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Speaker 1: Black Effect Presents features honest conversations and exclusive interviews, a

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Speaker 1: space for artists, everyday people and listeners to amplify, elevate,

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Speaker 1: and empower Black voices with great conversations. Make sure to

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Speaker 1: listen to The Black Effect Presents podcast on I Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. It was

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Speaker 1: up Man called those Miller of the Make sure you

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Speaker 1: check out The Black Market, hostly by Me only on

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Speaker 1: the eighty five South Show. Fee subscribe to the eighty

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Speaker 1: five South show to hear and tune into the Black Market.

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Speaker 1: Here amazing interviews with entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders, people

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Speaker 1: who are doing amazing things in the black community. Listen

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Speaker 1: to The Black Market on my Heart radio, app, Apple

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Speaker 1: Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Money

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Speaker 1: Making Conversations. It's the show that she has the secrets

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Speaker 1: of success experience firsthand by marketing and Brandon expert Rashan McDonald.

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Speaker 1: I will know he's giving me advice to many occasions.

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Speaker 1: In the case you didn't notice, I'm not broke, you

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Speaker 1: know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers.

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Speaker 1: It's what he likes to do. It's what he likes

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Speaker 1: to share. Now it's time to hear from my man,

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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald money making Conversations. Here we come. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation. I am your host, Rashan McDonald. It's time,

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Speaker 1: like I tell people every week, to stop reading other

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Speaker 1: people's success stories and start writing your own. And I

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Speaker 1: always tell people hear people talk about their gifts, they

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Speaker 1: talk about their passion. If your gifts leave with him,

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Speaker 1: and don't let your age friends family or cowork or

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Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. Interviews. I

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Speaker 1: bring on the shows for you. It's celebrity, CEO, entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: and industry decision maker. My next guest is one of

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Speaker 1: my favorites Man. He was on the show about a

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Speaker 1: year and a half ago, Molly Music. He's a gospel

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Speaker 1: artists first and foremost, or who will not be put

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Speaker 1: in a box. He loves the freedom of creating amazing

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Speaker 1: music no matter what the genre is, gospel, R and B,

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Speaker 1: hip hop or rock, whatever he feels, that's his move.

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Speaker 1: Molly Water Grammar this year for the song moving on

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Speaker 1: his hit collaboration with Jonathan mcreynold's. He's nominated for three

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Speaker 1: Stellar Awards this year. He's got it back on the

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Speaker 1: road because COVID shut everybody down in twenty but he's

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Speaker 1: getting back out there. Gotta make that check, gotta make

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Speaker 1: that check. The things have started to open up across

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Speaker 1: the US and we'll be announcing new music and new

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Speaker 1: tour dates coming soon and I'll be the first to

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Speaker 1: put them out there for my man, Please work with

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Speaker 1: the money making conversations again, Molla Music, How you doing,

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Speaker 1: Molly Wow McDonald how's it going. What an honor beautiful

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Speaker 1: introduction to be back again. Ay, world, let's get it well.

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Speaker 1: The thing about you that you know when we talked, man,

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Speaker 1: it was almost because I have I come from a

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Speaker 1: big family, Molly, you know, from Houston, Texas. I have

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Speaker 1: a six sisters, two brothers, and I felt I was

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Speaker 1: talking to my younger brother here. Man. You know because

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Speaker 1: because you know you, you know you, you got that energy. Man,

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Speaker 1: you you you still have unconquered territories that you want to,

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Speaker 1: like I want to, want to want to make a

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Speaker 1: difference in. But the more official thing is we always

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Speaker 1: can get boxed in, especially we do R and B.

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Speaker 1: People think all you should be doing R and B.

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Speaker 1: You do country? What you what Black? What you're doing

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Speaker 1: over in country? You should be over there. And so

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Speaker 1: we've seen so many walls coming down in our era

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Speaker 1: in this timeline. Are you feeling that's comfortable for what

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Speaker 1: you're trying to do as well? I do feel that

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Speaker 1: it's effective, but come a ble is not the words.

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Speaker 1: It's good for what we want business to do, it's

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Speaker 1: good for the spreading of our wings, but it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like a racial conversation. You open up the doors

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Speaker 1: to be heard out by a different race, and then

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Speaker 1: it gets uncomfortable for just because you start bringing out

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Speaker 1: different issues. I recently traveled to Nashville to do some

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Speaker 1: songwriting with Chad lead Saying of the rock band Christian

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Speaker 1: rock band Unspoken, and it was a challenge for me,

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Speaker 1: especially coming from soul background gospel background, but I had

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Speaker 1: to remember I have songs out like Gimme, Gimme Ready,

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Speaker 1: aim impulses, songs that have rock feels for it. So man,

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Speaker 1: the spreading and the falling of the genres, it's definitely good.

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Speaker 1: I've been watching it happening hip hop and other genres

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Speaker 1: for a long time, and I'm glad that it's finally

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Speaker 1: made it to the gospel. Well, you're interesting, But it's

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Speaker 1: about a beat, isn't it, Because when you're talking about

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Speaker 1: you know, because it is like a one three or

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Speaker 1: two four beat when you're talking about music, when you're

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Speaker 1: talking about R and B beats and you're talking about

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Speaker 1: we're talking about rock beach, especially because they can hang

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Speaker 1: out those a lot longer. How does that you know?

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Speaker 1: Because we all know that gospel is driven by emotion

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Speaker 1: and and so and so you're emotionally driven guy, and

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Speaker 1: then you're going to rock. A lot of times it's

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Speaker 1: just driven by sound. So how do you blend the

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Speaker 1: two to get the results that you want? Excellent question. Well,

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Speaker 1: they bring me in normally as a lyricist, I write

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Speaker 1: lyrics like the you know I mean comes only to

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Speaker 1: still killing and destroyed. Come in with things like that,

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Speaker 1: I said a Christian rock band. One thing about the

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Speaker 1: genre gospel is it is sound. It doesn't necessarily have

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Speaker 1: a sound anymore. Of course, you have the Mahellia Jackson.

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Speaker 1: You know, it comes up. You know, you have the

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Speaker 1: no you not. You know, a house of prayer and

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Speaker 1: that's your house of prayer. You get what I'm saying. Town,

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Speaker 1: you have Baptist music, UM worship music like hill song

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Speaker 1: and stuff like that. If you notice, the music could

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Speaker 1: be anything. Gospel and Christian has now solely based in

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Speaker 1: genre around the content. As long as at some point

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Speaker 1: you say that Jesus christis Lord, it could sound like

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Speaker 1: any type of beat, right, you get what I mean?

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Speaker 1: So our genre is mostly about the edification of God.

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Speaker 1: But it is because we're just talking musing that Molly okay.

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Speaker 1: You know, because of the fact that when you look

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Speaker 1: at R and B, you know, like you started naming

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Speaker 1: different artists that they lie themselves in the whole genre.

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Speaker 1: Because because when you got the hip hop and rap,

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Speaker 1: it just like tore it self away from R, it

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Speaker 1: towards it. This this is not even RB. They don't

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Speaker 1: even sing it okay, clearly not safe. And then when

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Speaker 1: you get into R and B yet soul, you know

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Speaker 1: you had had the deal. So all those different genres.

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Speaker 1: So when when you start talking about gospel, I started realizing, man,

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Speaker 1: there are many many layers. When you talk about the

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Speaker 1: man Jackson, you talk about Kirk Franklin, you talk about you,

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Speaker 1: you know, Donnie McClerkin. John Ki inquired, how did that?

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Speaker 1: And that's from a creative standpoint, that's a challenge. Hum, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it could be. But what I noticed while coming up

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Speaker 1: in church is a lot of the creativity came out

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Speaker 1: of one person um creatively. Like you might have had

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Speaker 1: six people at Ricky Dill it's quiet, but they were

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Speaker 1: all a lot doing riggy and everything that were coming

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Speaker 1: out of their mouth. And the band was something that

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Speaker 1: he probably heard at a coffee table that a few

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Speaker 1: mornings before and taught them say with Hezekiah so being

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Speaker 1: a praise of worship leader. First, I know that you

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Speaker 1: could spend time with God in the car, tell some

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Speaker 1: vocalists how to part go, tell the band, and so

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Speaker 1: you know what, You're in a hospital of praise. So

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Speaker 1: a lot of the big ideas can come out of

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Speaker 1: one person. Beethoven had a whole orchestra, but it was

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Speaker 1: his music every line. So I think it's just um,

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Speaker 1: you know, just based on who the idea is coming

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Speaker 1: out of, and it could be one person, even thought

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Speaker 1: be many people of health. You know, when I want

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Speaker 1: to look at you, Morley, I always say I have

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Speaker 1: to bring this question to everybody who comes to the show.

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Speaker 1: What did it start for you? Because I look at

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Speaker 1: myself and I try to pinpoint. I always tell people

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Speaker 1: I've been doing this since I was eighteen years old

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Speaker 1: when I really looked at my life. You know, I've

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Speaker 1: been I've been uplifting, I've been creative. I've been a

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Speaker 1: person who who thought differently, just saw I saw a

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Speaker 1: different path to success. I came from a black neighborhood,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't want to die in a black neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: I thought there was more to the world out there,

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Speaker 1: and eighteen years old. I was committed to seeing more

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Speaker 1: of that world. So that so I locked that date.

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Speaker 1: That's important when it really started for me. And then

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Speaker 1: I went to college and college changed my life. What

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Speaker 1: did it start for you? Mallo music? Well out begged

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Speaker 1: my father for pro Tools, which is a sound or

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Speaker 1: wave recording software that is about maybe five hundred or

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Speaker 1: six hundred dollars. It requires us computer monitor, mouth, sound speakers.

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Speaker 1: I was asking my dad for this at thirteen years old.

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Speaker 1: I would like because my dad was saying, oh, this

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Speaker 1: is not a money making conversations, I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: I understood. I asked him around thirteen after going to

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Speaker 1: a studio with a friend, and that's how I learned

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Speaker 1: that's how people get their voice to come out of

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Speaker 1: the radio. As a young boy, I'm always hearing mom saying,

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Speaker 1: I'm always hearing my sisters saying, but I'm like, how

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Speaker 1: do we come out of the radio like Luther Van drawls,

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Speaker 1: you know? And I didn't know if it was some

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Speaker 1: type of process and it was proteols and like you know,

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Speaker 1: electronic and software based computers was what it was. After

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Speaker 1: the tape started going for you laid it on wax.

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Speaker 1: But now you could do it digitally, I asked my

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Speaker 1: after that thirteen, No, fourteen, no fifteen, No, Dad's sprint lead.

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Speaker 1: He got it for me around sixteen. I was mastering

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Speaker 1: it around seventeen and utilizing it for church stuff like

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Speaker 1: putting thunder behind my past, this preaching if he spoke

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Speaker 1: about a value or war, trying to find ways to

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Speaker 1: use the technological sound advancement that I was blessed with

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Speaker 1: by my dad at sixteen to do what my mom

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Speaker 1: was making me do. And a son, now you got

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Speaker 1: this pro too, but don't talk about no women, don't

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Speaker 1: talk about no bottles, and you're gonna be talking about God.

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Speaker 1: I don't want no curse words. And make sure that

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Speaker 1: you creativity, creatively, don't do that same note stuff. I said, okay, man,

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Speaker 1: I could do that. So I think that that's what

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Speaker 1: set my values early. So even though I had a

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Speaker 1: huge future and I probably wouldn't been doing all types

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Speaker 1: of music, my values were set based on me getting

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Speaker 1: music for church, God being put into my heart in

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Speaker 1: my gift, and me promising the people who gave it

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Speaker 1: to me that I wouldn't straight from that path. As

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Speaker 1: I grew older, that got more and more difficult because

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Speaker 1: I want to be more rebellious, I want to start

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Speaker 1: echoing sounds that I hear. But holding onto those values

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Speaker 1: kept it unique and especial anointing on it like a

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Speaker 1: conversation because of the fact that talking about you earned it,

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Speaker 1: you know, because at thirteen they knew you were talented.

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Speaker 1: But did they know that did you understand the value

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Speaker 1: of this five dollars or six hundred dollar device? Because

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Speaker 1: two people, if you if you give somebody a car

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Speaker 1: and let them loan it, then guess what there they

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Speaker 1: If they reckon, they go, I'm sorry. But if they

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Speaker 1: were tied to the damage of direct then they have

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Speaker 1: a different conversation when they come talk to you. And

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Speaker 1: so now at that early age were their friends who started,

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Speaker 1: i know, tied to the church. And you started seeing

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Speaker 1: people reacting to your beach, react to your music because

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Speaker 1: you're in gospel, man, Because you know, the thing about

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Speaker 1: it is, if you're a rap, if you're an R

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Speaker 1: and B, you know, yes, you cat you know, if

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Speaker 1: R and B you singing for the ladies, you know

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. If you're wrapped in the streets just

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Speaker 1: just doing rhyme for your crew, who were you doing

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Speaker 1: it for? My pastor gave me the opportunity to be

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Speaker 1: minister of music and start playing at his church when

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Speaker 1: I was eleven. Now, I said, I asked my dad

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Speaker 1: for protos that thirteen. So I already been singing as

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Speaker 1: minister of music and playing learning chords in the church

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Speaker 1: for three years already one of Yamaha d X seven.

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Speaker 1: Now that's as old the keyboard as you could Yet

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Speaker 1: big I'm blowing contradge is out trying to change in

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Speaker 1: the middle of that. It's not what I need. So

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Speaker 1: I was a young musician coming in at the shift

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Speaker 1: of a technological era, like synthesizers were growing into bigger stuff.

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Speaker 1: When the churches just before I started playing in church,

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Speaker 1: which was very early, were mostly organ all right, So

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Speaker 1: we didn't have an organ in that church. So the

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Speaker 1: keyboard wasn't enough. So I wanted strings, I wanted all

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Speaker 1: these different types of things. So that's what kind of

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Speaker 1: set the tone. It was to please my pastor. It

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Speaker 1: was to be able to show that I was ready

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Speaker 1: for the leadership position that he gave me, even though

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Speaker 1: I was so young. I anticipated for people to say

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Speaker 1: I was unauthorized and should not be associated with such

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Speaker 1: a position lighten and stuff music. So I gave my

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Speaker 1: all to it. I gave my commitment and it kind

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Speaker 1: of gave me responsibility before I wanted friends. So now

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Speaker 1: even though I had friends and companions, I was if

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Speaker 1: I wasn't doing chorus, I was trying to make sure

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Speaker 1: I got back to learn my pro tools because my

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Speaker 1: dad wasn't from the bound me software that I didn't

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Speaker 1: know how to use. So now I have to read

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Speaker 1: user books, manuals, and I became pretty obsessive and a

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Speaker 1: bit of a nerd over the technological part. Once I

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Speaker 1: started bringing CDs to school, it was over. I'm singing

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Speaker 1: for the dances, I'm I'm doing the National Anthem prerecorded

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Speaker 1: over the I just was finding ways to use the

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Speaker 1: pro tools and it became really awesome, but it didn't

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Speaker 1: hit until the world heard it on my Space. And

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Speaker 1: that's where social media comes in. That so my music

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Speaker 1: was right on the curve of a shift, and once

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Speaker 1: everybody heard it online because black Planet just died, I

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Speaker 1: was in my Space artist. By the time they found

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Speaker 1: Molly Music, I had my song I Hate You No

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Speaker 1: music all I have to give, and I think forward

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Speaker 1: on my my space page and the rest is history.

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Speaker 1: Well history is still giving you uh love, you know

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Speaker 1: Grammy with your boy Jonathan mc reynolds, who have had

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Speaker 1: on the show, you know, working with artists like that

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Speaker 1: because he's really creative, he's young. And U talk about

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Speaker 1: collaborations because that's a key because you know, I've listened

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Speaker 1: to writers and especial producers because they brought in for

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Speaker 1: a talent, but they also have to be true enough

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Speaker 1: to understand who they're worked it with, but also its

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Speaker 1: strong enough to be able to get the finished product

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Speaker 1: to the end in his own So talking about when

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Speaker 1: you when collaborations, the one you did with Jonathan mc renolds,

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Speaker 1: which want to grab me by the way moving on,

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It was such a gift to

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Speaker 1: be able to hold that coming out of the box,

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Speaker 1: and it represented what collaboration represents for me. Sacrifice. Everybody

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Speaker 1: wants it to be them alone. Everybody wants to win

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Speaker 1: a race because of how good they are. But so

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Speaker 1: many things were going on and I just really wanted

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Speaker 1: to help so many people. I noticed once I got

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Speaker 1: finished acting inside of the like movie industry, that the

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Speaker 1: most important investment was like the last two million dollars

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Speaker 1: that a movie needs and people can come on as

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Speaker 1: a final investor because a movie ran short on a

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Speaker 1: ten million dollar budget or something that they give the

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Speaker 1: final two and then it is the breaking point of it.

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Speaker 1: That's what I started doing with my music. Jonathan had

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Speaker 1: a whole album, The People album was killing. He had

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Speaker 1: a whole campaign. But collaboration was just so we could

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Speaker 1: bring our jet packs together to get over the edge.

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Speaker 1: Of course we could do something effective in gospel, but

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Speaker 1: can we put a dent in the world, And that

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Speaker 1: was something we weren't planning to do. But the collaboration

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Speaker 1: goes in depth. It was agreement from me and Jonathan

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Speaker 1: and Spirit, but then it also was our teams. I'm

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Speaker 1: with r C. A I and he is with E one,

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Speaker 1: and those companies also collaborated for us to have the

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Speaker 1: success that we had based on, you know, working the record,

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Speaker 1: calling people. It was two labels collaborating. So I'm very

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Speaker 1: proud of what Gospel Music did because we obtained this

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Speaker 1: reward on this award by working together. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of people who just simply don't do that. In God, well,

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Speaker 1: you know you're there. R C. I with my board

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Speaker 1: Phil Thornton, who I call him. Hey, don't get me

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Speaker 1: started on field. That guy is awesome and he's been

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Speaker 1: grinding from the beginning. So I was so excited to

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Speaker 1: see that his promotion finally came. So it's like Steve mash, Oh,

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Speaker 1: you have a team now that you're coaching. Can I

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Speaker 1: play with y'all? I wasn't necessarily interested in functioning with

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Speaker 1: the system this way, but if you're over it, I

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Speaker 1: know God has involved, prayers involved, and I could have

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Speaker 1: success and it worked out. I'm happy. You know that

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Speaker 1: the beauty of you, that there's a certain genuine love

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Speaker 1: of conversation because you know this is this is not insulting.

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Speaker 1: You know a lot of people they won't they you

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Speaker 1: know their gospel. They just come there. They're real church. You'relleluya,

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Speaker 1: praised the Lord. It's a blessing to be here today.

