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Speaker 1: My next guest ranted as a young man. First of all,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna go back to l A days. But then

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Speaker 1: I was at uh very good friend of mine, Holly Robinson,

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Speaker 1: Pete and the husband. Now you do a artistic event.

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Speaker 1: They've been a charity racer in regards to your father. Uh,

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Speaker 1: and I would attend it. Uh. Finally I finally showed up.

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Speaker 1: I give money all the time. I finally showed up.

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Speaker 1: And Uh, Hollywood A shocked that I showed up. This

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Speaker 1: ship actually with she HOLLI name during the event, and

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Speaker 1: I said, yes, she was actually stunned that I was there.

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Speaker 1: But when you go out in public, you tend to

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Speaker 1: meet people haven't seen a long time and also realized

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Speaker 1: the impact that you made and just basic conversation. Just

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Speaker 1: I guess you could say mentoring, and that's what I

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Speaker 1: try to do when I meet individuals. My next guest

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Speaker 1: is a celebrated celebrity Master Barber Award winning actor, director, producer,

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Speaker 1: and screenwriter. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation. Louis T. Powell. Hey, Hey,

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Speaker 1: how's everybody doing out there? And Russian? And at first

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Speaker 1: I want to say, Sean, you know, thank you for

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Speaker 1: all that you do the philanthropy philanthropy work. You know,

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Speaker 1: you've really been a pillar in the community man, just

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Speaker 1: stepping out there with graciousness and abundance man and sharing

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Speaker 1: that wealth with everybody. Man. And that's just such a

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Speaker 1: blessing to have people like you circumventing UH. Like I said,

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Speaker 1: for the culture, and I want to say thank you.

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Speaker 1: You've been a star supporter of Holly Robinson Pete Foundation. Man. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I've seen you give on numerous occasions, Man, from your heart,

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Speaker 1: and it's just a beautiful thing to see. Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: the thing about it is that there's no reason. That's

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Speaker 1: the why I give. There's the there's a the fact

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Speaker 1: that I have took you and then um, I've lived.

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Speaker 1: I realized that I affect too many different people. I've

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Speaker 1: started foundations for other friends of mind and hit them

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Speaker 1: pushing into the right direction. One of my big things

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Speaker 1: and doing right now is for HBCUs your graduate of

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Speaker 1: HBCU Howard University, Howard University, where I'm trying to become

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Speaker 1: a media force along with Stephen A. Smith to bring

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Speaker 1: brand awareness to UH. It really kind of annoys me

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Speaker 1: the treatment of HBC using because it's always feels like

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Speaker 1: the words struggle it's tied to an HBCU schools always

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Speaker 1: look like, you know, we ask it for a financial

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Speaker 1: handout from the government and UH and intends to really

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Speaker 1: muddy down the great institutions that HBCUs are. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: to us about that experience, because I'm on a lot

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Speaker 1: of the HBCU stations UH schools carried by show as

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Speaker 1: well as Serious actually one forty one at one forty two. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know to that point, it is, it

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Speaker 1: is it's always like you said that, people always try

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Speaker 1: to associate struggle with HBCUs. Right, you look at institutions

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Speaker 1: like how it has been over I mean been around

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Speaker 1: for over a hundred years and and as as well

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Speaker 1: as other established black hbc us that don't give it

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Speaker 1: get as much credit, you know, I mean struggling. I

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Speaker 1: mean when you look at some of the most prominent

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Speaker 1: doctors and black lawyers and accountants and physicis my mother's

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Speaker 1: and Howard Graduate. You know, she came out in the

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Speaker 1: sixty seven and she's an accountant. And when I look

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Speaker 1: at her, I'm not being you know, she's a delta

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Speaker 1: signa theata and it's like I look at a lot

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Speaker 1: of her little events that they have, and it's like

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Speaker 1: all these professionals, uh, financially well off people that have

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Speaker 1: actually been sewing back into their communities and various different

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Speaker 1: states all over the United State. I mean, excuse me,

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Speaker 1: all over the United States. So when you look at

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Speaker 1: the struggle that people say that the HBCUs have, I

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Speaker 1: think that that's just the media putting out some kind

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Speaker 1: of propaganda, you know, in a way to kind of

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Speaker 1: shine the light off of excellence that we've always been bringing.

