Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Coney Witt, and today we have very
Speaker 1: special guest, Kenneth Monroe, also known as penn Ken in
Speaker 1: the building. Very excited to have you. Oh, I forgot
Speaker 1: to introduce guys. He is an author of children's books
Speaker 1: and many more a long time over twenty years as
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. But what caught my eye is your books
Speaker 1: Legends of Hip Hop dedicated to children. We got Tupac,
Speaker 1: Queen Latifa, Kid and Play, and we have Biggie And
Speaker 1: before they started taping day, I was grilling you because
Speaker 1: he does not have jay Z. And if everyone who
Speaker 1: knows me knows that I am a huge jay Z
Speaker 1: fan and I would have loved to see a jay Z.
Speaker 1: There's next one.
Speaker 2: It's more they're doing well, so it's more to come.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're all and that's even better to hair. So
Speaker 1: before we get started into your story, what are you
Speaker 1: gonna have me eating today?
Speaker 3: So what I'm gonna have you eat is a meal
Speaker 3: that one of my mentors taught me years ago in Oakland, California,
Speaker 3: five to one over the town. And these are called
Speaker 3: player potatoes. Player potatoes is something that gets you by.
Speaker 3: It don't cost a lot, but it's enough ingredients in
Speaker 3: there to get it's fulfilling. You have your potatoes, you
Speaker 3: have your cut up garlic, you have your cut up carrots, bell, pepper,
Speaker 3: and it's something that you can make that you can
Speaker 3: eat it two three times with one server.
Speaker 1: So and it's very affordable, extremely affordable because this is
Speaker 1: like under five dollars in this economy, and you can
Speaker 1: eat you get survived. Yeah, yeah, you can survive. It
Speaker 1: will keep you.
Speaker 3: Bulky absolutely when you loan funds and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: When you grinding, you can make a part of this
Speaker 3: and you can eat it twice in one day and
Speaker 3: still have a little bit left over for the next day.
Speaker 1: Nice. So how long on average does it take to
Speaker 1: make this dish?
Speaker 2: About twenty twenty twenty five minutes.
Speaker 1: Okay, go ahead, start cooking it.
Speaker 2: Do it.
Speaker 1: This will be my I eat cereal in the morning.
Speaker 1: Now I'm like a little kid. I eat fruity pebbles
Speaker 1: or Captain crunch. No healthy cereals here. When you have
Speaker 1: a little kid, you know that you become a little
Speaker 1: kid again. I did not know that's the thing. When
Speaker 1: you become an adult and you have kids, you get
Speaker 1: to become a kid again.
Speaker 2: That's the fall part, yes, and.
Speaker 1: One of the things not trying to sidetrack at all,
Speaker 1: but as becoming a new mom, I did do by
Speaker 1: a lot of kid books, and I started to realize,
Speaker 1: like some of the publishers I liked when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, I was like, why Doctor Zeus was one
Speaker 1: of them. Ah, I can't do it with these classes
Speaker 1: talking to me thank you while we're taping. They're like
Speaker 1: sending me messages and I'm like, oh no, I can't
Speaker 1: do it. I am terrible. I'm multitasking. But I will
Speaker 1: say I do read these children's books, and some of
Speaker 1: them they're either long winded or for Doctor Zeus in
Speaker 1: the case Doctor Zeus was like too arithmatic. It was like,
Speaker 1: you're not even making sense. And nowadays so you see
Speaker 1: these cartoons and they don't really have an underlining. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, they don't make sense. Like a lion falling
Speaker 1: in love with.
Speaker 3: A dear we can't relate to that, we can't resonate with.
Speaker 3: And that's one of the things where I wanted to
Speaker 3: do the books because we didn't have nothing for the
Speaker 3: culture for us. Hip hop is a big part of
Speaker 3: us in the culture. And when I was doing my
Speaker 3: research before I started the books, I'm like, when I
Speaker 3: first sign with my agent, the first thing I told her,
Speaker 3: I said, I don't want.
Speaker 2: To do them, no cute bedtime stories.
Speaker 3: I'm like, if I want to if I'm gonna get
Speaker 3: into this industry, you have to be books that's going
Speaker 3: to touch the culture, the kids to parents, something that
Speaker 3: we all can resonate with that we grew up on.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, it's nothing touching on music. Music is
Speaker 3: such a big part of our world and our culture.
Speaker 3: Why aren't kids learning about our hip hop he ros?
Speaker 3: When we in school, we learn about presidents all these
Speaker 3: type of holidays, but we don't learn about hip hop
Speaker 3: and where it started in the origins of it. So
Speaker 3: I told my agent, said, I want to do a
Speaker 3: hip hop series and this is before hip hop fifty.
Speaker 1: And I love this too because kids are seeing kids
Speaker 1: that are reflections of themselves, which you know, you have
Speaker 1: people of color in the book. Obviously it's hip hop,
Speaker 1: but we don't really have a lot of that going
Speaker 1: on either.
Speaker 3: And everything comes back for a circle. Imagine when Wese
Speaker 3: kids think about it. What was we listening to around
Speaker 3: the house, the old school, the seventies music. So these
Speaker 3: kids in this generation, they need to know about the
Speaker 3: legends that we grew up on exactly.
Speaker 1: Let's get into Take me back to what was going
Speaker 1: on during the time of potatoes, and this you said
Speaker 1: came from your mentors.
Speaker 2: And they called play a potatoes potatoes.
Speaker 1: Take me back to what was going on when you
Speaker 1: got advice to make play of potatoes to survive.
Speaker 3: So this was a time we experienced different things in
Speaker 3: our life, different hardships that we have to persevere through,
Speaker 3: but we always remember our first time experiencing hardship for real.
Speaker 3: Even if we have different hardships throughout our life, you
Speaker 3: will never forget the first time you really experience like
Speaker 3: what it means to be.
Speaker 2: Low and down.
Speaker 3: I grew up in EA, Chicago, Indiana, a two parent household,
Speaker 3: my parents two two jobs, great jobs, my whole like
Speaker 3: me and my little brother, I didn't struggle growing up.
Speaker 3: I could not have asked for a better childhood. My
Speaker 3: mother and father, they just from what they taught us
Speaker 3: and how they raised us. They just raised us the
Speaker 3: right way, and we was grateful that they could be
Speaker 3: able to afford things and do things with us to
Speaker 3: provide a great childhood for us. I went to school.
Speaker 3: I went to school in Arizona's where I went to
Speaker 3: college at and after my second major of communications, and
Speaker 3: after my second year, I was like, I don't want
Speaker 3: to go to school no more. I knew I wanted
Speaker 3: to get into the entertainment. I knew the corporate life
Speaker 3: wasn't going to be for me. I never worked a
Speaker 3: corporate job in my life. It was like I fifty, say,
Speaker 3: get rich of Doe, Tryne. For me, it was entertainment
Speaker 3: of that trine. So after my second year, I told
Speaker 3: my parents, I said, I know who I am. I
Speaker 3: know what I want to be. Some kids just know
Speaker 3: who they want to be early. I knew in high
Speaker 3: school what I wanted to be. It was just about
Speaker 3: waiting for the opportunities.
Speaker 1: And what did you want to do in high school?