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Speaker 1: I got that. I got that. But I really think,

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Speaker 1: I really think, Molly, I can eat some boba que

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Speaker 1: with you. You know what I'm saying. I really think

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Speaker 1: I could play some basketball with you. I know what

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Speaker 1: I'm saying. We can scream the TV a little bit.

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Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I really do believe that, man,

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Speaker 1: because that is that's part of your upbringing. You know,

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Speaker 1: the spiked the fact at eleven years old you was

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Speaker 1: giving a leadership role, which is a mature thing and

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Speaker 1: also can be something that can like pigeonhole a person's personality.

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Speaker 1: But how did you really maintain your personality? Man, with

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Speaker 1: all that pressure? But loving you old talking to adults

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Speaker 1: considered a gifted individual because you just don'ta slide on

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Speaker 1: over there, but to your parents over they're going, really, boy,

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Speaker 1: take that trash out there, boy, boy, if you don't

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Speaker 1: clean up your room, because that was happening at the house.

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Speaker 1: So that really kept you straight correct, yes, and didn't

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Speaker 1: coming up in Savannah, Georgia. It was happening outside the house.

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Speaker 1: You can get by anybody in Georgia. So it was

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Speaker 1: a blessing because I'll see, I'm thirteen years old and

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Speaker 1: the power God falls at a at a meeting um

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Speaker 1: and then I get spoken to by one of the

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Speaker 1: elder women, one of the grandma and this is all

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Speaker 1: she's gonna say. She will never get around the same.

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Speaker 1: Good job. She says, don't forget where you come from.

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Speaker 1: That and that's that means that she seen me going play.

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Speaker 1: She forgot to tell me that, but she let me

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Speaker 1: know no matter what, that I needed to be humble.

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Speaker 1: And I remember those people or they'll say, all right,

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Speaker 1: keep doing what you're doing. Don't change nothing. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: ask you to do this, do that, don't change nothing.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, ma'am, you know I'm gonna stay that path.

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Speaker 1: And I just remember those people who say, remember the

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Speaker 1: little people when you get there. And it's cool because

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Speaker 1: it's a bit back and forth because you have some

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Speaker 1: elite people who want to feel that they're around other

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Speaker 1: pompous people. Um, but that's just not the way that

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Speaker 1: I'm bringing it. God brings all success, and we're lucky

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Speaker 1: to get whatever we get in the first place. And

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Speaker 1: it's all about loving people. So that's the greatest wealth.

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Speaker 1: Any money that I ever got came from somebody. Absolutely

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Speaker 1: get what I mean. Absolutely, Hey, Molly, I'm talking to

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Speaker 1: about the music man m three uh Grammy Grammy win

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Speaker 1: this year with his collaboration moving on with Jonathan mc

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Speaker 1: reynolds and then some interview and Phil Thornton and then

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Speaker 1: I just run through this list though all the artists

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Speaker 1: from the label R C A I, which is based

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Speaker 1: out of Nashville, and I saw Molly Music three nominations.

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Speaker 1: I said, I got to get it, and this is

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Speaker 1: just we could have ago. I said it was crazy.

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Speaker 1: I've been It's awful, I said. I said, I got

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Speaker 1: to get him on the show and talk about this

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Speaker 1: because you know what I said, Because when you said

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Speaker 1: the Stellar Awards, I see you because because we're gonna

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Speaker 1: talk about this year, but I want to go back

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Speaker 1: in because that's when you're gonna really tell me the

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Speaker 1: story of how this happened. For you have to work

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Speaker 1: through the obstacles of last year. They get where we

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Speaker 1: got absolutely and so those three nominations, how does that

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Speaker 1: make you feel? You know, uh, just talk about the

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Speaker 1: steps and that process, Like you said, the team, because

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Speaker 1: we don't do this by ourselves, and sometimes you get

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00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:07,800
Speaker 1: out there, we feel like we buy ourselves. But you

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Speaker 1: at three nominations Stellar Awards talk about that determination, perseverance

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Speaker 1: and faith. I can't necessarily say, like in releasing it,

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Speaker 1: like oh man, this is locked up. It wasn't like

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Speaker 1: that for me because there was so many business things

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Speaker 1: that started to happen. This was my first project as

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Speaker 1: an owner of k approved E and t which is,

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Speaker 1: you know, my company, that's where I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: releasing other artists so they don't have to endure the

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Speaker 1: things that I had to endure it to get where

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Speaker 1: I am. So my attempt from being independent and not

398
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Speaker 1: being signed anymore than now in this license and situation

399
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Speaker 1: with philth Thor and Ron Hill over r c A.

400
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Speaker 1: I I wanted to create a label to when I

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Speaker 1: saw the next Molley's and when I saw the next time,

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Speaker 1: and I could protected it, you know, harvesting and push

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Speaker 1: it out. So the Book of Molly was my first

404
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Speaker 1: project from that licensing thing, and it was difficult financially

405
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:09,919
Speaker 1: paying producers, uh publishing, of getting clearances on any samples,

406
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Speaker 1: getting all musicians taken care of. It was cool because

407
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: it's it's a blessing on a small level. But if

408
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Speaker 1: you play piano on a John Legend song, how much

409
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Speaker 1: money are you gonna ask for at the end get

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Speaker 1: You're not gonna say no, it's okay, just give me

411
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Speaker 1: a hundred dollars. You're gonna be trying to find out

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Speaker 1: how they get enough money for the rest of your

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Speaker 1: life because you played piano on a John Legend support

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Speaker 1: pay some points that was one of the things that

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Speaker 1: had me a bit discouraged rowing in, you know, and

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Speaker 1: it's always that way because of the fact that I

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Speaker 1: would love just to be a talent, but because then

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Speaker 1: you're sitting over there just answering to somebody to be

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Speaker 1: able to make that commitment paying taxes, you know, paying

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Speaker 1: for paying value. And you can understand that how this

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Speaker 1: really works, how a tyler pair of real work. I

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Speaker 1: can assure you fair now is everybody paying okay? How

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Speaker 1: will packer? How all these thieve harger all these people

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Speaker 1: are able to do? Renee, Oprah Winfrey. You're just doing

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Speaker 1: what they're doing. And believe me, they know who they pay,

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Speaker 1: and they also know the the pain and prastruction of

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Speaker 1: being an entrepreneur. So you went from a talent to

428
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,439
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, and that's important because that allows you to

429
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:25,159
Speaker 1: collaborate and know what money you would do properly or

430
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 1: what makes you so much for noting that, that's so

431
00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 1: awesome for you to see and and catch because I

432
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: can only hope that that is what happens, because a

433
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:36,399
Speaker 1: lot of people still see me as a talent. But

434
00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,920
Speaker 1: you can only go so far there without the property.

435
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: And this is a huge step for me. So you're

436
00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: right online and you can't really make too many changes

437
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 1: for people, yourself or the world from this the artist's position.

438
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,040
Speaker 1: So it's good to be in a position that you

439
00:22:52,040 --> 00:22:54,480
Speaker 1: can make some things happen, not for yourself, you know

440
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 1: the thing about That's why, that's why I created shows.

441
00:22:56,760 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 1: I could talk to individuals like you, Mama, because because

442
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: because as a talent or an individual who buys tickets

443
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 1: or you can get caught up in the show business

444
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 1: of the show and it can make you believe that

445
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,359
Speaker 1: you can't do that, or they tell you you can't

446
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: do that because it's so complicated. And so I could

447
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 1: assure you when you was making this transition, it was

448
00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 1: a lot of as they say, trepidation, fear, you know,

449
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,120
Speaker 1: uh am, I gonna make a mistake. I don't want

450
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,439
Speaker 1: to mess up. And then when you did it, I

451
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,000
Speaker 1: remember I did a big my first Neighborhood Awards back

452
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:33,359
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. By two thousand three, when I finished it,

453
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 1: I realized, I said, I started crying because of the

454
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:39,719
Speaker 1: fact that all along I could have done this when

455
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: I had been told I couldn't do it, because it

456
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,880
Speaker 1: was so hard to do and so when I hear

457
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:47,199
Speaker 1: you saying, man, it was a lot of stress, it

458
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: was like, that's part of the process of walking through fire. Yeah,

459
00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:55,280
Speaker 1: and you do it again and again and again, and

460
00:23:55,359 --> 00:23:58,160
Speaker 1: guess what, it's not because it's easier because you trist

461
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 1: yourself right. And that's why we're trying to get it.

462
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: When I'm talking to you as a person who said,

463
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: look what, I won't be pigeonholed because I want to

464
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,719
Speaker 1: know what it feels like to do R and B music.

465
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 1: I want to know what I feel like do rock music.

466
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:14,399
Speaker 1: I wanted to feel hip hop music because guess what,

467
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,879
Speaker 1: then I understand my value. And that's all this conversation

468
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 1: about is about your value. The first time I met you,

469
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,119
Speaker 1: I always felt I was talking to a uniquely different

470
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: individual because you value things differently. And now you tell

471
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 1: me you've been doing this since you were eleven years old,

472
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: I appreciate and respect you even more. Man, I'm grateful

473
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 1: for that. I was blessed to be able to have

474
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: those responsibilities and you just nailed it. I'm so honored

475
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 1: that you've been seeing and following what I've been able

476
00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:45,200
Speaker 1: to do, because I can only hope that it is

477
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:46,920
Speaker 1: that a lot of times, you know, as you said,

478
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,480
Speaker 1: we think with myself and that people miss it. So

479
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: it's really cool to see. But all of the positions

480
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 1: were necessary. The first one was a servant leader. My

481
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 1: mother was doing a lot of the management with Holly Carter.

482
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,240
Speaker 1: I was young. I had confidence in the music, but

483
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,119
Speaker 1: I'm not necessarily confidence in the meeting room, so I

484
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,199
Speaker 1: wouldn't speak much. I was also directed and told not

485
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,520
Speaker 1: to speak much. How have I started noticing that at

486
00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:11,920
Speaker 1: the end of the day, I had the final say.

487
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:13,920
Speaker 1: So if I had the final say, I started trying

488
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: to work my way into getting the first say, and

489
00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:18,760
Speaker 1: you know, versus it kind of going all the way

490
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: through and it me seeming like it's not that. But

491
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:22,880
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, that's the only way

492
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: that I can keep it in God's hands. That's the

493
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: only way that I can keep the integrity of my

494
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 1: anointing clear. If I wasn't in a situation where I

495
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: can control these things, people will continue to say, even

496
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,320
Speaker 1: in churches, Molly, we want you to sing, but don't

497
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 1: sing this song. Don't say this, don't be this, don't

498
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: act like this. Once I started recognizing and seeing that

499
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 1: that's what was going to happen. Early in gospel, I

500
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 1: knew it was time to get out because there was

501
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,640
Speaker 1: no way to be what I was without the housekeepers

502
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 1: of the places I was going to sing at, protecting

503
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: their people, right, and they protect their people from me.

504
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,320
Speaker 1: So I'm like, well, I just got to get out

505
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 1: so I could go ahead and be everything that God

506
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,480
Speaker 1: said and then you guys don't have to worry about

507
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:00,520
Speaker 1: what you're telling me not to do. And it worked

508
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 1: out in spite of a world of people, a whole

509
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: wave of creative people, and it's caused me to not

510
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: be able to stop even when the world stops. During

511
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I was a visualizing myself as a Joseph, like, Okay, well,

512
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: everybody may not be able to get the best of

513
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: what they wanted or liked while everything was flowing, but

514
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,719
Speaker 1: they could at least get this weak They could at

515
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:25,119
Speaker 1: least get something. And uh, and I have it stored up,

516
00:26:25,160 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 1: so how can I bring it out? I already have

517
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: an album out. How can I release the more and

518
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:31,840
Speaker 1: partner with other people and keep saying? And it worked,

519
00:26:32,119 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: you know. COVID shut down Music, shut Down Live, shut

520
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: Down Tour, dates. Now we got new music. We got

521
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: two dates coming up. Tell us how one is gonna

522
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:47,120
Speaker 1: play yourself out for Oh man, it's so packed and stacked,

523
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: and a lot of my colleagues are excited because they're

524
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:54,159
Speaker 1: saying that this is what they wanted. But during the pandemic,

525
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: I recognized that I did not want to make my

526
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 1: money on the road, primarily maybe up when I was

527
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,320
Speaker 1: younger and all this stuff like that. And I get

528
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: opportunities to sing and travel now because I really want

529
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: to see my people and I love the stage. Um. However,

530
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 1: as a soul, you know, commodity or a stream of income,

531
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,479
Speaker 1: I don't feel like it's the ways. Uh, there's so

532
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,359
Speaker 1: many ways to make a thousand dollars ten thousand dollars

533
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: overnight if you can get the education and look versus

534
00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:26,479
Speaker 1: waiting a whole month stressing your body and banging your

535
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 1: body to gain five thousand dollars you know here seven

536
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: thousand dollars there. Um, sitting down forced me to say, Okay,

537
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 1: this is God's way of taking everybody's strongest thinct from them.

538
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: So this is a year for us to adopt and

539
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,840
Speaker 1: adapt new hobbies. And I used it to create new

540
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: streams of income just in case the ones that closed

541
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: and never came back. So now I created five, and

542
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:52,440
Speaker 1: then the five I had came back, and I was

543
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,080
Speaker 1: ten streams of income. And you know, it's a really

544
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 1: crazy thing. And I wanted to make sure that the

545
00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: other five had nothing to do with music. So now

546
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: when I sing, I primarily use the increase that I

547
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,399
Speaker 1: get from singing to tap into another entrepreneur. Mine to

548
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 1: be able to buy stocks or invest in juices or

549
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: milk or something that the stores are buying, so that

550
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: I'm making money without being great. You know what I'm saying. Well,

551
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:21,439
Speaker 1: you know I because I'm I look at that. I

552
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: went back and I told my stockbroker. I said no, no, no,

553
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,239
Speaker 1: don't put me in a fund. Said, I'm gonna tell

554
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: you what I want to buy. I picked our tent

555
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: stocks that I said, these the ones I want to buy.

556
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: Oh you know I would he trust myself, And yeah,

557
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: I never trust myself. And so but I want to

558
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 1: close and sing this about you is that you know,

559
00:28:46,560 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: we've seen everybody as we go back live and thing,

560
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: we've seen an over ground sweiler. People wanted to see

561
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: live events, you know, people concerts, selling out the two

562
00:28:57,560 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 1: or three shows comedy show. I think this is going

563
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: to be such a unique moment for you, Molly, because

564
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,360
Speaker 1: to be able, this is the annointing time I think

565
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 1: for individuals like you to get out there not only

566
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: to deliver your music, but to hear people wanted to

567
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 1: receive it. And I just think it's gonna be a

568
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,760
Speaker 1: great year for you, man, and I respect so much

569
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: what you've accomplished in the past. You got my hands up,

570
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: so you got my hands up. I receive it. I

571
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:33,200
Speaker 1: want to walk in it with grace and um heavenly anointing.

572
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: I just don't want to take any credit for it

573
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 1: because I can mess it up with human frustration, limitation,

574
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,640
Speaker 1: all this stuff like that. But I do feel like

575
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: it's a last of events, so I don't want to

576
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 1: just keep saying to everybody, this is the time for stories, plays,

577
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: short short stuff, conversations like this on stage. It's time

578
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 1: for people to, I guess, feel what it feels like

579
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:00,080
Speaker 1: to be around people again. And if we're creating, of

580
00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: in making events that are new, then we could just

581
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 1: continue to That's what I'm talking about. This, that's all

582
00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, because you know, because when you were

583
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: talking about you know, you know you make five thousand,

584
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 1: then we I know, we got that. But the basis

585
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: of what we do in gospel is emotion. It's driven

586
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:19,800
Speaker 1: by opportunities. It's driven by a blessing and the fact

587
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: that you are about to step out into the world

588
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: and be received again and people are about to understand

589
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:29,440
Speaker 1: the value of the Holy Spirit. My man, my hands

590
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: up because Wow, palms out, hands up. Point that you, baby,

591
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 1: point that you Molly music man, I feel what you're

592
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 1: saying is so right. I had a conversation with Jonathan

593
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: mc reynolds. We're getting ready to do a Victory Lab album,

594
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: just something for us together since God brought us to victory,

595
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 1: and he was saying, Molly, some people are looking for

596
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: you to take the mic and just sing it that

597
00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: way for nobody else. Don't do nothing else. We're looking

598
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: to you. And it was really special for him to

599
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 1: give me that moment because sometimes as a leader or

600
00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: you know, somebody in a authority position, you might not

601
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: take the full power of the dominion that God gives

602
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,400
Speaker 1: for the sake of caring. But sometimes He just needs

603
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: you to do like Christ, handle the work and let

604
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: everybody be blessed. That's all, man, That's all I gotta

605
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: say to your young brother, because I'm glad you've took

606
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:18,920
Speaker 1: the time to talk to me, because I'm following you

607
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: as I always follow you, and I feel blessed that

608
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 1: I know you. Thank you for coming opportunity again. I'm

609
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,160
Speaker 1: just as blessed as the first time I said. The

610
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: people are and man, I'm going to be looking to

611
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,160
Speaker 1: check back on you. Man, I feel something on you.

612
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,160
Speaker 1: To thank you, sir. We will be right back with

613
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. It's

614
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:42,760
Speaker 1: finally here, the season of celebration, and no matter how

615
00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,920
Speaker 1: you celebrate with family and friends, whether you're preparing for

616
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Speaker 1: rays magos or Karamu lighting the Manura are going to

617
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Speaker 1: midnight mass, Coles has just what you need to make

618
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Speaker 1: those traditions special. Plus you'll find gifts for all your

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625
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626
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627
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629
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630
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631
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632
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633
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634
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Speaker 1: it Belonging begins with us dot org, brought to you

636
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Speaker 1: by the ACT Council. Welcome mom Motion. Adoption of teams

637
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Speaker 1: from foster care is a topic not enough people know about,

638
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639
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:15,200
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640
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Speaker 1: by the families that lived them, with commentary from experts.

642
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 1: Visit adopt us Kids dot org. Slash podcast or subscribed

643
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 1: to Navigating Adoption presented by adopt Us Kids, brought to

644
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:30,760
Speaker 1: you by the U. S. Department of Health, that Human

645
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: Services Administration for Children and Families and the ACT Council.

646
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: You are now tuned into the Money Making Conversations. Minute

647
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 1: of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. Despite being known for loud,

648
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,680
Speaker 1: bombastic comments and his trademarked propensity to debate, a much

649
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,720
Speaker 1: softer side of Stephen A. Smith is revealed when discussing

650
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: the inspiration for his success. The final product is for

651
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: the fans. I'm about the work, the process, the grind,

652
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: the day in and day out, meticulous, medious work that

653
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: you have to put in to perfect your craft. And

654
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: the reason why that resonated with me so profoundly, Rashaun,

655
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,479
Speaker 1: is because that's what I attached to all my work.

