Speaker 1: What's your family. It's your girl to meet A D.
Speaker 1: Mallory and it's your boy, my son and general and
Speaker 1: we are your hosts of street politicians, the place where
Speaker 1: the streets and politics. Me, what's up, my son? Let
Speaker 1: me just tell you something. Who's up? If my wedding
Speaker 1: ain't like Porsche's wedding, I ain't getting married. I can
Speaker 1: get back. I can get married, but it's gonna had
Speaker 1: now was mad Now I want to go to If
Speaker 1: it can't be like Porsche's wedding, I'm gonna go to
Speaker 1: the Justice to piece and have me a nice reception afterwards,
Speaker 1: and then that's that I want the husband. She married
Speaker 1: the King of Zamunda. You know she had the King
Speaker 1: of Wunda wedding. She had two weddings. You know, we
Speaker 1: didn't make it to the first one, but the African
Speaker 1: traditional wedding and then the when that we went to
Speaker 1: was just dope managed. I just wanted to say shout
Speaker 1: out to push her in something you know, or should
Speaker 1: be having a good time all the time. I love
Speaker 1: that he allows her to be her sister queen and
Speaker 1: asta how I was saying that yesterday, like he allows
Speaker 1: her to just be her I didn't even know because
Speaker 1: I left from from the from the you know, wherever
Speaker 1: I went, who knows um. And by the time I
Speaker 1: came back, she was out there performing with Drew Hill.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that happened. I saw it online. Uh.
Speaker 1: It was a beautiful occasion of families coming together, of
Speaker 1: friends coming together, and it was just done so well.
Speaker 1: And what I appreciate that people don't understand or no,
Speaker 1: or maybe they do know and they just hate nastrolls,
Speaker 1: is that, yes, Simon is very well off, and you
Speaker 1: can tell that he loves taking care of Portion. But
Speaker 1: Portion got her own stuff, She got her own money,
Speaker 1: she got her own businesses. She has plenty of things
Speaker 1: going on, from a hair company to clothe and she's
Speaker 1: got the Amazon deal. She's involved in all it was
Speaker 1: a thing, So I'm sure she also was part of
Speaker 1: her own experience. And you know, I was talking to bridesmaids,
Speaker 1: obviously Andy was one of the bridesmaids, and they just
Speaker 1: said the way that they would treat it, it was
Speaker 1: so nice and kind and sweet and just a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, love and positivity, and you could see
Speaker 1: that illuminating in their marriage. And you know, in in
Speaker 1: their in their union, and of course the families and whatnot.
Speaker 1: It was and that's what I mean. I know I'm
Speaker 1: being funny when I say let's do it. You know
Speaker 1: it has to be big like this and the third.
Speaker 1: But what I mean is that the cultural aspect because
Speaker 1: that was still president even in the American wedding, that
Speaker 1: it was still present. The fact that the actual wedding ceremony,
Speaker 1: the music was the best gospel music ever. Every song
Speaker 1: it was church, the sermon that the pastor gave and
Speaker 1: the words that they used to encourage them. It just
Speaker 1: was so many positive things. And of course the two
Speaker 1: of them look like money. The money they're getting couple
Speaker 1: of dollars man, you know, I just you know, um,
Speaker 1: people say, you know, marriage just love and this and that,
Speaker 1: and it is, you love people, But when you look
Speaker 1: at that the kind of money that, man, that's a
Speaker 1: different kind of money. But I'm just trying to be honest,
Speaker 1: like I but I really, but you could tell that
Speaker 1: they love each other being around them from kind of
Speaker 1: like the people know what I'm saying, so seeing it
Speaker 1: and just being in in the clubs with them, just
Speaker 1: being around just just there's an energy of when you
Speaker 1: just enjoy somebody, you know, and they enjoy each other.
Speaker 1: She he's he's a lot more laid back than she is,
Speaker 1: but he enjoys her and she includes him, and they
Speaker 1: include each other and everything like there's communication that they
Speaker 1: have that's just dope. You don't look like, oh, this
Speaker 1: dude is with somebody and he just here. Now he's
Speaker 1: enjoying this. She's having a good time. She knows he's
Speaker 1: enjoying hoodie enjoying each other. So there's there's this level
Speaker 1: of chemistry in the bond. If they got man, so
Speaker 1: I'm demistry is the word, yes, and they got they
Speaker 1: got a yang and yang thing that things are going on.
Speaker 1: So you know, I was I was blessed to be
Speaker 1: in the building. So I appreciate being able to witness that.
Speaker 1: Man our sister would listen. You know, people try to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, she showed up. I'm gonna mak me a
Speaker 1: T shirt that say I'm a cloud chaser because you know,
Speaker 1: I remember a long time ago, my old boss, they
Speaker 1: used to say he's an ambulance chaser. Ambulance chasing. He
Speaker 1: used to say, call me whatever you want, ambulance chasing.
Speaker 1: But actually I'm the ambulance, right and and and and
Speaker 1: and I don't know how I'm gonna make it spin,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't fuck you saying that this one is
Speaker 1: a cloud chaser and that my son is a cloud chaser.
Speaker 1: Like so even it's a beautiful thing because what happens
Speaker 1: is when when you take the time to think that
Speaker 1: somebody is chasing cloud you you and you don't even
Speaker 1: understand the dynamics is that there's a level of work
Speaker 1: and its level of respect that goes into you being
Speaker 1: able to be in certain places and love that you have.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a level of dedication that you have
Speaker 1: to what you do that people see, you know, and
Speaker 1: and it can be misconstrued by some not even misconstrued
Speaker 1: because it's intentional hate, you know what I'm saying, Because
Speaker 1: when you don't even know somebody that you're calling them
Speaker 1: out their name and you you decide that they cloud
Speaker 1: chase it, that's all you Listen, Call me what you want.
Speaker 1: But I want to put an explanation to it, right
Speaker 1: because I would imagine that when people say you're a
Speaker 1: cloud chaser, that means you're doing it for lights, You're
Speaker 1: doing it for attention, right, you're trying to get people
Speaker 1: to pay attention to you and and that, and that
Speaker 1: is actually true because it leads to the next topic.
Speaker 1: Shank Wala Robinson right now said that. So I'm not
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to but I'm sure there was a
Speaker 1: hater that didn't write it because they might have felt
Speaker 1: like this is inappropriate time, but they thought it in
Speaker 1: the back of their mind that me getting involved Tiffany
Speaker 1: loft In myself and then of course bringing everybody you
Speaker 1: and others into the situation that we're doing it for cloud. Right.
Speaker 1: They might I'm sure they said that, but people did
Speaker 1: not disrespect UM the space and bring all of that
Speaker 1: negativity to it. And I gotta say that because I
Speaker 1: don't want to UM misrepresent But there are people who
Speaker 1: feel like Brianna Tall and other things. We yeah, their
Speaker 1: family wanted good cloud chases. If that's what you call us,
Speaker 1: that's fine because what we know is that the State
Speaker 1: Department wrote on their report that there was no evidence
Speaker 1: of foul play on Chanquella Robinson and they was going
Speaker 1: on about their business. Body a body was got back
Speaker 1: to the body was claimed and sent back to the US,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, they paid. The family had to
Speaker 1: pay six thousand dollars to get the body back and
Speaker 1: to get her remains. There was gonna be a service
Speaker 1: and those people was gonna be on about their business.
Speaker 1: Why because first of all, and this is I'm not
Speaker 1: even and I could give you all kinds of reasons
Speaker 1: in terms of, like, you know, the conspiracies in my
Speaker 1: mind around these government agencies and the federal government and
Speaker 1: all of that, but just on a very basic level,
Speaker 1: it's so much sh happening across this world. There's so
Speaker 1: many things you're talking about, the State Department, the United
Speaker 1: States Department, Okay, do you know all of the things.
Speaker 1: You got the Department of Justice over there, you got
Speaker 1: the FBI, you got all of this stuff. There's crime happening,
Speaker 1: there's people missing, there's wars going on. They got so
Speaker 1: much going on. A black woman who was on vacation
Speaker 1: with her friends that died, and the Mexican government said,
Speaker 1: you know, it was nothing but alcohol, or they didn't
Speaker 1: even say it was alcohol poisoning. But they didn't really say, hey, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: there's something that happened over here, and we need to
Speaker 1: put some people in the hot seat for it, right
Speaker 1: They didn't say that they're going on about their business.
Speaker 1: When has this country ever stopped everything, stopped the cylinders
Speaker 1: and and and said a black woman has been harm
Speaker 1: or a black person, but especially a black woman has
Speaker 1: been hard and we didn't do a full investigation. It
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. So what happens is the cloud
Speaker 1: chases come right the people. Because when I spoke to
Speaker 1: Chanquilla's mama and daddy, they was like, we're just trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what happened to our daughter. We know
Speaker 1: that the story they're telling us is not right, but
Speaker 1: we don't have the means right they was Her father
Speaker 1: was was pushing the FBI. He told me the story
Speaker 1: of how he circled back. He was talking to Attorney
Speaker 1: Crump and out on the phone and he said, as
Speaker 1: he was at the cemetery looking for a plot for
Speaker 1: his daughter, the video clip that we now have all
Speaker 1: seen it was released, and he turned around and drove
Speaker 1: to the FBI's office to get them to do something
Speaker 1: for his daughter with this new evidence. So it was
Speaker 1: all of that that went into it. And of course
Speaker 1: on social media, we were out there pushing and demanding
Speaker 1: that there be some real attention paid to this, but
Speaker 1: not just on social media. People was making real phone calls,
Speaker 1: sending real emails and really going after and and and
Speaker 1: pressuring the FBI and the State Department. That ship works.
Speaker 1: It works, so if you and you know what. There
Speaker 1: was one comment someone said, oh, um, they and then
Speaker 1: it doesn't always work, but it does work. At least
Speaker 1: it will get you. You know what they say, the
Speaker 1: squeaky will gets the oil right. Um. But there was
Speaker 1: this one comment when a person when I wrote, I
Speaker 1: thanked all the people who donated, you know, especially the
Speaker 1: highest numbers above five hundred. I think them all. I
Speaker 1: talked about the people on that list and kind from
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving to excuse me, to Stormy Wellington to uh
Speaker 1: Kimba Walker uh to all these people grant cardone. Uh
Speaker 1: there were so many people. Uh, Courtneyada, yel A um uh,
Speaker 1: Comedian little rail. You know. I I talked about it
Speaker 1: and I said, together we did this. And so this
Speaker 1: person wrote, um, I know you don't think you raised
Speaker 1: all of this money by yourself this as well. First
Speaker 1: of all, unfortunately, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't even bring
Speaker 1: it up. It doesn't matter. But since people don't understand
Speaker 1: how things work. You have to. You gotta get the
Speaker 1: record straight. As a Claire Hubs Claire Hunstable, you talk
Speaker 1: about getting the record straight all the time, and whenever
Speaker 1: she would say that, everybody in the house knew, oh
Speaker 1: my god, So let's get the record straight. First of all,
Speaker 1: there was no go fund me until we got involved.
Speaker 1: Our team in Mill Washington worked with the family to
Speaker 1: create the go fund me and advise them on how
Speaker 1: to put all the pieces in place. And because of
Speaker 1: the nature of how fast to go fund me travel,
Speaker 1: it kept getting shut down because you know, people try
Speaker 1: to steal. Then other go fund me is popped up
Speaker 1: whether or not these are is this the official page
Speaker 1: or not. We, through Michael Blake, who was our brother
Speaker 1: former assembly men from New York, worked with go fund
Speaker 1: Me to work out all the kinks on the platform
Speaker 1: so that they could raise the type of resources they
Speaker 1: need for all the things that are to come around
Speaker 1: getting justice for their daughter. Then our friends, people we
Speaker 1: work closely with, were the first people to come forward
Speaker 1: with enough of the the with big enough numbers in
Speaker 1: terms of what they donated and how they got their
Speaker 1: friends together to donate. And that is how the go
Speaker 1: fund me dropped from I mean, excuse me, it grew
Speaker 1: from great numbers to astronomical in just amazing in terms
Speaker 1: of what people came together to do. So no, it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean we did it all by ourselves. That's why
Speaker 1: we said we did it together. But you will not
Speaker 1: take from us. You will not take from us what
Speaker 1: we do every single day out here and how we
Speaker 1: try to work with families and others to help them
Speaker 1: through their grief and through the trauma that their experience.
Speaker 1: So if that makes us cloud chases, and it being
Speaker 1: a cloud chase, it means that you're trying to get
Speaker 1: the most attention possible and that attention helps to bring
Speaker 1: justice or a little bit of peace to someone, a family,
Speaker 1: or something to our communities, then damn it. Signed me up,
Speaker 1: Sign me up, you said a mouthful. I ain't even
Speaker 1: gotta sitting there after that, man, because the work somebody
Speaker 1: got to do, the work that you ain't willing to do.
Speaker 1: So keep call us whatever you want to call us,
Speaker 1: but we know at the end of the day, these
Speaker 1: families appreciate it. You know, we we we get whatever
Speaker 1: we can. We try to stand with them, We try
Speaker 1: to you know, advise them about things that we know,
Speaker 1: and we also try to get them the resources that
Speaker 1: they need along this process. You know, it's nothing can
Speaker 1: give you back your family. Remember, nothing's gonna give them
Speaker 1: back to you. But but we understand that when when
Speaker 1: it's time to pay for those were trying to pay
Speaker 1: for the you know, the the going home services, those
Speaker 1: things need to be paid for. When it's time to
Speaker 1: get investigators and all of these people, that's going to
Speaker 1: be to find out all the things and pay for
Speaker 1: how to find these people that are hiding like there.
