WEBVTT - A Curvy Conversation (w/ Timothy Snell) 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:06.080 Good morning, good after no, good evening, wherever you may be. UM, 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:08.840 if you haven't guess it, you've tuned into the Vitamin 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.479 D with Dawn Day podcast and I am your host 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:13.840 and Dawn Day here to get you excited about your 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.480 life so that you can live life on purpose and 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.440 for a purpose. Now this is your first time tuning in. Welcome, 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.840 Thank you. I appreciate you for choosing you because, um, 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.080 Vitamin D. Let me tell you it's a pun off 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.200 my name. My name is Dawn, which is the sun. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.360 So I'm here to shed light into your life. But 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.800 let's be clear when we talk about shedding and like 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:35.320 that's on the good and a bad because if you 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:37.360 want to be better and you want to do better, 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.600 guess what You're gonna have to be able to say better, Okay, 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:44.159 And we do that by instilling that you are your 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.760 greatest asset because at the end of the day, I'm 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.000 here to get excited about my life. And I couldn't 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.400 be more excited today because as I've told you time 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.760 and time again, this is my dream and I have 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.040 a dear, a special friend that's joining me today now 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.640 just so that we got this clear out, to make 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.080 sure I say it right. He is an award winning 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.600 television host, a fashion designer, a celebrity stylist. Um, you 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:11.479 can say he's both an image maker and a therapist, 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:13.760 kind of like that whole ordeal of working on the 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.920 outside and um, you may be familiar with him, known 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.880 as the man behind the curves, also known as the 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.600 stylist to one of my one of the women that 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.440 I look up into the industry so much, Queen Latifa. 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.600 He styled what Angela bas said Lenny Kravitz. I mean, 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:30.759 the list could go on and on and oh, let 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.680 me not forget the late, the great, uh, the voice 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.920 Miss Whitney Houston. So, without further ado, I hope you 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.600 enjoyed this conversation. It's time for your dose a vitamin 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:52.240 D D right with me and get excited about Mr Snall. Yeah, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.520 thank you for having me. I appreciate you how you're doing. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.840 Welcome to my dream. You know what, it's it's great 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:02.480 to be a part of your dream because I've heard 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.200 about this dream a long time and you're out here 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:05.960 doing it. It's great to be in a dream that 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.800 is a happy dream. Yes, and I'm here to participate, 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.440 and you know, have great conversation and just share some 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:18.720 of my experience, my um adventures, my opportunities with you 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.000 and what I've done, what I'm doing now and where 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.160 I'm going, and I'm hoping we can inspire some people 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.200 on the way. Well, that's what it's all about. I mean, 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.040 having conversation is at the end of the day, you 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.960 want people to take a have a great takeaway. That's 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:34.519 anything you do in life, you want people to take 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.000 something away from it that's valuable. Even if you're cooking 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.080 for them, you want them to take away a fit stomach. 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:40.840 You want them to feel good about what they ate, 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.800 no matter what. In any situation. I think it's um 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:46.760 especially in this climate, we have to do things to 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:48.680 make us feel good and make other people feel good 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.200 as well. Right because we walk away with kind of 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.760 like three principles to be informed, inspired, and entertained. I 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:57.679 felt like that's kind of like the pinnacles that drive 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.880 us in life. I agree. I think it's um challenging. 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:04.960 But in life, I think that we always have to 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.919 reach out for something that's better than ourselves. And when 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:09.919 we reach out for things that are better in ourselves 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.720 and encourage ourselves, that's how we keep moving forward, and 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.160 that's how we keep going towards the possibility, because that's 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.280 what life is. Every day you work, you wake up 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.520 in the morning as a possibility for something to turn 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.000 over in your life. And it's a sign that the 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.760 universe and God is not done with you yet, so 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.640 you might as well make the best of it. It 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:31.799 ain't a period until and then after the period, the 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.720 spirit still lives. H come on, but the soul is 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:39.960 at rest, but the spirit lives. Well, you better hold 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.920 on now. It's that upbringing, you know, my mom and 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:45.240 my family and stuff. You know, I was raised in church, 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.600 so you know, you you you have a foundation. It's 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:50.960 just like with anything, you get a foundation, just like 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.120 I went to design school that that provid provided me 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.760 here to where I am today. You need that foundation, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:58.720 You need something to work with. You need that knowledge 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:00.960 