656
00:34:08,719 --> 00:34:11,839
Speaker 1: Everybody right now is celebrating Stephen as World coming on

657
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 1: ESPN Plus, so they're talking about my sports and it

658
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: was Stephen A. Smith the NBA Show, and would first

659
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,440
Speaker 1: take all I think about it. It's going day to

660
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 1: day and making sure that I do everything that I

661
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,719
Speaker 1: can to deliver to the audience what their expectations are

662
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,399
Speaker 1: of me and to exceed those expectations. If you want

663
00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:29,879
Speaker 1: to hear this full interview with Stephen A. Smith, visit

664
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:35,560
Speaker 1: money Making Conversation dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back to

665
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:39,879
Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. My next

666
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: guest is Tressa as a real smart work. She's an

667
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: award winning book publisher and movie producer. Tressor is the

668
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 1: CEO of Life Changing Books LCB and co founder Megamind

669
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: Media LLC. In two thousand three, other right, in her

670
00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,879
Speaker 1: first novel, her very first novel, Tressa Wow resigned from

671
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 1: her teaching tenure in the Maryland Schools District for fulfill

672
00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:03,839
Speaker 1: her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Since then, LCB had

673
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,080
Speaker 1: published over a hundred and sixty two titles and print indigitously,

674
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: becoming one of the leading independent publishing companies striving in

675
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 1: the literary industry today. Since launch of Megamind Media, Tressa

676
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:18,400
Speaker 1: has produced several award winning movies which have been adapted

677
00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:21,800
Speaker 1: to UH to film and tell TV shares for networks

678
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 1: such as Viacom, BT Networks, TV one, b t Her

679
00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,840
Speaker 1: Urban Movie Channel and more. With such a large varia content,

680
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 1: Tressler has positioned megamnd Media to become one of the

681
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:35,800
Speaker 1: fastest growing film production company from book to film adaptations

682
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,919
Speaker 1: in America. Please working to money making conversations. I'm gonna

683
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:40,400
Speaker 1: calling my good friend because you know, I saw a

684
00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 1: movie last year. She didn't know I saw it all in.

685
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying with a little mama and

686
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:48,279
Speaker 1: at least Neil tressor as a real small warld. Just

687
00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 1: ma'am that I know about you. I know about you

688
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: before you knew about me. Oh that's so dope. Thank

689
00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:59,000
Speaker 1: you so much for having me. As I shared earlier,

690
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 1: there's no better place to be on a Monday, money

691
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 1: making Monday, talking about money making conversations with you. Thank

692
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 1: you so much. I appreciate you. Know when I it

693
00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:11,799
Speaker 1: was really interesting because my staff when they always bring

694
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 1: names up to me about people who will be interesting

695
00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:16,080
Speaker 1: guests because what they're trying to do. I try to

696
00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:18,920
Speaker 1: get the guests to tell their story, their journey because

697
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,239
Speaker 1: we all want to be a version of you. I

698
00:36:21,239 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: always tell people, don't be Rashan mac, don't be a

699
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: version of yourself, a better version of me, because you

700
00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 1: because you gotta learn from your mistakes and you gotta

701
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: understand why you're successful, Trying to implement, trying to trying

702
00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:36,879
Speaker 1: to duplicate me, a version of me can't work. So

703
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:43,000
Speaker 1: in your intro, it says, after your first novel, okay, okay,

704
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: now I answer this question. Was it a hit selling novel?

705
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: Just hey, Rashan, I got it out there, I decided

706
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:52,399
Speaker 1: to exit. Yeah, so you know what it was? It

707
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: was an unexpected hit um. I was actually teaching a

708
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:02,680
Speaker 1: year prior to of that, never had any thoughts about

709
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 1: writing a novel or going into the book publishing industry.

710
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 1: But obviously that was my faith because I was pregnant

711
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 1: and three months in I was on recess duty, having

712
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,200
Speaker 1: all of these issues with pregnancy and ended up going

713
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:19,279
Speaker 1: to the doctor thinking that something was wrong. Something was wrong,

714
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: but it wasn't detrimental. They said, hey, right now, you

715
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:24,960
Speaker 1: gotta go on bad rest at this very moment for

716
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,840
Speaker 1: the next six months until you deliver. So that was

717
00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 1: life changing for me. I went on bad rest at

718
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:34,120
Speaker 1: that very moment, and one of my family members came

719
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 1: over and I kept saying, what am I gonna do?

720
00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:38,640
Speaker 1: Six months? I got this little bell here ringing it

721
00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: so my husband could bring me some food. I was

722
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 1: like this is not gonna work. I'm I'm too ambitious

723
00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 1: for this, and she said you should write a book.

724
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 1: That was the start. I literally started listening to some

725
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:51,879
Speaker 1: stories UM, of some things that were happening at her job,

726
00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:55,840
Speaker 1: and that was the inspiration to pen my very first novel,

727
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,480
Speaker 1: A Life to Remember. UM. By the time that my

728
00:37:59,560 --> 00:38:03,160
Speaker 1: daughter was born, her name is Billy. She's nineteen years

729
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: old now, so that tells you how long ago that was, UM.

730
00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,160
Speaker 1: And so I published that book after all of the

731
00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:12,520
Speaker 1: naysayers kept saying, don't publish it on your own. Uh,

732
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: don't self publishing, it's not the way to go. I

733
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: didn't listen. I said, I'm gonna learn to do it myself,

734
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna do it well. And I did that. UM.

735
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: I published the book. In my first two months, I

736
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 1: was able to make forty dollars and sold five thousand

737
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 1: copies independently self publishing, and so it was a huge success.

738
00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 1: I never went back to work, and I started building

739
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,760
Speaker 1: my book, my book empire from their life changing books,

740
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 1: now it is yours, your book empire tied strictly to

741
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,719
Speaker 1: your talent, or you bringing outside writers, or you out

742
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: there nurturing other talents under your megamind uh So definitely

743
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:55,040
Speaker 1: I started nurturing other talent um instantly. You know, when

744
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 1: you're when you're good at something, other people like you said,

745
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,080
Speaker 1: they want to emulate that, they want to duplicate it.

746
00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:04,040
Speaker 1: And so because of my teaching spirit, I said, let

747
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 1: me teach others to do what I do. Um. And

748
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: so by two thousand and five, which was you know,

749
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 1: four years after that happened for me, I had already

750
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:16,600
Speaker 1: had about thirty authors under my label Life Changing Books.

751
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 1: And although they were writing books, I was still writing myself. Um.

752
00:39:21,640 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 1: To date, I've written seven books myself, and all of

753
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:28,360
Speaker 1: the others are written by outside authors who came to

754
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,320
Speaker 1: me and wanted to be a part of my team.

755
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 1: And your team consisted because now we're just talking about

756
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,520
Speaker 1: you only on only interviewing you. Okay, when I hear

757
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 1: two books digitally and the heart back or paperback all

758
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: me you you're telling me you're one woman operation. Well, well,

759
00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,120
Speaker 1: let me say this. Obviously, as you grow, you're able

760
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: to bring in people who do things better than you. So,

761
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,360
Speaker 1: for example, I'm not a book editor, I go and

762
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,880
Speaker 1: hire editors to edit the books I'm not. You know,

763
00:39:57,960 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: a big marketing firm, but I know how to go

764
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: and hire the marketing firm to make that happen. So,

765
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,840
Speaker 1: you know, it's been really really successful for me, which

766
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:09,759
Speaker 1: has really put me in position because of all the

767
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 1: content that I owned. It put me in position to

768
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:16,040
Speaker 1: transition into the movie industry with a company that I

769
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: created Ineen called Mega My Media. Okay, cool, I love

770
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,960
Speaker 1: this story. We're talking about a person who I have

771
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,279
Speaker 1: to say that, Okay, you became a writer now, but

772
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: you were it was an educator, you know, high school level,

773
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: elementary school level. So what made this transition other than

774
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:35,920
Speaker 1: the fact that he was in bed for six months?

775
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:38,799
Speaker 1: You know, bid rested your daughter, who's inn eighteen years

776
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: of age right now, what really clicked in your head

777
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 1: to say this is a possibility. Well, I feel like

778
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:50,080
Speaker 1: I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit in me. Um. Growing up,

779
00:40:50,120 --> 00:40:54,320
Speaker 1: I watched my grandfather literally have six and seven different jobs,

780
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:56,759
Speaker 1: and I didn't understand it back then. We just kept saying, well,

781
00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 1: what is he doing now? Why is he going here?

782
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: What is this all about? And he taught me as

783
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,120
Speaker 1: I was growing up, So it was just something that

784
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 1: was just in me that by the time I graduated

785
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: from college, I knew, Okay, my family said I need

786
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: a college degree, but let me tell you this. I

787
00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 1: know that I want to be an entrepreneur. I just

788
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:17,480
Speaker 1: didn't know what type of entrepreneur, what industry it was

789
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:20,799
Speaker 1: at the moment. And then once I started teaching, I

790
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:23,839
Speaker 1: fell in love with helping others. That was big for me.

791
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: Uh And so I do believe that outside of being

792
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:30,799
Speaker 1: on bad rest and given that opportunity, I would have

793
00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:34,080
Speaker 1: gone into entrepreneurship at some point anyway, just because it

794
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,839
Speaker 1: was always in me. But that was the moment where

795
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: I said, this is it. This book is successful. It's

796
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:44,520
Speaker 1: all about writing and creating content, which is my thing.

797
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 1: I love it. I can create for days. And so

798
00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,719
Speaker 1: that was my moment and I just took advantage of it.

799
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,279
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of times people get their

800
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 1: opportunities but they don't execute on it. They say I

801
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 1: want to do something, but they don't push forward. And

802
00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 1: that was something that I was I was really waiting

803
00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:03,479
Speaker 1: for that moment to figure out what it was, what

804
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 1: was my passion, what was my gift? I wanted to

805
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,759
Speaker 1: agree with that. I would agree with that, you know,

806
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:10,839
Speaker 1: I look at my life, and a lot of people

807
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,560
Speaker 1: say you do a lot of things. Well, first of all,

808
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:16,279
Speaker 1: I do what I enjoyed doing. Let's go and be

809
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I remember when you were

810
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,480
Speaker 1: finding your dreams Steve Harvey, and I was in l

811
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:24,279
Speaker 1: A two thousand on the local radio station named two

812
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: point three to B. They're finding our dream started making

813
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,839
Speaker 1: decisions in our life that some people because a lot

814
00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:32,200
Speaker 1: of people was wondering why was he doing local radio

815
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: when you know Bernie was doing the movie Centre was

816
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:37,960
Speaker 1: having those Super Bowl commercials. And so you have to

817
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 1: define your path and stick with your path and then

818
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:43,160
Speaker 1: see if you ever if you have a plan, and

819
00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:45,440
Speaker 1: so I have to believe that when you made the

820
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 1: decision to walk away, I know four your thousand dollars

821
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:50,800
Speaker 1: and two months is a lot. That's that's nice. You

822
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,000
Speaker 1: know you started adding that up over years period. You

823
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: know you've elevated the tax bracket. But still that had

824
00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 1: to be a plan. What was the plan tied to

825
00:42:59,640 --> 00:43:03,479
Speaker 1: you eving your your your educational background because you wanted

826
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: to be a school teach. You what to school to

827
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 1: be a school teacher? You were you were teaching and

828
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 1: changing and shaping your minds, but then at one point

829
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:12,440
Speaker 1: you to say it's about me and what I want

830
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 1: to do too, and how I can change mind this

831
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:19,080
Speaker 1: way too as well. Correct correct, correct. I think the

832
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 1: defining moment for me came with um, my husband saying, yes,

833
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:30,360
Speaker 1: let's do it, because you know, everybody around me said, now,

834
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: wait a minute. You just went to school to get

835
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: a masses in education, just finish. Why are you now

836
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: leaving this industry and why are you taking this chance? Um?

837
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 1: I remember family member saying you got summers off, and

838
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 1: I said, and I'm gonna have the rest of my

839
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,880
Speaker 1: life off in a manner, I'm gonna really go and

840
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:48,040
Speaker 1: do this. But my husband was the one who said,

841
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:51,959
Speaker 1: I got you, let's do it. Um. He did ask

842
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 1: me about my strategy. You know, how are you gonna

843
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 1: do this? Are you personally gonna be the one writing

844
00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: the books constantly? And I said, no, I'm gonna do

845
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:03,879
Speaker 1: complicate my success. I'm gonna build a publishing house just

846
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 1: the same way you see other big publishers out here

847
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,120
Speaker 1: have been doing. And it's gonna be a learning process.

848
00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:13,160
Speaker 1: So I would say, in my very first two years,

849
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 1: I made so many mistakes, just you know, just a

850
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 1: lot of the takes. But I learned from them and

851
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:23,040
Speaker 1: I started gaining mentors, and I said, I want to

852
00:44:23,040 --> 00:44:26,880
Speaker 1: find the people who are shaping these bigger companies, bigger

853
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:29,640
Speaker 1: publishing houses, that let them show me what to do.

854
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:32,080
Speaker 1: And by the time I got a couple of contracts

855
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,279
Speaker 1: with like Borders Books back then and Walden Books, those

856
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,760
Speaker 1: were big entities that were interested in helping um female

857
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs at the time. Uh. And by the time I

858
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,040
Speaker 1: got those contracts and being able to walk into those

859
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,520
Speaker 1: bookstores and seeing my name on the books on the

860
00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:49,600
Speaker 1: in the in the front window and on the shelves,

861
00:44:49,880 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I got this now. And so

862
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,799
Speaker 1: I knew at that point that the strategy work. But

863
00:44:54,800 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 1: but my husband was the key to that with saying,

864
00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,600
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna support you in this. I'm going

865
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:02,880
Speaker 1: to train so as a real small wood they creative

866
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:07,719
Speaker 1: life changing books as well as megamind Media. And when I,

867
00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:09,800
Speaker 1: when I, when I, when I listened to you talk,

868
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,279
Speaker 1: you know there's always uh, I want't s here the

869
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,640
Speaker 1: word disconnect because it's almost here, like how you know,

870
00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,080
Speaker 1: you know, how does this happen? Because you know you

871
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 1: have Amazon out there. You have borders, they got they

872
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,239
Speaker 1: got marketing machines. You know, they got advertising dollars. You

873
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 1: know they you know you you you can say their name.

874
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:29,880
Speaker 1: You know Megamond doesn't pop into your mind less you

875
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,400
Speaker 1: think of someone some animated movie or something like some

876
00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:35,560
Speaker 1: superhero or some villain or something like that. That's when

877
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 1: you think of Megamond. But how did you believe in

878
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:42,120
Speaker 1: yourself so much? So? You know something? I I I

879
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: can do this to other people, not only myself, but

880
00:45:44,200 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 1: I can do that. Kelp me slide into that lane

881
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:50,840
Speaker 1: understanding because of the fact that at the beginning of

882
00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:52,919
Speaker 1: my show, I always tell people to lead with their

883
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,839
Speaker 1: gifts and don't let your age friends and family and coworkers,

884
00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:59,280
Speaker 1: and that's what you was, what's happened in your life

885
00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,239
Speaker 1: co workers and friends and families, and said, but you

886
00:46:02,239 --> 00:46:05,160
Speaker 1: you you you you what your school for this? I

887
00:46:05,160 --> 00:46:09,560
Speaker 1: would excluse to be my degree in mathematis and sociology. Okay, whoa,

888
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,560
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, so you you you're talking to

889
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 1: the right person. When just saying that degree is something

890
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:17,480
Speaker 1: I love. I brag about it. I put it on

891
00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 1: my wall. I tell people probably I have a degree

892
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 1: of mathematics, but that doesn't define who I am and

893
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 1: who I can be. Now you're doing the same thing.

894
00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,239
Speaker 1: You went against the grain because even though you're not

895
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 1: Simon and Suite Schuster, even though you're not Amazon, even

896
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,680
Speaker 1: though you're not Harper College, what made you believe the

897
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:43,239
Speaker 1: treasure as a real small wood could do this? Yeah? Well, one,

898
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 1: faith plays a big part of my life. Um, I

899
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:50,799
Speaker 1: am always uh in prayer. Obviously, we know that you

900
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:52,800
Speaker 1: have to do more than just pray. You gotta actually

901
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 1: do some work. Yeah, that's that's really big for me.

902
00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:00,320
Speaker 1: And so you know, I feel like if you found

903
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:03,440
Speaker 1: a strategy, if you really believe in yourself enough, and

904
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:06,600
Speaker 1: so people love to say I believe in myself. Do

905
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 1: you really believe in yourself when things when things start failing,

906
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:13,960
Speaker 1: when you are not succeeding, do you give up? Or

907
00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,799
Speaker 1: do you hang in there? Again? I really always take

908
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:21,400
Speaker 1: it back to my childhood. I've watched my grandfather failed,

909
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:23,759
Speaker 1: but I watched him still get up and go to

910
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:27,200
Speaker 1: the event or to the gig or whatever was happening. Um,

911
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:29,680
Speaker 1: And we did a lot of you know, talking about

912
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:32,399
Speaker 1: how did we turn this around? How do we stay

913
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 1: in the game, how do we make it work? So

914
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,360
Speaker 1: I think from me learning that at an early age

915
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: and then growing up myself and and saying, hey, I

916
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 1: want to do this. You know, walking away from your

917
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,400
Speaker 1: job doesn't mean you get the opportunity to go back

918
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: to it. It doesn't mean you get the opportunity to backtrack.

919
00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,520
Speaker 1: At this point, once I made that commitment to go

920
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,400
Speaker 1: for it, I was in it, even when even the

921
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 1: years that weren't as great, I was in it. Even

922
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,880
Speaker 1: when the rejection came. I was in it, and I

923
00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:04,160
Speaker 1: took and I stayed in it. Even when I started

924
00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,319
Speaker 1: making my media. My first movie almost took me all

925
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 1: the way out. I was like, Lord, why why did

926
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 1: I get into this business? What is going on here?

927
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,160
Speaker 1: But I knew I wasn't going to quit. I knew

928
00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:17,480
Speaker 1: I was going to keep going. It's it's something where

929
00:48:17,520 --> 00:48:21,640
Speaker 1: you have to tell yourself, I got this despite the setbacks,

930
00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: despite the challenges. But you also have to be real

931
00:48:24,840 --> 00:48:27,800
Speaker 1: with yourself and know that those things are going to happen.

932
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:31,279
Speaker 1: I think people try to fool themselves saying, oh, you

933
00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:33,879
Speaker 1: know on social media, this person is doing this and this.