Speaker 3: In high school? In high school, I was like, one day,
Speaker 3: I want to go to LA. In high school, go
Speaker 3: to LA and see what the entertainment industry is about.
Speaker 3: I was always in high school. I was popular. I
Speaker 3: was known a lot of my personality of the classes
Speaker 3: and stuff that I was.
Speaker 2: In was like communication classes and TV classes.
Speaker 3: I played sports, so I knew that sitting behind the
Speaker 3: desk wasn't just gonna be my journey. So after my
Speaker 3: second year in college, I told my parents. I said,
Speaker 3: I don't want to waste no more time to do
Speaker 3: another two years, knowing this is not what I want
Speaker 3: to do. They teach us to go get your degree,
Speaker 3: go work for something for thirty years, get your pension.
Speaker 1: How did your parents take the news.
Speaker 2: I have some very supportive parents, and that's one thing
Speaker 2: I've learned through other feings.
Speaker 1: Parents sound amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have very supportive parents. You got parents that
Speaker 3: try to hold their kids back from what they want
Speaker 3: to do. My parents was like, we don't know nothing
Speaker 3: about Hollywood. My mother was scared to death. She said,
Speaker 3: but if this is what you want to do, we
Speaker 3: can hold you back. And so they said, this is
Speaker 3: what we're gonna do. We're gonna go out here to
Speaker 3: La We're gonna get your apartment. We ain't gonna get
Speaker 3: your apartment in the hood and nothing. We're gonna get
Speaker 3: you apartment, a nice apartment where it's happened in that.
Speaker 3: We're gonna pay your first year rent. No, absolutely, we
Speaker 3: don't pay your We don't want you to be in
Speaker 3: the hood and the sketchy areas, gangs out there, we
Speaker 3: don't want you to be. We want to put you
Speaker 3: in the white area where everything happened. And so they
Speaker 3: put me in the Valley studio city absolutely, so it
Speaker 3: was like I found the roommate. It said, for this
Speaker 3: first year, we want you to hustle, we want you
Speaker 3: to network, we want you to find your way, meet people, this,
Speaker 3: and that. After the first year, you should be good
Speaker 3: enough to start hustling and making a couple of dollars
Speaker 3: to start funding your apartment, whatever you need to do.
Speaker 3: So that whole first year I did nothing. But I'm
Speaker 3: a people person. I call myself I'm a master in networking.
Speaker 3: That's just who I was my whole life growing up.
Speaker 3: So that first year I was just getting into different
Speaker 3: things and just I started working for MTV and doing
Speaker 3: re member of dismissing all them shows. That was back
Speaker 3: in the day. It was a lot of shows on TV.
Speaker 3: I started working doing shows for.
Speaker 1: MTV and you were doing intern level or what No.
Speaker 2: I was doing TV shows like talent you know what
Speaker 2: I mean, like.
Speaker 1: Bucking the talent or I was the talent. Okay, oh
Speaker 1: you were getting paid and stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was getting paid back in them days, like
Speaker 3: the reality shows, they pay you I think five hundred
Speaker 3: dollars or a few hundred dollars.
Speaker 2: They want nothing.
Speaker 3: But I was doing like different shows. And then I
Speaker 3: started working for a playboy and doing different things. And
Speaker 3: that whole year, I was just meeting a lot of
Speaker 3: people and I was just building my network. And long
Speaker 3: story short, after that first year was over, or around
Speaker 3: towards the first year, that's when I met my mentor.
Speaker 3: He had came to my apartment complex. He was he
Speaker 3: did real estate, He did a lot of the music industry.
Speaker 3: He is a guy that taught me a lot just
Speaker 3: about life. And when he met me, he took a
Speaker 3: liking to me and said, you're really talented.
Speaker 2: I believe in you. He said, if you ever get
Speaker 2: in the buying or something like that, just let me know.
Speaker 3: This guy had I called him pimping because he had
Speaker 3: so many women he like. When I met him, he
Speaker 3: was in a drop top baby blue Rolls Royce when
Speaker 3: he came to the like, he had limos. He was
Speaker 3: just like but he was a good guy. But he
Speaker 3: took care of the hood.
Speaker 2: He was that guy.
Speaker 3: But he was around a lot of dope heads and
Speaker 3: drug dealers and alcoholics and just from trying to help
Speaker 3: people and put people on.
Speaker 1: So what did he do for work?
Speaker 2: Real estate?
Speaker 1: He did real estate, and he did while you go ahead,
Speaker 1: start cooking.
Speaker 3: While he did he did real estate, and he did
Speaker 3: a lot in the music industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 3: He did real estate and a lot in the music industry.
Speaker 3: After the first year, I had met a woman and
Speaker 3: she had a small daughter. She had a small daughter,
Speaker 3: she was like two three years old, and she had
Speaker 3: just got out of a divorce with a big TV producer,
Speaker 3: and the TV world, it was a lot of long
Speaker 3: hours and stuff like that. So when I met her,
Speaker 3: she was fifteen years older than me, and that was
Speaker 3: my first time dating a older woman. And she had
Speaker 3: a small kid, and we got really close, and I
Speaker 3: became really close with the kid. So we started dating
Speaker 3: and got in a serious relationship. And after that first
Speaker 3: she was older than fifteen years older than me, had
Speaker 3: her own money all the time, said I'm a young kid.
Speaker 3: And and after that first year, I stopped telling my
Speaker 3: mother and father things because I wanted to show them
Speaker 3: that I was growing up, and I just didn't want
Speaker 3: to use them for a crutch every time I needed
Speaker 3: something or to bail me out.
Speaker 2: So I went and got a little job at office depot,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: Didn't want to do it, but I wanted to show
Speaker 3: my woman that I got my all money.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get a few dollars.
Speaker 3: I'm not about to be taking you out to dinner,
Speaker 3: panding on my parents' allowance. Like fifteen years old than me.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I got to grow up at some point.
Speaker 3: I didn't want that job, but I went and so
Speaker 3: I was stocking the shelves. I think it was twelve
Speaker 3: dollars hour.
Speaker 2: It want nothing. I got a job.
Speaker 3: After five months, I said, I'm not doing it. I said,
Speaker 3: this ain't me. I'm not about to force myself to
Speaker 3: do this. Things start getting hard. I wasn't telling my
Speaker 3: parents what I was going through. They had called me
Speaker 3: a check on me and how I'm doing this, and
Speaker 3: that I was lying the whole time. I'm doing this,
Speaker 3: I'm doing that. I'm getting some money, but I'm struggling
Speaker 3: the whole time. I'm behind. I'm behind on my rent.
Speaker 3: I had a roommate I'm behind on my rent. Things
Speaker 3: was going on. I got so deep that I got evicted.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and you still ain't.
Speaker 3: I had to at that point because they had to
Speaker 3: help me bail me out.
Speaker 1: And was their name on the apartment too?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh wow? So you was did they handle that? Did
Speaker 1: you get in trouble?
Speaker 3: I didn't get I didn't get like in real trouble.
Speaker 3: But they gave me a long talk. They gave me
Speaker 3: a long talk.
Speaker 2: And I got it. I got evicted.
