 00:49:40,880
Speaker 2: the hospital. My twelve year old is at home. I

917
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 2: don't have anybody to really watch him. He can't stay

918
00:49:44,080 --> 00:49:47,279
Speaker 2: in the hospital. I can't leave my baby. My mom

919
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:51,080
Speaker 2: wasn't around, my daddy was in his eighties. What do

920
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:56,560
Speaker 2: I do? Marathon must continue all gas, no breaks. I'm

921
00:49:56,560 --> 00:49:59,400
Speaker 2: a state farm agent. I had a policy that allowed

922
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 2: me to have it's called hospital indemnity, that paid me

923
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:04,240
Speaker 2: every day he was in the hospital. So I hired

924
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:07,799
Speaker 2: an assistant while I was in the hospital to go

925
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:10,879
Speaker 2: downtown to get the shirts to fulfill the oars. I said,

926
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,919
Speaker 2: because clearly, if all this is coming at me, it's

927
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,880
Speaker 2: coming at me because something way bigger is about to

928
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:20,439
Speaker 2: really happen. So I really got to push forward on this.

929
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,799
Speaker 2: We were there twenty whole days. They ran every test

930
00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:26,279
Speaker 2: that they could on my baby. Just to give you

931
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:29,000
Speaker 2: an idea, his life pace number should have been like

932
00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 2: under two hundred. He was at seventeen thousand. So we

933
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 2: were in a critical situation that no one could figure out.

934
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 2: We get out of the hospital on May thirtieth. May

935
00:50:37,560 --> 00:50:39,800
Speaker 2: thirty first, my uncle dies of a massive heart attack.

936
00:50:39,920 --> 00:50:43,960
Speaker 2: Seventeen hours later, my other uncle dies of pneumonia, and

937
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:47,920
Speaker 2: my cousin kept reminding me who it was, her father. April,

938
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:51,799
Speaker 2: the marathon continues, like, we cannot let this distract us,

939
00:50:52,360 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 2: and so I take it personal when they come for

940
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:59,239
Speaker 2: the West, because one thing about us, for show, it's

941
00:50:59,280 --> 00:51:01,920
Speaker 2: always going to be all gas, no breaks. Even if

942
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:05,520
Speaker 2: you look at us as the underdog, we gonna always

943
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:06,879
Speaker 2: find a way to you know.

944
00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:08,839
Speaker 5: Not like us.

945
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 2: Thank you. I didn't say it, you did, and we

946
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:14,760
Speaker 2: built different.

947
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:19,319
Speaker 4: I don't think anybody the West. You know, I got

948
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 4: a lot of French out to stick watch. I was

949
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:25,640
Speaker 4: telling him, like, it's interesting because the West coast, right,

950
00:51:26,719 --> 00:51:31,760
Speaker 4: it's literally like California alone is like would be essentially

951
00:51:31,840 --> 00:51:38,479
Speaker 4: Boston to North Carolina. Right, So the West coast it's

952
00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:40,880
Speaker 4: kind of it's like the South does this too, Like

953
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:46,919
Speaker 4: it's a lot of states that kind of like encompass this, right, Yeah,

954
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:49,160
Speaker 4: but you never hit that on the East coast, it's

955
00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:54,400
Speaker 4: just New York like this, no, no, no, But so the

956
00:51:54,440 --> 00:51:57,840
Speaker 4: West coast like, yeah, it's like a voltron, right, but is.

957
00:51:57,840 --> 00:51:58,840
Speaker 5: It even that?

958
00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,239
Speaker 7: It's like is it really the West coast or is

959
00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:02,840
Speaker 7: it it's l A, it's.

960
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:05,879
Speaker 4: L A in the bank. Yeah, we're not the West.

961
00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,240
Speaker 4: I mean, no disrespect Arizona, San Diego.

962
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 5: Who's an artist though, bro, Like huh, I can't name artist.

963
00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:14,280
Speaker 4: No, just I'm saying just there.