and that power to keep you strong, to keep you focused, 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.480 to keep you mighty, and to keep you powerful. All right, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.600 And it's a testament as to why you've been able 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.080 to be featured on a Queen las Eva show The Seva. So, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:12.800 I mean, you've had your own show, but we're going 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:14.840 to dive into that and even talk about how we 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.680 met first. For anybody that's just tuning in, tell us 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:21.800 about who you are, Okay, I am Timothy snell Man 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.800 behind the curbs and you know, just uh. I'm from 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.760 Las Vegas, Nevada, born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.240 I come from a family. Uh. I have a sister 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.279 named Tracy. My parents are no longer with us. My 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.040 parents raised us together. Um. I came from a middle 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.600 class black family. I felt very fortunate in a lot 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.159 of ways growing up because I had opportunities growing up 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:48.760 as a kid that I want to afford it to 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.600 a lot of other black kids and stuff. Growing up, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:53.920 but I felt very advantaged and I was always trying 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.400 to take my friends along for the ride. Like my 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.479 sister and I took swimming lessons, we took judo. I 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.520 played the saxophone. My sister played the clarinet, and she 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:05.279 played the piano. These are things that our parents, my 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.839 parents kept us involved in to keep our because you know, 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.600 they didn't want us to stray from anything. And they 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.440 kept positive adults and positive people around us as we 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.040 grew up as kids. And you know, I grew up 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.919 you know, singing in the church choir. You know me, 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:20.600 I sing all over the place. You know me. I'm 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:22.280 singing in my car. I could, I could said in 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.839 my car to beat my funds in hall in my office. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.840 So I do that kind of thing. And then when 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.720 I was about seventeen years old, I got a chance 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.360 to sing on the Las Vegas Strip as a background singer. 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.120 What how come I didn't know that. There's a lot 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.640 of things that people don't know about me. So you 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.919 were about to be a singer? Well, you know the 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:42.960 interesting thing about it is my sister when I said 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:44.680 I was gonna leave, when I was leaving home to 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.520 go to design school, she said, I don't know why 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.200 you're going to design school. Why don't you just go 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:50.800 to do session work and just become a singer. And 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.440 I never really thought about that. I didn't have the 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.880 opportunity and I didn't think about it. But I'm looking 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.159 back on in hindsight, I think to myself, God, my 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.359 sister saw something than me that I didn't realize that. 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.760 She dropped that nugget at me, and I didn't pay 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.520 attention to it. But yeah, I've been singing all my life. 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.160 My mother was my mother and her sister growing up 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.039 used to go around in their town. My mother was 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.360 born and her name was Helen and her sister's name 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:20.560 was Maddie. And they grew up and they could really sing. 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.760 They could harmonize. They would take a poem and make 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.320 a song out of it. They were in that period 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:28.840 around the Lena Horn area and all Era and all 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.120 of that stuff like that. They didn't have the opportunity 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.960 that some of the opportunity has been afforded to me 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.440 as wasn't afforded to my mom and her sister and stuff. 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.760 But they could really sing. My mother was a great 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.640 auto soprano sing. I mean she could blow and she 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.680 had a really powerful voice, and so did her sister, 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:49.040 and so it just runs in my family. I never 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:50.680 knew of my dad because I don't even know if 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:53.160 I ever had my dad's sing. But my dad could whistle, 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.680 and I inherited it. I inherited that from my dad. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.520 I'm a strong whistle like I'll sing all whistle up 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.600 of a riot carry song that admitted to hit those 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.560 notes with a whistles. I mean, that's my thing. I mean, 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.360 but um, yeah, that's where I started. Las Vegas and Vada. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.200 You know, I still go home periodically. I still see 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.920 the same friends that I grew up with, and um, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.640 their parents and the cousins and stuff like that, and 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:19.720 it's just it's really nice to go home, you know, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:23.880 to be to feel value and be appreciated and say 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:27.000 we're proud of you. You're doing a good job, and 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:29.680 you know all of that stuff. Really, you know, just 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.520 um ground you makes you feel you know, okay, it 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.280 makes you feel cool. It makes the climb up much 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.920 easier because you know that your roots are playing it right. Yeah. