Speaker 1: I have decided to do fewer meeting greets or sometimes
Speaker 1: at some shows, none at all, because something happened, you guys,
Speaker 1: something very scary that breaked me out so much that
Speaker 1: it started making me think of all the things that
Speaker 1: could go wrong during a meeting greet, because if something
Speaker 1: happens to one of you guys, I would be devastated.
Speaker 1: I don't want you guys to think that it's all
Speaker 1: been negative. Most of the time, like has been beautiful.
Speaker 1: You guys, shower me with love and presence and food.
Speaker 1: What up, guys, How is everyone feeling today? As for me,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling I'm feeling good. I'm actually feeling good, have
Speaker 1: a lot on my mind, despite the fact that I'm
Speaker 1: not having coffee. I feel energetic, I feel happy. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's because I've been working out a lot and green
Speaker 1: tea has been my best friend lately. And I just
Speaker 1: finished a fitting which I cannot wait for you guys
Speaker 1: to see what I'm talking about. But it's gonna look
Speaker 1: so pretty my wardrobe is I can't wait. And I'm
Speaker 1: really happy to be taping another episode of Cheeks and Chill,
Speaker 1: of course, and you guys already know this is a
Speaker 1: space where I can be open and honest with you
Speaker 1: guys about anything and everything. And so I wanted to
Speaker 1: talk to you guys about meet and greets and why
Speaker 1: I've decided to scale back on them. There's a reason
Speaker 1: for it. So here we go. This is chickies and chill.
Speaker 1: Alrighty guys. So I'm constantly asked about meeting greets, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to start off by saying I love
Speaker 1: meeting you all more than anything. I am so grateful
Speaker 1: that you guys go to my shows, that you guys
Speaker 1: invest in the tickets, in my merchandise, and for me,
Speaker 1: it's like my way of giving back. So I love
Speaker 1: doing them. And I'm not that type of artist that
Speaker 1: when I do meet and greets, I just sit behind
Speaker 1: a table and you guys can barely touch me. I
Speaker 1: am like a complete giver. I take the picture, I
Speaker 1: sign whatever you guys ask, even though my team gets
Speaker 1: so frustrated with me because they're like, no selfies or
Speaker 1: don't sign this because it's like, you know, it's late already.
Speaker 1: My shows are usually like around twelve twelve to one thirty,
Speaker 1: and then by the time you get ready again to
Speaker 1: do the meeting, greets and look pretty. For you guys,
Speaker 1: I'm already kind of buzzing. It's like two three o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning when we're doing these, So for them
Speaker 1: it's like my safety and your guys is safety, and
Speaker 1: everyone's tired, so they're kind of like, let's feed up
Speaker 1: the process. And I am one to just talk and
Speaker 1: ask about how your mom is doing, and I love
Speaker 1: your shirt, and I'm just like they're always telling me, like,
Speaker 1: can't you just be quiet? And I really can't, which
Speaker 1: is why I have a podcast, duh. But honestly, like
Speaker 1: I love meeting you guys. It's like one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things. And just to know that you guys have
Speaker 1: taken the time out of your life to listen to
Speaker 1: my music, to love me even though you don't know
Speaker 1: me on a personal level, it's just a very intimate,
Speaker 1: intimate time and I'm very grateful. I just need you
Speaker 1: guys to that. But I have decided to do fewer
Speaker 1: meeting greets or sometimes at some shows none at all,
Speaker 1: because something happened, you guys, something very scary. And this
Speaker 1: is something that my friend Becky G had told me.
Speaker 1: She said that she was doing her accounting one day
Speaker 1: and hopefully she wasn't get upset for me sharing this,
Speaker 1: but she was doing her accounting and she had noticed
Speaker 1: that with everything that she had spent all year long,
Speaker 1: she had noticed that the least thing that she had
Speaker 1: spent on was security, and she said that should be
Speaker 1: like the number one thing I spent on. And I
Speaker 1: started thinking. I started doing my own accounting, and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, there are times when I
Speaker 1: don't even take security at all, and that's it in
Speaker 1: the back of my mind. But I was just like, okay,
Speaker 1: you just you get in the hustle and bustle of things,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's just it's it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: expensive to go on the road. You know, I have
Speaker 1: my makeup artist, I have my assistant, I have my
Speaker 1: road manager. So I just really never felt that I
Speaker 1: needed a personal security guard because the venue usually have
Speaker 1: their security. But at this one particular show, and again
Speaker 1: my shows, my type of music, we go on stage
Speaker 1: around twelve thirty sometimes one o'clock in the morning, and
Speaker 1: it's an hour and a half show, and I always
Speaker 1: go over and about because I'm always over compensating and
Speaker 1: I'm always like over delivering, So I do about two hours.
