Speaker 1: This episode is sponsored by FX's Fleischman Is in Trouble,
Speaker 1: starring Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzie Kaplan, and Adam Brodie.
Speaker 1: The strama tells the story of recently divorced Toby Fleischmann,
Speaker 1: who dies into the world of at bass dating with
Speaker 1: the kind of success he never had in his youth.
Speaker 1: Then his ex wife disappears, leaving him with their two
Speaker 1: children and no hint of her return. Effexus Fleischman is
Speaker 1: in Trouble, streaming November seventeenth only on Hulu. Welcome to
Speaker 1: P M Mood then No Talking Points, no Bullshit podcast
Speaker 1: that takes you behind the curtain, off the red carpet,
Speaker 1: and to the front lines of progress with change makers
Speaker 1: and innovators that are doing the work to shift our
Speaker 1: culture and expand our social impact. I am so decided
Speaker 1: to welcome to PM mood sec who Andrews who is
Speaker 1: a seventeen year full time poet, a twenty nineteen Grammy
Speaker 1: Award nominee for Best Spoken Word Album. And I mean,
Speaker 1: if you read the man's bio, it is exceptional. You're
Speaker 1: doing backyard hangouts with Oprah and Michelle Obama. You do
Speaker 1: and Ted talks. You are named by Forbes to be
Speaker 1: like their poet Laureate for Corporate America. I mean, my god,
Speaker 1: you've turned a title of poet, which everyone is associated
Speaker 1: with being broke into something amazing. Secod, thank you for
Speaker 1: coming to PM Moods. So tell me how you've done
Speaker 1: this with lots of creativity, perseverance, innovation, and just stubborn persistence,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, if you can imagine trying to
Speaker 1: you know, when I tell people that I introduced myself
Speaker 1: as a as a full time poet, and they look
Speaker 1: at me like I said, I'm a full time mermaid,
Speaker 1: you can imagine. You can imagine the challenges of trying
Speaker 1: to create something that people don't think even is even possible.
Speaker 1: So it has been a lot of you know, four
Speaker 1: to two that is taken. But it's also been very
Speaker 1: purpose driven for me, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: my purpose has been to create a more commercially viable
Speaker 1: industry for the art form of spoken word, so that
Speaker 1: poets can make a purposeful and a profitable living off
Speaker 1: there of art, so that when other young poets, you know,
Speaker 1: when their parents asked them in the future, what do
Speaker 1: you want to be when you grow up and they
Speaker 1: say I want to be a spoken word artist, I
Speaker 1: want to be a poetic voice, that there will be
Speaker 1: some context for success in that. And I think that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that we don't have as an
Speaker 1: industry for spoken word artists like you have in comedy,
Speaker 1: like you have in theater, like you haven't even some
Speaker 1: of the you know, a kid can say I want
Speaker 1: to be a dancer, and the parents still might look
Speaker 1: at them like, boy, go get a job, but at
Speaker 1: least they understand the trajectory of a dance so they
Speaker 1: understand that you can sign with a company, that you
Speaker 1: can make a living, that you can't go on World
Speaker 1: of Dance or Americas got talent and then get signed
Speaker 1: and joined and tour and so forth. They have no
Speaker 1: context of what that means to a force spoken word artist.
Speaker 1: And so that's been the biggest joy for me is
Speaker 1: just with the Grammys, with Poetic Voice, with the business
Speaker 1: world of the speaking world, creating that model so that
Speaker 1: poets can actually, you know, follow towards success. Tell me
Speaker 1: you you know, we're initially a teacher, yea, what inspire?
Speaker 1: And we share that similar background. I too was a
Speaker 1: teacher I taught first and second grade, our special education
Speaker 1: and went to school everything, got my master's in education
Speaker 1: because I believe in it. I just used education as
Speaker 1: a different tool. Now, how did you make your transition
Speaker 1: from the classroom to the stage. Yeah, so I was
Speaker 1: originally planning on doing law school and becoming me too
Speaker 1: because of the the day. Yeah. Yeah, girl, we keep talking,
Speaker 1: We're gonna mind out. We got relatives. Yeah, I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I was gonna do entertainment law. Um. And
Speaker 1: then I started working in law firms after college and
Speaker 1: decided that I didn't want to do law, and so
Speaker 1: I took up um substitute teaching, you know, as my
Speaker 1: sort of that was gonna be my actor waiter job,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, like flexibility to go on
Speaker 1: auditions or in my case, go on the world tour.
Speaker 1: That was just around the corner always, and and I
Speaker 1: eventually decided to sign on as a full As a
Speaker 1: full time teacher, I taught fifth grade. I couldn't do
Speaker 1: the little ones. You could talk little ones, right, but
Speaker 1: most of the little most of the teachers, the first
Speaker 1: secon grade teachers, they didn't want them to do a
Speaker 1: fifth grade. So it was a good balance um, that
Speaker 1: is very true. See fifth grade, I'm like, that's too
Speaker 1: many hormones. You started to figure out yourself if I'm
Speaker 1: not about that life right, And I see I wasn't
Speaker 1: about that running around the room played with you all
Speaker 1: day life. I was like, I need you to be
Speaker 1: able to understand Sardcastle. That was my room and so
Speaker 1: I you know, I talked fifth grade. But during that
Speaker 1: time I had been pursuing I mean even since middle school,
Speaker 1: I had been pursuing music. I fell in love with
Speaker 1: hip hop and I fell in love with acting at
Speaker 1: the same time, and I kept pursuing both of them
Speaker 1: through high school through college. So during this time of teaching,
Speaker 1: I was still sort of trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: to build a career in entertainment. And I started going
Speaker 1: to poetry over Mikes, and I kind of just accidentally
Speaker 1: fell in love with poetry. Like it was not plan right.