Speaker 3: I had just recently, me and my girls together about
Speaker 3: a year and a half. We had just recently broke
Speaker 3: up because we was going into two different directions and
Speaker 3: she wanted to get married again. I'm like twenty one
Speaker 3: years old. Yeah I'm vib and that's not what I
Speaker 3: wanted to do. And the thing that hurt me the
Speaker 3: most is that me and her daughter was very close,
Speaker 3: and it's like walking out of a kid's life when
Speaker 3: they three four years old, walking out of kids like
Speaker 3: when they're three four years old.
Speaker 2: And that kind of messed me up mentally. That hurt me.
Speaker 3: My mentor in Oakland, he was like, you either gonna
Speaker 3: go home or you can come out here until you
Speaker 3: get on your feet.
Speaker 1: So he said, come out where to Oakland.
Speaker 2: He had this big house.
Speaker 3: He was the only he he was the only black
Speaker 3: person in the hills of Oakland, waterfalls, all his backyard.
Speaker 3: He was like, like the only black all white people around,
Speaker 3: the only black person in the hills of Oakland.
Speaker 2: It was crazy.
Speaker 3: So when I went out there, that was the first
Speaker 3: time when I learned real life. He was like, I
Speaker 3: ain't gonna I ain't gonna treat you like your mama.
Speaker 3: You're about to grow up. He was like, you've been
Speaker 3: spoiled too much. He was like, you like you're facing
Speaker 3: hardships and this is what real life is about. And
Speaker 3: he used to like he used to have me around
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of like drug addicts and alcoholics and
Speaker 3: people that he dealt with, just to show me like
Speaker 3: this could be you if you don't clean up this Hollywood,
Speaker 3: this this California.
Speaker 2: This ain't like backing your hometown.
Speaker 3: If you want to survive and make it out, hear,
Speaker 3: you gotta grow up and you gotta start understanding the game.
Speaker 3: So he when he did that, he used to take
Speaker 3: me around a lot of meetings and stuff. He was like,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna take you around all these meetings with me
Speaker 3: unless you see how you conduct business, how you do things. Now,
Speaker 3: one thing, one valuable thing that he taught me, and
Speaker 3: I appreciate him to this day. He said, the people
Speaker 3: that's gonna end up helping you in your life is
Speaker 3: going to be women.
Speaker 2: He said, yeah, shut out to the women.
Speaker 3: Ninety percent of the people that was in his life
Speaker 3: that he was doing business was women. He was like, look,
Speaker 3: you got charisma, you good looking, you got a good
Speaker 3: head on your shoulders. He said, a lot of guys
Speaker 3: is gonna hate that. A lot of guys that can't
Speaker 3: give you opportunity not going on to get an opportunity.
Speaker 3: A lot of guy's not even going with you around
Speaker 3: a woman, you know what I mean. And at the time,
Speaker 3: I'm like, what do all this mean? And so he
Speaker 3: started taking me around all these means and started letting
Speaker 3: me see, like how he was conducting business with women.
Speaker 3: Shark women I'm talking about. He had sharp women, entrepreneur women,
Speaker 3: this and that. So he was like, use your gifts.
Speaker 3: He was like, you have to use your gifts to
Speaker 3: get ahead in life. He was like, women is more responsible.
Speaker 3: They don't procrastinate like men. He was like, they don't
Speaker 3: have no reason to hate on you. A guy hate
Speaker 3: on you before a woman will in a second. He
Speaker 3: was like, get some sharp woman on your team. He
Speaker 3: was like, I'm not talking about just like on dating.
Speaker 3: He was like, I'm talking about handling business. Learn how
Speaker 3: to do business with smart business like women, and you're
Speaker 3: gonna see how your life donna change. So I was
Speaker 3: in Oakland like a year, and after that lesson, when
Speaker 3: I went back to LA, I kept my network the
Speaker 3: whole time. When I went back to LA.
Speaker 1: Where you were out there for a whole year, year,
Speaker 1: I was out there.
Speaker 2: For a year. I was out there for the year.
Speaker 3: And it was times I was out there I was
Speaker 3: at my breaking point, but I just said, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to give up.
Speaker 2: I'm not going home. It's not no option.
Speaker 3: And when I went back to LA, I started gathering
Speaker 3: my network and I started throwing the biggest parties in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about not clubs.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about like Manches, hotels, yachts, like from bel Air,
Speaker 3: Beverly Hills. I was doing it in like Miami, South
Speaker 3: Beach Vegas. The women I was dealing with used to
Speaker 3: give me their homes to throw parties in, and they
Speaker 3: didn't want no money.
Speaker 2: They was like, we're gonna give you our house throw
Speaker 2: a party in.
Speaker 3: And that's how like my network started when I started
Speaker 3: throwing all these big parties. But I wasn't making no
Speaker 3: money at first, because you gotta fake it until you
Speaker 3: make it.
Speaker 2: Of course, the type of.
Speaker 3: Parties, yeah, the type of parties I was throwing was
Speaker 3: they was celebrity parties and high level parties.
Speaker 2: So you can't really asking people.
Speaker 3: For no money when they're giving you they homes and
Speaker 3: different things to throw parties in. And even the people
Speaker 3: that's coming, you can't really ask them for money. You
Speaker 3: gotta do the parties and build your network. So I'm
Speaker 3: still struggling, but I'm faking until I make it. I
Speaker 3: got all these rich people, Hollywood people in all these rooms,
Speaker 3: but and we party. I'm building my network. But I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm betting on myself. If they liked me, they're gonna
Speaker 3: want to help me down the line. So when my
Speaker 3: mother used to call me and say how you get money?
Speaker 2: What is you doing? I used to tell my mom
Speaker 2: I had a job.
Speaker 3: I used to always tell her my work for the
Speaker 3: move of companies that help people move out their homes,
Speaker 3: like the moving trucks. I'm lying the whole time, but
Speaker 3: you know how I really was getting money until I
Speaker 3: was able to make some money. I hate to say it,
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna be real. I was getting money because
Speaker 3: the drug dealers. I used to have people, but they
Speaker 3: used to come in and serve rich people like to
Speaker 3: get high. They liked when they party that they liked
Speaker 3: to get high. So I had the drug dealers coming
Speaker 3: in serving ecstssy, cocaine, weed, all that just for the party.
Speaker 2: I never touched it. I wasn't driving around the car
Speaker 2: with it because I wasn't taking them type of chances.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So they used to come in and supply whatever they
Speaker 3: needed at my parties. And by the end of the night,
Speaker 3: I get a bankroll. I get a bank roll, just
Speaker 3: hand it to me, put in your pocket.
Speaker 2: I leave. It's three four five thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: That's how I'm paying rent off drug money, you know,
Speaker 3: because I wasn't getting paid from the parties at first
Speaker 3: until I started building my name. Yeah, so how I
Speaker 3: was surviving was getting a commission on that's the drugs
Speaker 3: that they was hustling at my party. Yeah, So that's
Speaker 3: how I was. That's how I was getting money at first.
Speaker 3: And then once I started building my network and stuff
Speaker 3: like that, then I was able to start getting sponsors
Speaker 3: and different things start happening as far as where I
Speaker 3: was able to make money. But that's how I started
Speaker 3: throwing a party, and that's how I was making money
Speaker 3: until I was able to start making the real money.
Speaker 3: Drug money was paying my rent and my survival.