Speaker 1: So anyways, by the time we're done, it's like two fifteen,
Speaker 1: and I do my mit and grades, and this one
Speaker 1: particular time, there was this couple and things started well,
Speaker 1: first of all, let me scale back a little bit,
Speaker 1: so we were all in this place I had always
Speaker 1: I had asked, I need a place like a green
Speaker 1: room to do my meeting grades, somewhere safe, and they
Speaker 1: gave me this room. But it was a room that
Speaker 1: was not private. It was kind of open to the public,
Speaker 1: so there were people coming. There were two doors coming
Speaker 1: in from both directions. I just started started getting packed
Speaker 1: and I started getting like pushed to the corner, and
Speaker 1: I was like, what the hell is going on. I
Speaker 1: usually don't I'm chill, like I'm like, I'm not want
Speaker 1: to freak out. Then goodness, I don't have like social anxiety.
Speaker 1: Depends on the situation, but usually I'm very good at like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm chilling. And I was chilling. But then I started
Speaker 1: seeing like my team freak out because there was just
Speaker 1: too many people and like, you just never know, you guys,
Speaker 1: like if someone can have a gun and we've heard
Speaker 1: of these like stories and you know, and I was
Speaker 1: watching this documentary of like Stalkers. I think it's called
Speaker 1: Stalkers or stalking or I don't remember. Anyways, it's it's
Speaker 1: on one of the you know networks and anyways, so
Speaker 1: anything can happen, and they started to freak out. I
Speaker 1: had no security and it started getting rowdy. Someone started
Speaker 1: kind of like talking shit to Emilio because Emilia was like, hey,
Speaker 1: back up, like, can you guys get everyone out of
Speaker 1: the room, like make a line. People were drunk already.
Speaker 1: Then the guy already like arguing with Emilio and said
Speaker 1: like he was on I don't know if he was
Speaker 1: on something or what, but he made it seem like
Speaker 1: if you don't like shut up, blah blah bla blah.
Speaker 1: Emilio just like and he's not one to like pick fights.
Speaker 1: He's very calm. So the fact that he was kind
Speaker 1: of like worried it worried me because I'm like, he's
Speaker 1: usually just chill. But this guy started getting rowdy and
Speaker 1: he kind of like showed a gun and we were
Speaker 1: like okay, so we all backed up, and then my
Speaker 1: team was like, let's go mind you I have someone
Speaker 1: while I'm on stage selling my meeting greets because it's
Speaker 1: not just you know, like I saw my meeting greets.
Speaker 1: Why because it's it's I want you guys to know.
Speaker 1: It's it's time, it's late. I have to pay my staff.
Speaker 1: I give you guys like a whole thing. It's like
Speaker 1: not just for a picture. It's like, you guys know,
Speaker 1: the people have gotten meeting greets. You get a shirt,
Speaker 1: you get a hat, you get a like a gaffite
Speaker 1: that which is like you know, your little your past
Speaker 1: or whatever, and it's like nicely done. So I like
Speaker 1: things done right. So anyways, that person is out there
Speaker 1: selling my meeting greets, so they're already sold by the
Speaker 1: time I'm off stage, and I usually know, okay, it's
Speaker 1: going to be fifty one hundred sometimes it's one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty people. And anyways, so that day, my team
Speaker 1: was like, we gotta go. This is not safe for you,
Speaker 1: and I was I was upset. I was like, what
Speaker 1: do you mean? Like people paid, Like how are we
Speaker 1: going to give them their money back? I had never
Speaker 1: been in this situation because I'm a type of person
Speaker 1: that will stay till the very end, till the very
Speaker 1: last person. Even if I go to a meet and
Speaker 1: greet that someone like, for instance, WSS and they cut
Speaker 1: it off. I'm just like, wait, how many people are
Speaker 1: still out there? About fifty I'm like, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1: Like I'm I don't know. I don't like to make
Speaker 1: people wait. I'm always very worried about that. So I
Speaker 1: was very worried and concerned, and so my team was like, no,
Speaker 1: this is not safe. We're going to have to give
Speaker 1: them their money back. So I made sure. I talked
Speaker 1: to my guy who sells my beating greets and my merchandise,
Speaker 1: and I said, police pay everyone back, give them cash
Speaker 1: if need be. It was very important to me. So
Speaker 1: we leave. We're in the car, Emilio's driving. I believe
Speaker 1: I'm in the passenger student the back. I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no no, I'm not driving. I think Robert was driving.