Speaker 1: Nobody was waking up in the morning going I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be a full time spoken word just because nobody knows
Speaker 1: what that is. But I was just like, this art
Speaker 1: form is dope. And I kind of loved being appreciated
Speaker 1: for just my words, Like I didn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about how dope the hook was, and did I have
Speaker 1: a dope feature? And what was the mute? Was the beat?
Speaker 1: You know, a trendying enough for whatever? It was just
Speaker 1: like people were like, yo, your words moved you. Even
Speaker 1: when I was up there as a hip hop artist
Speaker 1: delivering my stuff spoken word style, they were like, your
Speaker 1: words moved me. And that got good to me. And
Speaker 1: so I found myself, why do we not have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to make a living off of our words as
Speaker 1: performance artists? You know? Why does it always have to
Speaker 1: be coupled with something else? And so I found myself going,
Speaker 1: let me do that, you know, let me see what
Speaker 1: explore that. And the entrepreneur in me got excited about that,
Speaker 1: like this is a this is kind of fertile ground,
Speaker 1: this is this is a trail week of blade, you know.
Speaker 1: So I think that was really what pushed me to
Speaker 1: make that transition. I talked for about four years. In
Speaker 1: fifth grade, I remember pulling up to my principal. Pull
Speaker 1: on to the school to have a meeting with my principle,
Speaker 1: and I sat down and she said, you're leaving me,
Speaker 1: aren't you? And I had prepared each you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I was like ready to go in and
Speaker 1: she already knew and she was like, you said for you.
Speaker 1: She was like I get it. She was like, we're
Speaker 1: gonna miss you and you and we need you here,
Speaker 1: but you're meant for a different stage, for a bigger stage.
Speaker 1: And I appreciated that send off, and so I quit
Speaker 1: my job and three days later I did my first
Speaker 1: CD release show and I made my rent in CD
Speaker 1: sales that night and it's been non stuff ever since.
Speaker 1: That is beautiful one because there's a meme that has
Speaker 1: been going around on social media that asked a question,
Speaker 1: what age were you when you had your first black teacher?
Speaker 1: And I and it is so beautiful to me that
Speaker 1: you have classrooms of children that can say fifth grade,
Speaker 1: because unlike them, my first black teacher I didn't have
Speaker 1: until college and I only had two in my entire life.
Speaker 1: And so just that just that that I so I
Speaker 1: want to commend you for that because I think that
Speaker 1: that's that that's beautiful. Yeah. So you you make you
Speaker 1: see now in your with the CD that you're able
Speaker 1: to make a career and you know, unlike some artists,
Speaker 1: you like you said, you have an entrepreneurial spirit. This
Speaker 1: is a business. You were building a business, not just
Speaker 1: a brand. Um. I always equate that with Jay Z
Speaker 1: when he was just like, you know, I'm a business man, right,
Speaker 1: not a you know, not a businessman. And I think
Speaker 1: that you know too often as artists, you can get
Speaker 1: very connected and should be very connected to your craft
Speaker 1: and you're you're the best salesperson for that craft. You
Speaker 1: can try and go out and get agents and scouting managers.
Speaker 1: But if you don't really know how to sell yourself, right, like,
Speaker 1: then no one's going to really be picking up what
Speaker 1: you're putting down. Yeah, that's it. How did you yet
Speaker 1: tell me? What's funny about that? Is so you're not
Speaker 1: both know Teresa, And so I literally just had this
Speaker 1: conversation with Teresa the of the day because I was
Speaker 1: telling her the history of trying to create a business
Speaker 1: that is selling poetry to places that have previously dismissed it.
Speaker 1: And I said, look, I don't know, there's not too
Speaker 1: much there's not too many things that I claim I'm
Speaker 1: the best fad in the world, but I would I
Speaker 1: would venture to say I am among the best in
Speaker 1: the world at selling spoken word poetry in places where
Speaker 1: it's been said it doesn't belong because that alone is
Speaker 1: a science and an art form and it's incredibly nuanced.
Speaker 1: And I've worked with masters, sells people, professional marketers, and
Speaker 1: they all come in with you know, they got their
Speaker 1: their resumes and the and the hit lists and there
Speaker 1: and the egos that I've done this and I can
Speaker 1: do this and so forth, and I'm like, Okay, that's cute,
Speaker 1: I get it. But here's what's gonna happen. The minute
Speaker 1: that you mentioned spoke spoken words. Here's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: If you say these wrong words, you will you will
Speaker 1: instantly remove three or four zeros off of my value
Speaker 1: simply by using the wrong words, simply by creating the
Speaker 1: wrong context for what it's it's possible for this art form.
Speaker 1: And so I'm constantly in a place of having to
Speaker 1: train people how how how to sort of be the
Speaker 1: mouthpiece and the voice for my voice for this art form. Right,
Speaker 1: So you're right, it absolutely is a challenge trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to communicate the possibilities for this art form.
Speaker 1: But that's also the double edged sword. It's I call
Speaker 1: it my joyful challenge because it's it's a challenge. It's
Speaker 1: an uphill battle constantly. But it's also my baby, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. It's like it's my creation poetic voice,
Speaker 1: it's it's me being able to say to the world. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know that you thought that spoken word was only this.