964
00:52:14,760 --> 00:52:16,360
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's a territory.

965
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,000
Speaker 4: It's very territorial.

966
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,359
Speaker 5: But I've never seen it disunited. I'm happy to see it.

967
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 4: But it's not an attack. I don't think nobody's ever

968
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 4: attacked the West coast in history, right, who's ever attacked

969
00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:32,280
Speaker 4: the West Coast, Like, who's ever attacked the West Coast?

970
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:35,440
Speaker 2: What do you mean like physically there's been.

971
00:52:35,320 --> 00:52:37,959
Speaker 4: So many know what I'm saying, like as far as

972
00:52:37,960 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 4: like attack, like there's no verbal attacks on the West

973
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:42,720
Speaker 4: Coast ever.

974
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:45,160
Speaker 5: Ever, Yeah, I thought he was going back to camp.

975
00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:49,000
Speaker 2: There was never there was never an East Coast West Coast.

976
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 4: No, that's that's a narrative, that's the vibe.

977
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:54,760
Speaker 5: Actually purpose they put that on the copy.

978
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,960
Speaker 4: That was that was that was Tupac Tupac vmently dis

979
00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:01,560
Speaker 4: East Coast. But Biggie never dissed the West Coast. He said,

980
00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:03,799
Speaker 4: I'm going back to Kelly was going back like it

981
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:05,160
Speaker 4: was never it all.

982
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:06,080
Speaker 2: It's all you're saying, it's.

983
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:09,399
Speaker 4: All of it. It was never. It was never any

984
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:11,799
Speaker 4: if it might be one particular artist that they have

985
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 4: an issue with, but it was never like it's.

986
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,919
Speaker 7: The whole moment. There's never been an issue. Yeah, man,

987
00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:19,200
Speaker 7: if you if you consider fifty in game, but that's different.

988
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very different. But I'm talking about the mentality

989
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 2: that we have.

990
00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:27,400
Speaker 4: You're like you look at yourselves as underdogs or under like,

991
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:29,600
Speaker 4: not not as respected as you should be.

992
00:53:30,360 --> 00:53:34,680
Speaker 2: I mean, you got your man's here saying your wild

993
00:53:35,440 --> 00:53:38,360
Speaker 2: saying you know when when you when you fight low

994
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,520
Speaker 2: or fight under or fight whatever you said today some

995
00:53:41,880 --> 00:53:42,760
Speaker 2: some cath.

996
00:53:44,160 --> 00:53:46,359
Speaker 5: I could have just put the Good Kid, Good Kid

997
00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 5: Mass City album. We just could have completed this whole thing.

998
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 2: But for us, or at least for me, for Nip,

999
00:53:55,000 --> 00:54:01,000
Speaker 2: for Katt, it's all like we see brick Wall, we

1000
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:04,080
Speaker 2: see Drake with all his gimmicks. It means we go

1001
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 2: right through them because we're not surface. It's one of

1002
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 2: my favorite songs. A Nip is Real and I.

1003
00:54:13,880 --> 00:54:16,200
Speaker 4: Yeah the whole thing. Yeah, that is one of.

1004
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:21,520
Speaker 2: My favorite because it embodied young young young Yeah yeah

1005
00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 2: no no no no no, didn't I say it wrong?

1006
00:54:23,880 --> 00:54:24,919
Speaker 4: Young No no no no.

1007
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:34,319
Speaker 8: Real rap rap rap rap, rap and words rap and

1008
00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,040
Speaker 8: words rap and.

1009
00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:40,120
Speaker 2: Work those lyrics.

1010
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:41,200
Speaker 5: The video was solid to.

1011
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,960
Speaker 2: It resonates because we're just different.

1012
00:54:44,120 --> 00:54:46,839
Speaker 5: We jigg in thevests. That sounds like.