934
00:48:34,360 --> 00:48:36,799
Speaker 1: You know you'll see me on the red carpet all

935
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 1: the time. But you you have no idea what I

936
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,399
Speaker 1: went through to get there, you know, So I just

937
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,520
Speaker 1: I think people need to understand. Don't just say you

938
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 1: believe in yourself. You really gotta believe in yourself enough

939
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: to push through it all. You know, it's really great

940
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,359
Speaker 1: when I'm listening to your motivation. And you know, like

941
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 1: I said in when I saw your movie All In,

942
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:03,040
Speaker 1: that you could produced in your wrote starting eleast Neil

943
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,120
Speaker 1: as well as Little Mama the Rapper, Um I was

944
00:49:07,719 --> 00:49:09,800
Speaker 1: first of all, you gotta have talent on the screen

945
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:13,160
Speaker 1: to really make the words and the and the plot

946
00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 1: have any substance. Okay, you know you could, you could

947
00:49:16,080 --> 00:49:17,880
Speaker 1: have all You have a great book. If it's not

948
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 1: directed correctly or written correctly, then the translation is nothing.

949
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:24,279
Speaker 1: And little Mama, if you don't know about her skill set,

950
00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 1: please join the club. She's very talented. Of course, at

951
00:49:27,520 --> 00:49:30,560
Speaker 1: least Neil is. You know, her role is played her

952
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,640
Speaker 1: mama in the movie. And and little Mama had three kids.

953
00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: You're just dragging around all over the town and trying

954
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:40,120
Speaker 1: to just find her place in life. Or your movies

955
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:45,560
Speaker 1: female centric of female focused movies. Yeah, yes, absolutely, most

956
00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:49,480
Speaker 1: of them are uh female focus. But also what's very

957
00:49:49,640 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 1: unique about the movie that you're speaking of All In?

958
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:57,160
Speaker 1: You know, as an African American screenwriter, you have the

959
00:49:57,200 --> 00:50:01,200
Speaker 1: ability to change the narrative. Right. So at megamand any

960
00:50:01,239 --> 00:50:04,640
Speaker 1: movie that you see from me, it is going to

961
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: show African Americans in a good light bottom line. So

962
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 1: in the movie All In, little Mama didn't start off

963
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 1: in a good light, right, She was struggling and beginning,

964
00:50:14,080 --> 00:50:16,040
Speaker 1: But by the time you got to the end, what

965
00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:19,520
Speaker 1: was happening. She was an entrepreneur, She opened up her

966
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:23,279
Speaker 1: shop and all was well. Right. So that was me

967
00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 1: I had. I had the the the decision making opportunity

968
00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:30,040
Speaker 1: as to how I was going to end that film.

969
00:50:30,640 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 1: And so I believe that the more content creators that

970
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,520
Speaker 1: we get out there who have that same mission, where like,

971
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 1: how are we gonna look on screen? You know? And

972
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,920
Speaker 1: so I wrote another movie, UM that was based off

973
00:50:42,960 --> 00:50:47,279
Speaker 1: of a book from Life Changing Books called The Available Wife. UM.

974
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,040
Speaker 1: This movie is actually airing on BT this month. But

975
00:50:51,480 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 1: when you watch how these African American females look, you're

976
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,319
Speaker 1: gonna say to yourself, oh my goodness, like who did this?

977
00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 1: Who did It's the moment that you see them. They

978
00:51:02,160 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 1: have nice, nice careers, entrepreneurs. Everywhere they look good, they are.

979
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,120
Speaker 1: Everything that they do is gonna put you on another level.

980
00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 1: So we don't have to always put ourselves in movies

981
00:51:15,600 --> 00:51:18,800
Speaker 1: where we are the underdog. But that doesn't have to happen.

982
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 1: But it starts with who has the pen, who's doing

983
00:51:21,600 --> 00:51:24,320
Speaker 1: who's doing the writing, and who's making the decisions. We

984
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,319
Speaker 1: don't use the interesting thing about it because we all

985
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:29,840
Speaker 1: talk about budgets, okay, and that that's you know, who

986
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 1: you know because you're getting some amazing talent and I

987
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:34,920
Speaker 1: know your budgets, aren't you know, We're not talking about

988
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:37,880
Speaker 1: Will Packer budgets. And some of these, even his movies

989
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:41,319
Speaker 1: are the most profitable movies in the in the in

990
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: the Hollywood history is Will Packer movies. So when you

991
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:48,400
Speaker 1: when you start looking at new talent veteran talent bringing

992
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:53,080
Speaker 1: them to your project, how do you have the casting? Yeah,

993
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:57,760
Speaker 1: so we typically connect with the agents that have either

994
00:51:57,920 --> 00:52:01,880
Speaker 1: seen our product or know someone who knows us, right,

995
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:04,600
Speaker 1: because it's all always about who you know. In the

996
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 1: very beginning, when I produced my very first movie, nobody

997
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:10,600
Speaker 1: knew who we were. So it was very difficult to

998
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:16,240
Speaker 1: get talent. But once they saw secrets, UH centers wanted

999
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:19,000
Speaker 1: some of the movies that I did first. They then said, oh,

1000
00:52:19,040 --> 00:52:22,360
Speaker 1: this is this is a great you know, a great

1001
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:24,239
Speaker 1: company to go and work for. I know they're gonna

1002
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:26,920
Speaker 1: be treated well. I know they're gonna look good on screen,

1003
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:29,919
Speaker 1: and so from there has become very easy. So now,

1004
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:33,120
Speaker 1: for example, I'm casting for a new movie as we speak.

1005
00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:36,760
Speaker 1: You know, when when we're being introduced to certain agents,

1006
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,960
Speaker 1: we're just really send it over are real and saying, hey,

1007
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,320
Speaker 1: here's a new movie that we're doing, here's the script,

1008
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:46,680
Speaker 1: and and it's it's much easier now. Um, and our budgets,

1009
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:49,360
Speaker 1: like you said, we don't have the mega budgets, but

1010
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,680
Speaker 1: at our budget level, talent knows that, oh, we're gonna

1011
00:52:52,680 --> 00:52:54,759
Speaker 1: be seen in a good light, and this is something

1012
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:57,839
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of. Absolutely, Because when

1013
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:00,840
Speaker 1: you can, would you consider your movie is independent productions

1014
00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:05,800
Speaker 1: or how how how is that featured? Yeah, we're considered

1015
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:10,040
Speaker 1: independent filmmakers. Now, that's that's the beauty of your industry.

1016
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 1: Because of the fact that now when I when I

1017
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,480
Speaker 1: after reference all in because that's a movie I saw

1018
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:17,839
Speaker 1: and I fell in love with your talent. I fell

1019
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 1: in love with the concept and it was a feel

1020
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:21,279
Speaker 1: good story and it goes back to me. And that's

1021
00:53:21,320 --> 00:53:23,720
Speaker 1: why I relate to you a lot, because I wrote

1022
00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:28,719
Speaker 1: Sitcom's Sister Sister, you know, Jamie foxx the Parkers, and

1023
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,360
Speaker 1: it was all about you know, heavy said women feeling

1024
00:53:31,360 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 1: good about themselves. That were the Parkers. Jamie Fok was

1025
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:37,000
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, young man finding themselves. And when when I

1026
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:38,960
Speaker 1: went to the series in the last two years, we

1027
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:40,919
Speaker 1: took him out of the hotel and made him, made

1028
00:53:40,960 --> 00:53:43,720
Speaker 1: him a business, put him in the professional business world.

1029
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:47,600
Speaker 1: And then Sister Sister, that was two twin teenagers coming

1030
00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:49,840
Speaker 1: of age because we took him from high school to college.

1031
00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 1: And I always feel good about that and my whole brand.

1032
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:54,040
Speaker 1: If you look at what we did with Steve Harvey,

1033
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,840
Speaker 1: it was always about uplifting black people. Same thing up

1034
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:59,400
Speaker 1: doing with stephen A. Smith. So it's about the positive

1035
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:02,319
Speaker 1: image that you creat that we are now getty now.

1036
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:04,720
Speaker 1: You know when you started way back in the early

1037
00:54:04,840 --> 00:54:07,920
Speaker 1: two thousands, you know, when nobody out there wanted black content.

1038
00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 1: Nobody was looking for us, you know, and then you

1039
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:14,759
Speaker 1: battle with TV want you battle with Open Network. You

1040
00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:17,120
Speaker 1: battling with BT just to try to get a little

1041
00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:20,239
Speaker 1: little meaty with your stuff. How has the reaction been

1042
00:54:20,280 --> 00:54:23,400
Speaker 1: to your brand now that suddenly people want black content.

1043
00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:25,920
Speaker 1: We got the Netflix out there, the Amazon, the Hulse

1044
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:28,560
Speaker 1: on it, a new network coming out of this time

1045
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:32,279
Speaker 1: to the oh Hulu relationship. What is happening with your brain? Girl?

1046
00:54:32,320 --> 00:54:35,360
Speaker 1: You gotta be feeling good about yourself. Your faith is

1047
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:39,799
Speaker 1: paying off. Yeah, yeah, hard work pays off, I'm telling you.

1048
00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:41,560
Speaker 1: And so when I think about it, I'm so glad

1049
00:54:41,600 --> 00:54:43,960
Speaker 1: that you brought that up, because I always tell people

1050
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:48,160
Speaker 1: it's a part of staying through it all, like saying

1051
00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:53,040
Speaker 1: the course. When when I first did Secrets in sixteen,

1052
00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:56,680
Speaker 1: we took it to a b FF, very first time

1053
00:54:57,080 --> 00:54:59,360
Speaker 1: doing any of this, I remember being in the movie

1054
00:54:59,400 --> 00:55:04,200
Speaker 1: theater or the screening and actually looking around going, wait

1055
00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:06,799
Speaker 1: a minute, this is real. This is really real. Now

1056
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:09,479
Speaker 1: people are in here watching this movie. And so God

1057
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:13,120
Speaker 1: bless me big time because right after the screening I

1058
00:55:13,600 --> 00:55:17,120
Speaker 1: met someone from BT and they said, Hey, you need

1059
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:19,680
Speaker 1: to meet such and such. They're gonna call you next week.

1060
00:55:19,880 --> 00:55:23,239
Speaker 1: And that happened. Um got a call from BT the

1061
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:25,440
Speaker 1: very next week. And said, hey, we want to license

1062
00:55:25,480 --> 00:55:30,920
Speaker 1: this movie, So staying the course, staying committed. I didn't

1063
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:33,280
Speaker 1: I didn't even know that that was going to happen

1064
00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:36,080
Speaker 1: to me. I honestly was going there saying, I'm gonna

1065
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:38,240
Speaker 1: take a chance on myself. I'm gonna market this film

1066
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:41,120
Speaker 1: like crazy. See who shows up at my screening, and

1067
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 1: if nothing happens, I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna figure

1068
00:55:44,040 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 1: it out. I'm gonna get it on somebody's network. But

1069
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,440
Speaker 1: it happened very quickly, and from there the train has

1070
00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:53,560
Speaker 1: not stopped moving. Well that's a good train. Now that

1071
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,640
Speaker 1: now you have some project coming out on up on

1072
00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 1: bt her tell us about the tell us about the

1073
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:04,960
Speaker 1: the process of Megamond, of of taking these books and

1074
00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:07,800
Speaker 1: adapting them for film. You know, we all know you

1075
00:56:07,920 --> 00:56:11,080
Speaker 1: to brain Child. You know you are the Megamond talk

1076
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:14,680
Speaker 1: to us about their dressing. Yes, yes, so so obviously

1077
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:18,480
Speaker 1: with Megamond, our primary goal is to take the books

1078
00:56:18,520 --> 00:56:21,200
Speaker 1: that are in the book catalog, from life changing books

1079
00:56:21,360 --> 00:56:25,120
Speaker 1: and adapt those into the movies. So that's the primary goal. However,

1080
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: along the way, when people see that you can produce

1081
00:56:29,200 --> 00:56:31,560
Speaker 1: um that you're putting out good content of course they're

1082
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:33,640
Speaker 1: going to tap into you to do projects with them

1083
00:56:33,640 --> 00:56:37,960
Speaker 1: as well. So the partnership with bec Her UM with

1084
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:41,000
Speaker 1: these health initiatives came with UM. One of the executives

1085
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:44,200
Speaker 1: over there, Loresa Bates Um, she was looking for someone

1086
00:56:44,239 --> 00:56:48,160
Speaker 1: to UM partner with them on the health initiatives. So

1087
00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:51,400
Speaker 1: they have a series called The Waiting Room, The Couch,

1088
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:56,520
Speaker 1: and now the Hotline. All of these series are projects

1089
00:56:56,600 --> 00:57:00,760
Speaker 1: that highlight health issues or some type of of issue

1090
00:57:01,200 --> 00:57:04,880
Speaker 1: that African American women face. So for example, The Couch

1091
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 1: touches on mental health, Uh, the Waiting Room touches on

1092
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:12,320
Speaker 1: breast cancer awareness, and now the Hotline touches on domestic violence.

1093
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: And so this is a series that UM you know

1094
00:57:15,600 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 1: obviously you know bt Her feels really strongly about and

1095
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:23,480
Speaker 1: I am actually the producer for for that series. And

1096
00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 1: so we bring in celebrity directors. We've had Vivica Fox,

1097
00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 1: Mona Scott Young, Victoria Raoul, Andessa Bell Callaway. Uh, the

1098
00:57:32,880 --> 00:57:36,240
Speaker 1: list goes on, but they basically come in, they take

1099
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:40,960
Speaker 1: us an episode and they direct that episode. And the

1100
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 1: reason why we tapped into uh celebrities to do this

1101
00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:48,000
Speaker 1: is because we know when they speak people listen. So

1102
00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:51,320
Speaker 1: when you have a Shirley Ralph talking to you about

1103
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:54,720
Speaker 1: why you should go and get a mamogram early. Uh,

1104
00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 1: and why she decided to direct a an episode about

1105
00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:02,840
Speaker 1: breast cancer awareness. UM. So these these short films episodes

1106
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:06,600
Speaker 1: are very very powerful. UM. We have a set of

1107
00:58:06,640 --> 00:58:10,160
Speaker 1: them coming out in July for The Couch, which are

1108
00:58:10,240 --> 00:58:13,880
Speaker 1: the mental health UM series. Tress on the Vivigate Fox

1109
00:58:14,560 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 1: movie that she directed, was that shot d C Area. Yes,

1110
00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:20,480
Speaker 1: we shoot all of our movies in DC. It was

1111
00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:21,880
Speaker 1: so funny because I was just tell you a little

1112
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:24,760
Speaker 1: funny story because one of the locations that she chose

1113
00:58:24,880 --> 00:58:26,720
Speaker 1: was a very good friend aboute did you guys use

1114
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:31,840
Speaker 1: Laura foods? It was her. So so we are so

1115
00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:34,080
Speaker 1: I'm on the phone, We're talking to Laura and then

1116
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:38,840
Speaker 1: she won't Foxes in my office directing. It is so

1117
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:41,880
Speaker 1: funny that you saying that, because I knew exactly the

1118
00:58:41,920 --> 00:58:44,200
Speaker 1: project that you were talking about that was recently shot,

1119
00:58:44,240 --> 00:58:46,480
Speaker 1: by the way, it was shot this year. Yeah, and

1120
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:51,800
Speaker 1: we actually shot two series at Laura's um facility. We

1121
00:58:51,920 --> 00:58:56,320
Speaker 1: did Want with Dandy Smith and Mona Scott Young. Her

1122
00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:59,200
Speaker 1: film was shot there as well. UM, and you know

1123
00:58:59,240 --> 00:59:01,520
Speaker 1: obviously I know Lord, just because she's amazing when it

1124
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:06,040
Speaker 1: comes to money. Yes, and she talked about you to

1125
00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:08,640
Speaker 1: me before Rashawn, But I actually did not make the

1126
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:11,920
Speaker 1: connection until now. Well good because now you know because

1127
00:59:11,960 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 1: of the fact that you are. It was so funny,

1128
00:59:13,960 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 1: But I said, I gotta ask what difficult shoot that

1129
00:59:17,160 --> 00:59:20,000
Speaker 1: indc because it was recently done. But when I look

1130
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:22,800
Speaker 1: at these projects and looking you're evolving as a brand.

1131
00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:25,720
Speaker 1: You are a brand now. You know. You may have

1132
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:28,439
Speaker 1: when out on faith, you may have. You know, God

1133
00:59:28,480 --> 00:59:30,800
Speaker 1: told you need to send the bed for six months

1134
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,160
Speaker 1: and get you a little re ring bell and you

1135
00:59:33,200 --> 00:59:36,160
Speaker 1: wrote a book, but you are a brand. What responsibility

1136
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:38,640
Speaker 1: comes with you being a brand tresser as a real

1137
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:44,480
Speaker 1: small wood Yeah. I think for me, Um, the responsibility

1138
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:47,840
Speaker 1: that I take is number one. I said before, I

1139
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:50,400
Speaker 1: get to control the narrative, right because we are. We

1140
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:53,080
Speaker 1: have a lot of eyeballs on us now. So even

1141
00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:55,600
Speaker 1: if I wanted to act crazy, I can't, right because

1142
00:59:55,640 --> 00:59:58,040
Speaker 1: there's too many people watching me. Um. I take the

1143
00:59:58,080 --> 01:00:01,520
Speaker 1: fact that although I don't teach in the classroom, I'm

1144
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:03,919
Speaker 1: still an educator and there are a lot of young

1145
01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:08,600
Speaker 1: people watching me. Following me, wanting to duplicate my success,

1146
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 1: and so I don't take that lightly. UM. So responsibility

1147
01:00:12,120 --> 01:00:15,520
Speaker 1: for me is that I watch what I do. I

1148
01:00:15,600 --> 01:00:18,560
Speaker 1: make sure that I am pulling other people up and

1149
01:00:18,560 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 1: showing them what to do. UM and I am encouraging

1150
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:24,520
Speaker 1: people all the time to go for it, but go

1151
01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:27,360
Speaker 1: for it with a plan, right right. And then then

1152
01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:30,200
Speaker 1: the plan is that you know it can that's be

1153
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:32,520
Speaker 1: just faith. It has to have a plan tied to

1154
01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:34,840
Speaker 1: I always tell people you go out on faith, but

1155
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:37,240
Speaker 1: somewhere along like you better have some reason or a

1156
01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:41,000
Speaker 1: budget tied to that. That that that faith. And when

1157
01:00:41,040 --> 01:00:42,760
Speaker 1: I when I look at what you're doing, what you

1158
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:44,960
Speaker 1: I gotta ask this question because we said, you know

1159
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:48,160
Speaker 1: your your books are female centric because people come to

1160
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:50,960
Speaker 1: me all the time. You know, I can't get everybody

1161
01:00:51,040 --> 01:00:53,640
Speaker 1: at Simon Schuster or Harper College or some of the

1162
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:56,920
Speaker 1: major labels out there. Do do you how do you

1163
01:00:57,000 --> 01:00:59,959
Speaker 1: how do you can screen people who want to bring

1164
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:04,640
Speaker 1: novels or memoirs to your to your your book label

1165
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 1: l CP. Yeah, we have a screening process. So pretty

1166
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:12,400
Speaker 1: much we send all traffic to um trust the ozareil

1167
01:01:12,520 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 1: dot com and from there people who want to go

1168
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:17,320
Speaker 1: to casting, they can figure it out, you know, once

1169
01:01:17,360 --> 01:01:19,400
Speaker 1: they get to the site. If they want to, you know,

1170
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:22,760
Speaker 1: submit a project. It's an easy way for me to

1171
01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:27,600
Speaker 1: streamline everything, all questions straight to that site. Because of course,

1172
01:01:27,640 --> 01:01:30,880
Speaker 1: if I'm doing radio interviews and all these different things,

1173
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:33,040
Speaker 1: I can't always try to figure out how to help

1174
01:01:33,080 --> 01:01:37,200
Speaker 1: somebody answer each individual question. So we send everybody right

1175
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:39,720
Speaker 1: there and they can get all the answers that they

1176
01:01:39,760 --> 01:01:43,320
Speaker 1: need in terms of um, you know, us looking at projects,

1177
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:45,640
Speaker 1: whether it's a screenplay, it's a novel or whatever, it

1178
01:01:45,720 --> 01:01:48,840
Speaker 1: is okay cool. So so if someone because I'm I'm

1179
01:01:48,840 --> 01:01:51,280
Speaker 1: gonna sending some people, you're wait now because I have

1180
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:55,760
Speaker 1: no i have no clue as to what to do,

1181
01:01:55,800 --> 01:01:58,840
Speaker 1: because I'm not familiar with because Amazon takes a lot

1182
01:01:58,880 --> 01:02:00,400
Speaker 1: of your money, to my understand, and then you know,

1183
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:03,240
Speaker 1: when you do self publishing, and so when you talk

1184
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:06,480
Speaker 1: about self publiclay are you going through Amazon? How how

1185
01:02:06,480 --> 01:02:09,600
Speaker 1: does your self publishing system work for you? Yeah, we

1186
01:02:09,760 --> 01:02:14,000
Speaker 1: still utilize Amazon. It's obviously not the only outlet that

1187
01:02:14,040 --> 01:02:17,120
Speaker 1: we have, but you know, we use Baker and Taylor,

1188
01:02:17,280 --> 01:02:21,720
Speaker 1: we use Ingram. Amazon is just easy for everyone, you know,

1189
01:02:22,440 --> 01:02:25,040
Speaker 1: whether I think I'm always in this love hate relationship

1190
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:27,919
Speaker 1: with Amazon. But at the end of the day, it's

1191
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:32,919
Speaker 1: easy access. And because America loves Amazon, they go there

1192
01:02:32,960 --> 01:02:35,880
Speaker 1: for my films, they go there to buy my books.