Speaker 1: I know that you thought that it was only relevant
Speaker 1: at your company holiday party. But you're wrong. Spoken word
Speaker 1: can have more values in some context than any of
Speaker 1: your other presenters at your most important senior leadership executive meeting.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, watch this, and my life
Speaker 1: has been the living embodiment of watch this. I love
Speaker 1: I mean joyful right in facing obstacles, I think is
Speaker 1: what is what transcends most people, right because when you
Speaker 1: look at something as it is, this burden that you
Speaker 1: are carrying to do, that's what people see, That's what
Speaker 1: that's what comes off of you, that's what emanates off
Speaker 1: of you, is the toiling rather rather than the spirit
Speaker 1: of it. So I think that that is brilliant. You
Speaker 1: mentioned poetic voice. Talk to me about what you created,
Speaker 1: what is meant by and what is the meaning behind
Speaker 1: poetic voice because it's different than spoken word. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love I love that you even you know that
Speaker 1: you recognize that because you know, it's it's an evolution,
Speaker 1: it's an extension, but there is a difference. I define
Speaker 1: poetic voice as a speaking category that fuses inspirational speaking
Speaker 1: seamlessly with spoken word poetry. That's the sort most simplest definition.
Speaker 1: So it's you know, it's not there plenty of folks
Speaker 1: that are performers and speakers, nothing novel there, but this
Speaker 1: is not. I'm going to perform and then you applaud
Speaker 1: and I speak, and then I perform and you applaud
Speaker 1: and I speak. This is sort of a seamless integration
Speaker 1: where you don't really know where the theater ends and
Speaker 1: the poetry begins, the business content ends, and the storytelling begins.
Speaker 1: One minute, it feels like I'm in a story. The
Speaker 1: next minute it feels like you're getting actionable business takeaway. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, he's rhyming. And now wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Now I'm crying because wearing a story and this is
Speaker 1: this is a tech conference, and what the hell is
Speaker 1: going on? You know what I mean? And so it
Speaker 1: makes that sense of wonderment of throwing an audience off
Speaker 1: of their off of their feet, a little bit of
Speaker 1: cracking them open, and ways that they didn't come in expecting,
Speaker 1: which is the power of art. And so infusing the
Speaker 1: power of art into a business context, into a speaking
Speaker 1: context in this way is what creates that new experience
Speaker 1: and offers creates a higher perceived value for spoken word
Speaker 1: than we've previously had. The challenge that I had, you know,
Speaker 1: people look sometimes at my brand and they go, man,
Speaker 1: you you know you don't like the metric for success
Speaker 1: A lot of times these days is you don't you
Speaker 1: know how many lights do you have? You know, how
Speaker 1: many followers do you have? Your brand is so big,
Speaker 1: I'm surprised that your social footprint is so small. And
Speaker 1: the reason that was very intentional. You know, now we're
Speaker 1: doing a lot more focus on external projects. But the
Speaker 1: reason was because I recognize very early, because spoken word
Speaker 1: does not have a perceived value, I want to make
Speaker 1: a living off of this art. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be The trajectory for a poet is basically a spoken
Speaker 1: word poet is you go you do the clubs and cafes.
Speaker 1: Then you start doing colleges, and then that's kind of it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you go teach, maybe you start you know, you
Speaker 1: write books, or you just go get a job and
Speaker 1: you do poetry as a hobby, right, it becomes secondary.
Speaker 1: And I said, I want to content I love this
Speaker 1: art for him. I want to continue to expand what
Speaker 1: that trajectory can be for me as a spoken word
Speaker 1: artist by kicking open new doors. And so in doing that,
Speaker 1: that became the challenge, right is how how do I
Speaker 1: extend that trajectory beyond just the clubs and the cafes
Speaker 1: and the colleges. And that's why it was it was
Speaker 1: imperative for me to look at what other doors I
Speaker 1: can be kicking open, like the Grammys. You know what
Speaker 1: if artists have not one Grammys, if artists, if artists
Speaker 1: are dismissed from business stages, if artists are dismissed from media,
Speaker 1: how can I kick open those doors to show them
Speaker 1: the poets have value there? And to create that perceived
Speaker 1: value took me saying I don't want to worry about
Speaker 1: the likes and the follow because that will result if
Speaker 1: I get a million hits on a video, that will
Speaker 1: result I promise you in fifty gig offers for one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars each. You see what I'm saying. And I
Speaker 1: was like, I can't make a living off of that
Speaker 1: see what I want to So I shift it in said,
Speaker 1: I want to I want to increase the perceived value.
Speaker 1: I want to increase the paycheck I want to build,
Speaker 1: which is what I did, build a seven figure company
Speaker 1: off of spoken word. So that now when when someone
Speaker 1: comes to me and says, all right, we want to
Speaker 1: book a spoken word artist, they're not looking at me
Speaker 1: going and surely he'll do it for exposure because that's
Speaker 1: all they're worth. You know what I mean that? Now,
Speaker 1: Oh wait a minute, check this dude's resumes. He's proven
Speaker 1: the concept, So we need to we need to honor
Speaker 1: the value that he's created. And now it's like, now
Speaker 1: let's go get the million hit videos, let's go viral,
Speaker 1: let's do all of that so that we can actually
Speaker 1: create paying jobs and careers off of this. And so
Speaker 1: you still have a piece of your teaching acumen because
Speaker 1: you are now helping other artists, right, other speakers, other
Speaker 1: people connect and kind of master that stage. Talk to
Speaker 1: us about that. Yeah, different different classroom, right, Still still
Speaker 1: still an educator. Um, So I appreciate my principle for
Speaker 1: seeing that in me, because now it's just a different stage.