1013
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 4: Inspired inspiration. But for the reason why, you know, I

1014
00:54:58,160 --> 00:55:01,800
Speaker 4: think he's not getting Californ like I always I always

1015
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:02,560
Speaker 4: like California.

1016
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 5: Are you trying to like clear not New York though?

1017
00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:11,839
Speaker 2: No, nosriy no.

1018
00:55:15,160 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 4: So the mind frame is kind of like, you know,

1019
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:20,400
Speaker 4: for the entrepreneurs, for the hostels. Like I feel like

1020
00:55:20,640 --> 00:55:23,799
Speaker 4: Cali has always been it's separated, right, it's on the

1021
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,680
Speaker 4: other side of America. So you kind of feel like

1022
00:55:26,719 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 4: it's a chip on your shoulder, right, like you gotta

1023
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:33,520
Speaker 4: actually put on because it's not East Coast, it's not Atlanta,

1024
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:36,399
Speaker 4: it's not New York City. So it's like I feel

1025
00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:38,640
Speaker 4: I just feel that, especially like now, I just feel

1026
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 4: like that that West Coast pride is like, you know,

1027
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:46,759
Speaker 4: it stands out. It's like Brooklyn. It's like Brooklyn. Like

1028
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:49,400
Speaker 4: people from Brooklyn have like a sense of pride that

1029
00:55:49,600 --> 00:55:52,359
Speaker 4: is different. Like you ask anybody else where they're from,

1030
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:54,680
Speaker 4: and they'll say, like New York, like somebody from Queen,

1031
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:57,080
Speaker 4: somebody from the Bronx, somebody from Manhattan, they'll say that

1032
00:55:57,120 --> 00:55:59,600
Speaker 4: from New York. You ask somebody from Brooklyn where they're from,

1033
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:02,080
Speaker 4: they'll say Brookland. So it's like every other sports team

1034
00:56:02,200 --> 00:56:04,120
Speaker 4: is the New York Giants, it's the New York Jets,

1035
00:56:04,360 --> 00:56:08,400
Speaker 4: it's the New York Mets, it's the New York Yankees.

1036
00:56:08,719 --> 00:56:11,479
Speaker 4: But it's the Brooklyn Nets. That's the only sports team

1037
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:13,400
Speaker 4: that identifies.

1038
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:15,760
Speaker 5: As the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1039
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:18,160
Speaker 4: So yeah, But so I feel like that West Coast,

1040
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:22,520
Speaker 4: that West thing started here. You know that West Coast pride.

1041
00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:24,839
Speaker 4: That West Coast pride is similar to that right where

1042
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:29,880
Speaker 4: it's like West West West up like it's like the West,

1043
00:56:30,239 --> 00:56:32,000
Speaker 4: that West is heavy on their pride.

1044
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:34,319
Speaker 6: I want to tie it back in right, because all

1045
00:56:34,360 --> 00:56:36,839
Speaker 6: we're talking about now is really marketing. He says, you're

1046
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:39,960
Speaker 6: a marketing genius. Social media played a huge role. That's

1047
00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:43,440
Speaker 6: something that we can resonate with. How has the marketing

1048
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:48,400
Speaker 6: plan changed adapted to present day from twenty nineteen.

1049
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 2: So the model that we had in twenty nineteen was

1050
00:56:53,640 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 2: I highlighted you my platform, So if you was rocking

1051
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:01,239
Speaker 2: the afric Unicorn shirt, I would talk about what makes

1052
00:57:01,239 --> 00:57:04,440
Speaker 2: Troy unique, divine and magical, why you should check in

1053
00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 2: to earn your leisure, why you should follow what he

1054
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:10,839
Speaker 2: got going on. When people saw, they're like, oh, if

1055
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:13,200
Speaker 2: I get her shirt, she's gonna talk about my brand.

1056
00:57:14,120 --> 00:57:16,040
Speaker 2: So not only did I get the followers, I got

1057
00:57:16,120 --> 00:57:20,280
Speaker 2: to sell So we built That's how we continue to

1058
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 2: build the platform highlighting other people. Now it's more of

1059
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:30,080
Speaker 2: highlighting the children who want to be brand ambassadors and influencers.