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Speaker 1: Now also, you you mentioned your your mom, your dad.

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Speaker 1: Now you're a master barber and your dad, let's talk

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Speaker 1: about that relationship. You know, he kind of pushed you

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Speaker 1: in that direction or it was just a natural you know,

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Speaker 1: tell my father I do with my father. Yeah, it was,

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Speaker 1: it was it was kind of like a natural progression.

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Speaker 1: You know in the Washington, d c. Area, barber shops

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Speaker 1: have been around since nineteen sixty five. You know, Um,

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Speaker 1: I have a younger brother. My younger brother, he has

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Speaker 1: like four beauty and barbershongs in the DC Maryland areas,

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Speaker 1: and I know our families probably know it's each other.

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Speaker 1: So it's like because it's like we had one off

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Speaker 1: Upstra Street, uh, Lamont Street and Georgia Avenue, Kennedy Street

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Speaker 1: and Street northeast. So it's like when I started off

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Speaker 1: in Barbara and my father actually brought us. It's about

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Speaker 1: seventeen barbers in my family. Yeah, it's it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a good it's it's it's stretched in five five few between. Man.

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Speaker 1: But I started off in the shop signing shoes and Nichols,

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Speaker 1: Diames and corn sweeping guys backs off. Uh. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was a little kid when the guy would jump

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Speaker 1: off the chair and and if he didn't want to

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Speaker 1: tip me, man, I sweep you all the way till

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Speaker 1: you got out the door. I would embarrass you because

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Speaker 1: you know, to tip me man. It was it was cool,

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Speaker 1: It was cool, but it was it was a progression

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Speaker 1: where you know, I jumped off into that space. And

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Speaker 1: by the time I was about thirteen, I remember the

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Speaker 1: first headcut. I really kind of just gaffled and was

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Speaker 1: my cousin Glenn Johnson. Uh, my father came home and

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Speaker 1: he came out of the Uh he came out of

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Speaker 1: this little room in the basement and it looked at

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Speaker 1: it and he was like, I didn't know you wanted

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Speaker 1: to grab the tools, yet I see you need some work.

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Speaker 1: He can't let the repertation moment. Yeah yeah, but it

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Speaker 1: was it was one of those things like jumping into

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Speaker 1: that space in the barber and business man. I was

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Speaker 1: out about this because I tell you that's that's a

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Speaker 1: that's a skill. Said, I cannot mess when I know

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Speaker 1: what I was a pledge you know, make us out five.

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Speaker 1: You know they got me there. I thought I could

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Speaker 1: cut hair. You know, it's different way you pledge it

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Speaker 1: and cutn't had the same time. That's a different different

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Speaker 1: right that line right, So so that the whole skills

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Speaker 1: say that good friend about James Thomas who did Steve

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Speaker 1: Harvey's hair all those years? What what what what makes

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Speaker 1: the talented barber? You know what makes it is? It's

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Speaker 1: it's it's actually repetition, paying attention to detail and good

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Speaker 1: customer service, just being a people friendly and a person

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Speaker 1: that's open man for conversation and a good listener, you

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Speaker 1: know for me making a good barbers. Like my father

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Speaker 1: always to tell me. He was like, look, man, you're

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Speaker 1: in the shop. You never know who's gonna black you

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Speaker 1: across your chair. You're know, meet every walk of life.

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Speaker 1: I don't care from the bottom to the low in between. Uh,

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Speaker 1: when you're able to adapt and be able to and

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Speaker 1: being able to open yourself in the vulnerable space and

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Speaker 1: at the same time give somebody a good service, I

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Speaker 1: feel like that's what makes a dynamite barber, you know,

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Speaker 1: and Barbara's barber and has led me to a lot

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Speaker 1: of different things. It's it's led me to a lot

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Speaker 1: of different people. It's just it's sprung. It basically kind

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Speaker 1: of springboard my entertainment career. You know. It's really interesting because, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know the whole haircut phenomenon. You know, I'm older

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Speaker 1: than you and went through the Afro ter Carrol, you know,

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Speaker 1: the Michael Jordan ball head, supposed to star, supposed to

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Speaker 1: destroy you know, Barbera's in general, everybody gonna go ball

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah, and then the natural Look, yeah, you're supposed

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Speaker 1: to shut down the whole barber industry. But it's things.