Speaker 1: And you know, I credit the classrooms, So you're going
Speaker 1: to appreciate the classroom as an incredible training ground to
Speaker 1: become a public speaker. You have an audience every day
Speaker 1: that you have to impress that is not impressed with
Speaker 1: what you did yesterday. They're not impressed by what you
Speaker 1: did an hour ago, like like engage me right now
Speaker 1: with starting fresh right. And so yeah, I've I've moved
Speaker 1: now into helping people to become better communicators because I
Speaker 1: really wanted to expand the impact, you know, like the
Speaker 1: I could. There's an impact that I can make through
Speaker 1: my voice alone and reaching hundreds of thousands and millions
Speaker 1: of folks on live and digital stages, But the greater
Speaker 1: impact is in showing other people how to be more
Speaker 1: impactful on their communities, how to be more inspiring. And
Speaker 1: so I'm involved a lot now in an inspiration training really,
Speaker 1: I mean, you can call it speaker training. But my
Speaker 1: message to the world right now is, look, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't care what business that you are in, you
Speaker 1: are also in the inspiration business. And and this pandemic,
Speaker 1: this crisis is proving that because people have got Yes,
Speaker 1: you have to get people the information that they need. Right,
Speaker 1: people need to know how does the remote working technology work?
Speaker 1: And what's the expected schedule when I have to feed
Speaker 1: my kid in the middle of the day, and how
Speaker 1: do I manage you know, how do I manage unemployment
Speaker 1: or or paycheck protection, loans or like all the information
Speaker 1: is incredibly important right now that the minute that that
Speaker 1: does settles, people need to be inspired to continue pushing
Speaker 1: through this. People need to be inspired to say, now
Speaker 1: that I know how to have the information to teach
Speaker 1: me how to work remotely. Now I need to be
Speaker 1: inspired to work remotely, to do know what I mean,
Speaker 1: to not have happy hours start at ten am, to
Speaker 1: not to not like to stay focused on my job,
Speaker 1: to stay loyal to my to this organization, to you know,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And so that's that's what the message
Speaker 1: that we're sending folks right now. And that comes not
Speaker 1: only from yes, partner with me because I can help
Speaker 1: create an inspirational voice for your organization, but it's also
Speaker 1: let me teach you how to be inspiring because you
Speaker 1: have to be inspiring right now. You have to be
Speaker 1: the one that's closing in the distance. That isolation and
Speaker 1: social distancing is creative and there are very specific techniques
Speaker 1: in ways that you can learn to be a more
Speaker 1: dynamic and powerful communicator, to be a more inspiring communicator
Speaker 1: and leader. And my Stage might speaker training program, it's
Speaker 1: like stage fright to stage might. You know I call
Speaker 1: a rock star secrets for public speakers because it's basically saying,
Speaker 1: no matter where your voice is, no matter who your
Speaker 1: audience is, you have a stage. I don't care if
Speaker 1: you're a senior executive leader or a dentist, or you're
Speaker 1: a lawyer or a teacher or a manager. You have
Speaker 1: a stage. You have somebody that is under your influence,
Speaker 1: and that person deserves to be inspired by you, no
Speaker 1: matter how mundane you think your job or your work is.
Speaker 1: That is a power that you hold alone, and I
Speaker 1: can help bring that power out of you. It's so
Speaker 1: interesting because I never thought, in all honesty that you
Speaker 1: could teach inspiration. I know that you can teach people
Speaker 1: how to be better speakers and how to connect, but
Speaker 1: inspiration is honestly something that I thought you you were
Speaker 1: either born with or you weren't right, Like, you know,
Speaker 1: is somebody walking in your door who pretty much and
Speaker 1: I will age myself, but who sounds like faris Bueller's
Speaker 1: teacher who is completely flattened, monotone, Their their job is
Speaker 1: boring as Hellum, but they're like, I need you to
Speaker 1: help me. How do you turn that kind of person
Speaker 1: into into you into or into into the best version
Speaker 1: of them? I should say yeah, absolutely, And I think
Speaker 1: that's the critical distinction is that you know, it isn't
Speaker 1: safe of training, right. Um, it's saying I used to
Speaker 1: when I when I first created the stage my speaker
Speaker 1: training system. Um, I had so much resistance internally because
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't want to be a speaker trainer.
Speaker 1: There's tons of them out there, there's plenty of whatever.
Speaker 1: But I realized that I had built a successful speaking
Speaker 1: career and never having been trained as a speaker, I
Speaker 1: had been trained as an artist, and seeing the stage,
Speaker 1: even business stages, through an artist and a performance lens
Speaker 1: is what made me stand out in a business environment.
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, that's teachable, right. So every
Speaker 1: time someone kept saying, well, how do you do that?
Speaker 1: And that was the you know, that's that's a lot
Speaker 1: of times. The pivotal moment that we have in terms
Speaker 1: of evolving and expanding our service to the world is
Speaker 1: that we used to you know, especially artists, entrepreneurs, you know,
Speaker 1: go getters. We live in our own magic, you know.