1060
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 2: Because I've never paid anyone to Rock or support Africa

1061
00:57:32,720 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 2: in a corner. All the celebrities that I name, they

1062
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:37,560
Speaker 2: do it because they believe in the messaging. I find

1063
00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:40,480
Speaker 2: people where the brand will resonate with you to where

1064
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:43,880
Speaker 2: you just got to do it because you want to

1065
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,880
Speaker 2: be part of this movement. The thing that we have

1066
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,720
Speaker 2: to triple x now is when I tell y'all, I

1067
00:57:50,720 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 2: compete against Disney, Marvel and Nick. Every single week they

1068
00:57:53,240 --> 00:57:56,840
Speaker 2: drop reports like if we're in party supplies, you got Batman,

1069
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:02,560
Speaker 2: Disney Princess Spider Man is over there, Lol, And we

1070
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:04,880
Speaker 2: get reports and they're like, after Unicorn, out of the

1071
00:58:04,960 --> 00:58:10,280
Speaker 2: nine properties, you're at the bottom. Well, of course, Sherlock.

1072
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:13,960
Speaker 2: They've been here fifty plus years. They got billion dollar budgets.

1073
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 2: So now we have to be very strategic on how

1074
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 2: we market. We got to work on getting content on

1075
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:22,840
Speaker 2: the marketplace, got to get our YouTube. But we have

1076
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:26,080
Speaker 2: to We just spent a ton of money developing our

1077
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:28,560
Speaker 2: Amazon store. We're gonna spend a lot of money developing

1078
00:58:28,640 --> 00:58:31,520
Speaker 2: our Walmart store on the digital side. With a lot

1079
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:34,880
Speaker 2: of money to get into roadblocks, like, we have to

1080
00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:38,600
Speaker 2: find other ways to try to compete against a billion.

1081
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:42,400
Speaker 6: Yeah, they got the shows, they got the movies, they

1082
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:43,560
Speaker 6: got a streaming service.

1083
00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:48,720
Speaker 2: And that's why platforms like this matters because I'm now

1084
00:58:48,760 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 2: able to tap into y'all one point five million followers

1085
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:55,880
Speaker 2: to say, hey, go support this brand because I'll tell

1086
00:58:55,920 --> 00:59:03,960
Speaker 2: you the DEI is dry. It was just a George Floyd,

1087
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:05,960
Speaker 2: just the moment.

1088
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:07,920
Speaker 4: Did you did you benefit from that?

1089
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how they brought the break. I feel like I.

1090
00:59:10,480 --> 00:59:11,680
Speaker 4: Did after George Floyd.

1091
00:59:12,000 --> 00:59:13,560
Speaker 5: Heck yeah, they're looking.

1092
00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:16,040
Speaker 2: For but that we all did. I think if you

1093
00:59:16,040 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 2: had an e commerce brand during that time, everybody was like,

1094
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,880
Speaker 2: support black businesses, we want to support Black Tuesday and

1095
00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:24,000
Speaker 2: all that blackout?

1096
00:59:25,280 --> 00:59:27,200
Speaker 4: And then and when did you start to see it

1097
00:59:28,040 --> 00:59:28,680
Speaker 4: fading away?

1098
00:59:28,920 --> 00:59:34,160
Speaker 2: What last last summer? It lasted like two years.

1099
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 4: Countries back to business, regularly scheduled programming.

1100
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:40,640
Speaker 5: I hope you guys have fun.

1101
00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:43,080
Speaker 4: Yep, so what we're about to say home.

1102
00:59:42,960 --> 00:59:44,920
Speaker 2: But you have to make sure. So the one that's

1103
00:59:44,920 --> 00:59:46,919
Speaker 2: the difference, that's the mindset that I have. I'm gonna

1104
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:50,120
Speaker 2: max it out. Your problem was letting me in the door.

