WEBVTT - PEN KEN - Player Potatoes to Penning Legends 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:16.560 Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.280 I'm your host, Coney Witt, and today we have very 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.720 special guest, Kenneth Monroe, also known as penn Ken in 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.120 the building. Very excited to have you. Oh, I forgot 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:31.320 to introduce guys. He is an author of children's books 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.080 and many more a long time over twenty years as 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.879 an entrepreneur. But what caught my eye is your books 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.160 Legends of Hip Hop dedicated to children. We got Tupac, 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.440 Queen Latifa, Kid and Play, and we have Biggie And 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.480 before they started taping day, I was grilling you because 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.440 he does not have jay Z. And if everyone who 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:56.760 knows me knows that I am a huge jay Z 0:00:57.480 --> 0:00:59.800 fan and I would have loved to see a jay Z. 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:02.240 There's next one. 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:04.160 It's more they're doing well, so it's more to come. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.679 Yes, they're all and that's even better to hair. So 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:09.200 before we get started into your story, what are you 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:10.480 gonna have me eating today? 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.160 So what I'm gonna have you eat is a meal 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.839 that one of my mentors taught me years ago in Oakland, California, 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.440 five to one over the town. And these are called 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.560 player potatoes. Player potatoes is something that gets you by. 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.120 It don't cost a lot, but it's enough ingredients in 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.880 there to get it's fulfilling. You have your potatoes, you 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:35.240 have your cut up garlic, you have your cut up carrots, bell, pepper, 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.600 and it's something that you can make that you can 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:41.399 eat it two three times with one server. 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.760 So and it's very affordable, extremely affordable because this is 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.040 like under five dollars in this economy, and you can 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.200 eat you get survived. Yeah, yeah, you can survive. It 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:50.760 will keep you. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.760 Bulky absolutely when you loan funds and stuff like that. 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.880 When you grinding, you can make a part of this 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:57.640 and you can eat it twice in one day and 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:59.280 still have a little bit left over for the next day. 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.480 Nice. So how long on average does it take to 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:03.920 make this dish? 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.920 About twenty twenty twenty five minutes. 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:10.840 Okay, go ahead, start cooking it. 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:11.280 Do it. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.840 This will be my I eat cereal in the morning. 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:16.919 Now I'm like a little kid. I eat fruity pebbles 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.600 or Captain crunch. No healthy cereals here. When you have 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:21.560 a little kid, you know that you become a little 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.919 kid again. I did not know that's the thing. When 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.919 you become an adult and you have kids, you get 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.160 to become a kid again. 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:29.880 That's the fall part, yes, and. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:31.960 One of the things not trying to sidetrack at all, 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.200 but as becoming a new mom, I did do by 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:38.840 a lot of kid books, and I started to realize, 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.919 like some of the publishers I liked when I was 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.240 a kid, I was like, why Doctor Zeus was one 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:48.240 of them. Ah, I can't do it with these classes 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.080 talking to me thank you while we're taping. They're like 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.360 sending me messages and I'm like, oh no, I can't 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.480 do it. I am terrible. I'm multitasking. But I will 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.880 say I do read these children's books, and some of 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:03.560 them they're either long winded or for Doctor Zeus in 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.040 the case Doctor Zeus was like too arithmatic. It was like, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:08.959 you're not even making sense. And nowadays so you see 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.880 these cartoons and they don't really have an underlining. In 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:15.200 my opinion, they don't make sense. Like a lion falling 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:15.600 in love with. 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.480 A dear we can't relate to that, we can't resonate with. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:19.760 And that's one of the things where I wanted to 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:21.880 do the books because we didn't have nothing for the 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.520 culture for us. Hip hop is a big part of 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:26.359 us in the culture. And when I was doing my 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.840 research before I started the books, I'm like, when I 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:30.799 first sign with my agent, the first thing I told her, 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:32.000 I said, I don't want. 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:33.560 To do them, no cute bedtime stories. 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:35.520 I'm like, if I want to if I'm gonna get 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.360 into this industry, you have to be books that's going 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.640 to touch the culture, the kids to parents, something that 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.800 we all can resonate with that we grew up on. 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.680 So I'm like, it's nothing touching on music. Music is 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:47.640 such a big part of our world and our culture. 