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Speaker 1: It seems to be an industry that's uh, that's that's

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Speaker 1: just keeps on ticket. Yeah, it just it finds it

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Speaker 1: reshapes his market, whether it's it's grooming from a from

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Speaker 1: a beard mustache, stand from from the from the shaving

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Speaker 1: and keeping the head shade. What makes that industry such

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Speaker 1: a a dominant voice because it's it's it plays a

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Speaker 1: significant role I feel in the community. You know what

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you. It's like I think a great

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Speaker 1: haircut or a great head do or whatever, it's it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a it's a mirror self esteem. It's that

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Speaker 1: thing when someone sits down and it's like they can

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Speaker 1: take pleasure in just serving themselves and the barber actually

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Speaker 1: assists with that. And when you look at from I

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Speaker 1: think from an industry standpoint, when you look at the

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Speaker 1: self confidence that people are looking for or that self esteem,

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Speaker 1: it's a thing where you walk out into the public,

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Speaker 1: you walk out in the world and you say, hey,

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Speaker 1: this is me, you know. And from an industry standpoint,

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Speaker 1: everything starts from the crown chakra. So when you start

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Speaker 1: looking at the crown shakra and you're sharing that that

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Speaker 1: that space of self esteem, everything kind of flows from without.

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Speaker 1: And I feel like nobody wants to look bad, nobody

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Speaker 1: wants to go out into a space where they feel uncomfortable.

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Speaker 1: It's just like when you're throwing a brand new, great feeling,

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Speaker 1: uh custom suit and it's like you wear out and

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Speaker 1: you you buy that fresh press sues or you know,

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Speaker 1: the confidence might start from without for from outside of you,

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Speaker 1: but at the same time, there was a reflection that

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Speaker 1: starts to show within. And I feel like in that industry,

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Speaker 1: it's like, I mean, you're touching someone's like I said,

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Speaker 1: crown chakra, so you're touching the whole different energetic standpoint. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really amazing when I when I look at the

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Speaker 1: years an individual, a bunch of growth over the years.

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Speaker 1: And uh, when we come back, we're gonna talk more

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Speaker 1: about you know, we really live only just dive into

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Speaker 1: that lifestyle. I really wanted to get the HbCO mes

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Speaker 1: HBCU message out there as well as you know, something

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Speaker 1: that I've been dealing with all my life, getting that

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Speaker 1: head style right, something bald not. You know, I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: I might have to go get me a d standards standards.

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Speaker 1: You know he got he got an afro. Now I

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Speaker 1: don't know where he came up with the afroe. That

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Speaker 1: to be right back on to make conversation about man

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Speaker 1: Louis Lewis t Pole, This is ra Sean McDonald and

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Speaker 1: you're just need to money make a conversation in Studio

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Speaker 1: Today Live in Studio Lewis T. Pow. Uh. We talked

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Speaker 1: about your history a little bit because I like to

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Speaker 1: always share stories about the person's past, because that's a

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Speaker 1: journey to anything that we try to accomplish in life,

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Speaker 1: the journey. And now as an actor, director, Ard winning actor,

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Speaker 1: let me just let me titles out there, you know,

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Speaker 1: because guess what, these these titles that we get out

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Speaker 1: there are not just giving away. They're they're earned. And

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Speaker 1: so let's talk about the your new project. It's on

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Speaker 1: Amazon Prime. My new project is called padlock Man. It's

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Speaker 1: actually a labor love man. I woke up in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen from from a dream actually, and you know,

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Speaker 1: actually I asked God for it for about a year

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Speaker 1: before and I told God, I was like, look, you know,

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Speaker 1: I want something that I'm inspired to do and something

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Speaker 1: that I'm motivated, uh, in a direction creatively and spiritually,

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Speaker 1: you know, to create. So a year later, I woke

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Speaker 1: up out of my sleep about four or thirty in

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Speaker 1: the morning and I saw these vivid images of Mom, Luther,

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Speaker 1: Malcolm X, and John F. Kennedy. Uh. And that's where

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Speaker 1: the story was. Birth of a secret vigilante civil rights

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Speaker 1: group known as the padlock Men. UM. Uh so I

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Speaker 1: I about three hundred fifty two note cards and uh

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Speaker 1: cut to about two years later, I wrote UM wrote

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Speaker 1: a short to it, which was actually a pilot teaser

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Speaker 1: that I was planning on releasing UM that following year.