1193
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:40,360
Speaker 1: But ultimately we get a chance to disseminate the information

1194
01:02:40,760 --> 01:02:43,160
Speaker 1: when they come to trust to ozarel dot com. So

1195
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:46,040
Speaker 1: it's just the easy I love it. First of all,

1196
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:52,080
Speaker 1: let's not just say America, but the world loves Amazons. You.

1197
01:02:52,080 --> 01:02:54,560
Speaker 1: You know, they can be buying your books in Africa

1198
01:02:54,720 --> 01:02:58,960
Speaker 1: and the Caribbean, in Spain, in Europe and Russia because

1199
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:03,200
Speaker 1: they're watching my movie Shot all the time. But that's

1200
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:04,680
Speaker 1: what that's That's what I'm saying, is that you are

1201
01:03:04,720 --> 01:03:06,919
Speaker 1: a brand down and so you know, I know I'm

1202
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:10,440
Speaker 1: going to continuous conversation because you know, you're so enchanting

1203
01:03:11,000 --> 01:03:14,720
Speaker 1: and from the standpoint of you know, when I when

1204
01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:16,600
Speaker 1: I when I come across people like you who are

1205
01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:19,800
Speaker 1: naturally talented, you know, it's it's always the next level

1206
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:21,680
Speaker 1: when I'm trying to figure out, you know, what's the

1207
01:03:21,760 --> 01:03:23,959
Speaker 1: next level for you. That's why we have to talk

1208
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:26,160
Speaker 1: more off the air because of the fact that I

1209
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,480
Speaker 1: see gifts in you. I'm not saying you're satisfied. I'll

1210
01:03:29,520 --> 01:03:32,600
Speaker 1: never say that. But what are the next step? Because

1211
01:03:33,280 --> 01:03:36,680
Speaker 1: you you, you know you, you know big dollar you

1212
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:39,000
Speaker 1: should beat some big dollar projects. You know you should

1213
01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:42,080
Speaker 1: be afraid, you know, twenty five million dollar budgets. If

1214
01:03:42,080 --> 01:03:44,320
Speaker 1: they're throwing around the Netflix and all this stuff, you

1215
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:47,640
Speaker 1: should be doing those things. And so I'm claiming it.

1216
01:03:47,680 --> 01:03:51,640
Speaker 1: I'm claiming it speaking into existence. I'm just trustful. I

1217
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:53,520
Speaker 1: don't just talk like that's just because you know you

1218
01:03:53,600 --> 01:03:56,160
Speaker 1: look good. I'm talking about because you're good. Okay, So

1219
01:03:56,560 --> 01:03:58,880
Speaker 1: you know if you Ugglass think I talked to way

1220
01:03:58,920 --> 01:04:01,960
Speaker 1: because you're good girl. You all right? So so in

1221
01:04:02,040 --> 01:04:04,400
Speaker 1: the future, let's let's let's stay in touch. And I

1222
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:06,840
Speaker 1: just want to share your story on money making conversation

1223
01:04:06,920 --> 01:04:10,440
Speaker 1: about how you made a decision as a elementary high school.

1224
01:04:10,560 --> 01:04:13,240
Speaker 1: You had a master's degree in education and you decided

1225
01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:15,280
Speaker 1: to you know, someone the follow my dream and the

1226
01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:19,120
Speaker 1: Nate sayals. Your friends, your family, your co workers told you, hey,

1227
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:21,920
Speaker 1: care are you crazy? Same people told me when I

1228
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:24,320
Speaker 1: would leaving IBM be a stand up comment. They said,

1229
01:04:24,320 --> 01:04:26,160
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be Edin Murphy. I never told you

1230
01:04:26,280 --> 01:04:28,680
Speaker 1: I wanted to be Edin Murphy and I told you

1231
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:31,240
Speaker 1: I want to be richer prior you assuming something I

1232
01:04:31,360 --> 01:04:32,680
Speaker 1: never All I want to do is just be ras

1233
01:04:32,680 --> 01:04:34,960
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald and guess what. It's worked out for me,

1234
01:04:35,200 --> 01:04:37,280
Speaker 1: and it's working out for you. And that's what money

1235
01:04:37,360 --> 01:04:40,600
Speaker 1: making conversations about. Then people hear these stories of success

1236
01:04:40,720 --> 01:04:42,960
Speaker 1: to let them know if you follow your faith with

1237
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:45,640
Speaker 1: a plan and a budget, you can win too. But no,

1238
01:04:45,760 --> 01:04:49,800
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some low roads, the low roads go

1239
01:04:49,960 --> 01:04:52,040
Speaker 1: to let you know how to not fall back into

1240
01:04:52,080 --> 01:04:54,760
Speaker 1: the low roads. The high roads when they come, let

1241
01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:56,760
Speaker 1: you know how what it takes to stay at the

1242
01:04:56,840 --> 01:05:00,200
Speaker 1: high road. Because the back to your success. And thank

1243
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:02,760
Speaker 1: you for coming on Money Making Conversation, Trusting, Thank you

1244
01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:06,040
Speaker 1: so much for having me. I really really love this conversation.

1245
01:05:06,120 --> 01:05:08,640
Speaker 1: I'm glad you and I'm glad you was able to

1246
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:10,800
Speaker 1: put two and two together with Laura Foods. Now you

1247
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:17,800
Speaker 1: know talk, that's my girl. But again she swaps, she

1248
01:05:17,880 --> 01:05:20,880
Speaker 1: knows out the hend your money and she's a hard worker. Again,

1249
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:22,640
Speaker 1: come back on my show, and we need to promote

1250
01:05:22,680 --> 01:05:24,760
Speaker 1: something else and also just tell your story to my

1251
01:05:24,920 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 1: fans who will vote audio as well as video for

1252
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:31,280
Speaker 1: money Making conversations. Okay, awesome, thank you so much. Have

1253
01:05:31,360 --> 01:05:33,960
Speaker 1: a great day. Okay, we will be right back with

1254
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 1: more money making conversations with your host Roshawn McDonald. Look

1255
01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:41,440
Speaker 1: for your children's eyes to see the true magic of

1256
01:05:41,520 --> 01:05:45,160
Speaker 1: a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You look

1257
01:05:45,280 --> 01:05:48,000
Speaker 1: and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face of

1258
01:05:48,080 --> 01:05:51,600
Speaker 1: a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky. They see

1259
01:05:51,600 --> 01:05:54,840
Speaker 1: treasure and pebbles. They see a windy path that could

1260
01:05:54,960 --> 01:05:58,880
Speaker 1: lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide

1261
01:05:59,160 --> 01:06:01,960
Speaker 1: is as fast and ating world. Find a forest near

1262
01:06:02,040 --> 01:06:04,960
Speaker 1: you and start exploring and discover the forest dot org

1263
01:06:05,160 --> 01:06:07,200
Speaker 1: brought to you by the United States Forest Service and

1264
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:12,560
Speaker 1: the AD Council. What grows in the forest trees? Sure no.

1265
01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:15,959
Speaker 1: What else grows in the forest? Our imagination, our sense

1266
01:06:16,040 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 1: of wonder, and our family bonds grow too, because when

1267
01:06:19,440 --> 01:06:26,200
Speaker 1: we disconnect from this and connect with this, we reconnect

1268
01:06:26,280 --> 01:06:29,320
Speaker 1: with each other. The forest is closer than you think.

1269
01:06:29,640 --> 01:06:32,960
Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and start exploring. I Discover

1270
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:35,520
Speaker 1: the Forest dot org brought to you by the United

1271
01:06:35,560 --> 01:06:39,400
Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. Look to your

1272
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:42,640
Speaker 1: children's eyes to see the true magic of a forest.

1273
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Speaker 1: with arms outstretched to the sky. They see treasure and pebbles.

1276
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Speaker 1: They see a windy path that could lead to adventure,

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Speaker 1: and they see you. They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world?

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Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and start exploring and discover

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Speaker 1: the forest dot Org brought to you by the United

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Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council. You are now

1281
01:07:10,480 --> 01:07:14,320
Speaker 1: tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of Inspiration with

1282
01:07:14,480 --> 01:07:17,840
Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald Lamar Rutger beginning his career on daytime soap

1283
01:07:17,920 --> 01:07:21,160
Speaker 1: operas As the World Turned and All My Children, Lamar

1284
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 1: discovered when COVID nineteen hit, it changed the game in

1285
01:07:24,600 --> 01:07:28,240
Speaker 1: television production. You know, everything now is being so condensed,

1286
01:07:28,400 --> 01:07:31,320
Speaker 1: wanting because you are also trying to not only minimize costs,

1287
01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:34,680
Speaker 1: but minimize basic leaves, exposure risks and all that. So

1288
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:38,160
Speaker 1: you're literally working virtually every day for a month, one

1289
01:07:38,240 --> 01:07:41,959
Speaker 1: day off every six you know, seven days or something

1290
01:07:42,040 --> 01:07:43,960
Speaker 1: like that. The hours are crazy, so you've got to

1291
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 1: take care of your body and be careful about being

1292
01:07:46,960 --> 01:07:49,760
Speaker 1: fatigued and make sure you're getting a proper rest and

1293
01:07:49,880 --> 01:07:53,959
Speaker 1: recovery and nutrition. I have COVID compliance officers on set.

1294
01:07:54,120 --> 01:07:56,960
Speaker 1: You know again, we get tested on a regular basis.

1295
01:07:57,160 --> 01:07:59,600
Speaker 1: I think that people are doing the best they can

1296
01:07:59,640 --> 01:08:01,440
Speaker 1: because we and they also don't want to get shut down.

1297
01:08:01,600 --> 01:08:04,080
Speaker 1: If you want to hear this full interview with lamon Rocket,

1298
01:08:04,240 --> 01:08:09,439
Speaker 1: visit money Making Conversation dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back

1299
01:08:09,560 --> 01:08:13,640
Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations with your host, Rashwan McDonald. My

1300
01:08:13,800 --> 01:08:16,200
Speaker 1: next guest is a guy I've seen it a long time.

1301
01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:19,200
Speaker 1: He's one of my favorite people. Al Harrington. He has

1302
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:22,280
Speaker 1: a retired NBA star as the CEO and founder of

1303
01:08:22,360 --> 01:08:26,240
Speaker 1: the premium cannabis company Viola Incorporative. Inspired the name in

1304
01:08:26,320 --> 01:08:30,000
Speaker 1: honor of his grandmother, Viola Harrington, after seeing how cannabis

1305
01:08:30,080 --> 01:08:34,320
Speaker 1: helped Viola, who suffered from glaucoma and diabetes. Al's entrepreneur

1306
01:08:34,479 --> 01:08:38,000
Speaker 1: endeavors begin and doing his NBA career when he strategically

1307
01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:42,080
Speaker 1: invested in startups across the cannabis industry. Then in Al

1308
01:08:42,160 --> 01:08:45,599
Speaker 1: brought Viola to the market after overseeing the carefully created

1309
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:49,439
Speaker 1: cultivation and extraction and production. This part of his mission

1310
01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:53,280
Speaker 1: is to say this entrepreneur opportunity is for everybody. He's there.

1311
01:08:53,320 --> 01:08:55,639
Speaker 1: He's a leader in the business. He's throughout this country.

1312
01:08:55,680 --> 01:08:57,680
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about the locations that he's grown his

1313
01:08:57,760 --> 01:09:01,840
Speaker 1: business over one hundred employees. Wow, please walcome to the show.

1314
01:09:02,200 --> 01:09:05,160
Speaker 1: My man, he's an entrepreneur. Don't like I said, Well,

1315
01:09:05,200 --> 01:09:07,800
Speaker 1: just said what Lebron said. More than the athlete, that's

1316
01:09:07,840 --> 01:09:10,960
Speaker 1: my man right here, Al Hariton, I ain't doing all

1317
01:09:14,000 --> 01:09:15,880
Speaker 1: you know. I I had to bring it up man,

1318
01:09:15,960 --> 01:09:19,000
Speaker 1: more than an athlete, man, because I'm on an interviewing

1319
01:09:19,120 --> 01:09:22,200
Speaker 1: UM Chris Paul and Chris Paul Goy. He was in

1320
01:09:22,240 --> 01:09:24,720
Speaker 1: the interview. He talked about the guy said, guy was

1321
01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:27,160
Speaker 1: caught off guard that he knew more than just about

1322
01:09:27,200 --> 01:09:28,880
Speaker 1: the game that he played. He said, Man, we do

1323
01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:31,280
Speaker 1: we dribble, We do want to just dribble a basketball. Man.

1324
01:09:31,320 --> 01:09:34,479
Speaker 1: We eat, we live, we have family, we do business deals.

1325
01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:38,080
Speaker 1: And that's really sometimes you can get caught off by that.

1326
01:09:38,200 --> 01:09:40,519
Speaker 1: People just kind of like short change you because you

1327
01:09:40,600 --> 01:09:43,599
Speaker 1: are an athlete, correct, Yeah, for sure. I mean you guys,

1328
01:09:43,760 --> 01:09:46,200
Speaker 1: and it's super expected, right, I mean most people are

1329
01:09:46,320 --> 01:09:49,639
Speaker 1: fans or whatever. They only see us on Sports Center, right,

1330
01:09:50,000 --> 01:09:52,000
Speaker 1: they don't you know, we don't have too many outlets

1331
01:09:52,080 --> 01:09:54,840
Speaker 1: where we get a chance to um, you know, show

1332
01:09:55,080 --> 01:09:57,640
Speaker 1: the other side of our life, right, the things that

1333
01:09:57,760 --> 01:10:00,439
Speaker 1: we do in the community, the investments that we make,

1334
01:10:00,640 --> 01:10:04,000
Speaker 1: you know, so um, you know it's important for like

1335
01:10:04,160 --> 01:10:06,240
Speaker 1: platforms like what you have here, you know what I'm saying,

1336
01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:08,840
Speaker 1: to be able to highlight athletes and allow us to

1337
01:10:08,960 --> 01:10:11,720
Speaker 1: show the world that we are more than athletes, and

1338
01:10:11,760 --> 01:10:13,880
Speaker 1: we're more than guys who just can dribble a basketball

1339
01:10:13,920 --> 01:10:16,599
Speaker 1: and make and make a hoop. You know. The interesting

1340
01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:18,519
Speaker 1: thing about it is that you know when you're giving

1341
01:10:18,520 --> 01:10:20,960
Speaker 1: that talent and I ways say I want to be uh,

1342
01:10:21,880 --> 01:10:23,040
Speaker 1: I have to slow it down when I say the

1343
01:10:23,080 --> 01:10:25,559
Speaker 1: word talent because then everybody has a talent. But if

1344
01:10:25,600 --> 01:10:28,280
Speaker 1: you don't work on it and mature it, then guess what,

1345
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:31,400
Speaker 1: it's just a talent. Let's talk about the process of

1346
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:34,560
Speaker 1: once you realize you had the ability to play basketball,

1347
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:38,080
Speaker 1: and then people I saw you having that ability to

1348
01:10:38,160 --> 01:10:40,760
Speaker 1: play basketball, how did you move forward and making it

1349
01:10:40,840 --> 01:10:44,599
Speaker 1: an opportunity that you can make money with it? Well,

1350
01:10:45,160 --> 01:10:48,800
Speaker 1: you know, for me, like, uh, my basketball talent came

1351
01:10:48,840 --> 01:10:52,280
Speaker 1: from noway almost right when I grew up. Believe it

1352
01:10:52,400 --> 01:10:54,720
Speaker 1: or not I was. You know, I was always the

1353
01:10:54,760 --> 01:10:57,439
Speaker 1: biggest kid in class. But I was the biggest kid

1354
01:10:57,479 --> 01:10:59,920
Speaker 1: in class. You know, my real tum is Albert sized

1355
01:11:00,120 --> 01:11:02,200
Speaker 1: fat out. But growing up so I used to be

1356
01:11:02,320 --> 01:11:04,360
Speaker 1: realied a little bit, you know about my size and

1357
01:11:04,439 --> 01:11:07,240
Speaker 1: my weight. So you know, the way I could take

1358
01:11:07,280 --> 01:11:10,160
Speaker 1: out my frustration was on the football field. So I

1359
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:12,599
Speaker 1: played football up until I was a freshman in high

1360
01:11:12,600 --> 01:11:14,240
Speaker 1: school and that's when I had a gross spur. So

1361
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:16,400
Speaker 1: I went from you know five ten to six four,

1362
01:11:17,160 --> 01:11:20,400
Speaker 1: and you know, played on the freshman team. Wasn't that good. Uh,

1363
01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,120
Speaker 1: But for some reason, you know, my AU coach guy

1364
01:11:23,200 --> 01:11:25,840
Speaker 1: named Sandy Paon and then Jay Syriac, they saw a

1365
01:11:25,920 --> 01:11:28,280
Speaker 1: talent in me somehow, and you know they started to

1366
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:30,400
Speaker 1: invite me to work out some different things like that,

1367
01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:33,080
Speaker 1: and you know, over time, I fell in love with

1368
01:11:33,160 --> 01:11:35,439
Speaker 1: the game, and you know, going into my junior years,

1369
01:11:35,439 --> 01:11:37,920
Speaker 1: when I made a commitment that you know, I wanted

1370
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:40,320
Speaker 1: to be a ranked athlete. You know, I was wasn't ranked,

1371
01:11:40,360 --> 01:11:41,680
Speaker 1: but I saw a lot of the guys that was

1372
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:44,040
Speaker 1: in the top one hundred and top ten, and I

1373
01:11:44,160 --> 01:11:45,800
Speaker 1: just felt like there wasn't that much better than me,

1374
01:11:45,960 --> 01:11:48,040
Speaker 1: you know, it's just that they just have been playing longer.