Speaker 1: We this is my genius, this is my magic, It's
Speaker 1: my gift. And that's what I kept saying every time
Speaker 1: somebody asked the question. But it's that pivotal question, someone
Speaker 1: asking you how do you do that? Enough times and
Speaker 1: finally eventually you realize I need to have an answer
Speaker 1: for that, like I'm not serving the world in as
Speaker 1: profound and prolific of a way as I could be
Speaker 1: if I could answer the question how do I do that?
Speaker 1: And I never knew how I did that? So I
Speaker 1: began to dissect and codify how I did that, and
Speaker 1: I begin to realize that, yes, some of it is
Speaker 1: my magic, but that there's also mastery. There's a point
Speaker 1: in which the magic ends and the mastery begins. And
Speaker 1: when you understand that, then you go, these are the
Speaker 1: teachable components of what it is that I do. So
Speaker 1: let me begin to share that part so that I
Speaker 1: can not only not teach someone my magic, but I
Speaker 1: can bring out their magic in these teachable ways. So
Speaker 1: that was really the pivot point for me, and I
Speaker 1: realized that inspiration, Yes, it is a speaker training system.
Speaker 1: But you know when I tell people that they're people
Speaker 1: who are battling nervousness, and I tell them, I want
Speaker 1: you to go on stage and I want you to
Speaker 1: focus on who it is that you're there to serve,
Speaker 1: because right now you're trying to say, well, I have
Speaker 1: to reach everyone and I have to do this for everyone,
Speaker 1: and I go, no, that's not true. There might be
Speaker 1: one person, there might be three people that are listening
Speaker 1: to you in this crowd that what you say is
Speaker 1: going to prove to be a lifeline for their business,
Speaker 1: for their family, for their relationship, for their life. Possibly.
Speaker 1: Right there's a line in one of my poems that says,
Speaker 1: I spit for the suicide note stuff into the back
Speaker 1: pocket of someone here tonight, right like you could be
Speaker 1: what you could be the voice that saves someone's life
Speaker 1: tonight in some literal or metaphoric way. So that's what
Speaker 1: you need to stay focused on. Left. That be what
Speaker 1: gets rid of your nervousness. And as you go on
Speaker 1: that stage, no matter how the great the audience experiences
Speaker 1: or not, and you focus on the fact that you're
Speaker 1: there to serve. And I think that's the inspiration part
Speaker 1: is that yes, it's speaker training, but the more that
Speaker 1: you focus on the why of the speaker training, the
Speaker 1: more that you are pushing yourself to say, I need
Speaker 1: to take this from just speaking to actually inspiring because
Speaker 1: I need to serve that organization, that customer, that workforce,
Speaker 1: that employee, that relationship, that community, that try been in
Speaker 1: that way. And so it's the purpose element behind that
Speaker 1: I think makes the inspiration teachable. You know, you mentioned uh,
Speaker 1: magic and mastery, and I love I love that. I
Speaker 1: it was like it invoked like an imagery for me
Speaker 1: because I think that right now, just going back a
Speaker 1: little bit, in this moment, in this global crisis that
Speaker 1: we're all living through, working through, just trying many people
Speaker 1: just trying to survive through every day, every moment, it's
Speaker 1: different and it's hard. When I started PM mood, this
Speaker 1: was not happening, So the conversations were different. I can't
Speaker 1: get away from, you know, from discussing how this has
Speaker 1: impacted people are how it is impacting because we're still
Speaker 1: living the momentum for people who are struggling to find
Speaker 1: the magic in this moment right that you know, they're
Speaker 1: they're struggling because they're looking for inspiration from leaders that
Speaker 1: they're not finding. How do can they how can they
Speaker 1: conjure that within themselves? How do people What are some
Speaker 1: of the ways in which people can find just a
Speaker 1: little burst right of magic, of sunshine of light that
Speaker 1: can help carry them through? Because I feel, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that has been so inspiring is
Speaker 1: the music. Is the song? Are the words? Is the art?
Speaker 1: I think it's so ironic that those are some of
Speaker 1: the first things that are cut when we're talking about education,
Speaker 1: for instance, we cut the arts. Oh, you don't need that,
Speaker 1: you need you know, writing, arithmetic and this, that and
Speaker 1: the other thing. But it is, but it is the
Speaker 1: essence of art that is saving many people right now.
Speaker 1: So how do you conjure that magic? There's a line
Speaker 1: in one of the piece called the Music Movement of
Speaker 1: off of the Grammy nominated album that says, with music
Speaker 1: programs raising test scores by twenty percent, cutting funding from
Speaker 1: music to save money for english and math, it's like
Speaker 1: removing a car's engine to save money on gas. And that,
Speaker 1: to me is what is the embodiment of what you're
Speaker 1: talking about, You know what I mean, We're cutting off
Speaker 1: our lifeline because we've we've you know, incorrectly assigned our
Speaker 1: value system. And so I yeah, it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a challenge. But what I tell people, I've been working
Speaker 1: on a book about the power of inspiration for the
Speaker 1: past few years. You know, God willing, I will start
Speaker 1: to have some space this year, during this pandemic, and
Speaker 1: this can be one of what I call my pandemic projects,
Speaker 1: that that will, you know, give me something to come
Speaker 1: out of this stronger than when I came into it.
Speaker 1: Um And in the book, I talk about the need
Speaker 1: to you to seek out inspiration. You know, there's sometimes
Speaker 1: there is this you have the luxury of waiting for it.