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Speaker 1: I released that on pad released Padlockman on Amazon Prime.

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Speaker 1: After about twenty seven film festivals and about seventeen wins

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Speaker 1: and nominations on it UM and then we actually got

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Speaker 1: a development situation to develop for further develop out the pilot,

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Speaker 1: which right now we just finished up our first production draft.

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Speaker 1: So where it mixed with that, that's how it happens, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it happens. But along the way, a lot of people

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Speaker 1: big time about that we're coming to odd douters. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know what, It's funny, And it's like when you

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Speaker 1: look at doubters, I look at them in a way

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Speaker 1: from the standpoint that is it. There's no such thing

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Speaker 1: as people that doubt. It's just people that need to

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Speaker 1: catch up. You know. It's one of those things when

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Speaker 1: you get a belief and you know something from within

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Speaker 1: and it was given from within, you just roll with

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Speaker 1: it and always have this thing I tell people, like

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Speaker 1: a lot of my youngsters, I'm mentor. I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that stand on the sideline

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Speaker 1: and curiosity, and they'll stand on the sideline of curiosity

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Speaker 1: for certain demes of time, but eventually that curiosity will

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Speaker 1: get piqued so much to the point, as long as

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Speaker 1: you keep doing the work, they'll become a fan. And

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Speaker 1: then once they become a fan, next step is they

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Speaker 1: becoming your advocate. And then when they become your advocate,

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Speaker 1: now they're helping you sell your project too. That's why

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Speaker 1: I talked about that a lot, and talk about first

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Speaker 1: of all, I understand your competition. And then I also

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Speaker 1: I would say something about prayer. I always pray for

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Speaker 1: my my, my enemies, so one day they can become

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Speaker 1: my friends. You know, I don't I just I don't

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Speaker 1: just count anybody who I don't know why you think

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Speaker 1: that while you are, while you feel negative about anything

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Speaker 1: that I would do or anything that anybody should, that's

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Speaker 1: just waste your energy, you know. But what I do

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Speaker 1: understand is that I'm not going to allow you to

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Speaker 1: pull me down. You know, if your blessing comes your way,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna pray for you to get that blessing and

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Speaker 1: what you do with it, that's that's on you, and

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Speaker 1: that's that's been really the way I've lived my life.

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Speaker 1: And so when I look at you and the opportunity,

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Speaker 1: like I was just reading you on the cover magazine

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Speaker 1: A boss Man talk about that, you know, Mr Pretty

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Speaker 1: Boar snapping photos not to worry about getting no haldlined

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Speaker 1: up that for show. Look, I don't know, I might,

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Speaker 1: I might break back what I'm saying. No, It's like, man,

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Speaker 1: I mean boss Man was like it was like an

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Speaker 1: epitome of kind of like bringing in with the space.

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Speaker 1: I always tell people, it's like I try to preach

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurship all the time. What is entrepreneurship to you? What

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Speaker 1: does that? Entrepreneurship to me is basically taking ownership of

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Speaker 1: your space, taking ownership of whatever you create your ease.

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Speaker 1: You know, whether you're you're starting the janitorial business, barbershop

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Speaker 1: or whatever. It maybe it's like that. Entrepreneurs the entrepreneur

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Speaker 1: spirit is always being open for opportunities and opportunities that

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Speaker 1: you can create for yourself to create wealth and generational

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Speaker 1: wealth for your family. It's like when you don't have

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Speaker 1: to get up in the morning and answer to someone

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Speaker 1: to say I got a punch of clock and be

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Speaker 1: that nine o'clock, you know. And the only way you

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Speaker 1: can create power through that is to become an entrepreneur.