Speaker 1: It's really things going on. So if you're not really
Speaker 1: pretty pretty much about to do anything, don't worry about us.
Speaker 1: You don't even need to write that. When we heard
Speaker 1: you say that cloud, we heard it over. You ain't
Speaker 1: got to keep righting the same thing as well. They
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get me a shirt because I'm with it. Anyway, Uh,
Speaker 1: speaking of cloud chasing or whatever, I guess we're now
Speaker 1: going to take that and I'm gonna use that term
Speaker 1: in a more positive way. But I will say that
Speaker 1: posted something today and I saw it right before we
Speaker 1: started doing the show that you were talking about the
Speaker 1: issue of um the internet and how the internet is
Speaker 1: you know, the Internet is a dangerous dangerously if it
Speaker 1: is not used properly. Right, um I'm My hashtag on
Speaker 1: my post today was that the Internet is killing us,
Speaker 1: and I hope it didn't go over people's heads because
Speaker 1: the way that the Internet is used sometimes first of all,
Speaker 1: too often as a means to um escalate tensions among
Speaker 1: all kinds of people. It's not just beef between you know,
Speaker 1: two rappers or certain communities. It's a lot of issues
Speaker 1: that once it gets to the Internet, it can get
Speaker 1: exploited in a way that it's very dangerous. You have people,
Speaker 1: young kids out here that are dying by suicide. You've
Speaker 1: got trans people that are are dying also because one
Speaker 1: their issues are never really talked about in major platforms,
Speaker 1: but also because of the way that other people feel
Speaker 1: in terms of shame and things of that sort. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff going on that this Internet increases.
Speaker 1: And also just looking at the way that um uh
Speaker 1: that the way that the Internet makes the black man
Speaker 1: look so dangerous, a murderer, you know whatever, just robber
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's so dangerous the way that we are
Speaker 1: depicted and the way the Internet exposes it and escalates
Speaker 1: it that it really literally puts our lives in danger
Speaker 1: every single day. Yes, the Internet can be used for
Speaker 1: some good things. Yes we can get together and help
Speaker 1: Shanquella Robinson's family, but we also have to be very
Speaker 1: mindful of what we are invested in. And we are
Speaker 1: so um I was gonna say schizophrenic, but it's disrespectful
Speaker 1: to use that term because they are people who suffer
Speaker 1: with that. We're so confused. We're so confused that we
Speaker 1: will help people die or help them kill themselves and
Speaker 1: or one another, and then on the other hand be
Speaker 1: so m so I hate that this happened to this person,
Speaker 1: and we're so sad about it. We gotta like figure
Speaker 1: this out, you know what I mean? We got The
Speaker 1: thing is, there are people invested in what you're talking about, right,
Speaker 1: so they're not trying to figure They have figured it out.
Speaker 1: They figured out that the more that I agitate and
Speaker 1: I instigate and I promote negativity, it brings views to
Speaker 1: these channels. And the more that I get views that's content,
Speaker 1: and the more that I get paid for advertisement and
Speaker 1: these companies assigned me don't matter what it is, and
Speaker 1: if it's negative or whatever, I don't care they're invested
Speaker 1: in that. So it's very dangerous because when you look
Speaker 1: at the post that I posted, and you know, even
Speaker 1: though the conflict happened, that the headlines that they post
Speaker 1: they create violent. They create a violent atmosphere. Right, So
Speaker 1: if me and you were arguing, and me and you
Speaker 1: were just arguing on our page and only the people
Speaker 1: that know us know it cool, it's still a lot
Speaker 1: of people. But the minute that other blogs sites and
Speaker 1: other you know, sites that have five ten million, five
Speaker 1: six million start taking the worst part of that argument,
Speaker 1: right when I said I'm gonna hit you in the face.
Speaker 1: All the other times I might be like, y'all don't
Speaker 1: got no beef with you, bro. This ship is this
Speaker 1: ship is stupid. And they don't promote that part. That's
Speaker 1: not what they're looking for. They're looking for the part where, oh,
Speaker 1: he said he's gonna punch him in the face, and
Speaker 1: that's how they what they do. So somebody who was
Speaker 1: told that they're gonna get punched in the face right
Speaker 1: forgets that we actually spoils to be. They just see
Speaker 1: that this part is being promoting it wrong, and now
Speaker 1: I feel my ego. It's like then the world is
Speaker 1: seeing you punk me, so what I need to get?
Speaker 1: I need some get back or our friends who love
Speaker 1: or seeing me get or thinking that I'm getting so
Speaker 1: they want to retally against you or your friends when
Speaker 1: they see you, or just fans of minds who love
Speaker 1: me that don't really care for you. It creates an
Speaker 1: atmosphere for them don't want to do something to you,
Speaker 1: you know, and people and they know this happens because
Speaker 1: there's a track record. They see it keep happening. They
Speaker 1: keep these kids just dying over internet beef and they
Speaker 1: know that. But they've made a conscious decision that they
Speaker 1: don't have a responsibility and the only thing they're responsible
Speaker 1: to do is to make money and get headlines that
Speaker 1: people want to pay attention, you know. And that's what
Speaker 1: it is. So until there's a reckoning, a real reckon
Speaker 1: into where the culture is, like now, we're not even
Speaker 1: letting you feel comfortable in this right now. They're the
Speaker 1: people who do what they are comfortable, and they want
Speaker 1: to do the interview and they want to get some
Speaker 1: some cloud from it. They want to get somebody body
Speaker 1: record if it's coming out, so they'll sitting down with
Speaker 1: these I don't even know what to call them them more.
Speaker 1: But they sit down with them and they utilized them
Speaker 1: for content, you know, and they talk about that. And
Speaker 1: then as soon as they get into a beef, they create,
Speaker 1: they create the atmosphere for it to turn into death
Speaker 1: prison so or prison. And that's the other means. We're
Speaker 1: dying in more ways than one. Um. And you know,
Speaker 1: I just I woke up this morning. Last night, while
Speaker 1: traveling back from Georgia, I noticed that it was brewing.
Speaker 1: I saw it. I saw several blogs posting about beef
Speaker 1: between two rappers, and then by the morning it was everywhere.
Speaker 1: And I said, I feel compelled, you know, And I
Speaker 1: couldn't even just call out one blog. It would have
Speaker 1: been wonderful if I could have just said, oh, this
Speaker 1: one posted or that one posted it, but it was
Speaker 1: so many places, and at that point it doesn't even
Speaker 1: matter anymore. Now I feel like we gotta sometimes. I
Speaker 1: don't think people understand how we all play a ro.
Speaker 1: When I speak to students, I always say to them,
Speaker 1: be careful about sharing negative content between your friends when
Speaker 1: they get into it, right like, you don't gotta amp
Speaker 1: it by putting it on the internet, because once you
Speaker 1: do that, you're helping to create. As you said, ego
Speaker 1: ego gets involved. I was one of our friends, Erica
Speaker 1: Ford out in um in Queens that does very important
Speaker 1: anti violence work at Life Can. She talks about the
Speaker 1: fact that and for the you know, again, I'm trying
Speaker 1: not to save people's names because we're not trying to
Speaker 1: promote the same stuff ourselves. But she talks about two
Speaker 1: camps in Queens that was beef in years ago. Both
Speaker 1: of the individuals who are major artists have moved away,
Speaker 1: lived completely different lies, and there are kids still dying
Speaker 1: today over me on way back then. They're still dying
Speaker 1: over that beef. Same thing. You go to Chicago right
Speaker 1: now and try to find out what's the issue between
Speaker 1: what is it Carini Green and some other housing projects.
Speaker 1: What's the problem? This is great grandfather ship that's been
Speaker 1: going on for thirty years, forty years in this in
Speaker 1: these communities, and it's still carrying on over something that
Speaker 1: probably was not even the people who had the beef
Speaker 1: in the first place. It ain't even that serious. So
Speaker 1: we have to think about that when you're sharing it
Speaker 1: and you're promoting this information, What is the what is
Speaker 1: the goal? What are we trying to do because guess what,
Speaker 1: and I'll say this and be done with it. We
Speaker 1: even though I started out by saying it's a lot
Speaker 1: of conflict between a lot of people, a lot of communities,
Speaker 1: and the Internet exploits it all. Guess what. We're the
Speaker 1: ones dying. Our kids are the ones that are dying
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. So other communities might be going
Speaker 1: through their ship too, But ain't nobody dying like black
Speaker 1: people are dying, and like young black people are dying.
Speaker 1: So when do we all take a responsibility and get
Speaker 1: you know, get in the game. Responsibility? Responsibility my thought
Speaker 1: of the day. I know, folks don't say I don't
Speaker 1: want to vote, I don't care about voting this and that,
Speaker 1: and that's fine. I'm trying to convince you. I'm talking
Speaker 1: to the ones who understand there is an agenda in
Speaker 1: this country, my son, Linen, and the agenda right, the
Speaker 1: agenda is very detrimental and dangerous to us as people
Speaker 1: of color, as black folks, and particularly marginalized communities. All
Speaker 1: you gotta do is listen to herschel Walker talk and
Speaker 1: listen to the people that support him and the people
Speaker 1: he supports. That's all you gotta do. You don't gotta
Speaker 1: take to make Malory's word for it. Just go do
Speaker 1: your own research. Listen to the man speak, and I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about his lack of uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: right words to say or to the ship, because sometimes
Speaker 1: some of the ship the way he said, my family
Speaker 1: members talk that way. I hear white folks talking that way.
Speaker 1: I hear a lot of people that speak that way,
Speaker 1: especially when you're somebody that's from the South. And this
Speaker 1: is just how you communicate. That's not the issue, because
Speaker 1: to narrow it down to that, we're actually missing the
Speaker 1: real point. I don't give a ship people. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't give you slang country talk, southern boy saying some
Speaker 1: ships to your You gotter listen to what the man
Speaker 1: is saying, the people who support him and the people
Speaker 1: who he's talking about supporting, And this is what you
Speaker 1: gotta listen to. I am not sitting here telling you
Speaker 1: that Raphael Warnot is perfect or even listen. When I
Speaker 1: watched ever by the way, I know Raphael were not
Speaker 1: very well. Rafael Warknock I considered to be a friend, right,
Speaker 1: but when I saw the white woman speaking to him
Speaker 1: about her issue, and then I wasn't there, so I
Speaker 1: can't tell you all the things that happened. I'm doing
Speaker 1: some my on face value. Then a black man walks
Speaker 1: up to him and asked him about reparations, and he
Speaker 1: rushed him off, didn't want to talk about that issue.
Speaker 1: And I know they'll say, well, no, it was because
Speaker 1: the way the man approached him, and it was this,
Speaker 1: and it was that. Okay, I wasn't there, so I
Speaker 1: can't say no. But I know exactly. I know how
Speaker 1: the Democrats do around the issue of reparations and how
Speaker 1: they run from and don't want to discuss it, and
Speaker 1: they used it. They say it's a hot button, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a hot rail, it's your third rail issue,
Speaker 1: and they don't want to talk about it. So it
Speaker 1: makes sense that you would brush off a black man
Speaker 1: who wanted to speak to you about something. Raphael were
Speaker 1: not actually knows better. Reverend Warnock knows better. Okay, Dr
Speaker 1: or Knock knows that a Senator war Knock knows better.
Speaker 1: But it is the way that Democrats have boxed themselves
Speaker 1: in and and and and I guess a lot of
Speaker 1: ways which we talked about some black folks sea the
Speaker 1: Republican party doing something else, and they like with ship.
Speaker 1: I like that. I like what they're doing, just saying
Speaker 1: whatever the hell they need to say, and and and
Speaker 1: and standing ten toes down on their position. The only
Speaker 1: thing is we want the position to be morally on code.
Speaker 1: That's the only difference, right. All I'm saying is that
Speaker 1: December six is the last state of vote. It's not.
Speaker 1: It's not the beginning. It is the end. And between
Speaker 1: now and then, early voting is happening. Ask yourself why Georgia,
Speaker 1: the State of Georgia, would go to court to try
Speaker 1: to stop people from voting on Saturday. Why would why
Speaker 1: would the State of Georgia try to stop That's my
Speaker 1: thought of the day today. Why would the state of
Speaker 1: Georgia want to cancel early voting on Saturday, which is
Speaker 1: a day when most black folks would go and do
Speaker 1: their last minute voting. Why would they want to tamper
Speaker 1: with early voting if they thought that, whether it be
Speaker 1: if they wanted a fair election. Senator Walker or i
Speaker 1: mean Senator Arnot or herschel Walker, they're trying to rig
Speaker 1: the system so that the agenda that they have decided
Speaker 1: on putting judges in the courts, conservative judges in the courts.
Speaker 1: We've already talked on this show and many times about
Speaker 1: things that's happening in the courts around this country. Okay,
Speaker 1: abortion rights, which is your right to choose, locking people up,
Speaker 1: more mass incarceration, all of those things, and then and
Speaker 1: the list goes on and on. That's their agenda, and
Speaker 1: hers Walker is gonna be one of those to help
Speaker 1: uphold it. So do what you think you should, and
Speaker 1: by the way, stand on your square. If you want
Speaker 1: to vote for him, you go and you do that
Speaker 1: so that history can record where you stood. But to
Speaker 1: stay home and do nothing is to me asinine makes
Speaker 1: no sense. Man. Like I said, I'm definitely I'm not.