1105
00:59:51,080 --> 00:59:52,320
Speaker 2: You ain't gonna be able to give me out.

1106
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:55,600
Speaker 5: How many different options did they have to choose from?

1107
00:59:55,680 --> 00:59:55,800
Speaker 2: Right?

1108
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:58,720
Speaker 5: Because if they're looking for a character of the license.

1109
00:59:59,520 --> 01:00:01,480
Speaker 7: Was is there a lot of competition or was it

1110
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:04,000
Speaker 7: just the right time, at the right place we have

1111
01:00:04,160 --> 01:00:07,240
Speaker 7: this thing already, or did you see the influx of

1112
01:00:07,360 --> 01:00:09,479
Speaker 7: Oh I didn't even realize that there were other people

1113
01:00:09,520 --> 01:00:11,360
Speaker 7: that looked like me that had characters.

1114
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:14,760
Speaker 2: I think the first part. Did you say the right time,

1115
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:17,320
Speaker 2: right place? And the buyer because I'm really good friends

1116
01:00:17,400 --> 01:00:19,520
Speaker 2: the buyer. Now, she told me that I saw how

1117
01:00:19,600 --> 01:00:24,120
Speaker 2: organic it was behind you, so that's why she chose

1118
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:27,360
Speaker 2: Afro Unicorn. But now that we're in this space, I

1119
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:29,200
Speaker 2: hit people hit me up with my dms all the time.

1120
01:00:29,240 --> 01:00:31,480
Speaker 2: I have this character, I have this book. I want

1121
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 2: to get it, you know, into products. How do I

1122
01:00:33,680 --> 01:00:36,160
Speaker 2: do it? I'm learning more so I tell everybody, look

1123
01:00:36,360 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 2: follow me. I am Aprilshowers dot Com. I'm whatever information

1124
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:41,960
Speaker 2: I have, I want to share it with y'all. We

1125
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:45,480
Speaker 2: have the licensing expo. The problem is information, right, like

1126
01:00:45,520 --> 01:00:47,520
Speaker 2: I said from the beginning, So we don't even know

1127
01:00:47,560 --> 01:00:50,920
Speaker 2: that these things exist. So you sitting at home with

1128
01:00:51,040 --> 01:00:53,360
Speaker 2: a character that you have, but then you like, but

1129
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 2: how do I get it out there? You got to

1130
01:00:55,800 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 2: come to the licensing next pot when is that that's

1131
01:00:58,520 --> 01:01:02,040
Speaker 2: in Vegas May week of May Twentieth's your event? No, No,

1132
01:01:02,560 --> 01:01:06,640
Speaker 2: it's your industry. Industry event Licensing exits every every year,

1133
01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:09,080
Speaker 2: every year in Vegas, and they also have one in London,

1134
01:01:09,160 --> 01:01:13,240
Speaker 2: the bl But I try to find out every single

1135
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:18,440
Speaker 2: show if it's if it directly affects my industry. I

1136
01:01:18,520 --> 01:01:19,560
Speaker 2: need to be in the building.

1137
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 5: What's the audience look like? Predominantly whatever YEA said? Yeah, them,

1138
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 5: they are an attendance.

1139
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:33,400
Speaker 4: So how'd you get into motivational speaking?

1140
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:41,480
Speaker 2: Probably Saturday, Small Business Saturday. When I started in twenty nineteen,

1141
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:44,440
Speaker 2: Every Saturday, I would go live on my platform just

1142
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:49,560
Speaker 2: encouraging other female entrepreneurs to get out there and get it.

1143
01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:52,520
Speaker 2: And I would bring professionals on the podcast with them

1144
01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:56,240
Speaker 2: to talk to them. And I just want to share information.