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.640 Why aren't kids learning about our hip hop he ros? 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.080 When we in school, we learn about presidents all these 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.480 type of holidays, but we don't learn about hip hop 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.440 and where it started in the origins of it. So 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:00.880 I told my agent, said, I want to do a 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.720 hip hop series and this is before hip hop fifty. 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.600 And I love this too because kids are seeing kids 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.560 that are reflections of themselves, which you know, you have 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.920 people of color in the book. Obviously it's hip hop, 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:13.880 but we don't really have a lot of that going 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:14.360 on either. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.080 And everything comes back for a circle. Imagine when Wese 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.239 kids think about it. What was we listening to around 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.039 the house, the old school, the seventies music. So these 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.520 kids in this generation, they need to know about the 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:26.520 legends that we grew up on exactly. 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:29.640 Let's get into Take me back to what was going 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.599 on during the time of potatoes, and this you said 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:33.840 came from your mentors. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:35.520 And they called play a potatoes potatoes. 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:37.960 Take me back to what was going on when you 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.039 got advice to make play of potatoes to survive. 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:44.960 So this was a time we experienced different things in 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.479 our life, different hardships that we have to persevere through, 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.440 but we always remember our first time experiencing hardship for real. 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:53.680 Even if we have different hardships throughout our life, you 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:56.640 will never forget the first time you really experience like 0:04:57.720 --> 0:04:58.680 what it means to be. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:04:59.559 Low and down. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.919 I grew up in EA, Chicago, Indiana, a two parent household, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.720 my parents two two jobs, great jobs, my whole like 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.640 me and my little brother, I didn't struggle growing up. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.640 I could not have asked for a better childhood. My 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.080 mother and father, they just from what they taught us 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.080 and how they raised us. They just raised us the 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.400 right way, and we was grateful that they could be 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.760 able to afford things and do things with us to 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:25.640 provide a great childhood for us. I went to school. 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.400 I went to school in Arizona's where I went to 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.800 college at and after my second major of communications, and 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.160 after my second year, I was like, I don't want 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:34.960 to go to school no more. I knew I wanted 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:36.680 to get into the entertainment. I knew the corporate life 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.599 wasn't going to be for me. I never worked a 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.200 corporate job in my life. It was like I fifty, say, 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.520 get rich of Doe, Tryne. For me, it was entertainment 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.720 of that trine. So after my second year, I told 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:47.800 my parents, I said, I know who I am. I 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:49.120 know what I want to be. Some kids just know 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:50.640 who they want to be early. I knew in high 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:52.280 school what I wanted to be. It was just about 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:53.719 waiting for the opportunities. 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.320 And what did you want to do in high school? 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.720 In high school? In high school, I was like, one day, 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.400 I want to go to LA. In high school, go 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:03.520 to LA and see what the entertainment industry is about. 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.120 I was always in high school. I was popular. I 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.440 was known a lot of my personality of the classes 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:10.240 and stuff that I was. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.040 In was like communication classes and TV classes. 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.600 I played sports, so I knew that sitting behind the 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:17.960 desk wasn't just gonna be my journey. So after my 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.120 second year in college, I told my parents. I said, 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.000 I don't want to waste no more time to do 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.920 another two years, knowing this is not what I want 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.800 to do. They teach us to go get your degree, 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.200 go work for something for thirty years, get your pension. 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.440 How did your parents take the news. 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.720 I have some very supportive parents, and that's one thing 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:37.000 I've learned through other feings. 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:38.000 Parents sound amazing. 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.520 Yeah, I have very supportive parents. You got parents that 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:42.200 try to hold their kids back from what they want 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.520 to do. My parents was like, we don't know nothing 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.680 about Hollywood. My mother was scared to death. She said, 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:49.000 but if this is what you want to do, we 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.560 can hold you back. And so they said, this is 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.479 what we're gonna do. We're gonna go out here to 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.720 La We're gonna get your apartment. We ain't gonna get 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.440 your apartment in the hood and nothing. We're gonna get 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:01.960 you apartment, a nice apartment where it's happened in that. 