Speaker 1: But I'm not. No, I'm nonpartisan. You're not nonpartisan. That
Speaker 1: is a lie, You're not. I just don't like the
Speaker 1: people like I just it's just I can't see me
Speaker 1: voting for for Hersheel Walker. I just I'm just like
Speaker 1: what am I I was sitting there looking at these
Speaker 1: people like am I in the Twilight though. Sometimes I
Speaker 1: really just sit there and I'm like, Wow, this is
Speaker 1: this right here is who they've got running for. This
Speaker 1: is the man right here, They're running for the place
Speaker 1: man afric America supports these people. And it's just like
Speaker 1: when you sit there and you think about that, you say, wow,
Speaker 1: you got to think about the mind state of the
Speaker 1: individual that's gonna vote for hershel Walker. That's how I've
Speaker 1: been just like you gotta sit there like what are
Speaker 1: you actually thinking? Like what is it that you invested in?
Speaker 1: What are you putting your vote? Like what do you
Speaker 1: see happening? You understand? Like what is it exactly that
Speaker 1: you are doing? And it's just like I just and
Speaker 1: so am I moving on that. So we've got a
Speaker 1: good guest on today. We're trying to close this year
Speaker 1: our strong nice with these good old financial experts, health experts,
Speaker 1: all about our empowerment man, and this story is so inspiring.
Speaker 1: Of course, we love Steve Harvey and have had the
Speaker 1: opportunity to spend time with him in a social setting.
Speaker 1: And even in the social setting, he's still educating and
Speaker 1: mentoring and and teaching and working on personal development with
Speaker 1: folks around him and especially us as people who are
Speaker 1: younger than him. Um, and just to see what the
Speaker 1: team looks like of all these people who come together
Speaker 1: every day to work on his empire, UM and those
Speaker 1: that he empowers. It's really, really, really such a just
Speaker 1: a brilliant story and so inspiring and a young man
Speaker 1: that we have joined in us today, UH is no
Speaker 1: less inspiring even on his own. A super brilliant businessman,
Speaker 1: business development expert and UM who works really closely with
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey. So let's introduce this young man. His name
Speaker 1: is to Beatie Stevens. He is the chief Strategy Officer
Speaker 1: and international Business Development Officer for UH excuse me, business
Speaker 1: Development director for Steve Harvey Global. He also runs UM
Speaker 1: all of Steve Harvey's Middle Eastern work and things that
Speaker 1: he's doing in Africa. UH. He owns the rights to
Speaker 1: help Steve to acquire the rights to UH Family Feud Africa.
Speaker 1: So there's so much going on and the story of
Speaker 1: how they come together so powerful. So let's get to
Speaker 1: be the on with us to talk about his life
Speaker 1: with Steve Harvey. Well, welcome to bet Man. I just
Speaker 1: want to say we're happy to have you man, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me UM. Like I said, UH off camera,
Speaker 1: you all have a big platform, so aware of the
Speaker 1: show and just love what you're all really doing for
Speaker 1: the community. Like just spotlighting and you all say a
Speaker 1: lot of real things. So I just appreciate John, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm actually excited. So you know, well, I just
Speaker 1: want to thank you, and I just want to know, like,
Speaker 1: how old are you because when I'm listening to this bio,
Speaker 1: it sounds like we're talking about like a fifty six
Speaker 1: c old man. Yeah, so I just turned thirty, um
Speaker 1: in July, so I'm I'm getting up there. Wow, thirty
Speaker 1: years old. Well, I just want to say we appreciate you.
Speaker 1: The all work that you had to do to reach
Speaker 1: these levels, man is crazy. So as a black man,
Speaker 1: I just want to salute you. Man, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. But we just can't start. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: so this story that I've heard on the internet so
Speaker 1: many times and I was really inspired by it is
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why we wanted to have you
Speaker 1: to come up here. Um, It's the story for me
Speaker 1: means so many different things. You are best friends with
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey's son. He was best man I think at
Speaker 1: your wedding, and he's going to be best man. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be best man, okay. See, and um he was
Speaker 1: asked by his dad to work with him. So Steve
Speaker 1: tried to recruit his son to come and work with him,
Speaker 1: looking for that young, fresh energy, and his son said, no, actually, Dad,
Speaker 1: you need to sit down and work with to beat
Speaker 1: the Stevens my friend, right, he knew you already obvious sleep,
Speaker 1: but he was trying to give his son an opportunity.
Speaker 1: And his son and this is what I mean by
Speaker 1: how layered it is this young man instead of just
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out on his own, maybe doing
Speaker 1: a good job, maybe not. He said, no, I know
Speaker 1: my homeboy is more a fit for this position, and
Speaker 1: he's someone you need to work with. People don't pass
Speaker 1: along opportunities like that number one And to you know,
Speaker 1: for Steve to take his advice and then trust you,
Speaker 1: that's also pretty powerful. How did that feel and how
Speaker 1: did that experience unfold? Um? So the answer how it felt?
Speaker 1: I mean it felt unreal, right, I mean I never
Speaker 1: in a million years, you know, you don't become friends
Speaker 1: with somebody because for their parents are at least I
Speaker 1: don't you know, Um, he's my best friend now because
Speaker 1: he's Steve abby Son, because I know, you know, we
Speaker 1: met our first day at school at Morehouse. Um, and
Speaker 1: I know that. You know, I've seen him break his
Speaker 1: hand helping me not get beat up, and you know
Speaker 1: he really that's my back, right, So I judged him
Speaker 1: on the character. Um, and that's probably why he recommended
Speaker 1: me for the position. But Brodrick and I met at
Speaker 1: more House, so we became friends. At more House, I
Speaker 1: had a shoe company called Steps by Stevens, so for
Speaker 1: every pair of shoes that I sold, will provide meals
Speaker 1: to women and children's shelters nationwide. And Roderick used to
Speaker 1: help me with my creative direction for that, so we
Speaker 1: did really well. I did that all throughout school. Um.
Speaker 1: And Mr Harvey has his mentorship camp, so Stephen Margue
Speaker 1: Harvey Foundation, they go a mentorship camp where they foster um,
Speaker 1: you know, just trying to teach father's voice, manhood. You know,
Speaker 1: the most at risk. You just show him opportunity in
Speaker 1: a way out. And I think sophomore junior Yeard went
Speaker 1: to the camp with Roderick and I thought we were
Speaker 1: just gonna be having fun. But Roderick end up working.
Speaker 1: And you know, if your best friends working, you spend
Speaker 1: in the United his house. I'm not about to play basketball.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you work, so we can you know,
Speaker 1: have fun. Well, what that end up turning into was
Speaker 1: like a recurring role. You know. I built a reputation
Speaker 1: for myself there as a hard worker. Um. And for me,
Speaker 1: I just saw this an opportunity to meet fortune CEO.
Speaker 1: So Mr Harvey's put these at risk youths around, just
Speaker 1: motivational characters. So it might be the CEO of under
Speaker 1: Arm or CEO of the United Airlines. So I just
Speaker 1: saw it as an opportunity to kind of network and meet,
Speaker 1: you know, new people. Um. And then from there, uh,
Speaker 1: Mr Harvey called me one day and I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: I love the work that you're doing, Like keep coming
Speaker 1: to my foundation. You don't want to talk to you more?
Speaker 1: I see something that you sound really special. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, thank you, Miss Harvey. I appreciate it. So
Speaker 1: we started just kind of working on small deals, you know.
Speaker 1: I started working with a research and development and we
Speaker 1: were tasked one day with finding a franchise. So of course,
Speaker 1: me being who I was, we took it a step
Speaker 1: further and end up doing an extremely good deal that
Speaker 1: I later found out structurally why it was the best
Speaker 1: deal to come through the company at the time I
Speaker 1: was two and brodert with twenty three. So after that meeting,
Speaker 1: Mr Harvey, being very pleased with the deal and how
Speaker 1: it looked, he approached Roderick. I was like, hey, son, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I really need you to come help me
Speaker 1: on this road to a billion dollars. I want you
Speaker 1: to help me come learn the family business. Like I
Speaker 1: love all the works that you did in the deal.
Speaker 1: And I really commend broder because I wasn't even in
Speaker 1: the room and it's just like just a testament to
Speaker 1: his character because he was like, hey day, I'm not
Speaker 1: a lot to you, Like I was there representing your brand,
Speaker 1: but to be the executed all the work and like,
Speaker 1: I know you want to give me this job opportunity,
Speaker 1: but if you really want to make it like you
Speaker 1: should hire to be. Um. So yeah, that's I try
Speaker 1: to some eyes a short, but yeah, that's really not
Speaker 1: way and that that's real friendship. Man. So so what
Speaker 1: what what is your task? Like what exactly do you
Speaker 1: do in my role right now? Yes? So, like you said,
Speaker 1: I'm chief strategy officer, so um, Mr Harvey, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't know, and I'll probably get in
Speaker 1: trouble after this interview. But he's like a very sophisticated businessman,
Speaker 1: so he has an extremely sophisticated portfolio with a lot
Speaker 1: of subsidiaries and minor companies underneath it. But he's also
Speaker 1: the world's number one TV host, right so he's on
Speaker 1: TV and radio probably twelve hours a day, twelve or
Speaker 1: fourteen hours a day. Yet we still have to run
Speaker 1: these businesses. So UM, myself along with our Brandon Williams,
Speaker 1: is our general counsel and our CEO, and still Stay
Speaker 1: which is like our chief development officer. Between the three
Speaker 1: of us, we basically all managed sectors of the business,
Speaker 1: right um. And we all work with him because him
Speaker 1: being on stage all the time, we are the people
Speaker 1: who actually run the day to day of all the businesses.
Speaker 1: So I think I might I can't even name how
Speaker 1: many projects I have under my field right now. Um,
Speaker 1: And we build our teams, but my main responsibility and
Speaker 1: role of strategy of course, so UM, I spend probably
Speaker 1: the most time with Mr Harvey than anybody, so I
Speaker 1: have a clear understanding of everything and objectives that he
Speaker 1: wants to receive and what that he wants to do,
Speaker 1: and then of course I'll implement that so managing corporate
Speaker 1: relationship with our partners, or whether it's that being me
Speaker 1: ABC UM, our producer shows, whether that's UM going over
Speaker 1: financials UM with our CFO or any of our products
Speaker 1: in our businesses. Because with his life being so big,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different things that we have
Speaker 1: to get, you know, look over right, So I can
Speaker 1: working on the TV show, I could be working on
Speaker 1: an international business deal. Also managed his investment port portfolios
Speaker 1: like all our in house investments, to all these opportunities.
Speaker 1: Anything that Steve Harvey has invested in, it probably comes
Speaker 1: across my My best brand is that's what crystalsess UM
Speaker 1: and if one of us are not on, it's probably
Speaker 1: not a real a real deal or a real opportunity.
Speaker 1: So I mean it's strategy, UM, operations, organization, UM, investment.
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's extremely diversified. And I think it's
Speaker 1: that way because I came from a chief of staff
Speaker 1: role originally UM, so I was always already working like
Speaker 1: every sector so UM, I mean it's kind of makeshift.
Speaker 1: You know. It's not like I'm market at a Nike
Speaker 1: where it's like, hey, I'm a marketing person. Not only
Speaker 1: do marketing, I work for a big fortune brand who
Speaker 1: was a person. So he is Nike. So I might
Speaker 1: be doing a marketing deal with our marketing partners. I
Speaker 1: might be going over a PR report. I might be
Speaker 1: h looking at a gold mine in Africa. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: so it's extremely But how often do you bring him
Speaker 1: deals that he's unaware of or maybe not necessarily interested in,
Speaker 1: where you've got to try to help him see how
Speaker 1: lucrative it can be all the time? Um. I was
Speaker 1: one thing I'll say if I'm Mr Harvey that I
Speaker 1: commend him on is uh he doesn't. He always says,
Speaker 1: you have to surmride yourself people smartly. Right. And with
Speaker 1: that being said, he might not necessarily understand exactly what
Speaker 1: I'm doing if it's a crypto deal or is um
Speaker 1: it can be last mail delivery, or he might not
Speaker 1: actually understand, you know, how to read a p chart
Speaker 1: or understand how we're doing the stock and investment. So um,
Speaker 1: usually we take we sit down and we'll go over it. Right.
Speaker 1: So Mr Harvey, we all have the ability to walk
Speaker 1: it up to the finish line. But one thing is
Speaker 1: the Harvey is he's very hands on with all his deals.
Speaker 1: So he signs every he's not signed until he understands.
Speaker 1: So I'll say seventy percent of the time is usually
Speaker 1: explaining really ninety because he wants to be able to
Speaker 1: explain it to a child. He needs, he needs to
Speaker 1: be able to explain to anybody who's working with and
Speaker 1: it's his money. So you know, there must be a
Speaker 1: very crazy dynamic that you're working for your best friend's father.
Speaker 1: Is it weird? Is it fun? Like? How how is it?
Speaker 1: It's really crazy because like you know, in our culture, right,
Speaker 1: Like the first thing my father said was, hey, man,
Speaker 1: don't mess up that man's money. Right, And he's giving
Speaker 1: it to Harvey like physical permission to beat you, right.
Speaker 1: And I'm probably the only employee outside of his sons
Speaker 1: that you know that he can actually put his hands on.