Speaker 1: So anyways, Emilia and I were in the back, and
Speaker 1: so was Omi, and we're leaving. We're like, okay, of
Speaker 1: course I'm worried. We're leaving the venue, and here comes
Speaker 1: this truck right behind us, tailgating us, honking, fucking we're
Speaker 1: driving recklessly, about to hit us, telling us to roll
Speaker 1: down the window to stop. He was pissed, and he's like,
Speaker 1: that's not fucking cool. You fucking left you give me
Speaker 1: my one hundred dollars And I was like okay, I'm
Speaker 1: like give him his money back. I say, we're gonna
Speaker 1: pay you back. He's like, no, fuck the money. I
Speaker 1: want you to take a picture of my girl. We've
Speaker 1: been waiting. That's what she wanted. I'm gonna get the
Speaker 1: picture for my girl. He got crazy, like literally like
Speaker 1: about to run us off the road. And so I
Speaker 1: was like, stop, you guys, we need to stop. He's
Speaker 1: not going to stop following us. He's upset. We need
Speaker 1: to stop. Mind you, I have no security and I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, calm down. I was like, let's stop.
Speaker 1: Everyone's like no, no, no, Let's go to the Hotel's
Speaker 1: like no, if we go to the hotel, he's gonna
Speaker 1: know where we where we're at. There's no way out
Speaker 1: of this. We need to stop and look an almos
Speaker 1: scat them there. So it was scary. He was pissed,
Speaker 1: you guys. It was. He did not care if he
Speaker 1: were to hit the car. He just wanted his damn
Speaker 1: picture for his girl. Anyways, Emilio says, okay, you stay
Speaker 1: in the car. He gets off the car, goes to
Speaker 1: the guy's truck that's behind us, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: dark because again it's like two three in the morning,
Speaker 1: and where we were kind of parked it was it
Speaker 1: was dark. So I was just like looking and we
Speaker 1: were on the street, you know, there weren't a lot
Speaker 1: of cars passing by, and he was like, you could
Speaker 1: tell the guys just like going off. I could just
Speaker 1: look at Emilio was like, okay, like don't worry, dude,
Speaker 1: like relax, we're gonna you know what, do you want
Speaker 1: your money bag? And and he's like, no, I want
Speaker 1: her to take a picture of my girl. That's what
Speaker 1: I want and I'm not leaving until I get it.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god. And Emilia was like,
Speaker 1: what do you want to do. He came back to
Speaker 1: the car and I said, I need to take the picture.
Speaker 1: Let's just take the picture. It's going to be fine.
Speaker 1: They're like, no, what if he grabs you? What if
Speaker 1: something happens. And I'm like, let's just do it. He's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: let's move. So we moved from the street where it
Speaker 1: was a little dark into like a shopping center where
Speaker 1: there was a lot more light, and you just never
Speaker 1: know what could happen. So I took the picture and
Speaker 1: the girl was like, I'm so sorry. I never get
Speaker 1: freaked out about stuff. That day freaked me out. Took
Speaker 1: the picture. Everything was fine, but I was like shaking
Speaker 1: in my boots. I was like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is what Becky meant. I need to invest in security,
Speaker 1: and ever since then I did. But that freaked me
Speaker 1: out so much that it started making me think of
Speaker 1: all the things that could go wrong during a meeting. Great,
Speaker 1: because I don't know if a lot of these nightclubs,
Speaker 1: a lot of these places have metal detectors. But it's
Speaker 1: just I'm putting my life at risk. And not only
Speaker 1: that your guysis, you know, because there's something happened during
Speaker 1: a meeting greet and something compass to one of you guys,
Speaker 1: I would fucking be devastated, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: even if it doesn't happen to me, but it's one
Speaker 1: of my team members or so. It was just like
Speaker 1: something that scared me and put things into perspective. And
Speaker 1: the crazy thing is that two shows later, I think,
Speaker 1: or maybe three, that same guy came to one of
Speaker 1: my shows and apologize. He said, chikis, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: like from Afar because they weren't. That's when I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't do meeting greads for a while after that.