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.080 I mean I think what your parents is stilling you 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.440 is what you take to your great wow. And you know, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.200 just me knowing you personally, Like you have a really 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.520 strong connection with your mother. You were always close with 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.960 your Mothersi. Yes, That's where I think I got the 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.280 love of it from. My mother would go and shop 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:00.640 at Imagnum, which was a really big boutique Story and Vegas, 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.200 or she would go to the high end boutiques. If 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.840 she could not afford it, she could copy it in 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.280 her mind and go home and make it. So I 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:12.320 grew up around the sewing machine. I grew up around 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.000 my mother would be in the bed with my dad 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.680 watching TV doing a needle point, and I have pillowcases 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:20.920 that my mom made for me and my sister would 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.720 need a needle point and things like that. So she 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.560 was a creative and so was my father. My father. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.160 I always my father worked as a bellman, head bellman 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:34.360 at the one of the hotels for many many years. 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:37.480 But before that, my father went to college. He went 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.240 to Groundland State in Louisiana. He was a college man 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.400 and he had a really green thumb. He liked the outdoors. 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.120 He we had a beautiful yard growing up. The landscaping 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.280 was beautiful, the lights around the house. I mean, he 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.960 took a lot of pride in his yard and his 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.400 cars because he watched his cars all the time. I 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.320 have pictures of my dad leaning on his car in 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:03.480 the sixte and beautiful and everything like that. So yeah, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.000 you know, I really think that I've had the best 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.440 of both worlds, getting the creative aspect from both parents. 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.240 But my mother was the driving source of the creative 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:20.760 when it comes down to style and fashion and things 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.760 like that, because it's what I saw, right, And I'm 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.679 wondering was your mother she was she Did she embrace 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.880 that and cultivate that with you or is that something 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.000 that you kept to yourself, like is something that I 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:32.800 kept to myself. I didn't really talk about it because 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.400 you have to think about I was, you know, almost 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.679 raised up in the early seventies. It's a totally different 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.960 thing compared to what it is today. You weren't available 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.320 to be as free as you are today as a 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.520 young creative, you know, coming out and trying things. You know, 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:49.800 everything was about being masculine and being um, you know, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.240 um the boy, you know, the baseball boy of playing 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.600 baseball or whatever like that. And like I said before, 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:58.560 my dad put us in judo classes, Me and my 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.640 sister took martial arts. You He wanted us to be 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.040 able to protect ourselves and different things like that. And 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:08.679 so for me, it wasn't stifled, but it wasn't like 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.760 you know what I mean, It wasn't it wasn't watered, 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.199 It wasn't saying here, It wasn't taken away, but it 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:17.200 was never taken away. It was always a great job. 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.800 You know, good, that's beautiful, you know that type of stuff. 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:22.960 You know, things like that. So did you feel like 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.160 growing up of I guess you were sketching different things 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.920 that Um I was sketching, right, I was sketching, right. 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.040 I've always been like a a writer. I would I 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:34.440 would keep journals before I knew what journals were really 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:36.840 you know, I was very young, and I've gotten away 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:38.839 from a lot of that stuff. But all of that 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.440 stuff that was, I guess wasn't foreign to me, was 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.079 foreign to the world as people out doing it, as 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.319 people talk about it today. So how did how did 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:50.120 you branch out? Because I know there's plenty of people 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:51.920 that probably maybe want to be a stylus, maybe want 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:54.640 to be a doctor or anything, and people aren't necessarily 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.040 cultivating that or in that environment. So the interesting thing 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:02.120 for me is I after high school goal, I went 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.800 to my father and I said, um, John, never forget 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:10.320 this conversation. I said to my dad, Um, I want 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.920 to take a year off. And he looked at me 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.319 and he said a year off from what I said, Well, 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:19.440 I want to figure out where I'm going and what 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:21.800 I'm doing, and where you're gonna go to school. And 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:23.640 you're gonna figure out what you're doing or where you're going. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.839 My father was really about education. His side of the 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:30.560 family are college professors. They have doctrine degrees, they have 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.800 master's degrees. He is really about that fine education. My 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.240 father was a part of that, that circle, and um, 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:39.599 I didn't know then what I knew now. I was 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.040 upset about it and whatever like that, but I did understand. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.920 I went to regular community college just trying to figure 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.080 it all out, you know, taking those basic courses. But 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.200 then I figured out. I pray one day and I said, God, 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:55.000 what do I do? Naturally that could be my career? 