1145
01:01:56,280 --> 01:01:58,800
Speaker 2: I believe in zig Ziggler's if you help enough people

1146
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:00,520
Speaker 2: get to where they want to be, you'll get to

1147
01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:03,280
Speaker 2: where you need to be. So I just believe they're

1148
01:02:03,320 --> 01:02:06,400
Speaker 2: pouring into people. The university is gonna open up, and

1149
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:08,120
Speaker 2: everything's gonna fall into my lap. I told you I

1150
01:02:08,160 --> 01:02:10,360
Speaker 2: was with oprahly yesterday, right to live my lap. So

1151
01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:14,880
Speaker 2: I just I put things out there to help people

1152
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:21,440
Speaker 2: and it just comes back. So why not. That's how

1153
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:24,000
Speaker 2: I got into motivation speaking because I want to help people.

1154
01:02:24,120 --> 01:02:26,800
Speaker 4: So you still have your insurance practice. I do, and

1155
01:02:26,840 --> 01:02:28,440
Speaker 4: it's property and casualty insurance.

1156
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:29,200
Speaker 2: It's State Farm.

1157
01:02:29,280 --> 01:02:29,640
Speaker 5: We do it.

1158
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:30,240
Speaker 2: Do it all.

1159
01:02:31,760 --> 01:02:35,080
Speaker 4: You have your own State Farm agency or you work

1160
01:02:35,880 --> 01:02:40,280
Speaker 4: State Farm agent. So explain talked about that business.

1161
01:02:40,280 --> 01:02:43,560
Speaker 2: Interesting. I wanted to talk about this, So I'm happy

1162
01:02:43,560 --> 01:02:48,960
Speaker 2: you Broughady back. So State Farmed the model, and I

1163
01:02:48,960 --> 01:02:51,560
Speaker 2: hope I'm getting in trouble about this. So the model

1164
01:02:51,600 --> 01:02:57,920
Speaker 2: with State Farm is independent contractor. Right. You have to

1165
01:02:58,040 --> 01:03:01,520
Speaker 2: find your own building, get your ownmployees, do your own marketing.

1166
01:03:02,320 --> 01:03:04,880
Speaker 2: I'm very thankful to Stay Farmed because I learned how

1167
01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:07,160
Speaker 2: to do global marketing through them. Like if you look

1168
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 2: at State Farm, every every NBA court goal is State Farm,

1169
01:03:14,240 --> 01:03:18,520
Speaker 2: every any baseball MLB, the big banner state Farm, Like

1170
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:21,120
Speaker 2: we are a marketing they are a marketing beast, right,

1171
01:03:21,840 --> 01:03:25,840
Speaker 2: and I learned how to tap into their global marketing.

1172
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:29,880
Speaker 2: To my little small office in Long Beach, Right, I

1173
01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:32,640
Speaker 2: would run ads on radio with Steve Harvey was really

1174
01:03:32,680 --> 01:03:36,480
Speaker 2: promo promoting State Farm corporate wise, and i would run

1175
01:03:36,520 --> 01:03:38,640
Speaker 2: my local ad. People call me. Yeah, Steve Harvey was

1176
01:03:38,640 --> 01:03:43,920
Speaker 2: talking about your agency. I'm like, he was. So the

1177
01:03:43,920 --> 01:03:47,600
Speaker 2: problem with State Farm, though, is if I die, they

1178
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:51,560
Speaker 2: gonna find somebody else to to to sit in that seat.

1179
01:03:52,200 --> 01:03:55,080
Speaker 2: So when I was at home thinking about how am

1180
01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:59,800
Speaker 2: I going to live live, leave a legacy for my children,

1181
01:04:00,240 --> 01:04:02,920
Speaker 2: I said, I have to figure something else out. I

1182
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:07,160
Speaker 2: have to create something that I actually own. So it

1183
01:04:07,240 --> 01:04:12,040
Speaker 2: was really me understanding that I did own State Farm,

1184
01:04:13,120 --> 01:04:16,800
Speaker 2: that I needed to figure something else out. And I

1185
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:21,560
Speaker 2: read an article and Lemonade stand where it say you

1186
01:04:21,560 --> 01:04:24,360
Speaker 2: should never rely on one source to dictate your livelihood

1187
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:28,360
Speaker 2: and it taught us about shopify in an e commerce business.