Speaker 1: I used to have that luxury when I first started
Speaker 1: working in the business world, and somebody might hire me
Speaker 1: to create a custom piece or whatever every blue moon.
Speaker 1: That was very rare. But most of my poets, we
Speaker 1: just came from within me. It was just I'm mad
Speaker 1: at my mom and I'm a writer mad at my
Speaker 1: mom home. Or I'm you know, loving my mom and
Speaker 1: I'm a writer love my mom poem, you know. And
Speaker 1: now it's like, yo, I gotta knock out this cloud
Speaker 1: computing piece by Wednesday, you know, And so it's a
Speaker 1: different relationship that I have the inspiration now now have
Speaker 1: a lover being able to just wait for it. I
Speaker 1: have to go hunting for it. And I think that
Speaker 1: this is the time for that now because there's so
Speaker 1: much noise right now, there's so many distractions, there's so
Speaker 1: much negativity and fear of loss and pain and uncertainty
Speaker 1: that we have to be more intentional about every thing
Speaker 1: really in our lives. We have to be intentional about
Speaker 1: our morning routine. We have to be intentional about our
Speaker 1: our you know, mobility. We have to be intentional about
Speaker 1: everything during this but we also have to be intentional
Speaker 1: about our about the hunt for inspiration. We got to
Speaker 1: go hunting for it. And if you hunt for it,
Speaker 1: you'll find it. Right if you start paying attention to it,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll see that thing that your kid did that
Speaker 1: just you look at him, is like, oh God, that
Speaker 1: was so moving. That's such a symbol of how we
Speaker 1: need to be in the world. That was inspiring. Let
Speaker 1: me write that down and man, this thing that this
Speaker 1: this politician said, this class roots activists said on television.
Speaker 1: That made me going, that's what I'm feeling. That was inspiring.
Speaker 1: Let me drop that down, right, and we begin to
Speaker 1: we begin to hunt and to gather, and to hunt
Speaker 1: and to gather, and to hunt and to gather, so
Speaker 1: that when we have the need to be inspiring, we
Speaker 1: are pulling from the source of being inspired. First. We
Speaker 1: have to be inspired to be inspiring, right, And that's
Speaker 1: the thing that people have to realize, is that you
Speaker 1: got to go out and hunt for that inspiration so
Speaker 1: that you can live and inspired life first, so that
Speaker 1: then you can help someone else to be to be inspired.
Speaker 1: And so pay attention, stick that antenna up and start
Speaker 1: and start documenting the ways that you're moved, the simple
Speaker 1: thing that you're that move you. Because inspiration is a
Speaker 1: very you know, amorphous, intangible concept. You know what is inspiration?
Speaker 1: What does it mean to be inspired? It's very subjective
Speaker 1: and personal for each of us. And so I think
Speaker 1: that we have to pay attention to that was inspiring
Speaker 1: to me, That was inspiring to me, And the more
Speaker 1: that we do that, the more that we'll realize, oh, well,
Speaker 1: if that's all inspiration is, If that's all that it
Speaker 1: took to inspire me, I'm sure somebody else feels like that.
Speaker 1: And if that could inspire me, I could do that
Speaker 1: for someone, I could say that for someone, I could
Speaker 1: give up. I could take something and recontextualize it in
Speaker 1: a way that does that for someone. And now inspiration
Speaker 1: becomes a more accessible and you begin to access it
Speaker 1: as a superpower that you've always had in you. You
Speaker 1: just didn't know how to. You know, you didn't you
Speaker 1: didn't have a cape in it and a spandex. You know.
Speaker 1: I love that. Um. One of your incredibly inspiring moments
Speaker 1: I would imagine would be when you found out that
Speaker 1: you were nominated for Grammy in twenty nineteen. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: are the first spoken word artists poetic voice to be
Speaker 1: nominated in what was it, thirty years? So uh, you know, really,
Speaker 1: if you're thinking about in the context of spoken word
Speaker 1: poetry and spoken word poetry albums for thirty years, I
Speaker 1: take nothing away from Doctor May Angelou and Nikki Giovanni
Speaker 1: who won twelve years ago, seventeen years ago, one or nominated,
Speaker 1: But they're also in our community. They're not They're not
Speaker 1: thought of, and nor do I think of them. Think
Speaker 1: they think of themselves as spoken word poets right, a
Speaker 1: much more sort of literary right, literary poets who had
Speaker 1: a book and then they read the book as an
Speaker 1: audiobook and that got nominated as different than an album,
Speaker 1: and ours was a top to bottom spoken word poetry album.
Speaker 1: So that's why we say thirty years. What was that like?
Speaker 1: I mean, let me just tell you the clips of
Speaker 1: a full orchestra. The string theory behind um or in
Speaker 1: or intertwined with your voice and your messages was beautiful.
Speaker 1: It was it was It was. Um, It's something I
Speaker 1: don't even think I used the word awe struck often,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to use it now. Um what what retire? Now? What? Um?
Speaker 1: What did that feel like to get that call? It
Speaker 1: was in some ways indescribable. Um. You know, I went
Speaker 1: after this with everything I had and yet and I
Speaker 1: was met at every turn with that's awesome that you're
Speaker 1: doing that. But really, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: like there was such enthusiasm and also such skepticism, like
Speaker 1: come on, I don't want you to just like are
Speaker 1: you what? Are you gonna tell me that you're gonna
Speaker 1: fly to the moon next? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It was just kind of like like you're you're chasing
Speaker 1: something that feels kind of impossible because, um, because of
Speaker 1: the fact that we were always up against audio books
Speaker 1: or But to be honest, also what drove me was
Speaker 1: that because you know, you can't tell me impossible and
Speaker 1: then make me think, I think it's gonna be a deterrent.