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.160 Interesting because I would sketch clothes every now and then, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.120 and I love clothes thing, and I love the idea 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.520 of fashion for men and women. I loved that fashion 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.240 tells a story about a person, how they dressed. It 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:10.120 articulates to another individual or the world how they think 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:15.360 of themselves in some cases. So I went to UM 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.120 started taking some primary like fashion courses and stuff like that, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.440 just to figure it out. And then one day this 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.280 guy said, mean, you know, it's a college and in 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.640 the latest fit UM, and there's all these other colleges 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:28.560 that you should look into. So I looked into it 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.080 and I went to school, and I UM, I was 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.880 fortunate enough my mom took me and she paid the 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.480 initial tuition to get in and stuff like that for 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:42.360 me and UM because I went to school right after 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.800 my father passed away. My father was forty eight years old, 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:49.240 healthy as we thought he healthy as we thought he was. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.160 My father wasn't overweight, he was a vitamin taker. He 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.240 was an active man. And but you know what, people 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.640 didn't pay attention to science with heart disease back then 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.040 as they do as they do now. You know what 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.520 I'm saying. So my dad died in February, and I 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.840 left home in September going to college. So in college, 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.840 I found myself. It was a it was a freedom 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.400 that I had never known before. And I didn't work 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.400 as hard as I thought I should have worked. But 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.400 let me ask you this, when you said you found yourself, 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:19.120 what do you mean by that? Well, it was a 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:20.840 chance for me to be free, to be who I 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:24.200 wanted to be. A gay man that's just wanted to 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.920 be free and just wanted to be whomever I wanted 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:28.559 to be, and not judge for who I am, but 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:33.240 just judge for the character of who I am as 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.240 a man. You know, because you know, when you're twenty, 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:41.320 when you're very young and head, you're very young in thought, 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:44.360 and you don't know really how to be a man. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:46.600 You have to learn how to be a man, a 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:50.160 man someone, And for me it was I was always 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:58.160 aware that being a man didn't necessarily mean the measure 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.559 of your masculinity or your test I the wrong within 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:02.480 your body. Being a man was taking care of your 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.079 family and taking care of your business, and being of 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:09.439 service and being responsible and and those type of things. 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.600 Because those are the things that my father showed me. 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.200 So those are the things that I have in me. 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.400 So you know, it was a lot. It was becoming 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.440 free from that and just becoming who I wanted to be, 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:25.480 experimenting and dating and doing stuff and being creative and 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.040 not having someone to tell me when you get up 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:30.440 or time to go or time to do this, so 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.400 you know, whatever like that. So you know that was 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.160 all when you when I look back at it in hindsight, 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.960 that's a lot. It's a lot too for a person 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.880 to um hold onto. But I will tell you about 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.400 as we talk, I'll tell you about all the experience. 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.680 I have a connection to things because when I um 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:57.280 left hone, I was raised at Elizabeth four to one 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.720 is seven. My dorm room number was seven seventeen. Yes, 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.600 And when I laid in the bed one night, Um, 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:09.640 I could see in the ceiling that somebody had written 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:15.040 the name Eddie. My father's name was Eddie. My father's 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.480 name was Eddie. And I asked my roommate in my 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.240 dorm room and said, can you look and tell me 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:21.600 what what is that? And what does this say? It 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.400 says Eddie And that was assigned to me to let 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:28.040 me know that my father's spirit was So I've had 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.160 all types of things like that happened to me all 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.560 through life, just with clients that I worked for the 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:37.520 connection to them and the bigger picture. And after graduating 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.640 from college and going through that whole process, I did 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.400 really good. And I want a lot of awards for 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.760 best of Show, best of category. So I knew I 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.080 was doing something. Something you had, something definitely was being 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.000 nurtured and developed. Yeah, I knew I had something, but 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.560 I didn't know where it was going to take me. So, um, 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.120 I got into the business. I started working. You know, 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:05.200 I I I experienced a lot of racism. I mean, 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:07.760 I'm a I'm a I'm a very I'm six ft four, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.480 I'm like two d and fifty pounds. I'm a green 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:14.000 eyed black man, and I can be in eyes are gorgeous, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:19.960 and I can I can be intimidating because I know 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.160 how to articulate and how to have conversation and how 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:23.720 to say what I need to say very well. And 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.240 my and my work and my sketches and my book 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:28.480 was beautiful because I took pride in my book that 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.400 I presented for jobs. And I remember years my friends 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.480 were getting jobs, I wasn't getting jobs. My struggle was real, 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.240 and it wasn't because I wasn't talented, because I wouldn't 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.040 accept that about myself. I know I have talent that 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:45.200 just the barriers were different back in the early nineties. 