Speaker 1: You survival instincts, and your mentor sounds like he did
Speaker 1: a very good It sounds like he left a lot
Speaker 1: of golden seeds in your head because even if you
Speaker 1: think of it about it from a business perspective, if
Speaker 1: you're catering to a certain audience and this is what
Speaker 1: they're into, and you cater to them in total capacity,
Speaker 1: they're going to keep coming back. So you did exactly
Speaker 1: what brilliant. I thought you were gonna say sponsors from
Speaker 1: the jump, But you're right, it does take time. So
Speaker 1: after you're throwing these parties, what I'm trying to inch
Speaker 1: all the way to the end to where you're at
Speaker 1: today when it comes to being an author in twenty years,
Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur. So I see you started in your
Speaker 1: twenties as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I moved to LA when I was like nineteen.
Speaker 3: After my second year, cops real young and start throwing
Speaker 3: the parties. My run and the parties from was from
Speaker 3: like twenty one to about thirty one. I had about
Speaker 3: a decade run while I was woll I was really.
Speaker 1: Your dad, amazing. I want to go, but you're done.
Speaker 1: You're not doing it anymore.
Speaker 3: I had my daughter and she got me out the game.
Speaker 3: When I have my daughter, I got off social media.
Speaker 3: I stopped throwing parties. When I became a father, A
Speaker 3: lot of changed for me. But before I had it,
Speaker 3: from like twenty one to thirty one, I had a
Speaker 3: decade run where I was throwing the biggest parties in Hollywood, Miami,
Speaker 3: South Beach, Vegas, New York. Like my network became to
Speaker 3: a certain point where I was throwing parties all around
Speaker 3: the country where.
Speaker 2: Like it was, but I got caught up.
Speaker 3: It was a lifestyle that I would never go back
Speaker 3: to because I definitely got caught up. And you spending
Speaker 3: as fast as you're getting it, and you're seeing a
Speaker 3: lot is happening at there's parties, and you can't keep
Speaker 3: a relationship like that as well. So it was cause
Speaker 3: of issues with my relationships.
Speaker 1: And you mean like your personal relationship.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, because my parties was like eighty percent women my parties.
Speaker 3: You walk one of my parties. I was doing parties,
Speaker 3: Playboy Mansion I was doing. It was like eighty percent women,
Speaker 3: all the parties I was doing. Because that's when my
Speaker 3: mentor taught me, get the women on your team. That's
Speaker 3: how you're gonna get money.
Speaker 1: That's why he's nicknamed.
Speaker 2: I name him that because that's how i'm him.
Speaker 1: Is he still around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't talked to him, and I haven't talked
Speaker 3: to him in a while. We lost touch a little
Speaker 3: bit throughout the years when I had my daughter, when
Speaker 3: I became a dad. But he's about he about eighty
Speaker 3: years old.
Speaker 1: Now, wow, he's still doing the lifestyle that he was
Speaker 1: when you met him.
Speaker 2: No, you can't be doing that at that age.
Speaker 1: It's not an eighty I'm just saying, I don't know
Speaker 1: if he's just a retired pick.
Speaker 3: No, he's still gonna beat him. He's still gonna get
Speaker 3: money with women. But he didn't slowed down from that
Speaker 3: lifestyle because he eighty Now.
Speaker 1: Okay, did he ever settle down and have kids or
Speaker 1: not trying to do.
Speaker 2: He do have a kid, He do have a kid
Speaker 2: that I was really close with.
Speaker 3: But his lifestyle was just always he wasn't selling down
Speaker 3: Mary type.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 3: He always had women around him like all the time
Speaker 3: ever since I known him, So that that won his personality.
Speaker 1: Now, all right, so what happens at thirty one where
Speaker 1: you start to take another pivot?
Speaker 2: Thirty one? That changed my life because.
Speaker 1: You did that. You did the party scene for thirty
Speaker 1: or for ten years, right, Yeah, so then what happens
Speaker 1: for Yeah, tell me what happens at thirty one?
Speaker 3: I was with my girlfriend that held me down. She
Speaker 3: she was like seven years older than me, and all
Speaker 3: throughout the Yeah, no, she held me down. She was
Speaker 3: somebody that my journey wouldn't be my journey without the
Speaker 3: role that she played in my life.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about Ride or Die.
Speaker 3: And we were together for years throughout the whole party scene.
Speaker 3: We had separated and broke up, and when we had separated,
Speaker 3: I mess someone else and she got pregnant fast and
Speaker 3: I had a daughter and.
Speaker 2: I had a kid.
Speaker 3: So when that happened, we were still maybe talking about
Speaker 3: getting back together and whatnot. But once I knew I
Speaker 3: had a kid on the way, that was over. I
Speaker 3: had to leave La move to Chicago because she was
Speaker 3: from Chicago, and she was like, I don't want to
Speaker 3: get a birth in La.
Speaker 1: Oh the girl that you hooked up with.
Speaker 2: My daughter's mom.
Speaker 3: Great girl, great family. I appreciate like her family, like
Speaker 3: we're still close today. Great person, great family. And I
Speaker 3: come from a father that was in my life. So
Speaker 3: I wanted about to do no raising, no child long distance.
Speaker 3: I moved to Chicago. I was depressed for a while
Speaker 3: because I got a baby on the way. I don't
Speaker 3: know what that's I'm leaving in La, I'm leaving my network,
Speaker 3: I'm leaving my lifestyle, and I'm coming out to Chicago
Speaker 3: for the unknown. But thank god for family, thank god
Speaker 3: for family support, because I never knew how hard it
Speaker 3: was to have a child as far as just like
Speaker 3: babysitting and just raising a child.
Speaker 2: I just never knew.
Speaker 1: So it's like a culture shock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a culture shock. So it's a.
Speaker 1: It's like jumping into a cold water plunge. You like, wait,
Speaker 1: what differ, don't you?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely. It was a culture shock to me. So
Speaker 3: when I when she was pregnant. I was at every
Speaker 3: doctor visitor, I was involved the whole thing. And I
Speaker 3: said to myself, I said, bro, you got to change
Speaker 3: your ways. I said, you're about to become a dead
Speaker 3: just the lifestyle that you've had the past ten years.
Speaker 3: You can't do that no more. Your father now I
Speaker 3: had to become responsible from a mindset perspective. That was
Speaker 3: when she told me she was pregnant. A couple months later,
Speaker 3: that's when I got on social media. I ain't been
Speaker 3: on social media in a decade. And I know what
Speaker 3: you're gonna say. People always asking how do you do
Speaker 3: what you're doing not being on social media when the
Speaker 3: whole world is about social media?
Speaker 1: You know what You're right, because I think I did
Speaker 1: try to look you up on social I know I
Speaker 1: found you on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3: I don't call that social media like a business profile,
Speaker 3: but TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
Speaker 2: I got off that about close about ten years ago.
Speaker 3: And people ask me all the time, how do you
Speaker 3: do everything you're doing and know the people are doing
Speaker 3: what you're doing and you're not on social media?
Speaker 2: And that's the way the world works.
Speaker 3: And I tell people all the time, if you knew
Speaker 3: how to hustle and get money and do your thing
Speaker 3: before social media, you can do it now. Life is
Speaker 3: about relationship.
Speaker 1: Really, ten years is a long time of relationships that
Speaker 1: are solid.