Speaker 1: If anything, it's an attraction, right um. But what was
Speaker 1: also a driver was the fact that some people didn't
Speaker 1: know that it was as impossible as it is, because
Speaker 1: they were shocked to find out that our category. The
Speaker 1: reason why it's so impossible is because the spoken word
Speaker 1: best spoken Word Album category has been dominated by all
Speaker 1: the audiobooks. Right. Well, that's that's the challenge. I just
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that's clear, because some people
Speaker 1: look and go, why was it such a big deal.
Speaker 1: You're a spoken word artist, that's the spoken word granny.
Speaker 1: Why not? Right? Well, the reason is because we're not
Speaker 1: ever competing against spoken word artists. Were competing presidents and
Speaker 1: celebrities and giant publishers that have these huge, huge books
Speaker 1: and industries behind them that share the same category as poetry.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people were shocked to hear that.
Speaker 1: They were like that they shouldn't be together. Like when
Speaker 1: I think spoken word, I don't think audio books. I
Speaker 1: think the art of crafting spoken word poetry, not the
Speaker 1: narration of a book. And so that was really what
Speaker 1: made it so insurmountable. And so when we when we
Speaker 1: got the win and we got the nomination, you know
Speaker 1: that morning, so I'll tell you, I'll paint the same
Speaker 1: for you. I I woke up and I had a
Speaker 1: whole lot of stuff going on in my life, and
Speaker 1: my church had just said that they reinstating this super
Speaker 1: early morning Wednesday prayer and I never go to those
Speaker 1: kind of things, but I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I got a lot going on right now, All right,
Speaker 1: let me go handle that right and then and then
Speaker 1: I found out so that was like five thirty in
Speaker 1: the morning that was supposed to be happening. And then
Speaker 1: I found out that the Granny announcement was going to
Speaker 1: be made at around five fifteen on CBS News. And
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, I was already playing on
Speaker 1: being up. That's awesome. So I got up and I'm
Speaker 1: making my coffee and I'm sitting down. I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: My wife's like, yo, we gotta go, we gotta go,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hold on, I have to hear this announcement.
Speaker 1: And they kept going the news kept going, you know,
Speaker 1: and coming up the Grammy nominee announcements, but first and
Speaker 1: they can't be crazy, And I was like, wait, I
Speaker 1: was telling tell my wife, wait, I canti find this out.
Speaker 1: So she was like, well, it's supposed to be up
Speaker 1: on the website. Why don't we just drive the church
Speaker 1: and we can find out on the you know, on
Speaker 1: the website. When we pull up and halfway uh there,
Speaker 1: I got a call from my Thin brand manager who
Speaker 1: who was like, did you see the news? And he
Speaker 1: was like, we got it, say Coo Andrew was in
Speaker 1: a stream theory nominated and we were just like I
Speaker 1: pulled over and my wife started screaming, and I'm in
Speaker 1: the car and we were like, I remember hearing these moments,
Speaker 1: these famous stories you hear of like yeah, Button Pepper
Speaker 1: the first time they hurt themselves on the radio, and
Speaker 1: they pulled over and we're dancing in their car, you know,
Speaker 1: and I was like, this was that kind of moment
Speaker 1: for me. Suddenly I'm just I'm just screaming and my
Speaker 1: wife's kind and we're having this amazing moment. And then
Speaker 1: we pulled up five minutes later and we walked into
Speaker 1: the church and we just got our prayer on and
Speaker 1: our gratitude on, and we was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: there could be no better place for me to be
Speaker 1: right now than to be in this sort of room
Speaker 1: and spirit of just gratitude, pure praise and worship and
Speaker 1: gratitude for all that I have in my life. And
Speaker 1: let me take this moment right now. And you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't prepared for it. I wasn't prepared for it,
Speaker 1: even though it was something that I completely chased mentally,
Speaker 1: I hadn't even cleared space on my calendar for the
Speaker 1: next round of campaigning. And I told my team, we're good,
Speaker 1: the boats are in, We're good, you know. And then
Speaker 1: suddenly we got the nomination and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we didn't even make space for this, you know. So
Speaker 1: it was it was crazy, but it was. It was
Speaker 1: a joy to be nominated. It was a joy to
Speaker 1: be in the same category as Michelle Obama. It was
Speaker 1: a joy to get beat by, you know, the most
Speaker 1: beloved first lady and and one of the best selling
Speaker 1: autobiographies ever. Like all of it, it was just win
Speaker 1: after win for me. So I got no complaints. That
Speaker 1: was gonna be My next question was going to be
Speaker 1: about Michelle Obama. I'm given the fact that you were
Speaker 1: talking about audio books, but I'm thinking, if there is
Speaker 1: anyone that I would ever want to be beat by
Speaker 1: in life, it's gonna be her. Exactly. It's gonna be here, like,
Speaker 1: oh man, who are you beat by? Michelle? Oh? Okay?
Speaker 1: Well I told one of my friends called me and
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, I was talking to my life.