Speaker 1: And that's what you guys didn't know, because a lot
Speaker 1: of you were like cheeks, you always do meeting greats
Speaker 1: and I didn't for a few shows and I haven't
Speaker 1: I think since then. Maybe one because I had security.
Speaker 1: I got to security, but like to security guards to
Speaker 1: come with me. But anyways, that's the reason why. And
Speaker 1: he did apologize from Afar, and I remember his face.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget his face, of course. And he did apologize.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm sorry. I was drunk and like he
Speaker 1: was giving me saying yes from Afar and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate it. But it still doesn't take
Speaker 1: away the fact that it scared the shit out of me,
Speaker 1: and it's scared at Melio. He's like, honestly, that guy
Speaker 1: could have just pulled a gun out on me and
Speaker 1: boom that that there you go, because he took the
Speaker 1: risk for us, for my team and I to talk
Speaker 1: to this guy and calm him down, you know. And anyways,
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons, the main reason as to
Speaker 1: why I've scaled back a little bit on meeting greets,
Speaker 1: and I hope that you guys can understand. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find ways and certain venues that are a little
Speaker 1: bit more chill, where it's a little safer for all
Speaker 1: of us, not just for me and my team, but
Speaker 1: for you guys to have meeting greeds, because I want
Speaker 1: to give you the best experience, you know. And We've
Speaker 1: even thought of doing meeting greets before my shows so
Speaker 1: that it's not too late. So we're still trying to
Speaker 1: figure that out. I still want to do meet and greets.
Speaker 1: I think it's super important. It's an important part of,
Speaker 1: you know, my tour for you guys. Another thing is
Speaker 1: it also depletes me. You know. That's another thing like
Speaker 1: doing it too late. It depletes me. I'm already tired
Speaker 1: from giving like all my energy to you guys on
Speaker 1: stage that when I want to give you guys my
Speaker 1: energy for the meeting greets, but then the next day
Speaker 1: I feel even more tired, you know. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: to find that perfect time and the perfect way to
Speaker 1: do so, and I'm thinking of doing less maybe twenty
Speaker 1: thirty fifty. I think more than fifty is just too much.
Speaker 1: And I just want to apologize the ziadita as of
Speaker 1: now that if you are if I start doing meeting
Speaker 1: greets again and you don't get a ticket because I'm
Speaker 1: doing a lot less, just please try to understand, and
Speaker 1: hopefully I can catch you on the next one I
Speaker 1: might be able to start doing it. That's another thing,
Speaker 1: selling my midden greets before my Show's that, hey, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have a meeting greet at the show and doing
Speaker 1: it online and you guys can purchase it online before
Speaker 1: the show, like weeks before the show. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure out the details, you guys.
Speaker 1: But I did want to take the time to explain
Speaker 1: that because a lot of people have been asking me
Speaker 1: my boss bees are like, what the heck is going on? Chickies,
Speaker 1: you always do meeting greets, And it's not because I
Speaker 1: think like I'm better now and blah blah blah. That's
Speaker 1: not the case at all at all, you guys. It's
Speaker 1: just and it was important for me that I explained it.