Speaker 1: And I won't say anything, but it's amazing. It's literally
Speaker 1: like working with my second family. Um. The Harveys are
Speaker 1: really like family to be Um. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a different level of loyalty, you know, like I know,
Speaker 1: no matter what I have is back because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, is my best friend, right, So
Speaker 1: he has so many levels of respect for me. You
Speaker 1: have my best friend's father you're older male, you're my boss, um,
Speaker 1: your mentor you know. So it's a crazy dynamic definitely. Um.
Speaker 1: But what I will say and that I come and
Speaker 1: Mr Harvey on it's life. He really put me in
Speaker 1: a position to to you know, when and if I
Speaker 1: mess up, you give you the role to hang yourself right.
Speaker 1: So um, he really let's talk about that. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about that. Has there been a time you said crypto
Speaker 1: and I know Crypto is losing a lot of money
Speaker 1: right now, So has there been a time when you
Speaker 1: did when things didn't go so well? And how did
Speaker 1: that play out? Because one of the things that we
Speaker 1: learned after spending some time with Stephen and by the way,
Speaker 1: Steve is very supportive of us. He's very supportive of me, um,
Speaker 1: you know, always encouraging, very kind, and he is funny
Speaker 1: as hell even when he's upset. So even when he's
Speaker 1: explaining something to you that is like you know, f
Speaker 1: this ship man, he still is making you crack up
Speaker 1: laughing and he's not laughing at all. So um. So
Speaker 1: to answer the question about messing up, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm perfect. No one's a perfect investor, but we were.
Speaker 1: We do rarely lose money. So you know, if you
Speaker 1: want to win, come with Steve Harvey and you can
Speaker 1: win with us. But um, nevertheless, that happened instance where
Speaker 1: we're taking losses right um. Stark Market Crypto is an
Speaker 1: example right now, Blocked I just announced they're insulting, right
Speaker 1: so that's two major firms. Is probably about to be
Speaker 1: crazy wild wild west. But also, um, you know, for
Speaker 1: every loss, you just I just try to have more wins,
Speaker 1: right um. And for me, I take it very personal.
Speaker 1: You know, when I lose, I don't like to lose.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm a competitive guy, and my boss is
Speaker 1: also very competitive. But what I will say, he's super
Speaker 1: supporter and he also knows, like the best part of
Speaker 1: bou working for Steve Harvey. I tell people all the
Speaker 1: time is I work in a hundred seven like atmosphere
Speaker 1: of positivity, motivation. Losses happen like that that now you
Speaker 1: see on the internet. That's really him all the time.
Speaker 1: Like I probably am a walking Steve Arby, you know,
Speaker 1: voice recorder or memo machine, right because that's the type
Speaker 1: of environment we're in. So um, and the times that
Speaker 1: we're taking losses even right now in crypto what I
Speaker 1: will say. Yes, we've taken a loss in crypto, however,
Speaker 1: we have positioned ourselves and hedged our bets to where
Speaker 1: he's not taking a you know loss. Right, we positioned
Speaker 1: it where you're gonna you know, your stop losses ten percent, right,
Speaker 1: seven percent, So it's a lot of money, but it's
Speaker 1: also recoverable. So whenever I take a loss, Um, he's
Speaker 1: not the best person to talk to, you know, he's
Speaker 1: not the easiest and like, yeah, y'all know comedian Steve Harvey,
Speaker 1: but don't forget it. He still has that other side
Speaker 1: y'all remember the Kings of comedy, And uh, he's not
Speaker 1: the best person to tell something something bad too, but
Speaker 1: he always takes it on the chat. And he was
Speaker 1: a guy who was homeless and lived in his car, right,
Speaker 1: so he always sees the positive thought on it. So
Speaker 1: he'll be mad at me for a little bit. But
Speaker 1: then he also understands his business and nothing, nothing in
Speaker 1: business happens without risks, right now, That's that's that's real.
Speaker 1: You know what I wanted to know. So what what
Speaker 1: exactly do you do in Africs? I know that you
Speaker 1: do like Middle use in Africa? Like, what's over there,
Speaker 1: that you're doing over there, that you are focused on
Speaker 1: where you are. Were you on the trip when he
Speaker 1: went to Ghana for the first time, Yeah, yeah, that
Speaker 1: was That's why I wanted to go. I started encouraging
Speaker 1: our team, like, let's go to Ghana. Uh and we
Speaker 1: did everything we had to do to get there, which
Speaker 1: it wasn't it's not it doesn't have to be expensive,
Speaker 1: but the way we wanted to go. We put up
Speaker 1: a pretty yeah exactly, we put up a pretty pretty penny.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to Steve Harvey experience. When I saw
Speaker 1: him cry in those dungeons, I said, this is something
Speaker 1: that I have to do, and we did it in
Speaker 1: Fro this year and it was so so, so so powerful.
Speaker 1: So there, yes, yeah, so yeah, I was there with them.
Speaker 1: Um so yes, out there with them. Yes, I do
Speaker 1: recommend um. One of my co workers, Brandon Williams, actually
Speaker 1: see oh well. He he told me something that I
Speaker 1: really commended him on. He's from Atlanta, Southwest, you know,
Speaker 1: southwest side of the you know, normal and a guy right,
Speaker 1: super fluent, super smart. But he promised he's been making
Speaker 1: money a long time and he was like, you know,
Speaker 1: I've never been to Europe. I was like, well, why
Speaker 1: haven't you been to year? Like you go to places
Speaker 1: I've never even knew existed, Like, why haven't you been
Speaker 1: to Europe? And he told me I promised myself I
Speaker 1: would never go to Europe before me to Africa. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And it was like that was like a how moment
Speaker 1: for me. I was like I don't get you know,
Speaker 1: we're always so fascinated with you know, European country and
Speaker 1: cultures is that we don't even need to go to
Speaker 1: place from So that's just a little tip and like
Speaker 1: highly recommend everyone to go to Africa. UM. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so while we're in Africa. So Mr Harvey went to
Speaker 1: Africa for the first um all it ten twelve years
Speaker 1: ago and he said when he got off the airplane,
Speaker 1: it was like him uh coming home to a place
Speaker 1: he's never been and that was just so um emotional
Speaker 1: and touching towards him. So uh, that was his first
Speaker 1: caase in Africa. About is so crazy how it happens
Speaker 1: because I don't even think we've ever even told this story,
Speaker 1: but we got news that this talk show was being
Speaker 1: canceled by NBC. UM, and you know that's the talk show.
Speaker 1: They actually end up winning the ownership, like buying the
Speaker 1: ownership of his show, brought himself out of the contract,
Speaker 1: bought the ownership, and then sold the show back to NBC.
Speaker 1: So that's you know, NBC really didn't like that because
Speaker 1: they said it was the first time they lost the
Speaker 1: talent to an agent and not another network. Right, So
Speaker 1: they end up saying they were going to cancel our
Speaker 1: show Seen and Um. Like a Harvey lesson that I learned.
Speaker 1: It's like, always have options, like he never just have
Speaker 1: one stream and UM because that's too close to zero.
Speaker 1: If they turn off that stream income, you hurt. So
Speaker 1: that's why Mrs Harry always has the radio show, multiple
Speaker 1: talk shows, books, because he always has optionality. So they
Speaker 1: said they were canceling the show, and you know, instead
Speaker 1: of sitting in self doubt and pity and everyone in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: I was saying, he's over, he's done, he's canceled. He
Speaker 1: was like, he's sat down, And we got an email
Speaker 1: from the Boxwana Diamond Council. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: you guys know, the majority of the world's commons come
Speaker 1: from Boswana in Africa. The Bears has a headquarters there,
Speaker 1: it's like ninety or eighties. So othern percent of the
Speaker 1: world diamonds come from Boswana, right, you would never know.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know where a Botswana was. So we
Speaker 1: end up going to the Boxwana Diamond Council meeting in
Speaker 1: seventeen and from that meeting, I mean the amount of opportunities.
Speaker 1: Mr Harvey met the President of Botswana at the time
Speaker 1: and he ended up calling Brandon Williams. When I was
Speaker 1: in the room with him, was like, hey Brandon, it
Speaker 1: was like yes, sir. And one thing Mr Harvey, he
Speaker 1: doesn't he said stuff and just expects it to happen.
Speaker 1: So he said, I want to do TV and Africa
Speaker 1: hung up. So Brandon calls me is like, did he
Speaker 1: just said he wants to do Family Feuden? After that,
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, man so, and I actually commend Brandon.
Speaker 1: Brandon actually led all the all the actual legal negotiations
Speaker 1: and stuff for the license, like that was actually his deal.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, there with them, but that was
Speaker 1: actually my first big international deal. So Brandon really lad
Speaker 1: all that work. So I have to make sure he
Speaker 1: gets his credit. What credit is doing that? Um? But
Speaker 1: after Mr Harvey said that, he kind of just got
Speaker 1: off the phone and never before had it been done.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if you guys know this,
Speaker 1: but TV licensing how it works is you can have
Speaker 1: a hit show called it Family Few. They can either
Speaker 1: sell you the American version that's on TV now, but
Speaker 1: a lot of places don't speak English, right, so they'll
Speaker 1: do their own version of the show Family Few, China,
Speaker 1: you know, any India in their own languages. So that's
Speaker 1: called license. So you have to buy those licensing rights
Speaker 1: that you pay freemantament to the parent company. Well, we're
Speaker 1: Brandon with the freemantam and told them they want to
Speaker 1: do TV and out for that and what all commend
Speaker 1: them more like their amazing partners nous and they were like,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't think it's gonna work. We don't
Speaker 1: know this want to do it, but here you go.
Speaker 1: If you want to buy it, you can buy it.
Speaker 1: So it got the rights and Brandon and myself spent
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty five days in Africa, and that's
Speaker 1: we were taking I think six seven meetings a day
Speaker 1: because one that had never been done too. We were
Speaker 1: trying to create a new will Um and from Family
Speaker 1: Few to Africa end up by being a year later
Speaker 1: it was the number one show in South Africa, number
Speaker 1: one showing Ghana. UM. That's my first executive doucer TV credits.
Speaker 1: So UM we did multiple years and if it wasn't
Speaker 1: for COVID, we'll still be running out. So we're actually
Speaker 1: looking back, you know, how to get back. But the
Speaker 1: thought was not just do entertainment, but the thought Mr
Speaker 1: Harvey wants to do business on the continent. His man
Speaker 1: goes to bridge the gap between African and African Americans.
Speaker 1: But how can they do that? The easiest thing for
Speaker 1: us to do with TV. But once we got on
Speaker 1: the continent and started doing TV and then all the
Speaker 1: other business opportunities started coming. We started meeting with real
Speaker 1: business people because there so much. So starting in TV
Speaker 1: now melt Africa, which is the name of the company. UM,
Speaker 1: we're in everything from you know, austore, oil and gas,
Speaker 1: last amount delivery. We're investing. UM, We're working about working
Speaker 1: and looking to get agriculture and infrastructure UM. And of
Speaker 1: course like the same Harvey's ventures, how we invest in
Speaker 1: technology over here, we're going on that side. So UM
Speaker 1: currently doing business in South Africa, Botswana, Ghana. UM. We're
Speaker 1: looking at the proper way to do it in Nigeria, Uganda, Congo,
Speaker 1: and we also do business in Egypt right now, so
Speaker 1: that's just on the African continent, and that's either in
Speaker 1: UM A lot of it's not really even to entertainment,
Speaker 1: to take the truth, but Entertainment UM investing doing our
Speaker 1: venture capital office, UM strategic partnerships. So yeah, we do.
Speaker 1: We're in everything and UM the main goes start figure
Speaker 1: out how to do business and then we can go
Speaker 1: and go to a cabin or go to a Chris
Speaker 1: Rock or go to a Lebron and be like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: like we figl a out this infrastructure. Now let's share
Speaker 1: the buprint and y'all can go do it too. I
Speaker 1: got a couple of hours, man, you know I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give them to you. Man. See if you we we're
Speaker 1: gonna give to be the other money man, listen, money
Speaker 1: on to be the I'm actually mesmerized listening to you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we talk to people and we're like OK, cap,
Speaker 1: but just listening to you, I was like captivated by
Speaker 1: how easily you explain these things the big words. Because
Speaker 1: I used to have this problem with my son and
Speaker 1: I first started working together. I used to be like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to speak at those places because I
Speaker 1: don't know how to use all these big words, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's not that we don't know them, but sometimes
Speaker 1: you just don't even feel comfortable being in these rooms
Speaker 1: with these people who are talking all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: you just like speak no, you know, not normal, but
Speaker 1: just right on your level whatever that means. And he
Speaker 1: said to me one day, it's like, yo, people don't
Speaker 1: be knowing what you're talking about anyway when you too
Speaker 1: these words like you just need to speak like Tomka.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about trying to speak like the hard regret
Speaker 1: to speak like Tomka is fine. And I realized that
Speaker 1: my message began to resonate more so as I'm listening
Speaker 1: to you, I know, you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: You're actually doing this stuff, and you're not just like
Speaker 1: repeating some ship from a book that you read somewhere,
Speaker 1: but actually it's lived the experience. I would give money
Speaker 1: to throw it in the air to go to Africa
Speaker 1: for a hundred and twenty five days. I would love
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, but my life is just
Speaker 1: not set up that way. But I would love that
Speaker 1: because the time that we were there, it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1: It wasn't enough. As we got to the end, we
Speaker 1: went to Egypt, Ghana and then Kenya, and as we
Speaker 1: got to the end, the business opportunity started to come. Um.