1188
01:04:28,960 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 2: I was like, I got this unicorn, that's throw it

1189
01:04:30,680 --> 01:04:32,640
Speaker 2: on the shirt and see what to do.

1190
01:04:35,040 --> 01:04:40,320
Speaker 6: Powerful testimony. You spoke about legacy, got two sons. Obviously,

1191
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:44,520
Speaker 6: how are they viewing this this? I mean we could

1192
01:04:44,560 --> 01:04:46,320
Speaker 6: call it success, but how they view in this moment

1193
01:04:46,720 --> 01:04:51,080
Speaker 6: watching you go from obviously twenty nineteen stage farm to

1194
01:04:51,240 --> 01:04:55,400
Speaker 6: now having afro unicorn and where it's headed.

1195
01:04:57,600 --> 01:05:01,360
Speaker 2: They are loving it. The youngest thirteen doesn't truly understand

1196
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:03,760
Speaker 2: everything I talked to me yesterday. I say Hey, I

1197
01:05:03,800 --> 01:05:05,880
Speaker 2: sent you that picture of Oprah. You didn't say nothing.

1198
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:06,920
Speaker 4: He was like yeah.

1199
01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:08,880
Speaker 2: I said, well do you know where? He was like nah,

1200
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:12,720
Speaker 2: but madea told me all about her congratulation. I said, well,

1201
01:05:12,720 --> 01:05:15,800
Speaker 2: thank you. But then Jesse is all in the business.

1202
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:19,760
Speaker 2: He's been like tapped in state farms. In real estate days,

1203
01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:22,080
Speaker 2: people know they can call on Jesse before they even

1204
01:05:22,120 --> 01:05:26,040
Speaker 2: call me. He was looking up properties for people for

1205
01:05:26,080 --> 01:05:29,200
Speaker 2: me and he's going out to He's going off to LSU.

1206
01:05:29,680 --> 01:05:33,880
Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm gonna do, because he's definitely

1207
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:37,360
Speaker 2: been full force in this business. Me and him have

1208
01:05:37,400 --> 01:05:41,160
Speaker 2: a special bond. I have a special I'm thirteen year old,

1209
01:05:41,320 --> 01:05:45,040
Speaker 2: but Jesse's part of a different relationship. During the time

1210
01:05:45,040 --> 01:05:47,320
Speaker 2: of my life where I discovered I was a unicorn,

1211
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:51,440
Speaker 2: where I was basically told that I wouldn't be nothing,

1212
01:05:51,720 --> 01:05:53,680
Speaker 2: and I was told that in order for me to

1213
01:05:53,680 --> 01:05:56,320
Speaker 2: be successful, to be with a certain person, I would

1214
01:05:56,360 --> 01:05:59,160
Speaker 2: have to leave after Unicorn alone. And I chose after

1215
01:05:59,280 --> 01:06:04,200
Speaker 2: Unicorn over the certain person. And here we are today.

1216
01:06:04,320 --> 01:06:07,800
Speaker 4: So how can people follow? What's the website and everything

1217
01:06:07,800 --> 01:06:08,840
Speaker 4: else that you got going on?

1218
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:13,600
Speaker 2: Follow on afric Unicorn Undersquare Official tap in with me

1219
01:06:14,080 --> 01:06:19,760
Speaker 2: got April Showers the websites afrounicorn dot com. If you

1220
01:06:19,800 --> 01:06:24,040
Speaker 2: want to get motivated and join my dream Manifestors collective

1221
01:06:24,120 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 2: for free, let just give foul free information. That said,

1222
01:06:26,800 --> 01:06:30,880
Speaker 2: I am Aprilshowers dot com and y'all shop because I'm

1223
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:33,800
Speaker 2: gonna tell y'all they don't really care about us, like

1224
01:06:34,040 --> 01:06:38,080
Speaker 2: MJ said, So if afri Unicorn does not do well

1225
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:43,600
Speaker 2: in retail, they will not let another one in. Again.