Speaker 3: My relationships is strong, and that's why I tell people
Speaker 3: I don't need to be on social media because my
Speaker 3: relationships I'm talking about twenty years in the game.
Speaker 2: People.
Speaker 3: A lot of people that's on social media, they force
Speaker 3: themselves to be on social media.
Speaker 2: If you really think about.
Speaker 1: Me, we do. You're watching this.
Speaker 3: Clip absolutely, but you don't need social media because if
Speaker 3: your relationship. That's why I tell people I don't cross people.
Speaker 3: I don't cross people for no money. I don't cross
Speaker 3: I do everything with good intention, of good character in
Speaker 3: my karma good because everything every business, when I do
Speaker 3: business is all good intention. I do things the right way.
Speaker 3: So I got relationships that I've had fifteen twenty years ago.
Speaker 3: We still getting money, We're still doing things. So social
Speaker 3: media is not needed for me because people hitting my
Speaker 3: line out the time.
Speaker 2: It's all referral.
Speaker 3: So I'm the type of person that I know that
Speaker 3: if I don't have no money, my phone gonna ring.
Speaker 3: Like you gotta have that mindset it's the work that
Speaker 3: you've put in throughout the years.
Speaker 2: It's then people still gonna ring your phone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. So you and just you and this
Speaker 1: young lady, do you guys settle down officially as like
Speaker 1: a family.
Speaker 3: We did, and unfortunately we broke up when she was
Speaker 3: like four years old. But we do a great job
Speaker 3: of co parenting, and it took me a long time
Speaker 3: to She has a new boyfriend that she's been with
Speaker 3: for a few years, and as a father, you don't
Speaker 3: want no man around your child, around your daughter. So
Speaker 3: he's a great guy. He treats my daughter with nothing
Speaker 3: but love. So it's something that I had to get
Speaker 3: over and accept. But we do a great job of
Speaker 3: co parenting. And but my daughter's the one that changed
Speaker 3: my mindset while I got off social media the way
Speaker 3: I need to start moving and doing things differently. And
Speaker 3: she the one that inspired me to get into children's books.
Speaker 1: And now the backtrack, the getting off social media, why
Speaker 1: was it so crucial for your growth?
Speaker 2: I had to.
Speaker 3: I had no choice. I was in the party scene
Speaker 3: so tough. I had so many girls that if you're
Speaker 3: trying to settle down and have a kid and be
Speaker 3: a father, you got to get out the spotlight. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna I'm like, I'm not gonna say names are
Speaker 3: going to I don't do that. But it was getting
Speaker 3: It was to a point where I was having relationships
Speaker 3: with a lot of celebrity women, high level executive whatever
Speaker 3: was coming to my parties. I'm talking about full on relationships.
Speaker 3: And my lifestyle was real wild around the time, full.
Speaker 1: On relationships as in like on the personal side, Oh
Speaker 1: so you was.
Speaker 3: He was really a lot of sexual relationships with a
Speaker 3: lot of celebrity women and influencer women and socialites.
Speaker 2: I mean they was coming to my parties. And it
Speaker 2: got to a point where like I was and demand
Speaker 2: and you know how it go.
Speaker 3: So I had to get off social media because that
Speaker 3: won the lifestyle that I needed coming to Yeah tonight.
Speaker 1: I would imagine you go into your phone and three,
Speaker 1: four or five ten messages from hey you want to
Speaker 1: and you're like trying to turn your life around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why my relationships didn't work out when I
Speaker 3: was in a party scene, because like it got to
Speaker 3: a point where it just the lifestyle I was living.
Speaker 3: You can't have a relationship and have a family doing that.
Speaker 3: It's never gonna work. So that's why I got off
Speaker 3: social media because I want to focus on being a father.
Speaker 1: So you become this dad and you're reading children's story,
Speaker 1: I would pay me the scene of how you know,
Speaker 1: becoming a dad morphs into a children's author per se
Speaker 1: without skipping a beat. So if I'm moving too fast,
Speaker 1: slow me account.
Speaker 3: So I give the whole story to run down. So
Speaker 3: what was the biggest thing to have happened in our
Speaker 3: life these last few years?
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the whole world? What changed the whole
Speaker 2: world a few years ago?
Speaker 1: Pandemic.
Speaker 3: When that came, nobody a lot of people stopped making money.
Speaker 3: Productions were shut down. You couldn't go nowhere. So the
Speaker 3: pandemic came. And the person that's now my agent and
Speaker 3: my business partner for the books, we was talking about
Speaker 3: some business, some toy business, a toy deal for one
Speaker 3: of my clients at the time.
Speaker 1: And well clients at the time, what were you doing
Speaker 1: at the time.
Speaker 3: I was doing a lot of different music stuff, sports stuff.
Speaker 3: And one of my clients at the time, she was
Speaker 3: like fifteen years old. Once she's one of the biggest
Speaker 3: shout out Brooklyn Queen. She's one of the biggest influences
Speaker 3: on TikTok and stuff like that. But she had a
Speaker 3: massive following and we was talking about doing different business
Speaker 3: with her. So that transpired into have you ever thought
Speaker 3: about she's an author, she's an agent, she's a very
Speaker 3: successful person in the publishing industry. She said, with your
Speaker 3: resume and your background, have you ever thought about doing books?
Speaker 3: Because you just had a daughter at the time, My
Speaker 3: daughter was three years old, have you ever thought about
Speaker 3: doing children's books? I'm like, not really, I ain't never
Speaker 3: thought about doing anything for children of books in my life.
Speaker 2: Unless you have a kid, you ain't.
Speaker 3: Really thinking about children's But she was like, you know what,
Speaker 3: that's a big industry. That's something you need to think about.
Speaker 3: You have the network, you have to create the vision
Speaker 3: to create your writer.
Speaker 2: She was like, think about it.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, she was like, ah, you can make
Speaker 3: some money during the pandemic when ain't nobody making the
Speaker 3: money right now? Yeah. Shout out Karen Kilpatrick. Thank you
Speaker 3: for everything you did for me. I wouldn't be in
Speaker 3: this book industry without her. She taught me the game.
Speaker 3: She taught me everything I need to know. My success
Speaker 3: in publishing is because of her, and I think her
Speaker 3: for it all the time, because it changed my life.
Speaker 2: It took me, these books took me around the world.
Speaker 1: These books are just so you know, for all the listeners,
Speaker 1: these books are so beautiful, like the animation the Professionals.
Speaker 1: It's distributed published by HarperCollins, which is a bit. That
Speaker 1: was another reason why I wanted you on the show
Speaker 1: to like walk me to how do you get this?
Speaker 1: But I see how it's working. Okay, okay, you got
Speaker 1: this long resume.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So she was like, let's start creating.
Speaker 3: So I told her, I said, you know what, if
Speaker 3: I get into this game, I don't want to do
Speaker 3: the cute bedtime stories. I don't want to do stories
Speaker 3: that don't mean nothing. I want to do stories that
Speaker 3: I think is cool and I think that kids and
Speaker 3: their parents think it's cool. So I started doing my research.
Speaker 3: I said, you know what, I see all these books
Speaker 3: and stories, but I don't see nothing that's talking about
Speaker 3: hip hop. Now keep in mind, this is before Hip
Speaker 3: Hop fifty. I signed my deals already when I had
Speaker 3: even before I even knew Hip Hop fifty fifty was coming.