Speaker 1: The people started wanting to know more about who we were,
Speaker 1: what we were there for, and what happ you. So
Speaker 1: it's very clear that you have to become one with
Speaker 1: the land and one with the people in order to
Speaker 1: get from it the benefits you know of being there.
Speaker 1: So anyway, it's powerful. I didn't have a question. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to say thank you, man. I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: Like I really promiself, Like I never really know expected
Speaker 1: to speak or even get highlighted for the stuff I
Speaker 1: do because I really just like it's always been who
Speaker 1: I am, right, Like I've always been a person, like
Speaker 1: I'll help anyone start their business or grow their business
Speaker 1: because I want to get more practice and helping business
Speaker 1: and like I just believe, like I get out what
Speaker 1: I was, like, I'm gonna receive two times more than
Speaker 1: when I put out. So I tell people all the time,
Speaker 1: like if anything, they're like, oh, what's your nickname? Bed?
Speaker 1: It's like, man, I feel like I'm a hope. And
Speaker 1: the reason I say that is because, like I'm from Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 1: I'm the most normal person public schools. I used to walk,
Speaker 1: you know, two and a half miles to the bus
Speaker 1: to rough out a forty minute of bus throughout a
Speaker 1: thirty minute train. You know what I'm saying, Like I
Speaker 1: was selling candy, I played sports class clown, Like I'm
Speaker 1: only one of my friends in high school to go
Speaker 1: to college. Right, So for me, it's like, yes, I
Speaker 1: can talk and we can use big words, but at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, the message doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: it's not being received. So like to be able to
Speaker 1: talk to people. And like just because you don't know
Speaker 1: what equivocation means or how to use it and sit
Speaker 1: and it doesn't make you dumb. It just means that
Speaker 1: you And a lot of times it's just in our
Speaker 1: it's not inno vernacular because the people around us aren't
Speaker 1: using right, So while we're going to use the word
Speaker 1: that people around us aren't using it. If you're not
Speaker 1: trying to get hired education, probably really not going to
Speaker 1: use it. So for me, I just like to be
Speaker 1: able to talk like I do a lot of high
Speaker 1: school speaking like I told you, I'm the only one
Speaker 1: of my friends to go to college, so out of
Speaker 1: high school, you know, so I like to make sure
Speaker 1: how many how many hours do you work a day? Seven?
Speaker 1: Like like my fiance and she gets me. Now, I mean,
Speaker 1: so can I tell you what it really is? Uh?
Speaker 1: At one point in my career, see why I got
Speaker 1: the job between twenty three and I just kept geting
Speaker 1: promotions right like every three months, four months, you know,
Speaker 1: And I started like he brought me in. It was
Speaker 1: like working your way up from an assistant, all right,
Speaker 1: but for me, it was just like the opportunity class.
Speaker 1: But you know, at one point in time, I was
Speaker 1: twenty six and Mr Hard sixty two, so he was
Speaker 1: literally my age the other way around. And he he
Speaker 1: was the hardest workingman in Hollywood. He had that name
Speaker 1: before I even started working for him. Right at one
Speaker 1: point when I started, we had seven TV shows, radio show,
Speaker 1: we had a book, and we were trapping. So for me,
Speaker 1: I'll literally I'll tell people the time, like if Steve
Speaker 1: Harvey has a school of success, this is like the
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey business school. So people who've been around would
Speaker 1: really listen the lies of the world, the Kevin Harts,
Speaker 1: like you really take this blueprint that gives you. They're
Speaker 1: all uber successful. So I felt like when I first
Speaker 1: started working for we were living in Chicago. Radio starts
Speaker 1: at five o'clock. We will be a working at four
Speaker 1: thirty every day. And then after he does radio, he
Speaker 1: started taking his team. You meet him, so he does
Speaker 1: radio from the TV station, will be see from four
Speaker 1: thirty to temp m. And he would do that every day.
Speaker 1: And he's sixty too, So there's no way like me
Speaker 1: being y am all right, boom, you're working for thirty
Speaker 1: four twenty seven. I'm sneaking in like I don't care
Speaker 1: if it's a minute, I'm gonna try to beat you.
Speaker 1: And I'm I follessly m gonna try to stay up
Speaker 1: and like stay after you. So I think he just
Speaker 1: is still the work ethic. And I see him, you know,
Speaker 1: I'll see him hustling, and he has way more money
Speaker 1: to me. So if he's still with hustling, it's a
Speaker 1: I don't have the time or the opportunity, right, It's
Speaker 1: like monkey see, monkey do, And it's like I'm working
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, you name your great you know,
Speaker 1: so I would not emulate. So I mean, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it's not help you. Like we take breaks. I
Speaker 1: take breaks, but probably my first call, depending my first
Speaker 1: call could be at three am and then you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'll take my last one like eight nine.
Speaker 1: But it depends. Like I work on a world close,
Speaker 1: I'm my house calling and I might also be on
Speaker 1: the set and have a few hours or you know,
Speaker 1: we work for sure. Well, so what what do you
Speaker 1: want your legacy to be? Like you're already thirty. You
Speaker 1: you creating such a a bar for yourself, So what
Speaker 1: what do you ultimately want your legacy to be? When
Speaker 1: it's all setting there? He helped the people? Mm hmmm,
Speaker 1: however that happens? I um, like I really at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, like the reason I do business
Speaker 1: the one because I wanted to be a gangster rich.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm one sixty five so wet, so I
Speaker 1: can't you know what I'm saying. You got another This
Speaker 1: is another level. This is the real gangster right here. Now.
Speaker 1: Tell people like, because that's what I'm doing, coming from
Speaker 1: the streets and being in the streets, being involved in
Speaker 1: the street activity, prison, all these things. And as I grew,
Speaker 1: you know, this level of power, in this level of
Speaker 1: matigs mode and stuff that we glorified. He never competed
Speaker 1: with these rooms and these billionaires and millionaires. And when
Speaker 1: you start to realize, like that's what the real gangsters.
Speaker 1: The gangster got his family, he taking kids, mom, and
Speaker 1: he moved like this is what gangsters. So you right
Speaker 1: now you're one of the biggest gangs that I've ever met. Man.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man, I like, honestly like cats like you,
Speaker 1: while I really love your story, like that was you know,
Speaker 1: when you're a smart kid, like you know, you're be
Speaker 1: smart and funny that everybody like beaty man, like get
Speaker 1: out of here, you know. And I really attest that,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people I know, like yeah, all
Speaker 1: the folks I know, the people doing it and those
Speaker 1: my guys, right, but I also appreciate them because they
Speaker 1: would be like hate bet, like you don't really need
Speaker 1: to beat like come on, bro, like you got you
Speaker 1: got scholarships college, bro, Like get out of here. That's
Speaker 1: what we've gotta do, you know. So and that was
Speaker 1: and that's what it was about. But I just want
Speaker 1: to say I'm inspired I'm motivated. I'm putting my couple
Speaker 1: of little coins together, see if we could double triple them.
Speaker 1: You know, just keep doing what you're doing. Man, I
Speaker 1: salute you, thank you, and then I want to make
Speaker 1: sure I get your contact too, because I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to about about the interview years old.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna get you weaken the weekend this information. Look,
Speaker 1: you're sitting there making a bilious We can get some
Speaker 1: funny when you When are you gonna start having children?
Speaker 1: My girl wants so we're getting married next June and
Speaker 1: Lake Como. I thought it was gonna be Atlanta, but
Speaker 1: so she's doing that. So she said she want to
Speaker 1: start on honeymoon. But I'm the oldest of four, so
Speaker 1: I got I got kids in high school. My little
Speaker 1: brother just texts me this morning, like, in seven am,
Speaker 1: how many squares of cologned I'll put on? And where
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, who are you trying to impress? An?
Speaker 1: Ain't up wrong with that? No, I think it's just
Speaker 1: it's really empowering to know that you are have been
Speaker 1: empowered by Steve Harvey, but then you're not because some
Speaker 1: of our people are empowered and they don't show up, right,
Speaker 1: they don't. It's just the truth. They don't. They don't
Speaker 1: show up, they don't do the thing they need to
Speaker 1: do to be the guy or the gal in the room. Right.
Speaker 1: And I hear you talking about the work ethic. So
Speaker 1: many of our young people believe that it's supposed to
Speaker 1: just be turnkey. It just happens, turn on the phone, boom,
Speaker 1: million dollars. And it is not like I don't know
Speaker 1: anyone that me and I know there are people out
Speaker 1: here that they have TikTok and different things and they
Speaker 1: just made money off of something quick and easy. But
Speaker 1: that's not the story generally, it's not, you know. And
Speaker 1: and I I worry about our generation of young people
Speaker 1: that's coming behind because they, you know, they the stress level,
Speaker 1: the anxiety that is happening as a result of folks
Speaker 1: who really don't want to work that much or work
Speaker 1: that hard. And I get it. White supremacy has created
Speaker 1: a situation where working yourself to death is actually making
Speaker 1: us more successful, but it's physically killing us. So I
Speaker 1: don't know the balance. I really don't know the best
Speaker 1: because we work all the time to we live each
Speaker 1: sleep our work. But it's it's not healthy. But yet
Speaker 1: I don't know any other way to become successful without
Speaker 1: doing it. Yeah, I think, well, one, if you love
Speaker 1: what you do, y'all aren't really working. And like, when
Speaker 1: you really ask me that question, I don't ever feel
Speaker 1: like I'm working. Like I gotta spreadsheep behind you right now,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be reading this year, you know, like
Speaker 1: because I really love what I do. Um, So I
Speaker 1: think like that's the first thing. Um. And then secondly
Speaker 1: I feel that people do like I think it's easy, right, um,
Speaker 1: but it's the sacrifice man. Like I speak at a
Speaker 1: lot of high schools, and you know, first and foremost,
Speaker 1: let's get this point clear. A million dollars, it's a
Speaker 1: lot of money. And it's so hard to ask anybody
Speaker 1: who's ever made a million dollars. It is so hard
Speaker 1: to make a million dollars. But guess what's harder keeping? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because as soon as you spend one dollar, you're no
Speaker 1: longer a millionaires. Right, So it's super hard to make
Speaker 1: a lot of money. And Mr Harvey's favorite line is
Speaker 1: it takes a long time to make a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you all these hardy gyms on the drop
Speaker 1: is gonna be good ones, right, But he uses this analogy, said, man,
Speaker 1: look at the first class of airplane. People on first
Speaker 1: class of airplane got great here or nowhere because you
Speaker 1: gotta work to get up there. It costs unless someone's
Speaker 1: paying it, like it costs to get up there, and
Speaker 1: it takes a long time no matter what the way
Speaker 1: you do it. Now, I do believe in work as smart,
Speaker 1: um and not hard and trying to become more efficient,
Speaker 1: you know, with how I use my time and you
Speaker 1: lose my efforts, but you still have to work hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not easy like people all the time.
Speaker 1: It's not easy, Like you don't understand. I've missed so
Speaker 1: many homecome and I've missed so many birthdays, life events. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's sacrifices like um, me and my fiance we
Speaker 1: end up breaking up when I first took the job
Speaker 1: because I was just doing so much I didn't have
Speaker 1: the time to give to my relationship. Right. So it's
Speaker 1: a lot of sacrifices. But for me, it's de lay
Speaker 1: gratification versus instant gratification. Right. So my instant gratification is
Speaker 1: I can come spend money to go to every party
Speaker 1: and miss these meetings and you know, instant gratifications going
Speaker 1: to the club on the section of things that would
Speaker 1: instantly make me happy. But what's delay gratification? Delay gratifications
Speaker 1: understanding that the sacrifice that I'm paying is later on
Speaker 1: pay dividends. So no, I'm not gonna spend this money,
Speaker 1: or yes, I'm gonna work these extra hours, or I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay around just to see who I might need. Right,
Speaker 1: So I think I think this generation, I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna be cool because I think my generation honestly was
Speaker 1: you know, we thought we were failures if we don't
Speaker 1: have a millionars at eight team, right, because they made it,
Speaker 1: made it that simple. Um or that's how it seemed social,
Speaker 1: like social tech, the tech bobble like that's when we
Speaker 1: grew up. So um, I don't think the tick, I know,
Speaker 1: the TikTok makes it seem easy because now everybody's an
Speaker 1: edge retainer and everyone's teaching you how to make a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. They're telling you the faster, but they're just
Speaker 1: doing that because these guys aren't really making money off that.
Speaker 1: Whatever they're selling you, they're making money off they're following.
Speaker 1: So they need you to follow them. They need to
Speaker 1: look like they're getting money. Nine percent these guys aren't
Speaker 1: making money off of it, and that they were, they
Speaker 1: would tell you that it takes time to make money.
Speaker 1: You will get some hits. But like those people on TikTok,
Speaker 1: how many Elon Musk are there? How many Steve Harpy
Speaker 1: are they? Right? Like people, it's this book called The
Speaker 1: Millionaire next Door. You know, like ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: millionaires are normal working people m and they became millionaires
Speaker 1: not from having a big hit idea. It's come from
Speaker 1: saving and investing and looking below their means. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: highly recommend that book to anybody period, The Millionaire next Door,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna teach you the habits of a normal millionaire.
Speaker 1: The typical millionaire has been living in their house twenty
Speaker 1: five or thirty years. The typical millionaires, it's usually you know,
Speaker 1: have not leasing cars to own their cars. They have
Speaker 1: hed time, and they have a normal die so hard work.