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.320 It was a totally different story, you know what I'm saying. 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.960 So and then confirmation came when I ran up on 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.600 somebody that I went to interview at this company, and 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.440 the girl pulled me to the side. She said, you know, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.840 we all saw your book. You're very talented, but the 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.080 wasn't going to hire you because you were black. And 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.480 I thought, yeah, wait, what did you say when she 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.040 said that to you? She know she's white, she's a 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:09.600 white woman. And I said to her, thank you for 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.320 sharing that with me. I didn't I was really disappointed 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.280 in that moment. But I really appreciate that because that's 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.639 something that I felt on many different occasions. But I 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:21.840 appreciate you telling me because you're giving me the confirmation 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.520 I need to just push ahead. And I think that 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.600 as a black man in fashion as I am, I mean, 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:33.080 there are some struggles and some has been some struggles, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.440 I would say, in some challenging moments, but things have changed, 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.639 and you know, you know, it's I don't want to 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:43.920 say it's in vogue to be black and to be whatever, 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:49.480 but let's face it, for decades and decades, the black 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:56.760 experience has been copied to the runway, to lifestyle, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.320 So now I'm just happy to be a part of 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.760 the conversation. Your conversation is so much bigger than old 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:07.600 pun intended, because you serve an area that you know, 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:11.119 for many have been discouraged from the fashion industry, and 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.919 that's the plus scize field. And so I'm wondering, did 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.600 you know coming in once you graduated that you wanted 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.639 to go to plus size. Mother reminded me of something 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.199 she said to me. You know, when you were in 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.159 design school, you told me that you wanted to do 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.800 plus size women's fashion, and I said, how did you 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:28.719 even think that? How did you even know of A plus? 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.639 I just I just think that when you're open to 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:38.160 prayer and spirit and you're open to your sensitive person, 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.880 I think that God gives you things. But I think 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.080 we can get so jumbled to we can't see, we 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.520 can't come on discernment, we can't hear it or see 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.560 it because we're so distracted by by other things out 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.479 there into the universe. Be a good batter and different 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.280 or distracted. But my mother reminded me of that. I thought, 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.720 I'm like God, I forgot all about that. But so 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.240 who was the inspiration? Like I guess because at the time, 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.880 if you're just seeing everybody, let's Pennsylvan. Let's just say, 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:07.600 I know Twiggy was way back then, just like the 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.399 Naomi Campbell's. Um, you know all those that were slender. 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.199 How did you even think that, oh, a plus I 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.160 girl needs to look good? Because for me and we'll 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:17.560 talk about that later, Like someone like you has changed 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.919 the trajectory of my thought process, my life, everything. Thank you. 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.960 I appreciate that. UM. I think it's because when I 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.959 went to church, UM, I was exposed to women who 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.960 took pride in the way they looked. And African American 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.880 women have curves, but the way they dressed, the way 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.280 they sauntered into church, the way the hats were tilted 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.880 to the side to where, um, they didn't wear gloves anymore. 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.040 But how the handbags and everything just came together a 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:54.160 certain kind of way. And I was always attracted to that. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.880 I was always attracted to the beauty of that, and 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.440 how my mother's friends because my as it was a 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:05.400 great dresser. I remember being no more twelve walking through 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.240 the mall and stuff, and how man would just stare 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.119 at my mom and she would walk. She wasn't she 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.840 didn't dress sexually, she just had great style. And I 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:15.280 just used to think to myself, what are they looking at? 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:17.680 But then on one day I figured out this woman 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:19.840 walked and say, oh my god, that's a beautiful dressing. 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:21.520 You wear it so well. And I had to begin 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.240 to hear that more often. I begin to hear that 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.360 more often. Then I begin to pay more attention to 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:29.879