Speaker 2: It just fell in line and the books released doing
Speaker 2: hip Hop fifty.
Speaker 3: So I said, I'm gonna create a hip hop series
Speaker 3: that's going to teach kids about the legends and the
Speaker 3: history of hip hop, but through education. So once I
Speaker 3: started creating it, I said, she said, you got to
Speaker 3: create it where like the education part is very fluid,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. Through it's books, teaching you
Speaker 3: how to count, teaching your numbers, Biggie as the opposites.
Speaker 3: So we're teaching them about these hip hop legends lives.
Speaker 3: But while they're learning how to count and the alphabets
Speaker 3: and opposites and whatnot. We created the Tupac first, and
Speaker 3: shout out to Luana Or she's my publisher. She's my
Speaker 3: editor at HarperCollins. She did Lebron James book, she did
Speaker 3: Dwyane Wade, Gabrielle you and book, big time editor there.
Speaker 3: We created Park first and she loved it. She loved
Speaker 3: a poc one. She was like, I love this. It's
Speaker 3: nothing on the market for this. This can be big.
Speaker 3: I give you a deal for four, I give you
Speaker 3: a I give you a series.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And now didn't now you you at this point are
Speaker 1: you pitching the actual book or are you pitching the concept?
Speaker 3: I'm pitching the concept. I'm pitching the concept. But she
Speaker 3: was like, this concept is so big. She was like,
Speaker 3: this is not a one off. She's like, this is
Speaker 3: a series. She was like, if the Tupac one is
Speaker 3: good the manuscript, I give you a deal for four.
Speaker 3: We turned into Tupac one.
Speaker 2: She saw.
Speaker 3: She said, we want to sign the deal for four.
Speaker 3: Pick what other three three you want now?
Speaker 1: And you didn't pick jay Z. Just want to point
Speaker 1: that out one more time.
Speaker 2: But I had the pie.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. Why explain to the listeners why
Speaker 1: you did not go with jay Z because I think
Speaker 1: your explanation was made a lot of sense, even though
Speaker 1: I'm a hater because you don't have jay Z. But
Speaker 1: go ahead, explain to everyone why you chose who you
Speaker 1: chose for the books.
Speaker 3: Okay, So I chose pacbecause Pocket is my favorite hip
Speaker 3: hop artist of all time. He always won't be number
Speaker 3: one for me, just from his music, from his movies,
Speaker 3: just his personality, who he was.
Speaker 2: It's just who he was. He was just like the
Speaker 2: realist rapper ever.
Speaker 3: So I chose Pac them Mama my favorite song of
Speaker 3: all time. When I chose Pac, I said, I have
Speaker 3: to choose Biggie because their lives go together. You can't
Speaker 3: talk about Pac without talking about Biggie as far as
Speaker 3: what they went through on the street level and the music.
Speaker 3: So that's why I picked Biggie because they go together.
Speaker 3: I'm like, if you have Pac, you can't tell the
Speaker 3: story of Tupac and don't tell the story of Biggie
Speaker 3: the kids because their lives go together.
Speaker 2: So I picked them too.
Speaker 3: And then they was like, you gotta pick a woman
Speaker 3: because we need a woman and enough women in pot
Speaker 3: and I'm like, of course. So they gave me different
Speaker 3: options to choose. They gave me Queen Latifa, they gave
Speaker 3: me Missy Elliott, they gave me em c Light, Laurren Hill,
Speaker 3: Salt and Pepper shout out to Sartin Pepper my Homegirl
Speaker 3: Mannered Salt, and they want to do a book too.
Speaker 1: But wait the books, dybody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I picked Queen Latifah because Miss Queen Latifah
Speaker 3: Unity is my favor a female empowerment.
Speaker 2: Record of all time.
Speaker 3: And then they was like for the last one, I'm like,
Speaker 3: for the last one, I want to pick a group.
Speaker 3: I'm like, kidd and plays my favorite group of all time,
Speaker 3: House Party so I said, yeah, that comes out later
Speaker 3: this year, the Kid and Play joint. Now, keep in mind,
Speaker 3: I'm the story, the story about to get even. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, I'm working with one of the
Speaker 3: top female music artists in Africa. I'm working with one
Speaker 3: of the top female music artists in the Caribbean. Her
Speaker 3: grandfather created the music genre Soaka. Rod Shorty created the
Speaker 3: music genre Soaka Nola black Men. It's his granddaughter and
Speaker 3: ms V was my music artist in Africa. I said,
Speaker 3: there's never been no mainstream children's book talking about Soaka
Speaker 3: and Carnival. There's never been no mainstream children's book with
Speaker 3: a deal from a music arts in Africa.
Speaker 2: So I said, I want to bring them in and
Speaker 2: get them deals. So mss V.
Speaker 3: She has a big song called natural Girl. It's about
Speaker 3: teaching black girls how to embrace theirself in their natural
Speaker 3: skin and who they are.
Speaker 2: So I created the book title.
Speaker 3: Natural Me, Me and My Partner, and it's a spin
Speaker 3: off of her song.
Speaker 2: And that's what HarperCollins as well.
Speaker 3: Nyla Blackman's book is about Carnival and Soca called Love
Speaker 3: La La, where he's teaching her the sights and sounds
Speaker 3: of Carnival. Why he's teaching her Soca all this was
Speaker 3: going on doing my hip hop series. I got all
Speaker 3: them deals within the same month.
Speaker 1: Wow. And then just curious for all listeners out there
Speaker 1: that are wanting to get into becoming an author. When
Speaker 1: you're doing a book on a tupole of Queen Latifa,
Speaker 1: is there some kind of clearing of rights? How does
Speaker 1: that whole part of the deal work?
Speaker 3: Thankfully, when you sign to them big companies, the legal
Speaker 3: department take you all that. I'm not responsible for any
Speaker 3: of that. They legal team get all those rights and
Speaker 3: whatever needs to be done legally. That's the pros of
Speaker 3: working with a big publisher. Wow, they do all of that.
Speaker 1: When you got your publishing deal off concept, what did
Speaker 1: that moment feel like for you?
Speaker 3: It was a crazy moment for me, as I never forget.
Speaker 3: It was April twenty twenty one and I had got
Speaker 3: six book deals within the same week. We had been
Speaker 3: pitching them since like January, and when the deals all
Speaker 3: came in, they all came in at the same time.
Speaker 3: I got six book deals. My agent called me within
Speaker 3: the same week.
Speaker 1: How did you backtrack? How did you have an agent
Speaker 1: to begin with?
Speaker 2: My partner. I was telling you about Kara Patrick.
Speaker 1: She was your partner agent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's a big agent in the publishing industry, so
Speaker 3: she's my agent.
Speaker 1: But she was the one that also pitched you to
Speaker 1: write books. So what were you doing to have an
Speaker 1: agent prior?
Speaker 2: Oh, you mean to have her?
Speaker 3: No, she just she asked me if I wanted to
Speaker 3: get into the children's books and what I thought about it,
Speaker 3: and she and I said, she said, we're gonna need
Speaker 3: an agent. She said, I'll represent you because she's a
Speaker 3: big agent and represent a lot of authors.