1375
01:11:48,360 --> 01:11:50,680
Speaker 1: So I just really dedicated myself to the gym and

1376
01:11:50,840 --> 01:11:53,679
Speaker 1: just got really good man and over a two year span,

1377
01:11:54,120 --> 01:11:56,800
Speaker 1: I went from an unraped you know, uh, you know

1378
01:11:57,240 --> 01:11:59,760
Speaker 1: player to the number one player in the country. Right. So,

1379
01:12:00,160 --> 01:12:02,200
Speaker 1: you know, once I got to that point, you know,

1380
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:04,960
Speaker 1: all the number one players in the country was going

1381
01:12:05,080 --> 01:12:07,200
Speaker 1: to the league. So I was just like, shoot, if

1382
01:12:07,240 --> 01:12:09,599
Speaker 1: I came to the point I'm the number one player,

1383
01:12:09,720 --> 01:12:12,240
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go pro too. And pretty much that's how

1384
01:12:12,280 --> 01:12:14,080
Speaker 1: I made my decision. I was just like, I'm the No.

1385
01:12:14,240 --> 01:12:17,439
Speaker 1: One player. Everybody else is going from too, and that's

1386
01:12:17,439 --> 01:12:21,200
Speaker 1: how But the key key to you was when you

1387
01:12:21,320 --> 01:12:23,320
Speaker 1: got to the n B and you had you had mentors,

1388
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:26,160
Speaker 1: you know, because that's where a lot of players like

1389
01:12:26,320 --> 01:12:30,479
Speaker 1: you that are young don't have a real professional athletes

1390
01:12:30,640 --> 01:12:33,240
Speaker 1: pull you aside. Talk about that experience in the importance

1391
01:12:33,280 --> 01:12:36,200
Speaker 1: of mentorship for a young man who's suddenly in a

1392
01:12:36,280 --> 01:12:40,000
Speaker 1: legal adults you know, all the responsibility being an adult

1393
01:12:40,120 --> 01:12:44,280
Speaker 1: is placed on you and you have money. Yeah, it's

1394
01:12:44,400 --> 01:12:47,400
Speaker 1: it's uh, you know, it's it's eye opening. You know

1395
01:12:47,560 --> 01:12:51,240
Speaker 1: when you go from literally like nothing, so now having

1396
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:53,720
Speaker 1: a million dollars in the bank. It's just like you

1397
01:12:53,800 --> 01:12:55,960
Speaker 1: can't fathom it. And you know, for me, where I

1398
01:12:56,120 --> 01:12:57,800
Speaker 1: was just really lucky was that I got on a

1399
01:12:57,960 --> 01:13:00,960
Speaker 1: you know, Indiana Paces squad that just lost in you know,

1400
01:13:01,479 --> 01:13:04,519
Speaker 1: seven games to Michael Jordan's Bulls. So they brought back

1401
01:13:04,600 --> 01:13:07,880
Speaker 1: up a fully veteran team. So I had guys on

1402
01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:09,880
Speaker 1: my team that just taught me everything. They told me

1403
01:13:09,920 --> 01:13:12,400
Speaker 1: how to be a professional, which is the most important thing, right.

1404
01:13:12,439 --> 01:13:14,560
Speaker 1: I always say, the foundation that they lay with me

1405
01:13:15,040 --> 01:13:16,599
Speaker 1: is the reason why that I was able to play

1406
01:13:16,680 --> 01:13:19,240
Speaker 1: for sixteen years. And you know, to your point, a

1407
01:13:19,280 --> 01:13:21,640
Speaker 1: lot of the younger guys that do get drafted, you know,

1408
01:13:22,200 --> 01:13:24,400
Speaker 1: in the first the top ten, they usually go to

1409
01:13:24,479 --> 01:13:26,640
Speaker 1: teams that aren't really good, right, And usually they're not

1410
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:30,720
Speaker 1: really good because it's poor leadership. The team is extremely young,

1411
01:13:31,200 --> 01:13:33,240
Speaker 1: and they just have nobody to you know, kind of

1412
01:13:33,280 --> 01:13:35,519
Speaker 1: give them direction or whatever. So I always say, like,

1413
01:13:35,600 --> 01:13:37,719
Speaker 1: as much as I wanted to be a top fifteen

1414
01:13:37,800 --> 01:13:39,479
Speaker 1: pick or whatever, and I looked at the teams that

1415
01:13:39,840 --> 01:13:42,000
Speaker 1: I wanted to draft me, I think that guy was

1416
01:13:42,040 --> 01:13:43,720
Speaker 1: definitely looking out for me by putting me on a

1417
01:13:43,760 --> 01:13:47,200
Speaker 1: pacer team that had guys like Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson,

1418
01:13:47,400 --> 01:13:50,519
Speaker 1: Chris Mullen and Tonio Davis who actually allowed me to

1419
01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:53,160
Speaker 1: live with him my freshman. I'll tell his story, quick story.

1420
01:13:53,560 --> 01:13:55,720
Speaker 1: I had got, uh, you know these books I called

1421
01:13:55,760 --> 01:13:57,719
Speaker 1: him at the time in the mail and I looked

1422
01:13:57,760 --> 01:13:59,519
Speaker 1: at him and they had like the year and dating

1423
01:13:59,600 --> 01:14:01,200
Speaker 1: my name on it, and I didn't know what they were.

1424
01:14:01,240 --> 01:14:02,639
Speaker 1: So I took him and put it in my closet.

1425
01:14:03,120 --> 01:14:05,120
Speaker 1: And like two weeks later, I come home from practice

1426
01:14:05,240 --> 01:14:07,960
Speaker 1: and Antonio has the same books and he's like signing them.

1427
01:14:08,160 --> 01:14:10,120
Speaker 1: So I asked him what they were and he was like,

1428
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:14,840
Speaker 1: the my taxes. I was like, well, I got those

1429
01:14:14,880 --> 01:14:23,960
Speaker 1: same books downstairs and taxes. So it's like so, I

1430
01:14:24,040 --> 01:14:26,120
Speaker 1: mean it was on the court and off the court.

1431
01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:29,360
Speaker 1: You know the way these guys U leave me and

1432
01:14:29,560 --> 01:14:31,400
Speaker 1: you know, help set me up to, like I said,

1433
01:14:31,479 --> 01:14:33,840
Speaker 1: be able to play for sixteen years. We know the

1434
01:14:33,920 --> 01:14:36,800
Speaker 1: beauty of youw Herid were looked at background and al

1435
01:14:37,040 --> 01:14:39,320
Speaker 1: mad at the Steve Harvey camp and man, it was

1436
01:14:39,400 --> 01:14:42,160
Speaker 1: hot and we were just laughing and we we were

1437
01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:44,080
Speaker 1: phone called each other period and they were kind of

1438
01:14:44,120 --> 01:14:47,599
Speaker 1: like it lost uh like disconnected there. But the thing

1439
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:50,360
Speaker 1: I loved about this guy man was that, you know,

1440
01:14:50,760 --> 01:14:52,880
Speaker 1: you always think people gotta have a degree to do this,

1441
01:14:53,240 --> 01:14:55,880
Speaker 1: You have to go to a certain to graduate. And

1442
01:14:56,040 --> 01:14:59,839
Speaker 1: here you are, like you said, you fished your life decision.

1443
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:01,760
Speaker 1: Everybody else was number one, they went pro. I'm gonna

1444
01:15:01,760 --> 01:15:04,880
Speaker 1: go pro. But then while you was a pro, you

1445
01:15:05,000 --> 01:15:08,960
Speaker 1: had the smart the sense to learn how to be

1446
01:15:09,040 --> 01:15:14,160
Speaker 1: a professional and learned there is life after basketball, and

1447
01:15:14,200 --> 01:15:16,599
Speaker 1: that's what I'm talking about. You decided to start investing

1448
01:15:16,680 --> 01:15:20,080
Speaker 1: in your after life career while you were still playing.

1449
01:15:20,240 --> 01:15:23,880
Speaker 1: Why was that so important? Well, you know, I had

1450
01:15:23,920 --> 01:15:26,880
Speaker 1: a financial so so you know, quick story. Uh, I

1451
01:15:26,960 --> 01:15:29,880
Speaker 1: got plenty of stories, but my uh, I think it

1452
01:15:30,000 --> 01:15:31,880
Speaker 1: was my third year in the league. I was sitting

1453
01:15:31,920 --> 01:15:33,960
Speaker 1: in the locker room and I was sitting next to

1454
01:15:34,200 --> 01:15:37,639
Speaker 1: um Derek McKee, and somehow we just started talking about

1455
01:15:37,720 --> 01:15:40,799
Speaker 1: investing and how much money, you know, had I saved

1456
01:15:40,840 --> 01:15:43,240
Speaker 1: at that point, and he was asking me questions that

1457
01:15:43,320 --> 01:15:46,439
Speaker 1: I didn't really know the answer of, right, because I

1458
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:49,320
Speaker 1: was focused on playing. Right. I had had a back surgery,

1459
01:15:49,400 --> 01:15:51,400
Speaker 1: so I was just trying to get back and just

1460
01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:53,920
Speaker 1: focusing on the game and never like really looking at

1461
01:15:53,960 --> 01:15:56,479
Speaker 1: my finances. But when he asked me some questions I

1462
01:15:56,560 --> 01:15:58,559
Speaker 1: didn't know the answer. He was like, I'm gonna give

1463
01:15:58,560 --> 01:16:01,120
Speaker 1: you some homework answer these questions for me. And I

1464
01:16:01,240 --> 01:16:03,439
Speaker 1: went back and I looked at everything and I saw

1465
01:16:03,560 --> 01:16:05,920
Speaker 1: asking questions, and what I realized was like I had

1466
01:16:05,960 --> 01:16:08,280
Speaker 1: like three hundred and fifty thousand dollars saved, and I

1467
01:16:08,360 --> 01:16:10,439
Speaker 1: had a couple of assets here and there, but for

1468
01:16:10,560 --> 01:16:13,320
Speaker 1: the most part, I was still broke, right And this

1469
01:16:13,479 --> 01:16:16,040
Speaker 1: is after I had probably already made about three million bucks.

1470
01:16:16,600 --> 01:16:19,360
Speaker 1: And that was very i opening for me at that time,

1471
01:16:19,680 --> 01:16:22,040
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And it really, like, you know,

1472
01:16:22,200 --> 01:16:25,360
Speaker 1: just made me look at everything differently. And and Derek

1473
01:16:25,479 --> 01:16:28,080
Speaker 1: also introduced me to his financial advisor, which was an

1474
01:16:28,120 --> 01:16:30,960
Speaker 1: older gentleman out of Lexington, Kentucky. And what I like

1475
01:16:31,080 --> 01:16:34,000
Speaker 1: about this gentleman was one he really challenged me out

1476
01:16:34,080 --> 01:16:36,439
Speaker 1: the gate. You know. It was just like, you know, um,

1477
01:16:36,680 --> 01:16:39,760
Speaker 1: you know any business opportunities that you want to do, Um,

1478
01:16:40,040 --> 01:16:42,000
Speaker 1: I'll look at them for you, but you know you're

1479
01:16:42,000 --> 01:16:44,240
Speaker 1: gonna have to present to me why this is a

1480
01:16:44,320 --> 01:16:48,400
Speaker 1: good deal and start vetting deals on my own at

1481
01:16:48,439 --> 01:16:50,920
Speaker 1: a very young age. And it just started giving me

1482
01:16:51,000 --> 01:16:53,400
Speaker 1: more business sense and more business acumen and how to

1483
01:16:53,479 --> 01:16:56,000
Speaker 1: ask the right questions and not just fall for any

1484
01:16:56,080 --> 01:16:59,120
Speaker 1: opportunity that would actually come my way. You know. So

1485
01:16:59,240 --> 01:17:01,720
Speaker 1: I'll always give him a lot of credit for those

1486
01:17:01,800 --> 01:17:04,320
Speaker 1: two gentlemen, because you know, you know, I think I

1487
01:17:04,439 --> 01:17:07,880
Speaker 1: was maybe twenty one, maybe twenty two years old is

1488
01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:10,280
Speaker 1: when I started to have those kind of conversations, and

1489
01:17:10,360 --> 01:17:13,439
Speaker 1: it just really inspired me to just learn more. Every time,

1490
01:17:13,600 --> 01:17:16,200
Speaker 1: you know, a deal came across my plate, and you know,

1491
01:17:16,320 --> 01:17:19,120
Speaker 1: from an entrepreneur standpoint, like I just you know, I

1492
01:17:19,280 --> 01:17:21,840
Speaker 1: love business man. It's like it's like the game. You know,

1493
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:24,720
Speaker 1: what I'm saying and what I've learned about how translated

1494
01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:28,559
Speaker 1: what I've learned in sports two businesses. It's all about team,

1495
01:17:28,800 --> 01:17:30,960
Speaker 1: you know. So anytime I look at the deal, I'm

1496
01:17:31,000 --> 01:17:33,479
Speaker 1: looking at the team who's involved. You know what I'm saying,

1497
01:17:33,479 --> 01:17:36,360
Speaker 1: who's gonna be executing, who's gonna set the pick, who's

1498
01:17:36,360 --> 01:17:38,720
Speaker 1: gonna be three point shooter, who's gonna you know, what

1499
01:17:38,840 --> 01:17:41,680
Speaker 1: are the specialists that you have within your organization on

1500
01:17:41,840 --> 01:17:43,960
Speaker 1: why this is a good business opportunity and why this

1501
01:17:44,120 --> 01:17:46,559
Speaker 1: is gonna win. And you know, ever since I've taken

1502
01:17:46,560 --> 01:17:49,320
Speaker 1: that approach. Man. You know, I've been pretty successful. You know,

1503
01:17:49,400 --> 01:17:52,840
Speaker 1: I would definitely say every idea or everything that I

1504
01:17:52,960 --> 01:17:56,160
Speaker 1: invested in did not work, but most did. And then

1505
01:17:56,240 --> 01:17:57,840
Speaker 1: you know, you look at this business that I'm in

1506
01:17:57,920 --> 01:17:59,800
Speaker 1: now in cannabis. You know, this is our tenure and

1507
01:17:59,840 --> 01:18:02,920
Speaker 1: the ursary. I'm very proud of that. You know, we've raised,

1508
01:18:03,400 --> 01:18:06,000
Speaker 1: you know, just under twenty five million dollars. Six million

1509
01:18:06,080 --> 01:18:07,840
Speaker 1: of that was my own money. So I scanned the

1510
01:18:07,960 --> 01:18:10,559
Speaker 1: game and I'm ten years in and running the business

1511
01:18:10,600 --> 01:18:12,400
Speaker 1: as cash for positive where I look at a lot

1512
01:18:12,479 --> 01:18:14,800
Speaker 1: of my counterparts that don't even look like me one

1513
01:18:15,320 --> 01:18:17,840
Speaker 1: that they already have all the advantages to raise hundreds

1514
01:18:17,960 --> 01:18:19,720
Speaker 1: and a lot of them are out of business. So

1515
01:18:20,000 --> 01:18:21,479
Speaker 1: you know, I would just say that we've done a

1516
01:18:21,560 --> 01:18:23,559
Speaker 1: really good job. And I think I've done a really

1517
01:18:23,600 --> 01:18:25,599
Speaker 1: good job at the way I approach business. And I'm

1518
01:18:25,640 --> 01:18:27,519
Speaker 1: just continue to learn, man, because like to your point,

1519
01:18:27,720 --> 01:18:29,479
Speaker 1: I came out of high school. I didn't go to college.

1520
01:18:29,520 --> 01:18:31,960
Speaker 1: I don't have no business degree. A lot of decisions

1521
01:18:31,960 --> 01:18:34,000
Speaker 1: I've made is off of my gut. But you know,

1522
01:18:34,080 --> 01:18:36,960
Speaker 1: I've definitely learned how to look and do diligence on

1523
01:18:37,080 --> 01:18:39,400
Speaker 1: the opportunities before I jump on them. I'm gonna tell

1524
01:18:39,400 --> 01:18:41,960
Speaker 1: you some wow. Uh. If you made three million dollars

1525
01:18:42,080 --> 01:18:45,160
Speaker 1: and you were able to say three dollars, you were

1526
01:18:45,160 --> 01:18:47,920
Speaker 1: pretty smart to say. I'll just tell you right right there.

1527
01:18:48,000 --> 01:18:50,120
Speaker 1: You were not a dummy. Okay, you might say you

1528
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:52,240
Speaker 1: were broke, but that was a pretty smart move. So

1529
01:18:52,560 --> 01:18:55,200
Speaker 1: you mean that you were listening along the way, which

1530
01:18:55,240 --> 01:18:57,280
Speaker 1: means that you understood that you need to put money

1531
01:18:57,280 --> 01:18:58,880
Speaker 1: to the side. You know what to do with the money.

1532
01:18:59,479 --> 01:19:01,519
Speaker 1: But the people who came into your life said, you

1533
01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:04,320
Speaker 1: got that, let's build that, and this is how you

1534
01:19:04,400 --> 01:19:06,240
Speaker 1: have to come to me. So you won't be coming

1535
01:19:06,320 --> 01:19:09,360
Speaker 1: up with no nightclub pitch, no car wash, pitch with

1536
01:19:09,520 --> 01:19:12,840
Speaker 1: no with no amazurization tied to the five year plan.

1537
01:19:13,240 --> 01:19:15,839
Speaker 1: And so when you when you got into the cannabis business,

1538
01:19:16,360 --> 01:19:18,280
Speaker 1: you know right now it's it's it's you know. I

1539
01:19:18,360 --> 01:19:22,280
Speaker 1: remember when I first read about cannabis business, I just

1540
01:19:22,360 --> 01:19:26,760
Speaker 1: didn't understand it and I was like confused, you know,

1541
01:19:27,120 --> 01:19:30,200
Speaker 1: was it legal? Can you how can you do? You know?