Speaker 1: I don't want you guys to think that it's all
Speaker 1: been negative, you know, it's just that one experience. But
Speaker 1: most of the time, like well no, most yeah, most
Speaker 1: of the time. Percent of the time, I could say
Speaker 1: it has been beautiful. You guys shower me with love
Speaker 1: and presence and food. You guys bring me Starbucks, not
Speaker 1: only me but also like to my team, and I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for that. I mean, I've had even guys
Speaker 1: get on their knees and even girls and give me
Speaker 1: like ring pops and tell me that I'm the love
Speaker 1: of their life. So I have so much fun. I
Speaker 1: love meeting like even the kids. You know what the
Speaker 1: cool thing is that at my meeting Greeds, I have
Speaker 1: every type of person. I have men, I have women,
Speaker 1: I have older women like older ladies. I have of
Speaker 1: course like my age range. I have every single kids.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love I'm telling you, I love meeting
Speaker 1: the kids. So it's been beautiful. You guys, like I
Speaker 1: am just I have a lot. Honestly, I have, if
Speaker 1: not everything you guys have gifted me, I have like
Speaker 1: ninety five percent of what you guys have given me
Speaker 1: at these meeting greats saved and taken care of in
Speaker 1: my storage. And then I have a room here in
Speaker 1: my house of hards of gifts, of blankets of shirts
Speaker 1: that you have given me, and I'm just grateful. I
Speaker 1: love you guys. I love you guys so much. Even
Speaker 1: hot Cheetos. You guys give me hot Cheetos and Valentina
Speaker 1: because I love Valentina the hot sauce. So anyways, I
Speaker 1: just don't want you guys to think that it's like
Speaker 1: all bad, because it's not. It's been freaking beautiful, which
Speaker 1: is why that situation kind of broke my heart because
Speaker 1: it kind of scared me a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1: But anyways, I have faith. I have faith that everything's
Speaker 1: gonna get better and we're going to figure out a
Speaker 1: way to make this happen because I want it to
Speaker 1: happen for all of us, not only for you guys,
Speaker 1: but for me too. And another reason I absolutely love
Speaker 1: doing meet and greets is because I remember doing meet
Speaker 1: and greets with my mom. Back then. We would sell
Speaker 1: them for twenty dollars and it was a Polaroid camera
Speaker 1: and I would take the pictures and it was just
Speaker 1: so cool. And it's a beautiful moment to like meet
Speaker 1: you guys, and and and a way of saying thank you,
Speaker 1: because this is something my mom taught me was you
Speaker 1: have to work, and we have to work, because at
Speaker 1: that time she wouldn't pay me when I was doing
Speaker 1: the pictures because it was a way of like, well,
Speaker 1: these people feed us, these people keep food on our table,
Speaker 1: and they buy my music, and I'm able to buy
Speaker 1: you your felas, you know, because I was into filas
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So it's mine of like this
Speaker 1: is this is important, having that, like that direct connection
Speaker 1: with your fans and knowing that like I want you
Speaker 1: guys to know that I'm tangible, that you can touch me,
Speaker 1: that I'm human, that I love to hug you guys,
Speaker 1: and and getting your guys is hugging your love like
Speaker 1: energizes me. And it also takes me back to those
Speaker 1: moments with my mom and how we started and how
Speaker 1: everything started, you know, and how I was there and
Speaker 1: selling the meeting greets myself and taking the pictures and
Speaker 1: getting to know you guys, and it's been I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's almost a way of like paying it forward, you know,
Speaker 1: and it's it's it all comes full circle. And that's
Speaker 1: why it's so important to me. And it was so
Speaker 1: important for me to do an entire episode on this
Speaker 1: because you guys are absolutely important and you guys hold
Speaker 1: a special place in my heart. So I hope you
Speaker 1: guys understand, but I'm hoping and praying. You know, we're
Speaker 1: looking at the budgets and I already said security is
Speaker 1: the most important thing. So even if I don't take
Speaker 1: glam anymore on tour, I want security. I'll do my
Speaker 1: own hair and makeup, but I do it and I
Speaker 1: want security to be able to have meeting greets. So
Speaker 1: just be patient with me, ferina to where Part two
Speaker 1: is coming, and it's coming strong, and I have a
Speaker 1: lot of special things for you guys, so new merch
Speaker 1: as well, you guys, and yeah, a lot of new ideas.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's my story behind my meeting greets, and
Speaker 1: I wish I could meet each and every one of
Speaker 1: you guys because I love you all so much and
Speaker 1: I really mean it. I'm going to try my best
Speaker 1: to do as many as I can and I will
Speaker 1: keep you informed, so stay tuned for that. And before
Speaker 1: we go, there is a quote to keep you motivated
Speaker 1: throughout the week. Oh hey, and the quote is the
Speaker 1: secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
Speaker 1: The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.
Speaker 1: And there you have it. That is the quote of
Speaker 1: the week. I hope it helps and I will see
Speaker 1: you next time on another episode of Cheeks and Chill,
Speaker 1: Besito's Peace and Love. Y'all, do you need advice on love, relationships,
Speaker 1: health emas. I'm so excited to share with you that
Speaker 1: my Cheeks and Chill podcast we'll have an extra episode
Speaker 1: drop each week. I'll be answering all your questions. Just
Speaker 1: leave me a voice message. All you have to do
Speaker 1: is go to speak pipe dot com slash Cheeks and
Speaker 1: Chill podcast and record your questions. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: hear from you. This is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: the Michael Dura podcast Network. Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Michaeldura Podcasts and follow me cheekis that's c h i
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