Speaker 1: So she was like a friend slash partners.
Speaker 2: No, she won friend we had at the time. Obviously
Speaker 2: she's a friend now.
Speaker 3: But at the time we had met and it was
Speaker 3: like like business from the about the books?
Speaker 1: So were you pitching her the books? Because I'm missing something, Okay,
Speaker 1: So she was. She was on the phone with you
Speaker 1: and she was like, have you ever thought about publishing?
Speaker 1: What were you guys doing for her or even what
Speaker 1: kind of business were you doing.
Speaker 2: We had met on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3: We had met on LinkedIn and when we met on LinkedIn,
Speaker 3: it was about the toy business for one of my
Speaker 3: for one of my clients at the time because she
Speaker 3: had she was a she used to be a VP
Speaker 3: at a big toy company, so she was That's when
Speaker 3: she was like, have you ever thought about doing books?
Speaker 1: But you keep saying your client at the time, what
Speaker 1: were you doing to have these types of clients?
Speaker 3: Oh, just music, sports. I was doing a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff came for my parties.
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying. What were you doing for
Speaker 1: these people for them to be your clients? Were you
Speaker 1: managing them?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I was producing music, I was managing them.
Speaker 3: I was doing pr from them. I was doing a
Speaker 3: lot of different things. So for the client of the time, Brooklyn,
Speaker 3: I was producing music own her. I was doing PR
Speaker 3: WAE for different networks and companies and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So we were doing a lot same thing. For Nyla
Speaker 3: and ms V, I was producing music. We was doing
Speaker 3: a lot of different things. So I was like, what
Speaker 3: you think about children's books?
Speaker 1: So this makes a lot more sense going back to
Speaker 1: why you got off social media. No matter what, clients
Speaker 1: were always hitting your phone or opportunities were always coming
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 2: All the time. Almost done cooking, I'm almost done.
Speaker 1: We got we're gonna, We're gonna We're gonna end the
Speaker 1: episode with absolutely shout outs to pin Bin for this mail.
Speaker 1: So now that So go back to April twenty first,
Speaker 1: you said, yeah, you have six published book deals, and
Speaker 1: why did you choose a publishing offers? Why did you
Speaker 1: choose Harper Collins and don't you could obviously it could
Speaker 1: also be the money, but why did you choose them?
Speaker 3: I chose them and then my other one through Penguin
Speaker 3: Random House. I chose HarperCollins because.
Speaker 1: Oh, you have two publishing deals at the same time,
Speaker 1: House and HarperCollins. Would you tell them up front?
Speaker 3: So when the offers came in, we decided, like who
Speaker 3: we want to go with and HarperCollins. So Luana that
Speaker 3: gave me my deal for that. She comes from producing
Speaker 3: Lebron James children's book Wayne, all these big children's books
Speaker 3: about the culture. So I'm like, for hip hop series,
Speaker 3: this is the right this is the right one to
Speaker 3: go and then shout out Sackston More.
Speaker 2: He is the illustrator of Legends of.
Speaker 1: Hip Hop Amazing, illustration amazing, three time.
Speaker 3: Three time Emmy director from Nickelodeon Cartoon That with.
Speaker 1: The Guys Amazing, his first book.
Speaker 2: He's been doing things.
Speaker 1: His artwork is absolutely stunning. Continue sorry, continue with your story.
Speaker 1: So why did you choose Random House? What publishing deals
Speaker 1: does Random House have with you?
Speaker 3: The love La La not a Blackman's book because the
Speaker 3: editor that gave me that deal is big in the
Speaker 3: Caribbean culture, and I wanted the book to I wanted
Speaker 3: the book to be authentic. So I remember one day,
Speaker 3: me and my business partner, we was writing it. We
Speaker 3: was sitting up all night thinking of like their language.
Speaker 3: We was like looking at the dictionary like in Trinidad
Speaker 3: and Soka's it is different language. So we wanted our
Speaker 3: books are very authentic and that's why they're doing well,
Speaker 3: Like however they talk in their country.
Speaker 2: That's how the children's books are. So we had to
Speaker 2: study all of that.
Speaker 3: Like I'm a real nerd when it comes to being
Speaker 3: great and having a vision and doing something like I
Speaker 3: really study this.
Speaker 1: Now. What did your daughter say when she first saw
Speaker 1: your bucks?
Speaker 3: She couldn't believe it was me. She she couldn't believe it.
Speaker 3: She was like, you wrote these. She was like, I
Speaker 3: inspired you to get into this. I said, babe, you
Speaker 3: inspire you changed my life. You inspired me to and
Speaker 3: shout out to my daughter's birthday today. Happy ninth birthday
Speaker 3: to my daughter Gianna.
Speaker 2: But she was shocked. She couldn't believe that I had
Speaker 2: did that. And for her to learn.
Speaker 3: About people that we grew up off of that was
Speaker 3: pretty pretty different from me.
Speaker 1: Now, just this is sidebar. Since you had your internship
Speaker 1: opportunity with pimping.
Speaker 2: And oak play potatoes with these.
Speaker 1: Play potatoes, I am genuinely curious here burme. Does it
Speaker 1: make you look at women differently when you are dating
Speaker 1: them versus like just dating for looks or cuteness or
Speaker 1: what have you. I don't know why I have so
Speaker 1: many on my plate. Hold on, hold up, I'm already.
Speaker 1: I'm already big. You're gonna eat somebody.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, okay, come see.
Speaker 1: It, watch it taste great?
Speaker 2: Oh huh, you may need some of this. Now.
Speaker 1: Let's see why you didn't put seasons on. I did.
Speaker 2: I did love it more.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, pull a chair up or pretty much
Speaker 1: at the end of the episode, which kind of sucks
Speaker 1: because I have so much more. So turn off that stove.
Speaker 1: You you don't cook at home, do you?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: Okay, come closer, come closer. This will be your mic. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's try. Oh did you answer my question? Do
Speaker 1: you look at women differently since no one pimping?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: So like where you date? Do you date for more
Speaker 1: than just looks?
Speaker 2: And absolutely?
Speaker 3: And I like dating just educated women and women that
Speaker 3: have goals and it's always bigger than looks for me.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm good on the potato right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it gotta you gotta have. You gotta have goals,
Speaker 3: you gotta have morals, you gotta have just a mindset
Speaker 3: that that you want to be great and you're looking
Speaker 3: for more. He taught me that shark women. I love
Speaker 3: shark women. Nothing is sexy than a shark woman. Yes,
Speaker 3: I don't date women that look for dudes.
Speaker 2: To be tricks.
Speaker 3: And I don't associate with the type of women women
Speaker 3: that's looking for dudes for come ups and tricks and
Speaker 3: dudes flying girls around around the country and taking them shopping.
Speaker 3: And some type of girls can't get my attention on whatsoever?
Speaker 2: Yeah, whatsoever?
Speaker 1: Let's see what pimping? Do you lived on this in Oakland?
Speaker 1: I'm guessing yes, Yes, it's a great dish. It's a
Speaker 1: great dish. And mm hmm, I love that it's colorful.