Speaker 1: You know, it's my ten year old daughter. And I said,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, you know uncle sak who um just
Speaker 1: got you know, nominated? I mean, I just got you know,
Speaker 1: did the Grammys celebration? This is this was after the
Speaker 1: awards and and she goes, really wow. She goes did
Speaker 1: he win? And he was like no, he didn't win.
Speaker 1: And she goes, well who you know? Who who did
Speaker 1: he get? And he was like, well it was Michelle
Speaker 1: Obama and it's ten year old kid win. Well yeah
Speaker 1: for her, it was like, well of course, man, you know,
Speaker 1: but come on, if Michelle Obama is going to be
Speaker 1: in a category, she's gonna win. Come on. Um No,
Speaker 1: that's extraordinary. One of the last question that I always
Speaker 1: asked my guests on PM mood um and I feel
Speaker 1: like for you you've already you've given us so much
Speaker 1: um in terms of how you find inspiration. But to
Speaker 1: put a finer point on it, I asked guests, how
Speaker 1: do you get in the mood to change the world.
Speaker 1: What is it that you do? How do you get
Speaker 1: into that space, that headspace um to do the work
Speaker 1: that you do. How do I get in the mood
Speaker 1: to change the world? I would probably say that it's
Speaker 1: probably three things. I get in them. I get in
Speaker 1: the mood to change the world by first identifying how
Speaker 1: it is that I need to serve the world and
Speaker 1: being purposeful in that, you know, that's really what drives me.
Speaker 1: That was the beauty of the Grammy nomination. It was
Speaker 1: not that it was not just that it was the
Speaker 1: wind for me as an artist, but even more that
Speaker 1: it was the wind for our art form, and that
Speaker 1: it was helping to helping me to serve my purpose
Speaker 1: of creating that model of possibilities for spoken word artists
Speaker 1: that didn't believe, you know, things were possible beforehand. So
Speaker 1: that spirit of serviceness, a spirit of service, is the
Speaker 1: first thing that I think gets me in the mood
Speaker 1: to change the world. I would say the second thing
Speaker 1: is is the spirit of collaboration, you know, surrounding myself
Speaker 1: with people that are that than me, that are greater
Speaker 1: than me at things that that that fill in for
Speaker 1: my weaknesses with their strengths. UM. That pushed my creativity, push,
Speaker 1: push my envelope. I mean, that's what the string theory was.
Speaker 1: The string theory is a fifty It's the fifty person
Speaker 1: neo classical orchestra that has everything from electronica and bagpipe
Speaker 1: and you know, DJ's in addition to your your your
Speaker 1: string quartets. And the thought of what an orchestra that
Speaker 1: is innovating classical music could do with a spoken word
Speaker 1: artist that's innovating spoken word poetry. That was exciting to me.
Speaker 1: That got me in the mood to say, let's let's
Speaker 1: go change something. Um And that was one of the
Speaker 1: greatest compliments. I'm one of my competitors, actually, Alex Eric
Speaker 1: Alex alexandrakis trying to pronouncing his name, was one of
Speaker 1: my fellow nominees and he came to me afterwards and
Speaker 1: he said, you have forever changed this category. And that
Speaker 1: was so gratifying for me because it took that spirit
Speaker 1: of collaboration for us to do that. Um, and then
Speaker 1: I think the third thing, it's just, you know, just
Speaker 1: hope and belief in yourself and joy and kind of
Speaker 1: that passion that goes along with doing what you love.
Speaker 1: You know, they say you do what you love and
Speaker 1: love what you do. And I really try to bring
Speaker 1: that into the spirit of everything that I'm doing because
Speaker 1: right now when I'm in a new place of trying
Speaker 1: to save the world and trying to serve the world,
Speaker 1: and I save the world, and it makes sure I
Speaker 1: correct that of serving the world, and because the world
Speaker 1: has such a high need, and the message that I'm sending,
Speaker 1: my sending to my community, to my clients, to my tribe,
Speaker 1: to their communities is that, yeah, I get it. I
Speaker 1: get that the live gatherings were shut have been shut down,
Speaker 1: But the live gatherings were for the purpose of finding inspiration.
Speaker 1: Live gatherings for the purpose of creating togetherness, right, so
Speaker 1: the need for togetherness is still there, the need for
Speaker 1: inspiration is still there, and it exists now more than ever.
Speaker 1: And that's where it is that I'm trying to make
Speaker 1: sure I'm partnering with my clients organizations, letting them know
Speaker 1: all way that we virtually from where we are can
Speaker 1: still help them inspire and serve that need for inspiration.
Speaker 1: That to me, that serving that need and the joy
Speaker 1: that comes with that, that's real big for helping me,
Speaker 1: helping me to get in the mood to tampact as well.
Speaker 1: Beautiful Secu, thank you so much for joining PM mood.
Speaker 1: You are a gift with wonderful Thank you for having me,
Speaker 1: and thank you for saying that I appreciate it for joy.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to PM mood as always, you can
Speaker 1: hear episodes every week for free, and my daily political podcast,
Speaker 1: Woke a F Daily, is on Patreon for just five
Speaker 1: dollars a month at patreon dot com slash woke a F.
Speaker 1: That's five dollars a month for five shows a week,
Speaker 1: so check it out. If you're in the mood for
Speaker 1: more of me, Danielle Moody, follow me on Twitter and
Speaker 1: Instagram at D two cents d e E two c
Speaker 1: e nts, and as always, stay in the PM mood
Speaker 1: to change the world.