Speaker 1: You gotta you gotta work hard, and you gotta sacrifice
Speaker 1: faith kind kind of you can kind of answer my
Speaker 1: last question because I was gonna ask you, young boy,
Speaker 1: young black boy coming from the hood, comes up to
Speaker 1: you and you want some advice, and you know, he says,
Speaker 1: how did you become sexual? Give me some advice? What
Speaker 1: would you tell with him? Like right there and in
Speaker 1: one minute sixty it's hard. First piece of ice is hard,
Speaker 1: but don't quit. And anybody under eighteen, the first thing
Speaker 1: I tell them, for real, for real is all your
Speaker 1: friends is stupid and you are probably stupid too, Like,
Speaker 1: let's just be real. I started to shoot company when
Speaker 1: out seventeen, and I used to always tell people. Everyone
Speaker 1: used to ask me why, why do you want us
Speaker 1: our shoes? Why do you want to start shoot? But
Speaker 1: now they ask me how because they don't have that
Speaker 1: ability in their head to see what you want. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, hard work, keep working hard, networking. Networking
Speaker 1: is the most important thing. Fund a mentor. Listen, you
Speaker 1: might not find someone in your exact feel but a
Speaker 1: mentor is a mentor. You can find someone who's an
Speaker 1: accounting who can help you and teach you accounting, and
Speaker 1: then that could be the next interception, right Like a
Speaker 1: mentors impartant um can be humble man like, it's somewhere bigger, richer, stronger,
Speaker 1: look better, like just be humble and treat people the
Speaker 1: way you want to be treated because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like don't be a Dirk through like this,
Speaker 1: Like how you treat people will get you. So for
Speaker 1: the reason that I got the opportunity to see part
Speaker 1: of you because how I treat I later found out
Speaker 1: was because how I was treating people at the camp
Speaker 1: and like, be willing to do what others aren't. Man, right, seriously,
Speaker 1: be willing to do what others aren't. Great advice. You know. Well,
Speaker 1: I want to thank you, you know, for coming up
Speaker 1: here dropping this with MS. We're gonna give you a call.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you some money. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get this going. You know what. I appreciate you, man.
Speaker 1: You you got a very strong head on your shoulders,
Speaker 1: beautiful personality. Man, keep doing what you're doing. In congratulations
Speaker 1: or if you know you and your wife and you
Speaker 1: know to wife to be wife to be, she would say, wife,
Speaker 1: you gotta man her first. Yeah, she tells me that. Okay,
Speaker 1: now she's amazing. Seriously, thank you so much to be.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you for being on with us today. Is
Speaker 1: sharing so many gems. You teach courses, man, teach courses.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm thinking about that, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to charge to people, right you know, well, but you
Speaker 1: know that I see a lot of people nineties seven
Speaker 1: dollars because I know, Um, one of your big supporters
Speaker 1: or one of Steve's big supporters for the foundation is
Speaker 1: coach Stormy Um. Actually we met Stormy willing to and
Speaker 1: at the golf event where we learned that she was
Speaker 1: like one of the highest donors to the foundation from
Speaker 1: just as a single person not a corporation. UM, and
Speaker 1: I learned so much about your intellectual property and how
Speaker 1: you don't have to charge people two thousand dollars, but
Speaker 1: that nineties seven dollars, that hundred and nineties seven dollars.
Speaker 1: It makes the person honest, like this is something I
Speaker 1: really want when I go online and log on and
Speaker 1: pay this a little bit of money to be in
Speaker 1: a community where I can learn. I have because because
Speaker 1: one of the challenges I see with some of the
Speaker 1: folks that are doing great things trying to educate people
Speaker 1: on Instagram, it doesn't a lot of people can't catch
Speaker 1: it in those seconds. So that's why those classrooms settings
Speaker 1: are important, because you need to be able to ask questions.
Speaker 1: You don't need trolling and other people with their thoughts.
Speaker 1: You really need to be focused and so I hear
Speaker 1: education coming from you. You know, so we I want
Speaker 1: you to keep doing that. Thank you all for having me.
Speaker 1: I hope to be back next year. I hope I
Speaker 1: didn't get banned. Um. I know the producers don't have
Speaker 1: their cameras on, so I hope they're not shaking their head.
Speaker 1: But I love to come back and help and then
Speaker 1: um also, like I said, I just want to help
Speaker 1: you all, um in any way that I can, like honestly,
Speaker 1: like that's really what I love to do. Is just
Speaker 1: like I like making the play like John Stock, you
Speaker 1: know listen, I like I like to get the ellie.
Speaker 1: You throw it, I'm gonna catch it. Thank you all
Speaker 1: for having me, and I look forward to our new
Speaker 1: founding relationship. Man, I really want to help you out.
Speaker 1: You want to have friends, now, that's our that's our friends.
Speaker 1: When y'all come to the A JR. Cricket is on me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna lock in. I'm see you. I'm gonna see
Speaker 1: you guys something I know. Sure, So before you go, though,
Speaker 1: tell us where we can find you. And also if
Speaker 1: you have any new ventures, let us know about it
Speaker 1: so folks can support you. My website is the Stephen
Speaker 1: Group dot co, so you can always hit me on
Speaker 1: one of those platforms if you want to work. And
Speaker 1: I actually do have a new venture off the Leash media.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing the merchandise right now. And it's basically a
Speaker 1: platform think of ESPN or Bleacher Reports, but for like
Speaker 1: French bulldogs and breeders. So we're connecting the community. Um
Speaker 1: if you want to learn, if you're a breeder you
Speaker 1: want to learn how to breed, or you're interested you
Speaker 1: want to looking for some places to buy a dog
Speaker 1: or meet new people in that community. That's come check
Speaker 1: us out all positive information and uh yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys know, but apparently dog breeding is
Speaker 1: a really big industry that yeah, to get a lot
Speaker 1: of money. Man, I'm coming off the leash, man. Make
Speaker 1: sure y'all go support my brother the leash. That's so
Speaker 1: you've got good ideas off the leaf, thank you. Man.
Speaker 1: That's what partnerships coming to play. Man, Like you're you
Speaker 1: have the partner with people who are a plus plus
Speaker 1: and um, I do the business, So I didn't think
Speaker 1: of any of the marketing. But that's why, you know,
Speaker 1: partnerships and relationships are so important. So I'm them forward
Speaker 1: to building a relationship with you guys, And honestly, we
Speaker 1: probably do need to book you guys for a dog
Speaker 1: show that we have coming up off listen. I'm scared
Speaker 1: of dogs. I'm scared of dogs, but if it could
Speaker 1: get me closer to my billionaire status, I'll be there.
Speaker 1: Scared than Yeah, Chase for joining us the beating see
Speaker 1: this is this is this gives me hope. Not to
Speaker 1: say that I think that like most of the young
Speaker 1: people are like, you know, I don't know, not something
Speaker 1: I don't even have the right word to describe it.
Speaker 1: It's just like I do notice that when I'm trying
Speaker 1: to work with some of the younger people, it's kind
Speaker 1: of difficult to get like a good strong work product
Speaker 1: and people interested in like hustle hard like it just
Speaker 1: seems it's difficult, but um to be he said something
Speaker 1: that I think is so powerful. He's into working smarter, right,
Speaker 1: So I think in many ways they also as younger
Speaker 1: people have found out that we don't have to go
Speaker 1: to uh nine to five job every day and just
Speaker 1: do whatever we're told, but actually we can actually create
Speaker 1: and you know, and be strategists even at a young age.
Speaker 1: And I think that if he that trajectory that he's on,
Speaker 1: if there are more young people, I'm glad to hear
Speaker 1: that he's in high schools because if more young people
Speaker 1: follow in not just his footsteps, but really sort of
Speaker 1: model what they are doing around this idea of being
Speaker 1: strategists and not just workers, then we might be all right.
Speaker 1: But it's it's still work though, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: And I think he said he said, you've got a
Speaker 1: work hard and and the work hard doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you exhaust yourself when you you know, you run around
Speaker 1: and a chicken. It means that you are intentional a
Speaker 1: about being successful. Right that whatever you whatever it is
Speaker 1: that you know it's gonna take to acquire that success,
Speaker 1: you have to do that, and you gotta do it constantly,
Speaker 1: because there's somebody else out there that's working hard that
Speaker 1: even if they're just sitting in their bed and they're
Speaker 1: on the computer, whatever it is that they're doing to
Speaker 1: get to that level they have, it has to be done.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what I see a lot of youth,
Speaker 1: You know that I see a lot of them. Have
Speaker 1: they the dreams? They're like, y'all want to get this.
Speaker 1: I want this. They motivated in their mind. But the
Speaker 1: actions that it takes to actually get to what you're
Speaker 1: trying to go, they don't. I don't. I don't see.
Speaker 1: I just don't see the energy. It's a level of
Speaker 1: energy and passion that you gotta have. And and I
Speaker 1: tell I tell my own kids this all the time.
Speaker 1: I would love to give you anything, right, but I
Speaker 1: want to see you have to make me believe that
Speaker 1: that's what you want. Can just say you know I
Speaker 1: want this, and that I'm investing in you what you
Speaker 1: invest in you, I'll double what you invest in you
Speaker 1: if I see that you invest in you. So, you know,
Speaker 1: listening to to be the he understands that mind sick.
Speaker 1: He understands, like he says, this is a billionaire who
Speaker 1: who's got way more money than me, and he's moving
Speaker 1: and you know, on the trajectory success, and I can't
Speaker 1: work less than him. You know, there's no way, there's
Speaker 1: no way I should be working less than him when
Speaker 1: he got way more than I want. You know, I
Speaker 1: than I than I have. So I understand exactly what
Speaker 1: you're saying about trying to be smarter, work smarter, But
Speaker 1: it's still that energy gotta be there, gotta be that
Speaker 1: passion and that energy. Man and his personality is so
Speaker 1: you know, just he was just I don't want to
Speaker 1: say so sweet, because I don't know if that was it,
Speaker 1: but what he was to me was so authentic and
Speaker 1: just kind, And that takes you a long way when
Speaker 1: you have skills. You know, first of all, didn't working
Speaker 1: for someone like Steve Harvey. You're not going to get
Speaker 1: to impress him get the job done just because your
Speaker 1: social media page is copping. You gotta be able to
Speaker 1: speak to someone and convince people in person that your product,
Speaker 1: whatever you're selling, or whatever you need from them or
Speaker 1: whatever deal you have is beneficial. That takes into personal skills,
Speaker 1: And oftentimes when I'm talking to some young people, I
Speaker 1: have to say, speak up, you know, speak up, project
Speaker 1: your voice, stop mumbling, you know which maybe that huhnfidence, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And maybe that mumbling thing is also a part of
Speaker 1: the whole mumble rapping, like what they listened to entertainment.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but I I find myself saying to
Speaker 1: some of the young people, even young people around me,
Speaker 1: what like speak up? Now, I'm as I'm getting older,
Speaker 1: and I'm not even joking, like I'm serious. As I'm
Speaker 1: getting older, my hearing is not so great. In on
Speaker 1: my left side, it's not so great. So I realized
Speaker 1: that sometimes I just don't really even here. But even
Speaker 1: after I'm like, huh, like what say the words? Speak up?
Speaker 1: Because where I come from, as a professional who's been
Speaker 1: out here for almost thirty years, you had to project
Speaker 1: yourself to explain your position, to speak with clarity, and
Speaker 1: to really capture a room, an audience, another individual. So
Speaker 1: that's the way that I learned, and I don't and
Speaker 1: I think the Internet is sort of dumbing that down
Speaker 1: and we just gotta find a way to have balance.
Speaker 1: So I think to be the he needs to be
Speaker 1: out here really helping to educate our youth on what
Speaker 1: it takes to be successful. So I love them, I
Speaker 1: appreciate it to be. Then that brings me into my
Speaker 1: idem getting, you know, being a young black entrepreneur like himself.
Speaker 1: Shout out to my my boy Mark with his Bear
Speaker 1: Witness clothing be Witness Underscore, hovering on Instagram. He gave
Speaker 1: me this. I actually, I know I've been supporting all
Speaker 1: black businesses, especially clothing around this time. You know, my
Speaker 1: boycott a Nike. And you know last week I made
Speaker 1: a couple of videos of me throwing away my Nikes,
Speaker 1: you know, and there was the outrage. You know, the
Speaker 1: people made the page why are you throwing away Nike?
Speaker 1: You know what's going on? People could use that, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not didn't make a page. People made all types
Speaker 1: of posts. There was a post here, Mice did this.
Speaker 1: It was all over the inter then Mike, so I'm
Speaker 1: doing this, what do you think? And then people that, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not throwing this away? And I said to myself,
Speaker 1: and that's your that's your prerogative right if you if
Speaker 1: you pay your money for something, whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you choose to use. If you by one thousand other
Speaker 1: coat and you decide you wonder to buy because you
Speaker 1: wanted to burn the coat, that is your coat. It
Speaker 1: is your money. It is your prerogative to do whatever
Speaker 1: it is you want with your money. When I made
Speaker 1: my boycott against Nike, right, it wasn't because I didn't
Speaker 1: like nikee I was I wanted to sacrifice something right.
Speaker 1: When I looked at how the CEO spoke about Kyrie,
Speaker 1: and pretty much, you know, devalued him as a man.
Speaker 1: And I know he was speaking about a black man
Speaker 1: who I know is a good character, a good individual.