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Speaker 1: And you gotta find people like you to man, you know,

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Speaker 1: to to go in there and may have been into

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Speaker 1: that space to have a guidance and mentorship to see

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Speaker 1: which direction that you need to pivot to to create

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Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial spirit. Well, you know, Ben, you you know

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Speaker 1: you talk about your dad. That's that's that's that's the

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Speaker 1: core being entrepreneur. You know, he's taking the talent said, look,

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Speaker 1: as long as I got these sealsors, I can make

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Speaker 1: money somewhere. You know that That really I remember when

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Speaker 1: I left IBM may not as pursue my career as

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Speaker 1: a stand up comic. I always felt that no matter what,

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Speaker 1: unlike an actor I had, that an actor has to

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Speaker 1: weight on an opportunity has a stand up As long

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Speaker 1: as I can tell jokes, I can get on stage

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Speaker 1: and make me some money. And it was it was really,

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Speaker 1: it really empowered me a lot in my career. If

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Speaker 1: I would say that I was an actor just waiting

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Speaker 1: on the opportunity to versus Hey, you just let me

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Speaker 1: on that stage. Yeah, you know that stage. Give me

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Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, you're gonna write me a check. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: so that that really uh that even though you into

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Speaker 1: the entertainment because you have that skill set, doesn't it

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Speaker 1: give you a really uh an unbridled about a confidence

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Speaker 1: that most of what you can still exist. Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why I created padlock Man.

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Speaker 1: As long. On the entrepreneurial business side, it was one

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Speaker 1: of those things where you know, I've always worked as

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Speaker 1: an independent you know, when I worked in music, you know,

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Speaker 1: I pushed the record to Billboard shots out of my

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Speaker 1: living room. You know. It was when I was at

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Speaker 1: the space of when I my barbering business. It was like,

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Speaker 1: you know, I cut numerous celebrities from fifty Cents Outcast,

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Speaker 1: Dwyane Wade, uh And it was like one of those

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Speaker 1: things I built my business accordingly, so each one of

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Speaker 1: them were together and to find when I looked at

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Speaker 1: padlock Man, it was it was just another etching, that

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Speaker 1: etching that space. You know, my first two films I

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Speaker 1: so independently, and I was like, you know what, well,

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Speaker 1: I can't create a pilot myself. Why can't I go

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Speaker 1: out and take this pilot chop it, and why can't

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Speaker 1: I figure out the distribution and financing myself also to

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Speaker 1: take that to the next level, which in which in

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Speaker 1: return can incorporate me as an actor, as a director,

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Speaker 1: and as a score you know, for for music. And

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Speaker 1: then on top of that, it's like I want to

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Speaker 1: be in the lane to try to create more opportunities

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Speaker 1: not just for myself but people outside of me. And

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Speaker 1: when you start creating that ecosystem as an entrepreneur, obviously

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Speaker 1: you know that all of it pays dividends man backwards

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Speaker 1: and forward. So it really is amazing when you talk

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Speaker 1: about you know, I always tell people and even in

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Speaker 1: this conversation is when I'm talking to you, and it's

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Speaker 1: about understanding your opportunities. Now, how does social media? How

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Speaker 1: does brand marketing play a role, and how do you

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Speaker 1: get the word out that also you can give out

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Speaker 1: your handles that, yeah, brand marketing plays a big part.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, in this day and time, we

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Speaker 1: live in technology flows, you know. I mean back when

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Speaker 1: I first started, it was like the Babershop was the

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Speaker 1: information super highway. But now we look at Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

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Speaker 1: and you know, and all these different avenues where we

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Speaker 1: actually can't share our gifts with the world. And I

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Speaker 1: think it's one of those things finding your audience, finding

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Speaker 1: your niche, and then building upon that niche of the

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Speaker 1: people that actually support you, and starting the steam roll

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Speaker 1: effect to turn that over and over again to grow

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Speaker 1: your audience more. Because I feel like sometimes what I

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Speaker 1: look at a lot of times nowadays is people stretch

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Speaker 1: themselves too thin instead of saying, you know what if

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Speaker 1: I can find a core of one thousand people or

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Speaker 1: five hundred people, man, it will support me. You know,

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Speaker 1: one would I'd rather have a thousand people to support

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Speaker 1: me hundred percent or what I had rather have a

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Speaker 1: thousand people only support me ten percent or five thousand

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Speaker 1: people only support me one percent. You know, I'd rather

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Speaker 1: find that initial audience, cater to them, keep building that

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Speaker 1: steam roll effect to build my brand, build my business.