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:10.440 We're gonna pay your first year rent. No, absolutely, we 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.200 don't pay your We don't want you to be in 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.080 the hood and the sketchy areas, gangs out there, we 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:15.680 don't want you to be. We want to put you 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.400 in the white area where everything happened. And so they 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:22.480 put me in the Valley studio city absolutely, so it 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.400 was like I found the roommate. It said, for this 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.480 first year, we want you to hustle, we want you 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.880 to network, we want you to find your way, meet people, this, 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.360 and that. After the first year, you should be good 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.640 enough to start hustling and making a couple of dollars 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.360 to start funding your apartment, whatever you need to do. 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.880 So that whole first year I did nothing. But I'm 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.120 a people person. I call myself I'm a master in networking. 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.200 That's just who I was my whole life growing up. 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.480 So that first year I was just getting into different 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.000 things and just I started working for MTV and doing 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.320 re member of dismissing all them shows. That was back 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.120 in the day. It was a lot of shows on TV. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:00.400 I started working doing shows for. 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.080 MTV and you were doing intern level or what No. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:05.680 I was doing TV shows like talent you know what 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:06.320 I mean, like. 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.480 Bucking the talent or I was the talent. Okay, oh 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:11.920 you were getting paid and stuff. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:13.840 Yeah, I was getting paid back in them days, like 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.320 the reality shows, they pay you I think five hundred 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:17.360 dollars or a few hundred dollars. 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:17.840 They want nothing. 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.960 But I was doing like different shows. And then I 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.080 started working for a playboy and doing different things. And 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:25.240 that whole year, I was just meeting a lot of 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.600 people and I was just building my network. And long 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.440 story short, after that first year was over, or around 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:33.360 towards the first year, that's when I met my mentor. 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.120 He had came to my apartment complex. He was he 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.160 did real estate, He did a lot of the music industry. 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:41.320 He is a guy that taught me a lot just 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.400 about life. And when he met me, he took a 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.160 liking to me and said, you're really talented. 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.760 I believe in you. He said, if you ever get 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.600 in the buying or something like that, just let me know. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.720 This guy had I called him pimping because he had 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.560 so many women he like. When I met him, he 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.360 was in a drop top baby blue Rolls Royce when 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.160 he came to the like, he had limos. He was 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:02.880 just like but he was a good guy. But he 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:03.720 took care of the hood. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:04.720 He was that guy. 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.080 But he was around a lot of dope heads and 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.400 drug dealers and alcoholics and just from trying to help 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:11.400 people and put people on. 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:13.200 So what did he do for work? 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:13.920 Real estate? 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.319 He did real estate, and he did while you go ahead, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:17.360 start cooking. 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.679 While he did he did real estate, and he did 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:20.960 a lot in the music industry. 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:23.040 Yeah, I'm good. 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.520 He did real estate and a lot in the music industry. 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.880 After the first year, I had met a woman and 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.480 she had a small daughter. She had a small daughter, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:33.760 she was like two three years old, and she had 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.040 just got out of a divorce with a big TV producer, 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:38.040 and the TV world, it was a lot of long 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.520 hours and stuff like that. So when I met her, 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:43.520 she was fifteen years older than me, and that was 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:45.720 my first time dating a older woman. And she had 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:48.400 a small kid, and we got really close, and I 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.400 became really close with the kid. So we started dating 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.680 and got in a serious relationship. And after that first 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.439 she was older than fifteen years older than me, had 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.440 her own money all the time, said I'm a young kid. 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.120 And and after that first year, I stopped telling my 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.719 mother and father things because I wanted to show them 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:07.199 that I was growing up, and I just didn't want 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.280 to use them for a crutch every time I needed 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:10.520 something or to bail me out. 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:15.000 So I went and got a little job at office depot, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:15.760 you know what I mean. 