Speaker 1: And I watched him grow up in the industry under
Speaker 1: the spotlights and trying to do things to be, you know,
Speaker 1: be a beacon of light, as he says, and try
Speaker 1: to do positive things and always talking about positivity in
Speaker 1: our community and invest in our community and giving you know,
Speaker 1: money to the poor, and giving money to those who
Speaker 1: have tragedies, always doing things like that. And when I
Speaker 1: heard this this white man sit up there and speak
Speaker 1: to him and said he crossed the line and he
Speaker 1: could just sever a partnership that he was doing with him,
Speaker 1: it made me feel away. It made me feel like
Speaker 1: I was watching a slave massive tell a tell a boy,
Speaker 1: like they used to say, boy, if you cross that line,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do this to you. And it just didn't
Speaker 1: it didn't sit well with me, you know. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't about Kyrie. You know, people oh Kyrie. Still, it
Speaker 1: wasn't so much a Kyrie was the condoit of what
Speaker 1: it was. His situation made me reflect about my personal
Speaker 1: opinion about it as a as a whole. So I
Speaker 1: didn't do it because Kyrie was boy kott Nake. Kyrie
Speaker 1: had his own situation. But when I looked at it,
Speaker 1: the the man himself, the person who was benefiting off
Speaker 1: me spending my money, I didn't think he should benefit
Speaker 1: off it anymore. So I made a conscious decision that
Speaker 1: I wanted the same way he said that we cut ties,
Speaker 1: I wanted to cut ties with NIKEE. So I invested
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars of my money and Nike and a
Speaker 1: lot of times, you know, people people protest differently. My
Speaker 1: protests wasn't to go give it to the Salvation, You'll
Speaker 1: give it to this. I've I've given clothes, I've given food.
Speaker 1: I donate all the time. There's a bunch of things
Speaker 1: people you can't you don't get to talk to me
Speaker 1: about donate. And I know they're people hungry and and
Speaker 1: and just like tomorrow, I might go, I got a
Speaker 1: bunch of clothes and I'm cleaning out here. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go give those to the homeless people. I give money
Speaker 1: to the homeless. I do all types of things. I
Speaker 1: feed the community, So you don't get to tell me
Speaker 1: about donat and I know what that looks like. But
Speaker 1: my protest with these nikes and throwing them into my
Speaker 1: sinerator was to let you know that I was willing
Speaker 1: to not have right. I was willing to It's pretty
Speaker 1: much like I'm willing to burn it and give it
Speaker 1: up to show you that it doesn't value and me
Speaker 1: giving it to somebody, that's that's self fulfilling. That's a fulfillment.
Speaker 1: I'm doing something nice, I'm doing something kind. Somebody else
Speaker 1: is gonna carry on those shoes. I don't care if
Speaker 1: they're homeless. Somebody might look at me like, damn, I
Speaker 1: like those. Where you get these Jordan's from? I want
Speaker 1: those Jordans. It's still advertising to me. You might not
Speaker 1: think it's some people think, oh if I see it
Speaker 1: on the bum I don't want to know if I see,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, a homeless person. If I see five dollar
Speaker 1: sneakers on a homeless person that I know, of course
Speaker 1: fil knowledge. When I'm a connoisseur, it's gonna still make
Speaker 1: me say, oh, where do you get those? Let me
Speaker 1: look up those and go get it. So that mindset
Speaker 1: that you have didn't fit me. So some of you
Speaker 1: might want to invest and you want to donate your
Speaker 1: cloth that I didn't want to donate my Nikes. I
Speaker 1: wanted to throw minds in incinerator, right, And I didn't
Speaker 1: understand why so many people were so angry about my
Speaker 1: personal protests with my personal shoes that I spent my
Speaker 1: personal money with. If you didn't see understand the mind state,
Speaker 1: I said, and I gave you know the analogy if
Speaker 1: if you have spoiled foods a bunch of people that's
Speaker 1: hungry anywhere. But when I look at my refrigerator and
Speaker 1: the food is spoiled, I'm not gonna go say, yo,
Speaker 1: I don't want this. I think it's spoil I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give it to a homeless person. No, because I don't
Speaker 1: even think it's worth eating. So that's how I felt
Speaker 1: about the Nakes. I don't think that they're even worth wearing.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we should be continue I meet personally.
Speaker 1: I think we should just completely cold Turkey. When when
Speaker 1: Nike looks around and they're like, yo, nobody in the
Speaker 1: world is where Nike, not even the homeless people. Then
Speaker 1: we got to start figuring out what how do we
Speaker 1: change and we deal with black communities differently. But the
Speaker 1: crazy part about it was what I found out. So
Speaker 1: when I was leaving my building after I threw about
Speaker 1: sneakers into the incinerator, when the building managers comes to me,
Speaker 1: he says, hey, he said, you know, I heard about
Speaker 1: the protest you were doing Nike, and let me give
Speaker 1: you a story. So he's telling me. He says, he's
Speaker 1: a young boy. He's in college in this building, you know,
Speaker 1: and he goes to the church all the time. He's
Speaker 1: been very you know, he's going back to school. He
Speaker 1: doesn't have much of anything, you know, and last weekend
Speaker 1: he had put twenty dollars into the collection plate, you know,
Speaker 1: praying just to pray. That was probably his last twenty dollars.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're trying to help him through school,
Speaker 1: and he did. He was telling me how he was
Speaker 1: in some real bad times and he said he came
Speaker 1: he was working in the cinerator in the building and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he opens these boxes and see
Speaker 1: these sneakers. He said, he prayed so hard, he he
Speaker 1: he he believed in God so much after seeing those sneakers.
Speaker 1: And I said to myself that wasn't my attention. But
Speaker 1: God had his own intention. God thought that man should
Speaker 1: get those sneakers, so I donated them to the cinerator,
Speaker 1: and the cinerator donated to that man. So people's blessings
Speaker 1: come in different ways, you know, my my, my, my
Speaker 1: mind state was never to give in to anyone, but
Speaker 1: God saw it fit that that man would get those sneakers.
Speaker 1: So I just try to tell you everybody's protests and
Speaker 1: everybody's blessings and everybody's situation is different, So don't get
Speaker 1: you don't get to tell me what to do with
Speaker 1: mis God wanted that man to have those sneakers that
Speaker 1: I do away, you know, So that's that's how that happens.
Speaker 1: I heard you say more than one time burn using
Speaker 1: the word burn, So I don't encourage it anyone burn
Speaker 1: because we do have an environment to protect, and burning
Speaker 1: rubber and burning shoes and materials and all of that
Speaker 1: is actually not healthy for us and in our society,
Speaker 1: so we don't want to burn things. UM. I know
Speaker 1: the history of you know, see the Loris Tucker rolling
Speaker 1: over CDs on the ground. Um, which is different because
Speaker 1: at least we could say that I forget the artist
Speaker 1: that she was some some um I forgot, I know
Speaker 1: the story. Sometimes it's a Tupac. Are you sure? I
Speaker 1: believe so because I remember Tupac spoke about hmm, I
Speaker 1: don't know anyway, So you know, because she was protesting
Speaker 1: certain lyrics and but that would be a a black
Speaker 1: artist and a black woman, and so there was some
Speaker 1: conflict there. I think over time more people have begun
Speaker 1: to recognize the point she was making. Right, So even
Speaker 1: if we still would say, well, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: have to attack our own, but we do understand more
Speaker 1: now that some of the content in our music, in
Speaker 1: the music industry from back then, she was trying to say,
Speaker 1: it's harmful to our people. I don't know yet how
Speaker 1: to reconcile those two things, because I just, like I said,
Speaker 1: we're all walking contradictions. I can sit and listen to
Speaker 1: drop down and get your ego on and all kinds
Speaker 1: of music that I know is degrading towards women and
Speaker 1: still talk about empowerment and still understand that those lyrics
Speaker 1: are not helpful to our young people. So we all
Speaker 1: have these contradictions of what we deal with as humans,
Speaker 1: which is off topic, but it's just my thought process
Speaker 1: of what I go through when trying to reconcile the brand,
Speaker 1: the people behind the brand, the the you know, the
Speaker 1: the the the white folks who are inside of these
Speaker 1: companies that have literally zero respect for Black people outside
Speaker 1: of wanting us to spend our money. So there's so
Speaker 1: many elements working altogether, because even when I think about
Speaker 1: the music industry side, there is somebody that profits from
Speaker 1: us degrading ourselves and the lyrics that we use, um
Speaker 1: sometimes in our community that can escalate situations, UM that
Speaker 1: keeps us sort of dumbed down, or that really in
Speaker 1: some ways glorifies a lifestyle that we want to try
Speaker 1: to move our people away from. There are people that
Speaker 1: benefit from that. So you know, you know that the
Speaker 1: two things might not be exactly the same. But that's
Speaker 1: one of the things that I've really been wrestling with.
Speaker 1: When I saw you with your protests, and then thinking
Speaker 1: back to the history of c C the Lord's Tucker,
Speaker 1: what I will say is that I when we had
Speaker 1: the boycott against Gucci Gucci, I packed up every piece
Speaker 1: of Gucci that I had, all the way down to
Speaker 1: you know, I had gloves, I had little air rings,
Speaker 1: I had several shoes, multiple bags. Gucci was the first
Speaker 1: perse that I received, like when I was a young girl,
Speaker 1: and that somebody seven I don't know who it was.
Speaker 1: I was seventeen years old. Might have been my mom,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but somebody brought me a cute little
Speaker 1: Gucci purse. I still had that purse and put it
Speaker 1: in the rotation, and you know, whenever I bring it
Speaker 1: back out, because you know, the classics are always um,
Speaker 1: they're always good. And I packed up every single thing
Speaker 1: and put it away, and it's been packed up because
Speaker 1: I refused to one where it ever again. I've not
Speaker 1: purchased anything from Gucci since the black face sweater and
Speaker 1: is people don't know why we decided to boycott gruci um,
Speaker 1: you know, because of the black face sweater that they
Speaker 1: put out, which you can go look it up. I
Speaker 1: packed it up, haven't used it, haven't purchased not one item,
Speaker 1: you know, no matter how cute this stuff looks. Like
Speaker 1: you said, it's a personal sacrifice. What I think is
Speaker 1: what I'm challenged by three points in this. The first
Speaker 1: thing is that there are people who want to try
Speaker 1: to uh, well, let me say this. There's three pieces
Speaker 1: three points on this that I wrestle with. The First
Speaker 1: thing is that my boycott doesn't mean yours. Right, We're
Speaker 1: not dumb. We know that in order to call a
Speaker 1: national international boycott against some major corporation, it requires more
Speaker 1: than my son throwing out some sneakers to making my
Speaker 1: son getting on the internet saying we're done with the brand.
Speaker 1: It takes more than that, right, It takes lots of
Speaker 1: folks to get involved. You gotta get the message out
Speaker 1: beyond social media, because sometimes we live in the bubble
Speaker 1: of social media and think that all of our people
Speaker 1: are seeing in hearing it, and they're not. They just
Speaker 1: don't know, they don't know about what's going on. They're
Speaker 1: not necessarily following each person the The mainstream media is
Speaker 1: not gonna cover it, so it takes more than that.
Speaker 1: But there is a community of people who do share
Speaker 1: your ideals and beliefs. They might not throw everything away
Speaker 1: in the incinerator, but they still have decided during this
Speaker 1: holiday season and maybe for the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: I'm not purchasing Mike Nike anymore because I don't like
Speaker 1: what I heard come out of Phil Knight's mouth. Right,
Speaker 1: they have a right to that. We have a right
Speaker 1: to that, and all you gotta do is you don't
Speaker 1: gotta take the time to go on somebody's page and
Speaker 1: tell them about how I ain't boycotting Nike. I'm not.
Speaker 1: You don't have to do that. You could just keep
Speaker 1: moving and let the community that's building that has made
Speaker 1: that decision do what they are doing. So this because
Speaker 1: because because guess what, all of these corporations, if you
Speaker 1: really want to talk about it, every single one of them,
Speaker 1: I would say, except Ben and Jerry's because they really
Speaker 1: try to do a good job of being an advocate
Speaker 1: and ally and an accomplice in the community. But other
Speaker 1: than that, I don't know many corporations that people shouldn't
Speaker 1: and can't say I'm done with it for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: It's it's a million reasons. Amazon workers right. If you
Speaker 1: ask Ben Cronk right now, he's gonna tell you about
Speaker 1: all the people that he's suing for different things that
Speaker 1: has happened, Johnson and Johnson and the cancer products with
Speaker 1: the powder over here over it's something so protecting brands
Speaker 1: at this point, we don't have to do that. Somebody
Speaker 1: could just wake up in the morning and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I decided I don't support such as to
Speaker 1: no more, and I bet you we can find reasons
Speaker 1: to back up why what that person is saying about
Speaker 1: these white leg corporations, Right, So I deal with that.
Speaker 1: The next thing is, I saw people on my page
Speaker 1: when I posted feel nice, and this is it might
Speaker 1: take me a little second to explain it, but it's important.
Speaker 1: I saw people on my page when I posted feel
Speaker 1: nice statements saying, why are you supporting anti semitism by saying,
Speaker 1: you know, by supporting Kyrie and boycotting Nike and that that,
Speaker 1: and and some of the people who said it. I
Speaker 1: looked at some profiles, some of them were white folks,
Speaker 1: and it really pissed me off. Because what people do
Speaker 1: is they understand the ability to walk and chew bubble
Speaker 1: come at the same time. In their own community. They
Speaker 1: can say, well, we can challenge or individual for doing
Speaker 1: something that is harmful or wrong or whatever, and then
Speaker 1: still maybe, you know, let them come back to work.