1542
01:19:30,320 --> 01:19:33,320
Speaker 1: The athletes they couldn't mess with it. Now you're here

1543
01:19:33,400 --> 01:19:36,640
Speaker 1: that the NFL is relaxing their rules, the NBA is

1544
01:19:36,640 --> 01:19:39,439
Speaker 1: a relaxing their rules if they're they're using the word

1545
01:19:39,520 --> 01:19:42,360
Speaker 1: medically and induced reasons as to why you can use

1546
01:19:42,479 --> 01:19:46,840
Speaker 1: cannabis CBD. When did it start changing because you dropped

1547
01:19:46,920 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 1: in when it was just like, you know, a lot

1548
01:19:49,200 --> 01:19:51,720
Speaker 1: of people say a good deal, but I'm was stay

1549
01:19:51,760 --> 01:19:54,840
Speaker 1: away and watch now people are wanting to invest into

1550
01:19:54,920 --> 01:19:58,400
Speaker 1: your brand. Yeah, I mean to your point, when I

1551
01:19:58,520 --> 01:20:01,040
Speaker 1: jumped in, it was not pop learn. You know, now

1552
01:20:01,240 --> 01:20:05,559
Speaker 1: every entertainer, athlete, everybody's making investments and you know, trying

1553
01:20:05,600 --> 01:20:08,080
Speaker 1: to endorse products. You know, when I did this, you

1554
01:20:08,160 --> 01:20:11,160
Speaker 1: know I was I put my contract at risk. UM,

1555
01:20:11,240 --> 01:20:13,439
Speaker 1: I put my freedom at risk essentially, right, you know,

1556
01:20:13,600 --> 01:20:15,799
Speaker 1: and we still do. I mean, it's still federally illegal.

1557
01:20:16,240 --> 01:20:18,360
Speaker 1: And I can be very honest with you now ten

1558
01:20:18,439 --> 01:20:20,280
Speaker 1: years later. When I first started, I was like you,

1559
01:20:20,400 --> 01:20:22,000
Speaker 1: I didn't know what the hell I was doing and

1560
01:20:22,080 --> 01:20:25,400
Speaker 1: what the meeting into. Um. All I knew was that

1561
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:29,280
Speaker 1: I had seen it help my grandmother. UM. With my

1562
01:20:29,360 --> 01:20:32,840
Speaker 1: grandmother's background being that you know, she's a lady, she's

1563
01:20:32,840 --> 01:20:35,160
Speaker 1: she's a lady of the Lord. I tell you all

1564
01:20:35,160 --> 01:20:36,960
Speaker 1: the time, my grandmother not going to heaven. We're all

1565
01:20:37,000 --> 01:20:38,719
Speaker 1: going to hell. For sure, where you got a chance

1566
01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:44,200
Speaker 1: open minded enough to try cannabis and then work. And

1567
01:20:44,280 --> 01:20:46,080
Speaker 1: you know, for her when she tried it, the first

1568
01:20:46,120 --> 01:20:48,240
Speaker 1: thing she did was go downstairs and read a Bible.

1569
01:20:48,439 --> 01:20:50,000
Speaker 1: He told me. You know, the first time she read

1570
01:20:50,400 --> 01:20:53,080
Speaker 1: read a Bible went over three years. So that's what

1571
01:20:53,240 --> 01:20:55,720
Speaker 1: just really inspired me, like I said, to just learn more.

1572
01:20:56,320 --> 01:20:58,639
Speaker 1: And you know, from that day, from when I made

1573
01:20:58,720 --> 01:21:01,240
Speaker 1: the first investment getting out you know, our building that

1574
01:21:01,360 --> 01:21:04,360
Speaker 1: we have in Colorado now ten years and uh, you know,

1575
01:21:05,080 --> 01:21:09,400
Speaker 1: being robbed, being you know, having the plans, get sick

1576
01:21:09,520 --> 01:21:12,479
Speaker 1: in the in the facility, all these different obstacles that

1577
01:21:12,600 --> 01:21:15,600
Speaker 1: came our way. Um, I had every reason in the

1578
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:17,800
Speaker 1: world a quick right and just like you know what

1579
01:21:18,000 --> 01:21:19,880
Speaker 1: this ain't for me. You know, I could be golfing

1580
01:21:20,040 --> 01:21:22,200
Speaker 1: right now, right, you know, to say enough money that

1581
01:21:22,200 --> 01:21:23,880
Speaker 1: I could be doing something totally different in my life.

1582
01:21:23,960 --> 01:21:28,720
Speaker 1: But you know, I just really value that I had

1583
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:32,920
Speaker 1: an opportunity to change the perception of cannabis to the

1584
01:21:33,040 --> 01:21:36,160
Speaker 1: world by using my platform speaking on it. And it

1585
01:21:36,280 --> 01:21:38,680
Speaker 1: went from that to trying to change the stigma to

1586
01:21:38,880 --> 01:21:43,680
Speaker 1: now my purposes around the around the inclusion and diversity

1587
01:21:43,720 --> 01:21:46,080
Speaker 1: of the industry. You know, and how it in fact

1588
01:21:46,120 --> 01:21:50,040
Speaker 1: impacts the black community because they use cannabis to enslave

1589
01:21:50,160 --> 01:21:53,880
Speaker 1: us in to destroy our communities. Now all these you know,

1590
01:21:54,320 --> 01:21:56,760
Speaker 1: we own less than four percent of the industry, There's

1591
01:21:56,800 --> 01:21:59,599
Speaker 1: billions of dollars being made, and there's still all these

1592
01:21:59,640 --> 01:22:02,240
Speaker 1: barry is for black people to participate in something that

1593
01:22:02,800 --> 01:22:05,040
Speaker 1: was nothing wrong with it in the first place. Right.

1594
01:22:05,479 --> 01:22:08,960
Speaker 1: So that's why my focus is literally on trying to

1595
01:22:09,560 --> 01:22:12,240
Speaker 1: right the wrongs that happened to our people in our community.

1596
01:22:12,720 --> 01:22:15,519
Speaker 1: And you know, I will say that it's very hard,

1597
01:22:15,720 --> 01:22:17,600
Speaker 1: you know, because if you don't have the capital to

1598
01:22:17,680 --> 01:22:19,479
Speaker 1: be able to really go out and support these people,

1599
01:22:19,520 --> 01:22:22,840
Speaker 1: because this industry is so cash intensive, you know, there

1600
01:22:22,920 --> 01:22:25,160
Speaker 1: are a lot of challenges. But you know, I feel

1601
01:22:25,160 --> 01:22:27,600
Speaker 1: like we've been able to you know, use you know,

1602
01:22:27,840 --> 01:22:30,639
Speaker 1: our our platform in different ways where it doesn't always

1603
01:22:30,720 --> 01:22:32,720
Speaker 1: require us to have to put in money. You know,

1604
01:22:32,840 --> 01:22:36,760
Speaker 1: we could use just our influence, some of our resources,

1605
01:22:36,840 --> 01:22:39,560
Speaker 1: just our knowledge, just giving people the right course to

1606
01:22:39,640 --> 01:22:41,479
Speaker 1: go down instead of going down the way that I

1607
01:22:41,560 --> 01:22:43,559
Speaker 1: already went down and that was not the right way,

1608
01:22:43,800 --> 01:22:45,760
Speaker 1: you know. So it's just really just trying to just

1609
01:22:45,880 --> 01:22:47,519
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's the best way to have

1610
01:22:47,680 --> 01:22:50,760
Speaker 1: impact on our community. And you know that's what that's

1611
01:22:50,880 --> 01:22:53,920
Speaker 1: that's what is constantly motivating me every day to continue

1612
01:22:53,960 --> 01:22:55,960
Speaker 1: to grow this business. You know something, you know, you

1613
01:22:56,040 --> 01:23:03,280
Speaker 1: got over Huden employees. You know your your franchises in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,

1614
01:23:03,360 --> 01:23:05,639
Speaker 1: and Washington. And I'll tell you, I was watching HBO

1615
01:23:05,760 --> 01:23:08,960
Speaker 1: when the early stages of this cannabis andy and they

1616
01:23:09,000 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: were showing this this this white guy. He had security

1617
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:14,519
Speaker 1: all around them, okay, and he had to go to

1618
01:23:15,080 --> 01:23:19,160
Speaker 1: a warehouse and he had to have cash, and they

1619
01:23:19,200 --> 01:23:21,360
Speaker 1: were saying something like, you know, you can't deposit this

1620
01:23:21,479 --> 01:23:24,479
Speaker 1: money in the bank. It was like I was like, okay,

1621
01:23:24,920 --> 01:23:29,080
Speaker 1: that means like everything the cash transaction, you couldn't deposit

1622
01:23:29,160 --> 01:23:31,280
Speaker 1: the money in the bank. That scared me. I would

1623
01:23:31,400 --> 01:23:33,680
Speaker 1: hold up. I gotta worry about my wife. I got

1624
01:23:33,760 --> 01:23:36,840
Speaker 1: worried by my daughter. Somebody gonna kidnap somebody. How did

1625
01:23:36,920 --> 01:23:40,840
Speaker 1: you How did you manage man to like, uh, survive

1626
01:23:41,080 --> 01:23:43,920
Speaker 1: you with all these barriers. You couldn't put the money

1627
01:23:43,960 --> 01:23:47,360
Speaker 1: in the bank's cash induced you know, you gotta have

1628
01:23:47,479 --> 01:23:50,880
Speaker 1: security around you all the time. And I was like,

1629
01:23:50,960 --> 01:23:53,200
Speaker 1: I was blown away. Man there that that ran me

1630
01:23:53,280 --> 01:23:55,040
Speaker 1: out the back door. I went, no way, no way,

1631
01:23:55,240 --> 01:23:57,720
Speaker 1: because people are coming there, man, they were coming. Are rich.

1632
01:23:58,320 --> 01:24:00,000
Speaker 1: You're smart, dude, you can make a lot of money

1633
01:24:00,320 --> 01:24:04,679
Speaker 1: outside that HBO special. I would hell, no, no way,

1634
01:24:04,880 --> 01:24:07,880
Speaker 1: no way, no no. It has its challenges, man. So

1635
01:24:08,160 --> 01:24:11,040
Speaker 1: you know when I came in, banking definitely was tough.

1636
01:24:11,360 --> 01:24:14,160
Speaker 1: I started off in Colorado, so Colorado had some form

1637
01:24:14,200 --> 01:24:17,360
Speaker 1: of regulation and different things like that. We first started,

1638
01:24:17,439 --> 01:24:19,960
Speaker 1: we definitely did have a bunch of cash, but that

1639
01:24:20,120 --> 01:24:23,080
Speaker 1: was only for maybe like the first year to eighteen

1640
01:24:23,160 --> 01:24:27,439
Speaker 1: months that Credit Union started to take banking and they

1641
01:24:27,520 --> 01:24:30,000
Speaker 1: got filthy rich. You know, I would say, like it

1642
01:24:30,160 --> 01:24:32,840
Speaker 1: was thirty five hundred dollars for us to have just

1643
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:35,200
Speaker 1: to holding account with the bank monthly. It was a

1644
01:24:35,280 --> 01:24:38,120
Speaker 1: monthly feet of thirty five hundred bucks. And then we

1645
01:24:38,160 --> 01:24:41,040
Speaker 1: would have to pay two to three percent on every

1646
01:24:41,120 --> 01:24:45,439
Speaker 1: deposit over ten thousand dollars. You said, wait, wait, wait,

1647
01:24:45,479 --> 01:24:48,840
Speaker 1: wait wait a brother, you said, they chalked you thirty

1648
01:24:48,920 --> 01:24:54,439
Speaker 1: five dollars a month for their account. Did two oh

1649
01:24:54,520 --> 01:25:00,479
Speaker 1: their account ten thousand dollars? So yeah, yeah, or the banks,

1650
01:25:00,479 --> 01:25:02,519
Speaker 1: So if you was willing to take the chance we're

1651
01:25:02,560 --> 01:25:07,679
Speaker 1: banking you got rich. That's just been calling me, Risha, Dude,

1652
01:25:07,840 --> 01:25:11,240
Speaker 1: do start off black banks something. I've been saying that

1653
01:25:11,360 --> 01:25:13,240
Speaker 1: for a while. I just it's only so much time

1654
01:25:13,280 --> 01:25:14,679
Speaker 1: in the day for me, you know what I'm saying.

1655
01:25:14,720 --> 01:25:17,160
Speaker 1: I still think that the banking is a huge need

1656
01:25:17,280 --> 01:25:20,880
Speaker 1: and opportunity in the space, and especially as more black people,

1657
01:25:21,000 --> 01:25:23,880
Speaker 1: especially social equity continues to be more relevant in the space.

1658
01:25:24,280 --> 01:25:26,600
Speaker 1: I think people would love to bank with somebody that

1659
01:25:26,680 --> 01:25:29,200
Speaker 1: looks like them and in someone that can understand them

1660
01:25:29,280 --> 01:25:30,880
Speaker 1: in their needs, you know what I'm saying. So there's

1661
01:25:30,880 --> 01:25:32,840
Speaker 1: definitely an opportunity there. So we can talk about that

1662
01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:36,519
Speaker 1: offline for sure. You know, man, talking to you, man,

1663
01:25:37,040 --> 01:25:43,240
Speaker 1: I n b a doctor. Dude, you are so well honed,

1664
01:25:43,680 --> 01:25:48,559
Speaker 1: so articulate, so smart in this whole entremur neural space.

1665
01:25:48,840 --> 01:25:50,920
Speaker 1: Do you realize who you are? Do you realize how

1666
01:25:51,000 --> 01:25:53,680
Speaker 1: you communicate? Man? That's what when I met you with

1667
01:25:53,840 --> 01:25:56,600
Speaker 1: this brother's shock. Man. But sometimes you know, you're just

1668
01:25:56,680 --> 01:26:01,040
Speaker 1: one of those natural guys that don't appreciated respect the

1669
01:26:01,160 --> 01:26:07,639
Speaker 1: knowledge that you pour into people. And it's tough because

1670
01:26:07,720 --> 01:26:11,439
Speaker 1: like obviously I'm living everything in in real time right

1671
01:26:12,160 --> 01:26:15,280
Speaker 1: and Obviously, I'm constantly working every day in the building,

1672
01:26:15,880 --> 01:26:17,679
Speaker 1: so you don't really get a chance to sit back

1673
01:26:17,760 --> 01:26:20,840
Speaker 1: and kind of just realize, you know, what you have

1674
01:26:20,960 --> 01:26:22,640
Speaker 1: been able to build and what you've been able to

1675
01:26:22,720 --> 01:26:25,880
Speaker 1: to to actually create for others. But you know, my

1676
01:26:26,080 --> 01:26:27,920
Speaker 1: my biggest thing is like I really feel like this

1677
01:26:28,160 --> 01:26:32,719
Speaker 1: is a legacy opportunity for myself and everybody that's involved

1678
01:26:32,760 --> 01:26:34,320
Speaker 1: with it. And you know, that's what I continue to

1679
01:26:34,360 --> 01:26:37,080
Speaker 1: sell to my employees. It's like, you know, this is

1680
01:26:37,120 --> 01:26:39,160
Speaker 1: what we're doing is not only for us, it's for

1681
01:26:39,360 --> 01:26:42,240
Speaker 1: it's for other people to at some point be able

1682
01:26:42,280 --> 01:26:45,120
Speaker 1: to you know, benefit from as well. And you know,

1683
01:26:45,400 --> 01:26:47,880
Speaker 1: I think that when you set up a business, where

1684
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:50,439
Speaker 1: is about serving the people. I think that the reward

1685
01:26:50,560 --> 01:26:52,720
Speaker 1: that comes back you can't put a number on it. Right.

1686
01:26:52,800 --> 01:26:55,120
Speaker 1: So I've never been the guy to say I want

1687
01:26:55,160 --> 01:26:57,800
Speaker 1: to create a billion dollar company, right, you know, let's

1688
01:26:57,800 --> 01:26:59,280
Speaker 1: just see what a chips for what they made. But

1689
01:26:59,320 --> 01:27:01,160
Speaker 1: I just feel like it we continue to serve people,

1690
01:27:01,640 --> 01:27:05,760
Speaker 1: continue to help people, continue to be consistent with within

1691
01:27:05,880 --> 01:27:08,640
Speaker 1: the brand and the products that we produce. I think

1692
01:27:08,720 --> 01:27:11,840
Speaker 1: sky's the limit for us. Man. I'm tell you something, Man,

1693
01:27:12,160 --> 01:27:14,560
Speaker 1: I was impressed when I first met you, man, you

1694
01:27:14,680 --> 01:27:19,559
Speaker 1: were just just you just don't understand your abilities. Right

1695
01:27:19,600 --> 01:27:27,120
Speaker 1: now you are walking talking poster for black opportunity athlete

1696
01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:33,320
Speaker 1: transition to normal life entrepreneurship, uh planning, And I just

1697
01:27:33,439 --> 01:27:35,559
Speaker 1: want you to say, you're on my show here might

1698
01:27:35,720 --> 01:27:39,360
Speaker 1: making conversation. I need you on CNBC. I need you

1699
01:27:39,400 --> 01:27:43,880
Speaker 1: a CNN, I need you on everything MSNBC because, man,

1700
01:27:44,000 --> 01:27:45,720
Speaker 1: your game and your conference. I need you on to

1701
01:27:45,760 --> 01:27:49,960
Speaker 1: cover a black enterprise. Okay, that's how smart you're talking

1702
01:27:50,520 --> 01:27:55,240
Speaker 1: because you're missing your mixing community and opportunity, and that's

1703
01:27:55,280 --> 01:27:57,320
Speaker 1: what doesn't get spoken a lot in the community, and

1704
01:27:57,400 --> 01:28:00,240
Speaker 1: everybody wants to hear that. Did your backstory of how

1705
01:28:00,320 --> 01:28:04,400
Speaker 1: you started was based on your grandmother, So when you

1706
01:28:04,479 --> 01:28:07,160
Speaker 1: start mixing all that together. Because I've been trying to

1707
01:28:07,160 --> 01:28:10,000
Speaker 1: get you about a year and a half on my show. Now,

1708
01:28:10,080 --> 01:28:12,120
Speaker 1: I'm mad at you because you need to be on

1709
01:28:12,240 --> 01:28:16,080
Speaker 1: more than my show. You, my brother, need to be

1710
01:28:16,200 --> 01:28:19,719
Speaker 1: on more than my show. Your special man, I said

1711
01:28:19,800 --> 01:28:22,840
Speaker 1: that back then and here and how you've developed as

1712
01:28:22,880 --> 01:28:25,760
Speaker 1: a man as a business person. Your story needs to

1713
01:28:25,800 --> 01:28:28,040
Speaker 1: be told more than just on this show. It needs

1714
01:28:28,040 --> 01:28:30,920
Speaker 1: to be across the board because you're employing people, then

1715
01:28:31,040 --> 01:28:33,519
Speaker 1: you're you're telling me rouch I'm trying to get more

1716
01:28:33,600 --> 01:28:36,400
Speaker 1: people into the game, but also I'm trying to break

1717
01:28:36,439 --> 01:28:38,680
Speaker 1: it down the numbers of where it was. At one

1718
01:28:38,720 --> 01:28:41,200
Speaker 1: time it was they was putting us in jail for

1719
01:28:41,280 --> 01:28:44,160
Speaker 1: this same thing and putting three and teen years sentences

1720
01:28:44,200 --> 01:28:46,639
Speaker 1: on us. Now the white people selling it and they're

1721
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:48,360
Speaker 1: not going to jail, but then they won't let us

1722
01:28:48,720 --> 01:28:53,960
Speaker 1: buy it to sell it. Right, Yeah, it's it's I mean,

1723
01:28:54,360 --> 01:28:56,160
Speaker 1: we could, we could go on and on about that.