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:17.640 Didn't want to do it, but I wanted to show 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:19.840 my woman that I got my all money. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:20.800 I'm gonna get a few dollars. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.040 I'm not about to be taking you out to dinner, 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:25.599 panding on my parents' allowance. Like fifteen years old than me. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:27.120 I'm like, I got to grow up at some point. 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:28.679 I didn't want that job, but I went and so 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:30.839 I was stocking the shelves. I think it was twelve 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:31.240 dollars hour. 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:32.960 It want nothing. I got a job. 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.600 After five months, I said, I'm not doing it. I said, 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:38.720 this ain't me. I'm not about to force myself to 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:40.800 do this. Things start getting hard. I wasn't telling my 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:42.280 parents what I was going through. They had called me 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:44.600 a check on me and how I'm doing this, and 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.720 that I was lying the whole time. I'm doing this, 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.360 I'm doing that. I'm getting some money, but I'm struggling 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.520 the whole time. I'm behind. I'm behind on my rent. 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.040 I had a roommate I'm behind on my rent. Things 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.000 was going on. I got so deep that I got evicted. 0:10:58.880 --> 0:10:59.840 Oh wow, and you still ain't. 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.960 I had to at that point because they had to 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:04.000 help me bail me out. 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.520 And was their name on the apartment too? 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:08.560 Yeah? 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.440 Oh wow? So you was did they handle that? Did 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:12.200 you get in trouble? 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.480 I didn't get I didn't get like in real trouble. 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:17.600 But they gave me a long talk. They gave me 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:18.520 a long talk. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.079 And I got it. I got evicted. 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:23.960 I had just recently, me and my girls together about 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.200 a year and a half. We had just recently broke 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.240 up because we was going into two different directions and 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.319 she wanted to get married again. I'm like twenty one 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.920 years old. Yeah I'm vib and that's not what I 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.160 wanted to do. And the thing that hurt me the 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.400 most is that me and her daughter was very close, 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:39.960 and it's like walking out of a kid's life when 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.599 they three four years old, walking out of kids like 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:43.959 when they're three four years old. 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:46.200 And that kind of messed me up mentally. That hurt me. 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.040 My mentor in Oakland, he was like, you either gonna 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:52.760 go home or you can come out here until you 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:53.800 get on your feet. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.400 So he said, come out where to Oakland. 0:11:58.000 --> 0:11:59.000 He had this big house. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.360 He was the only he he was the only black 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.400 person in the hills of Oakland, waterfalls, all his backyard. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.520 He was like, like the only black all white people around, 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.440 the only black person in the hills of Oakland. 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:10.120 It was crazy. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.800 So when I went out there, that was the first 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:14.400 time when I learned real life. He was like, I 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:16.079 ain't gonna I ain't gonna treat you like your mama. 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:17.480 You're about to grow up. He was like, you've been 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.880 spoiled too much. He was like, you like you're facing 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.640 hardships and this is what real life is about. And 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.960 he used to like he used to have me around 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.400 a whole bunch of like drug addicts and alcoholics and 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.360 people that he dealt with, just to show me like 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.560 this could be you if you don't clean up this Hollywood, 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:37.440 this this California. 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.079 This ain't like backing your hometown. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:40.440 If you want to survive and make it out, hear, 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.760 you gotta grow up and you gotta start understanding the game. 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.600 So he when he did that, he used to take 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:48.360 me around a lot of meetings and stuff. He was like, 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:49.880 I'm gonna take you around all these meetings with me 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.280 unless you see how you conduct business, how you do things. Now, 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.320 one thing, one valuable thing that he taught me, and 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.480 I appreciate him to this day. He said, the people 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:01.080 that's gonna end up helping you in your life is 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:01.720 going to be women. 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.800 He said, yeah, shut out to the women. 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.240 Ninety percent of the people that was in his life 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.840 that he was doing business was women. He was like, look, 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.199 you got charisma, you good looking, you got a good 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.160 head on your shoulders. He said, a lot of guys 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:18.920 is gonna hate that. A lot of guys that can't 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:20.960 give you opportunity not going on to get an opportunity. 