Speaker 1: As we saw Kyrie is gonna make money for the
Speaker 1: NBA for for the nets. He could go back to work.
Speaker 1: So they can reconcile that two things can happen at
Speaker 1: the same time. They can reconcile in their own communities.
Speaker 1: How they can support. Uh, Some people can support the
Speaker 1: relationship that the US has with Israel Palestine, but then
Speaker 1: also say that they want to see the conflict in
Speaker 1: and the people of Palestine be made hold so they
Speaker 1: can they can reconcile those two things. Why is it
Speaker 1: so difficult for people to see and understand that from
Speaker 1: our perspective, Kyrie apologize for what he did. You and
Speaker 1: I have been very clear and explaining that a denial
Speaker 1: of the Holocaust and anything that makes a people, the
Speaker 1: white Jews evil, that's something we don't support. Kyrie also
Speaker 1: said that he apologized. We talked. They said, well, it
Speaker 1: took him too long. Listen, we are human, we are
Speaker 1: human right, and so he found he got to the
Speaker 1: point where he understood it. He said, he was defensive,
Speaker 1: he understood it. He apologized, He did what he had
Speaker 1: to do. We can say, Kyrie, and we can say,
Speaker 1: by the way, Nike has the right not to do
Speaker 1: business with him anymore. They got right to do that.
Speaker 1: What we're talking about, just like we have learned about
Speaker 1: anti Jewish tropes, so saying things like when you know
Speaker 1: they control everything, those are things that is harmful to
Speaker 1: the Jewish community because of the history of how them
Speaker 1: being in control of everything makes them look and the
Speaker 1: fact that there are people who literally want to harm
Speaker 1: them for that statement. Right, we can understand that why
Speaker 1: is it so hard for people to understand that saying
Speaker 1: a black man stepped over the line from a white
Speaker 1: man at his age that comes from a certain era,
Speaker 1: that that is also though that is an anti black trope.
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I don't understand why that's not
Speaker 1: clear that I can challenge the film. I can also
Speaker 1: ask the question of why Amazon still has it up.
Speaker 1: I can also appreciate Kyrie standing up like a man
Speaker 1: and saying that he apologized, and I cannot like the
Speaker 1: way that Phil Knights spoke about a black name. Is
Speaker 1: that hard? It's hard when you don't want it, when
Speaker 1: you don't want to understand what's going on, when you
Speaker 1: just want to focus on something because you want to
Speaker 1: deflect and you don't want to deal with the whole
Speaker 1: situation and totality. Of course, it's hard. It's it's it's
Speaker 1: almost impossible for somebody that doesn't want to listen to
Speaker 1: reason or be able to have or want you to
Speaker 1: have proper discernment, right, they want you to focus. It's
Speaker 1: on something. When we're talking about there's a whole pot
Speaker 1: and able to look a little burnt piece right there,
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, but it's a whole piehead, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk about the whole pot. We see the birth piece,
Speaker 1: we're gonna say it's burn We're gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: whole pie. So you know it's it's actually deflection, and
Speaker 1: it's it's gaslight, and well, right, because we've learned a
Speaker 1: lot about gaslighting over the last several years. My last
Speaker 1: point is that, as I said, everybody does things differently.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go take every pair of Nike. By
Speaker 1: the way, I probably wouldn't even have any sweatsuits to
Speaker 1: wear other than until Freedom if I gathered up all
Speaker 1: my Nike sweatsuits, because that's pretty much all I have
Speaker 1: been there, even though I'm more than likely not gonna
Speaker 1: be wearing them. But nonetheless, I probably won't throw it
Speaker 1: all in the incinerator. I probably will never it's two
Speaker 1: pair of Nikes that I have that I'm telling y'all
Speaker 1: right now, I'm probably still gonna wear. But the rest
Speaker 1: of it, it's not that serious to me. I'm not
Speaker 1: that caught up in I have to have any of it.
Speaker 1: When I understand that the level of disrespect that I
Speaker 1: felt or the way that I felt, I don't want
Speaker 1: to feel that way. I don't want to hear a
Speaker 1: white man use certain language because it triggers me. And
Speaker 1: then when I put on his brand, I'm walking around
Speaker 1: with that on me. I don't want that, right, So
Speaker 1: I'm probably never going to put it on again and
Speaker 1: if but I do recognize that there may come a
Speaker 1: day when there's a new man that heads Nike. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a new spirit that comes into Nike that makes
Speaker 1: us feel better and we feel like, Okay, this brand
Speaker 1: is back in our good graces, and I might pull
Speaker 1: it back out that's my choice. But I can't be
Speaker 1: mad at you because you choose to say you're never
Speaker 1: wearing it again. That's what this freedom of choice is supposed,
Speaker 1: and that's what it is is for me to say,
Speaker 1: I've come to a conclusion in my life that's certain that,
Speaker 1: especially as black people, we control by certain things, right,
Speaker 1: Because even the anxiety of me saying, damn, I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna be able with my sneakers, I'm getting rid of
Speaker 1: my sneakers, and I'm like, good, this ship is just sneakers,
Speaker 1: Like what what? What is it about these sneakers that
Speaker 1: make me feel some level of pain or frustration? Why
Speaker 1: do I feel attached to some ship that don't define me,
Speaker 1: has never done nothing for me. It's actually the people
Speaker 1: who actually own this or would do things to harm
Speaker 1: me and probably have invested in things that harm me.
Speaker 1: So why do I need to be connected that I
Speaker 1: don't have any problems with somebody else? But I just
Speaker 1: think what happens is when you have a level of
Speaker 1: strength empower, when you self empower, it bothers people. I
Speaker 1: realized that I'm very I'm very um passionate about things
Speaker 1: that I do. I'm very bottom line. Is when I
Speaker 1: get to my mind that some ship is bottom line,
Speaker 1: it just is what it is for me, And I
Speaker 1: noticed that it bothers people who don't have that right.
Speaker 1: It bothers people who just want to be status quo
Speaker 1: and want to peacefully coexist. I can coexist with somebody
Speaker 1: who loves Nike. It's a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: the artists and I love And I'm gonna seat though,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna I don't feel a way that
Speaker 1: you love Nankee, but you shouldn't feel a way that
Speaker 1: I don't give a funk about it. You understand I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So that's what it is when you, when you, when
Speaker 1: you don't have a level of power and you don't
Speaker 1: have strength to do certain ship, you envy it in
Speaker 1: somebody else. And I think that's where a lot of
Speaker 1: it comes from because I keep acting people. What does
Speaker 1: my sneakers do the harm you? Whether I throw them
Speaker 1: away or not, Why does it make you feel a way?
Speaker 1: Does it? Are you you work for Nike? Are you
Speaker 1: getting a you know in my doing something to take
Speaker 1: away from your reality. I don't speak about things unless
Speaker 1: I feel like they negatively affect something that I actually
Speaker 1: stand on. Um I represent you know that I benefit
Speaker 1: from organizations that I'm connected to. Usually when you hear me,
Speaker 1: it's talking about violence, it's talking about negativity, it's talking
Speaker 1: about things that affecting these kids in a negative way.
Speaker 1: I speak. If I speak about somebody that does you
Speaker 1: know that that contribute to those things? That's what my
Speaker 1: you know, that's what the gripe is for my personal
Speaker 1: Sneakers should never be a gripe with nobody. There should
Speaker 1: never be a grape what I do because if I
Speaker 1: want to told you, you want to know. And I
Speaker 1: did it because I know there's some people that want
Speaker 1: to unplug from the ship. It's people that want to
Speaker 1: be like, yo, this ship don't define me and they
Speaker 1: don't know they don't see nobody else that they respect,
Speaker 1: or see nobody that they have a level of respect
Speaker 1: or understanding for take that type of stand. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to make it seem like, Yo, you ain't the
Speaker 1: only one that don't care about none of this ship.
Speaker 1: If you want to separate and get out this, makee this,
Speaker 1: then it's it's some of us that's doing it. And
Speaker 1: it was a representation of it. Man, I was actually
Speaker 1: advertising us separating ourselves from some ship that don't mean
Speaker 1: us no good. So and I don't know about Cloud Chase,
Speaker 1: and I've never been a negative Chase Cloud. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what that is that somebody else, but I
Speaker 1: understand we live in the Internet error and everybody she's
Speaker 1: advertising their way of life and advertising their mentality, and
Speaker 1: a lot of that ship is rubbing off negatively. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to give my advertisement of what I stand
Speaker 1: on and get the people that want to follow that
Speaker 1: and believe that that's something to stand on, something that
Speaker 1: you know, somebody that's a representative to say, fucking I
Speaker 1: want to do that as well. Yeah, I mean that's it,
Speaker 1: And you know what I think There's the last point
Speaker 1: is that in Janice on our production team, she she
Speaker 1: made a very good point earlier today that we are
Speaker 1: so connected to these brands that we would rather buy
Speaker 1: from the brand no matter how much is killing our
Speaker 1: pockets or whatever. Then we will support our own and
Speaker 1: that's something that all of us have fallen victim to.
Speaker 1: I personally buy from anybody like I could buy from
Speaker 1: whatever community. I went to Africa and you saw me.
Speaker 1: I went crazy buying everything that I could. You know,
Speaker 1: there's my parents instilled that at me from a young
Speaker 1: age because the Mark one first of all Mark one
Speaker 1: five that I wish they could, you know, for any someday,
Speaker 1: please bring it back if there's anybody out there listening to.
Speaker 1: Mark one was the most special place in Harlem because
Speaker 1: it was right on a hundred twenty street and it
Speaker 1: was a big open mark that had all black people
Speaker 1: selling jury coats. I mean, there was a few non blacks,
Speaker 1: but it was black people heavy. The even the food
Speaker 1: and the food court, all of that was cultural people
Speaker 1: doing nails. I used to do nails in the mark
Speaker 1: Can you believe that I was in like a nail
Speaker 1: person at the time. I wasn't that great. It lasted
Speaker 1: about two weeks, but nonetheless, so I went there then.
Speaker 1: You know, we used to have all the vendors outside.
Speaker 1: I've always found cool things with vendors that I can
Speaker 1: add to my look. You know. Also the Mark One,
Speaker 1: I mean the Mark one sixteen street which is now
Speaker 1: and for anybody who's in Harlem who's listening to this,
Speaker 1: you could go to a hundred and sixteen street in
Speaker 1: Harlem right now to day and there are the African
Speaker 1: community is there. They can make anything you want them
Speaker 1: to make in terms of dresses, putting fabric on suits.
Speaker 1: So I've always been into that. And I buy stuff
Speaker 1: from brands. Absolutely, I buy from brands. I buy from friends.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. Sometimes I get messages from
Speaker 1: boutiques online right because one of the things I gotta
Speaker 1: do better is that I actually purchased things in my
Speaker 1: own name. That's probably something I need to change. But
Speaker 1: if I see something I like on Instagram, I clicked
Speaker 1: the people the people's page purchase their little dresses and
Speaker 1: different things. I'm not that good with putting it on
Speaker 1: and showing it, but I do that. My book tour,
Speaker 1: I had a bunch of black brands that the stylust
Speaker 1: pulled from me and or purchased items for me. But
Speaker 1: I get messages from boutique so all the time like wow,
Speaker 1: or they'll put little notes in my box when the
Speaker 1: things come and say thank you so much for supporting us.
Speaker 1: And it's a direct purchase. And again I buy brands,
Speaker 1: So I do all of that. We give black people
Speaker 1: a lot of money around this country when we go.
Speaker 1: If it's a bus company for a tour, if it's food,
Speaker 1: shout out to Quita, our chef in Kentucky. Instead of
Speaker 1: us going into a city and eating food from folks
Speaker 1: that we're protesting against that know us and we don't
Speaker 1: know who's cooking in the kitchen, we hired a black
Speaker 1: woman who cooked for us every day, two times a day.
Speaker 1: I mean, we the security team, the car services, everything
Speaker 1: that we do, we try to employ. If it's not black,
Speaker 1: it's brown, it's our people. And even if it is
Speaker 1: white folks, it's white folks that's conscious about the issues.
Speaker 1: And so we just all we're saying is like you said,
Speaker 1: if we feel it and it feels disrespectful, we don't
Speaker 1: need you that bad anyway, just don't. So it's it's
Speaker 1: it's that quick. It can just be over without a problem.
Speaker 1: And there it is. And with that said, brings us
Speaker 1: to the end another dope episode. Shoutouts to BEDC two
Speaker 1: bet two Beat Stevens and with that said, brings us
Speaker 1: to the end of another great episode of the number
Speaker 1: one podcast and the world Street Politicians Shout out to
Speaker 1: to Beat Stevens for his masterclass that he gave us
Speaker 1: today and shout out to y'all for supporting us. Man,
Speaker 1: keep on tuning in, let us know what you like,
Speaker 1: let us know what you don't like, what you want
Speaker 1: to hear. Follow us at Street Politicians pot on Instagram.
Speaker 1: D M must give us your feedback when we appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1: Once again, I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d
Speaker 1: Mallory is not gonna always be wrong, but we were
Speaker 1: both always and I mean always be authentic. Listen to
Speaker 1: Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and catch us every single Wednesday for the video
Speaker 1: version of Street Politicians or I Women Dot TV on
Speaker 1: it