1226
01:06:43,600 --> 01:06:46,200
Speaker 2: I'm competing against legacy brands that have been there between

1227
01:06:46,200 --> 01:06:49,320
Speaker 2: fifty and one hundred years, and it's me. I'm here

1228
01:06:49,400 --> 01:06:54,480
Speaker 2: now right. If we don't make it, it's gonna be

1229
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:59,080
Speaker 2: very difficult. There was another black character brand, not FEMA own,

1230
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:01,320
Speaker 2: the Male Own that was on the shelves, and you

1231
01:07:01,360 --> 01:07:02,640
Speaker 2: can't even find them anymore.

1232
01:07:03,880 --> 01:07:07,000
Speaker 5: Do you have this license in perpetuity? Yeah?

1233
01:07:07,040 --> 01:07:09,080
Speaker 7: Because I mean it made me think of I know,

1234
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:13,080
Speaker 7: Disney there was a case where the license for Mickey

1235
01:07:13,120 --> 01:07:16,200
Speaker 7: Mouse was coming up and they had to try to.

1236
01:07:16,160 --> 01:07:17,360
Speaker 5: Figure out how they're going to renew it.

1237
01:07:17,520 --> 01:07:19,720
Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure that they will, but it just made

1238
01:07:19,760 --> 01:07:22,800
Speaker 6: me think of the perpetuity so important, and it took them.

1239
01:07:23,200 --> 01:07:25,919
Speaker 2: They took walk. I think the family seventy five years

1240
01:07:25,920 --> 01:07:28,360
Speaker 2: before they went public. It was a long time before

1241
01:07:28,400 --> 01:07:29,080
Speaker 2: they went public.

1242
01:07:29,440 --> 01:07:33,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.

1243
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:37,200
Speaker 4: And yeah, shout out to the west Man's fast.

1244
01:07:37,240 --> 01:07:37,560
Speaker 5: We had it.

1245
01:07:37,600 --> 01:07:42,280
Speaker 4: Back to Callis songs were sure for sure. Thank you guys,

1246
01:07:42,360 --> 01:07:43,880
Speaker 4: rocks to see you next week. Peace.

1247
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:44,280
Speaker 5: Peace.

1248
01:07:44,680 --> 01:07:48,280
Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

1249
01:07:48,360 --> 01:07:52,120
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

1250
01:07:52,400 --> 01:07:56,560
Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

1251
01:07:56,600 --> 01:08:00,520
Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

1252
01:08:00,600 --> 01:08:04,360
Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

1253
01:08:04,400 --> 01:08:04,840
Speaker 1: Donald J.

1254
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:05,880
Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.

1255
01:08:06,160 --> 01:08:09,760
Speaker 1: I'm Christy Noman, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

1256
01:08:10,120 --> 01:08:13,880
Speaker 1: Under President Trump, Attempted illegal border crossings are at the

1257
01:08:13,920 --> 01:08:17,759
Speaker 1: lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal

1258
01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:21,599
Speaker 1: aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your

1259
01:08:21,720 --> 01:08:25,080
Speaker 1: next you will be fine nearly one thousand dollars a day,

1260
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:29,200
Speaker 1: imprisoned and deported, you will never return. But if you

1261
01:08:29,320 --> 01:08:32,960
Speaker 1: register using our CBP home app and leave now, you

1262
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:36,840
Speaker 1: could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right. Leave

1263
01:08:37,040 --> 01:08:41,880
Speaker 1: now under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will

1264
01:08:41,880 --> 01:08:42,519
Speaker 1: be protected.

1265
01:08:42,600 --> 01:08:44,759
Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,