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:22.680 A lot of guy's not even going with you around 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:24.920 a woman, you know what I mean. And at the time, 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:27.560 I'm like, what do all this mean? And so he 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:29.760 started taking me around all these means and started letting 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.319 me see, like how he was conducting business with women. 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.320 Shark women I'm talking about. He had sharp women, entrepreneur women, 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.560 this and that. So he was like, use your gifts. 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.160 He was like, you have to use your gifts to 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.800 get ahead in life. He was like, women is more responsible. 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.280 They don't procrastinate like men. He was like, they don't 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:48.800 have no reason to hate on you. A guy hate 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:50.800 on you before a woman will in a second. He 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:52.600 was like, get some sharp woman on your team. He 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.200 was like, I'm not talking about just like on dating. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:57.520 He was like, I'm talking about handling business. Learn how 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.360 to do business with smart business like women, and you're 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.920 gonna see how your life donna change. So I was 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.960 in Oakland like a year, and after that lesson, when 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:10.240 I went back to LA, I kept my network the 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.120 whole time. When I went back to LA. 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:14.480 Where you were out there for a whole year, year, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:14.920 I was out there. 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:16.360 For a year. I was out there for the year. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.760 And it was times I was out there I was 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:21.000 at my breaking point, but I just said, I'm not 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:21.600 going to give up. 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:23.360 I'm not going home. It's not no option. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:28.560 And when I went back to LA, I started gathering 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.640 my network and I started throwing the biggest parties in Hollywood. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.240 I'm talking about not clubs. 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.400 I'm talking about like Manches, hotels, yachts, like from bel Air, 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.720 Beverly Hills. I was doing it in like Miami, South 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.440 Beach Vegas. The women I was dealing with used to 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.000 give me their homes to throw parties in, and they 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:48.880 didn't want no money. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.040 They was like, we're gonna give you our house throw 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:52.680 a party in. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.840 And that's how like my network started when I started 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.200 throwing all these big parties. But I wasn't making no 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:00.840 money at first, because you gotta fake it until you 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:01.160 make it. 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:02.360 Of course, the type of. 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.840 Parties, yeah, the type of parties I was throwing was 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.160 they was celebrity parties and high level parties. 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.000 So you can't really asking people. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.080 For no money when they're giving you they homes and 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.760 different things to throw parties in. And even the people 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.000 that's coming, you can't really ask them for money. You 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:21.880 gotta do the parties and build your network. So I'm 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.040 still struggling, but I'm faking until I make it. I 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.200 got all these rich people, Hollywood people in all these rooms, 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.840 but and we party. I'm building my network. But I'm like, 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.600 I'm betting on myself. If they liked me, they're gonna 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.640 want to help me down the line. So when my 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:36.440 mother used to call me and say how you get money? 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:38.800 What is you doing? I used to tell my mom 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:39.680 I had a job. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:41.640 I used to always tell her my work for the 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.680 move of companies that help people move out their homes, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.880 like the moving trucks. I'm lying the whole time, but 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:49.880 you know how I really was getting money until I 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.720 was able to make some money. I hate to say it, 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.760 but I'm gonna be real. I was getting money because 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.200 the drug dealers. I used to have people, but they 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.720 used to come in and serve rich people like to 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:05.680 get high. They liked when they party that they liked 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.400 to get high. So I had the drug dealers coming 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:12.960 in serving ecstssy, cocaine, weed, all that just for the party. 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.120 I never touched it. I wasn't driving around the car 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:16.760 with it because I wasn't taking them type of chances. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:17.000 Yeah. 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.840 So they used to come in and supply whatever they 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.200 needed at my parties. And by the end of the night, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:29.120 I get a bankroll. I get a bank roll, just 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:30.840 hand it to me, put in your pocket. 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:35.120 I leave. It's three four five thousand dollars. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.080 That's how I'm paying rent off drug money, you know, 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:40.400 because I wasn't getting paid from the parties at first 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:42.800 until I started building my name. Yeah, so how I 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:48.000