Speaker 1: Shout outs to pimping for trajectory of your life. I
Speaker 1: love that this mentor played such a pivotal role, and
Speaker 1: just to see where you are at today. And I
Speaker 1: love that you came from a two parent household, because
Speaker 1: I think the assumption on the show can be if
Speaker 1: you didn't come from nothing, But no, your pivotal journey
Speaker 1: started right there in the middle, and your parents did
Speaker 1: a great job. Shout outs to your daughter for leading
Speaker 1: us to legends of hip hop the series. And when
Speaker 1: you get your jay Z version, Yes, yes, yes, Can
Speaker 1: I at least get the first text or email like Hey,
Speaker 1: what's happening? Or can I get like some input? Can
Speaker 1: I see one of the drafts? But i'd be allowed
Speaker 1: to see like a draft like before you send it
Speaker 1: to your agent.
Speaker 3: Like absolutely, so I could be like, oh, let's do it,
Speaker 3: let's get one on whole.
Speaker 1: But this right here is spectacular.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: I eat this from time to time just just to reflect.
Speaker 3: Time to time, I'll still I'm not a cooker. I
Speaker 3: don't cook, but from time to time I'll still do
Speaker 3: this just to remember, like where I came from and
Speaker 3: the struggle in the journey and persevering and life lessons
Speaker 3: that I learned while I was eating this dish.
Speaker 1: This dish is really great, really great seasoning did a
Speaker 1: good job.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for responding to me, and you
Speaker 1: were right. But when it comes to your network, I
Speaker 1: saw you on LinkedIn. I was very like, Wow, this
Speaker 1: is amazing, legends of hip hop, unique black author. It's
Speaker 1: nice to see people of color in different industries. But
Speaker 1: I did, of course reach out to some other people.
Speaker 1: I try to see who you knew, and everyone came
Speaker 1: back saying really great stuff about you that I did.
Speaker 1: I always have to. I'm like, I literally picked up
Speaker 1: the phone call someone I hadn't talked to like almost
Speaker 1: a year, Oh wow, and asked about you and there's
Speaker 1: great things and they were like, yeah, you'd be great
Speaker 1: if you could get them on the show. And I
Speaker 1: was like, that's when I hit you up. So yes,
Speaker 1: and I rarely checked my LinkedIn right it was Haley.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Haley.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she has been on the show. She has her
Speaker 1: hair care products in all Walmarts. And I did ask
Speaker 1: her about like d I and how all that was
Speaker 1: affected her.
Speaker 2: They're doing great and her daughter that they're great.
Speaker 1: They're great when it comes to your book sales. I
Speaker 1: just have a couple of last questions. Is there any
Speaker 1: pressure to sell a certain quantity or market a certain quantity.
Speaker 2: No, it's not pressure.
Speaker 3: You know, when you sign deals with the publishers, they
Speaker 3: give you a real nice advance to do your thing,
Speaker 3: and there's no pressure because when they signed you because
Speaker 3: they love the product, and the books have been performing well,
Speaker 3: so I'm thankful for that they perform a real well.
Speaker 3: A lot of celebrities been doing things with them. One
Speaker 3: of the things that took me back about this book
Speaker 3: is when Ludacris shout out to Luda he's my favorite,
Speaker 3: one of my favorites all time.
Speaker 2: And when he did it, when he.
Speaker 3: Was talking about him and taking photos and stuff with him,
Speaker 3: that did it for me because he was He's like
Speaker 3: top three all time for me. So a lot of
Speaker 3: celebrities been taking pictures with the books, buying the books
Speaker 3: for their kids. It's been these books been circulating a
Speaker 3: lot in the celebrity world.
Speaker 1: So it's humbling and now we know a lot of
Speaker 1: what you've shared, a lot of the knowledge that really
Speaker 1: helps you grow outside of that knowledge. For people like
Speaker 1: I have a girlfriend and I told you that's trying
Speaker 1: to get into writing children's books. What kind of advice
Speaker 1: would you give that person? You could say, right into that.
Speaker 3: Camera, advice for getting to the children's book industry. Create
Speaker 3: Always make sure your story has depth to it. Have
Speaker 3: a beginning, have a middle, half an end, Have something
Speaker 3: that the character has to persevere through, have to learn from,
Speaker 3: and that that's what agents look for, that's what publishers
Speaker 3: look for. It's not just about writing a cool story,
Speaker 3: but your story has to have depth to it. It
Speaker 3: has to have something that a challenge that they're trying
Speaker 3: to get over, because that's how kids relate because life
Speaker 3: is not perfect. So if you write a children's book
Speaker 3: that it's just like all cool, but it's no lesson
Speaker 3: in it.
Speaker 2: It's just like these books.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, we're teaching you about hip hop, but what
Speaker 3: else are we teaching you how to learn how to
Speaker 3: counter opposites? We teaching you things that you're going to
Speaker 3: learn in school, you know. So always start with a
Speaker 3: great story that has to beginning, a middle or end.
Speaker 3: You know, you have to have an agent if you
Speaker 3: want to get into the big publishers because theyre the
Speaker 3: ones that negotiates you get you the best deals.
Speaker 2: You can't do this alone at all.
Speaker 3: So it's create a great story, get an agent, and
Speaker 3: really just you know, put your foot on the gas.
Speaker 3: You got a network, You got to hustle. If you
Speaker 3: really want to get into the children's book industry, let
Speaker 3: it be known.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let it be known. And then just from one parent,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you feel about when you read
Speaker 1: children's stories. After I had my daughter, I didn't. I'm
Speaker 1: very picky when it comes to children's books now. The
Speaker 1: books that have the most words like drive me nuts,
Speaker 1: especially at bed time. I love that you balance that
Speaker 1: in the book because there are people that will write
Speaker 1: like a whole novel and I'm like, lady, we're trying
Speaker 1: to get through bedtime. I don't want to have to
Speaker 1: just start making up the story because I don't want
Speaker 1: to read these words in the semi dark, trying to
Speaker 1: set this mood right.
Speaker 2: Keep it simple, keep it simple.
Speaker 1: And you did a really good job about that. And
Speaker 1: that's the only thing I would say. If you're gonna
Speaker 1: get into children's books, please not only have a great story,
Speaker 1: but please don't do too much with the work.
Speaker 3: And then when you're doing like I did a lot
Speaker 3: of tours, like all over the country. So when you're
Speaker 3: doing stuff at libraries and schools and things like that,
Speaker 3: you want to keep it simple because the classrooms only
Speaker 3: have so much time before they got to get to
Speaker 3: the next one. So you want something that the kids
Speaker 3: can gather real quick when you're doing like tours especially helps.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much. Penn can in the building
Speaker 1: appreciate you. Thank you so much for fitting us in
Speaker 1: your schedule. Shout outs to your baby girl. Happy birthday.
Speaker 3: Yes, happy birthday, Gianna Kennedy Monroe. And once again, this
Speaker 3: is the dish that I was eating while I was
Speaker 3: bro From time to time I still come back to
Speaker 3: just to reflecting.
Speaker 1: It's a great dish. I would eat this on a
Speaker 1: This will be a staple. And if you're a mom
Speaker 1: at Homi, you want to make something under twenty minutes
Speaker 1: that's hardy and feeling. This is absolutely superb and you
Speaker 1: can throw it with some chicken in your gut. Absolutely
Speaker 1: shout out to that, Yes, he's out, guys later for
Speaker 1: more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.