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Speaker 1: And as I move along, I know one thing, relationship

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Speaker 1: ships network opens up wider, and then on top of that,

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Speaker 1: like I said, people become more fans and you have

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Speaker 1: more advocates man to create more substantial business. Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know the thing about it is when you look

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Speaker 1: at the business that you're in. You know, you know

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Speaker 1: you mentioned celebrity names that you Does that help most? Yeah? Most,

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Speaker 1: because you know you're in an intimate relationship when you're

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Speaker 1: cutting their hair, and then you're also an actor, alster, director, producer.

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Speaker 1: How does that? How does that you know? How does

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Speaker 1: that talk to us about the balance? Yeah? You know what,

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Speaker 1: That's one of the things I've always kind of pride

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Speaker 1: of myself and because I feel like, like going back

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Speaker 1: to the entrepreneur every business because you do no matter

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Speaker 1: what it is, it's it's a reflection of you. So

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Speaker 1: you know, I'll give you a prime example. I went

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Speaker 1: up to cut fifty one time for Bloomberg Business Week,

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Speaker 1: right and I walked in. I would always wear suits,

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Speaker 1: come in with a doctor brief, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: So I walked in, I would get there about thirty

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Speaker 1: forty five minutes earlier. A lot of times they thought

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Speaker 1: I was fifties manager. They were like, oh where does

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Speaker 1: this gol Mr Don Like I look, I'm I'm the barber.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, that reflection when when I

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Speaker 1: first started off in the barbering business, I would always

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Speaker 1: pdf my my invoices to all of the companies because

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Speaker 1: I was like, you know what if I ever get

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Speaker 1: a chance to run across them again, they were look

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Speaker 1: and say, oh, well this guy he's a director to oh,

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Speaker 1: he's a he's a writer, and he's an actor. But

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Speaker 1: I remember when he worked as a barber. That guy

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Speaker 1: was so professional. He he pdf this invoice. He was

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Speaker 1: always on time, He was intelligent, he was articulate, you know,

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Speaker 1: setting the stage, setting the stage. So when I get

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Speaker 1: ready to cross that threshold in the future on any

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Speaker 1: other deva deva and entertainment, especially within the celebrity space,

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Speaker 1: is you know what, let me hear what this guy

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Speaker 1: has to say. Let me take his call. Why because

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Speaker 1: I set the stage absolutely. Uh. You know, as we

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Speaker 1: wrapped this interview up, you know we all you're not

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Speaker 1: close to leaving this heard. We always have these journeys

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Speaker 1: that we're trying to. Uh what's the future. What's the future? Mr? Pole?

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you the future for me is you're

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Speaker 1: all are going to see Dynamite limited series on HBO

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Speaker 1: from Padlockman. I'm building a production company, an ecosystem for distribution.

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Speaker 1: We're going to create an ecosystem for UH to incubate

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Speaker 1: talent from animators to writers, directors, producers, all in the house. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And on top of that, it's like I just want

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Speaker 1: to build a blessing like my man Rashaan here and

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Speaker 1: be able to give back to the people man to

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Speaker 1: deserve it man, and just to be able to try

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Speaker 1: to create a synergy man of goodness man and just

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Speaker 1: share love, wealth, intelligence and health. Well, it was great

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Speaker 1: seeing you again live and studio. So notice you have

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Speaker 1: a home now you know you've got my contact information

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Speaker 1: and so just keep us a post abreast of the

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Speaker 1: steps anything you're doing. This not related to the project,

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Speaker 1: you know, like Fences, you might want to give us

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Speaker 1: that cover of boss Man. Put the posting on our

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Speaker 1: social part of your brand. It's part of being recognized

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Speaker 1: for your excellence. And again, thank you for coming on

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Speaker 1: money being conversation. Oh man. Thank you again, Rashaan. It

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Speaker 1: was a pleasure being here. And everybody out there, you

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Speaker 1: can catch me on my handles at Louis T. Powle

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Speaker 1: that's on Instagram, at Louis T. Pole Twitter and at

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Speaker 1: Louis T. Pole on Facebook. Appreciate you, Appreciate your teammates