1724
01:28:56,400 --> 01:28:59,600
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's really screwed up. And you know

1725
01:29:00,160 --> 01:29:02,360
Speaker 1: I always would I always say when I talk to people,

1726
01:29:02,400 --> 01:29:04,280
Speaker 1: and especially when I talk to like, you know, black

1727
01:29:04,360 --> 01:29:07,600
Speaker 1: business leaders in these communities that don't want cannabis, and

1728
01:29:07,640 --> 01:29:09,000
Speaker 1: I just tell them all the time, like you got

1729
01:29:09,120 --> 01:29:10,840
Speaker 1: to really take another step back and look at this

1730
01:29:10,920 --> 01:29:14,320
Speaker 1: because it's happening and this is generational wealth at risk

1731
01:29:14,560 --> 01:29:17,680
Speaker 1: for our community. You know, I really feel that this

1732
01:29:17,800 --> 01:29:20,320
Speaker 1: cannabis plant will be a you know, a hundreds a

1733
01:29:20,400 --> 01:29:23,519
Speaker 1: couple of hundreds of billion dollars a year industry, and

1734
01:29:24,000 --> 01:29:25,640
Speaker 1: if we can have a seat at the table and

1735
01:29:25,720 --> 01:29:28,200
Speaker 1: carve out our peace, I feel like we can take

1736
01:29:28,280 --> 01:29:31,200
Speaker 1: something that destroyed our community to actually rebuild it. You know,

1737
01:29:31,720 --> 01:29:34,920
Speaker 1: it's so many different ways of you know, uh participating

1738
01:29:34,960 --> 01:29:37,800
Speaker 1: in the space from you know, himp industrial hip. You

1739
01:29:37,800 --> 01:29:39,400
Speaker 1: know how many people reach out to me saying that

1740
01:29:39,479 --> 01:29:42,320
Speaker 1: their family own land and all these different parts of

1741
01:29:42,400 --> 01:29:44,439
Speaker 1: the country, and I'm like, yeah, let's start producing himp

1742
01:29:44,520 --> 01:29:47,759
Speaker 1: on there because I envisioned at some point um building

1743
01:29:47,840 --> 01:29:51,080
Speaker 1: communities made out of him himp homes and different things

1744
01:29:51,160 --> 01:29:53,680
Speaker 1: like that. Is there's so many different ways that this

1745
01:29:53,920 --> 01:29:57,400
Speaker 1: plant can impact our community. It just hasn't been unlocked

1746
01:29:57,439 --> 01:30:00,160
Speaker 1: yet because it's been illegal. And then also people from

1747
01:30:00,160 --> 01:30:04,080
Speaker 1: our community have some form of ps PTSD of just

1748
01:30:04,240 --> 01:30:07,400
Speaker 1: seeing so many people being locked up in lives ruined

1749
01:30:07,800 --> 01:30:09,800
Speaker 1: that they just can't wrap their head around like this

1750
01:30:09,960 --> 01:30:12,599
Speaker 1: is now an opportunity where we can create real wealth.

1751
01:30:13,720 --> 01:30:16,400
Speaker 1: So that's what I just continue to speak on and

1752
01:30:16,600 --> 01:30:19,080
Speaker 1: just you know, continue to let people know and spread

1753
01:30:19,160 --> 01:30:21,760
Speaker 1: the good news because you know, cannabis is the most

1754
01:30:21,800 --> 01:30:24,320
Speaker 1: dynamic plant in the world, and as we continue to

1755
01:30:24,400 --> 01:30:27,000
Speaker 1: unlock all the things that it does, you know, we're

1756
01:30:27,000 --> 01:30:29,559
Speaker 1: gonna really be sitting twenty years from now thinking about

1757
01:30:29,600 --> 01:30:32,600
Speaker 1: how dumb it was that you know, cannabis wasn't you know,

1758
01:30:33,120 --> 01:30:37,160
Speaker 1: a primary source of wellness a very long time ago.

1759
01:30:37,640 --> 01:30:39,599
Speaker 1: You know, here's a there's a thought as we close

1760
01:30:39,680 --> 01:30:42,040
Speaker 1: up because of the fact that when I talked to you,

1761
01:30:42,840 --> 01:30:45,640
Speaker 1: what exactly does your company do? I want everybody to

1762
01:30:45,840 --> 01:30:50,840
Speaker 1: clear understanding. You know you in you in California, Colorado, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon,

1763
01:30:50,920 --> 01:30:53,320
Speaker 1: and Washington. You have a hard your employees. What does

1764
01:30:53,360 --> 01:30:57,519
Speaker 1: your company do? Now? So we were we're pretty much

1765
01:30:57,520 --> 01:31:02,760
Speaker 1: a vertically integrated company, so we actually we cultivate, we manufacture,

1766
01:31:03,479 --> 01:31:07,560
Speaker 1: we have some retail locations. UH. So that's called like

1767
01:31:07,640 --> 01:31:10,600
Speaker 1: pretty much vertical integration. UH. And the state is a

1768
01:31:10,640 --> 01:31:14,240
Speaker 1: little different. So like in Colorado were vertically integrated, Michigan

1769
01:31:14,320 --> 01:31:21,960
Speaker 1: with vertically integrated, UH, Oregon with vertically integrated. But you know, California, Oklahoma, Washington,

1770
01:31:22,080 --> 01:31:24,479
Speaker 1: those are places where we actually do white label agreements

1771
01:31:24,960 --> 01:31:28,400
Speaker 1: or we actually provide those producers. There are genetics to

1772
01:31:28,439 --> 01:31:31,479
Speaker 1: grow specifically for us, and then obviously we package it

1773
01:31:31,520 --> 01:31:34,439
Speaker 1: and we market it. So essentially, you know, Viola is

1774
01:31:34,520 --> 01:31:37,599
Speaker 1: a brand. Um just think of it almost like a speech.

1775
01:31:37,760 --> 01:31:41,240
Speaker 1: You don't stop, first of all, stop man, vertically integrated

1776
01:31:41,520 --> 01:31:43,519
Speaker 1: white label how many people you know, you know what

1777
01:31:43,600 --> 01:31:54,120
Speaker 1: you're talking about. Bro believe he just he That's what

1778
01:31:54,160 --> 01:31:57,080
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. You're so into your game when you

1779
01:31:57,160 --> 01:32:00,240
Speaker 1: start talking, you forget I'm talking to a lot of people.

1780
01:32:00,400 --> 01:32:03,679
Speaker 1: They may know Presenter that people don't know what white

1781
01:32:03,760 --> 01:32:07,479
Speaker 1: labeling is and definitely don't know what vertically integrated is,

1782
01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:11,040
Speaker 1: So you couldn't explain that they're white labeling because so

1783
01:32:11,120 --> 01:32:13,360
Speaker 1: we could just let everybody know the greatness of our

1784
01:32:13,439 --> 01:32:17,519
Speaker 1: Parentally integrated means that we control the supply chain, you know,

1785
01:32:17,600 --> 01:32:19,640
Speaker 1: from start to fiel almost from seed to cell. So

1786
01:32:19,760 --> 01:32:23,160
Speaker 1: that means that we cultivated, we manufactured, whether we break

1787
01:32:23,200 --> 01:32:26,040
Speaker 1: it down into oils or concentrates or we just make

1788
01:32:26,080 --> 01:32:29,679
Speaker 1: pre roles, that's that's considered manufacturing. Then we actually package

1789
01:32:29,720 --> 01:32:33,360
Speaker 1: it for distribution is to to our end user, which

1790
01:32:33,439 --> 01:32:37,000
Speaker 1: is the dispensaries that we work with or our own dispensaries.

1791
01:32:37,280 --> 01:32:40,040
Speaker 1: So that's what vertical integration is. And white labeling means

1792
01:32:40,160 --> 01:32:42,439
Speaker 1: that you know, you have a brand that's really strong

1793
01:32:42,520 --> 01:32:46,479
Speaker 1: where you could do strategic partnerships with other cultivators and

1794
01:32:46,600 --> 01:32:50,760
Speaker 1: manufacturers where they will agree to produce product for you

1795
01:32:51,200 --> 01:32:54,160
Speaker 1: to put into your packaging. So that you can now

1796
01:32:54,400 --> 01:32:57,120
Speaker 1: enter into that state in the asset light model, which

1797
01:32:57,160 --> 01:32:59,120
Speaker 1: I mean when asset light model means that we don't

1798
01:32:59,160 --> 01:33:01,960
Speaker 1: have to come in and been like most cultivation UH

1799
01:33:02,120 --> 01:33:04,599
Speaker 1: costs anywhere from five to ten million dollars to build

1800
01:33:04,640 --> 01:33:07,160
Speaker 1: out a five hundred to a thousand life facility. So

1801
01:33:07,240 --> 01:33:08,760
Speaker 1: if you don't want to go into that state and

1802
01:33:08,920 --> 01:33:11,600
Speaker 1: you know, spend that capex, UH, you will find a

1803
01:33:11,720 --> 01:33:14,720
Speaker 1: partner that has lights and that respects your brand and

1804
01:33:14,800 --> 01:33:16,600
Speaker 1: we'll be able to cultivate for you so that you

1805
01:33:16,680 --> 01:33:19,360
Speaker 1: can actually into that market without having to put up

1806
01:33:19,400 --> 01:33:22,240
Speaker 1: that upfront money. But the brand actually leads the way.

1807
01:33:22,600 --> 01:33:28,400
Speaker 1: My man, Man, you're special man as an African American,

1808
01:33:28,520 --> 01:33:31,400
Speaker 1: and I know you're trying to break walls, breakdown path.

1809
01:33:31,920 --> 01:33:35,639
Speaker 1: How can you be an assistant uh in getting there?

1810
01:33:35,680 --> 01:33:38,479
Speaker 1: I know you're saying you're trying to normalize the process.

1811
01:33:39,080 --> 01:33:41,400
Speaker 1: Is it is it about just getting money? How do

1812
01:33:41,560 --> 01:33:44,639
Speaker 1: I just want to get licensed in this business? Yeah?

1813
01:33:44,960 --> 01:33:46,880
Speaker 1: I mean it depends. I mean, like you know, with

1814
01:33:47,040 --> 01:33:50,479
Speaker 1: the license and situation, it's it's very it's unique. Right,

1815
01:33:50,600 --> 01:33:55,440
Speaker 1: so places on the West coast, like you know, Oregon, California,

1816
01:33:56,080 --> 01:33:59,879
Speaker 1: it's relatively easy to get a license. Um, it's expensive obviously,

1817
01:34:00,080 --> 01:34:02,560
Speaker 1: you know, because you have to you know, submit applications,

1818
01:34:02,600 --> 01:34:04,640
Speaker 1: pay all these different fees and different things like that,

1819
01:34:05,200 --> 01:34:07,160
Speaker 1: and then once you actually win the license, now you

1820
01:34:07,280 --> 01:34:09,479
Speaker 1: need you know, anywhere from you know to the ten

1821
01:34:09,560 --> 01:34:11,920
Speaker 1: million dollars to build out your facility, depending on the

1822
01:34:12,000 --> 01:34:14,880
Speaker 1: size of it. On the East Coast, that's where it's

1823
01:34:15,080 --> 01:34:18,439
Speaker 1: really really competitive. And on the East Coast is where

1824
01:34:18,479 --> 01:34:22,160
Speaker 1: pretty much all the opportunity is because all those licenses

1825
01:34:22,400 --> 01:34:25,599
Speaker 1: are all limited. Right, So New York there's only ten

1826
01:34:25,800 --> 01:34:29,000
Speaker 1: vertically integrated licenses that they gave out, and when you

1827
01:34:29,080 --> 01:34:31,160
Speaker 1: think about how big the New York market is, you

1828
01:34:31,240 --> 01:34:33,479
Speaker 1: know that ten licenses will never be enough, right, They're

1829
01:34:33,479 --> 01:34:36,000
Speaker 1: gonna have to add probably another hundred. But the way

1830
01:34:36,040 --> 01:34:37,960
Speaker 1: they set it up is these first ten will be

1831
01:34:38,080 --> 01:34:40,960
Speaker 1: vertically integrated, like I talked about earlier, which gives them

1832
01:34:40,960 --> 01:34:44,640
Speaker 1: an advantage right when entering into the market because they

1833
01:34:44,680 --> 01:34:47,439
Speaker 1: already have a market share and they already have somewhat

1834
01:34:47,479 --> 01:34:51,519
Speaker 1: of a foothold already. But that license process, the reason

1835
01:34:51,560 --> 01:34:55,280
Speaker 1: why those ten operators aren't black is because or none

1836
01:34:55,320 --> 01:34:58,320
Speaker 1: of the black people couldn't even really afford to apply

1837
01:34:58,520 --> 01:35:02,160
Speaker 1: was because that whole application process was probably a five

1838
01:35:02,240 --> 01:35:08,960
Speaker 1: to seven million dollar package. Right there was probably fifty

1839
01:35:09,120 --> 01:35:12,479
Speaker 1: sixty companies that had to put five to seven million

1840
01:35:12,520 --> 01:35:15,080
Speaker 1: dollars in their package to apply and only ten one.

1841
01:35:15,600 --> 01:35:17,400
Speaker 1: So you think about that, like you could go and

1842
01:35:17,560 --> 01:35:19,519
Speaker 1: use all the resources you know, when you'll put your

1843
01:35:19,640 --> 01:35:24,760
Speaker 1: five million dollars together and win, right right, It's so,

1844
01:35:24,920 --> 01:35:28,800
Speaker 1: it's so so the East is extremely expensive. And you know,

1845
01:35:29,040 --> 01:35:31,840
Speaker 1: even us. You know, I have another company called Village

1846
01:35:32,360 --> 01:35:34,280
Speaker 1: Uh that me and my co found in Viola. We

1847
01:35:34,400 --> 01:35:37,880
Speaker 1: started and you know that company, we we we pretty

1848
01:35:37,960 --> 01:35:40,280
Speaker 1: much raised five million dollars to start that company to

1849
01:35:40,360 --> 01:35:43,320
Speaker 1: go after licenses. And you know, last year we was

1850
01:35:43,360 --> 01:35:46,200
Speaker 1: awarded a license in Maryland where you know, we beat

1851
01:35:46,240 --> 01:35:49,679
Speaker 1: out some of the big Coca Cola's and heser Busch

1852
01:35:50,280 --> 01:35:53,280
Speaker 1: back companies. We were the number one ranked application in

1853
01:35:53,360 --> 01:35:55,360
Speaker 1: the state of Maryland. And then in Missouri we won

1854
01:35:55,479 --> 01:35:59,200
Speaker 1: for vertical integration. We won. We was number one in cultivation,

1855
01:35:59,280 --> 01:36:03,000
Speaker 1: number one in tell and number three and manufacturing. And

1856
01:36:03,120 --> 01:36:06,240
Speaker 1: you know, we're still waiting on New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia.

1857
01:36:06,600 --> 01:36:09,200
Speaker 1: We're great to put in New York. So I've tried

1858
01:36:09,280 --> 01:36:13,240
Speaker 1: to figure out ways to kind of you know, participate

1859
01:36:13,520 --> 01:36:16,000
Speaker 1: in every way possible, you know what I'm saying. And

1860
01:36:16,720 --> 01:36:18,760
Speaker 1: I've been having some success. So to answer your question,

1861
01:36:18,800 --> 01:36:21,599
Speaker 1: how can you support me? Right? We are constantly always

1862
01:36:21,680 --> 01:36:24,640
Speaker 1: raising money. Um. You know, all these new opportunities that

1863
01:36:24,720 --> 01:36:26,080
Speaker 1: come you have, like I said, you have to find

1864
01:36:26,080 --> 01:36:28,840
Speaker 1: a way to fund them. So um, you know you

1865
01:36:28,880 --> 01:36:31,479
Speaker 1: could be my first investor. You know, from this call

1866
01:36:32,160 --> 01:36:35,680
Speaker 1: and from there, my brother I would tell you the

1867
01:36:35,760 --> 01:36:38,320
Speaker 1: man man's first of all, you know we can talk

1868
01:36:38,360 --> 01:36:42,559
Speaker 1: off our lives because you're brilliant. Man. I just feel that, uh,

1869
01:36:43,600 --> 01:36:47,320
Speaker 1: as part of the service of your businesses you like

1870
01:36:47,439 --> 01:36:49,880
Speaker 1: you know, magic is his business. You know what I'm saying.

1871
01:36:50,479 --> 01:36:54,240
Speaker 1: You have that same charisma. Your intellect is off the chart,

1872
01:36:54,920 --> 01:36:59,160
Speaker 1: your articulation is your beast, and your smile is brilliant.

1873
01:36:59,280 --> 01:37:01,920
Speaker 1: And so again, Man, I want to thank you for

1874
01:37:02,200 --> 01:37:05,920
Speaker 1: reuniting with me Al Harrington and getting to talk and

1875
01:37:06,000 --> 01:37:07,960
Speaker 1: just see where your life is treating you well. Man,

1876
01:37:08,120 --> 01:37:10,519
Speaker 1: And uh, thank you for coming on money Making Conversation there.

1877
01:37:11,200 --> 01:37:13,680
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. We will

1878
01:37:13,720 --> 01:37:16,760
Speaker 1: be right back with more money Making Conversations with your

1879
01:37:16,840 --> 01:37:21,439
Speaker 1: host Rashan McDonald. You are now tuned into the Money

1880
01:37:21,520 --> 01:37:25,840
Speaker 1: Making Conversations Minute of inspiration with Rashan McDonald's how would

1881
01:37:25,920 --> 01:37:29,120
Speaker 1: is changing its perception of African American programming just as

1882
01:37:29,360 --> 01:37:32,879
Speaker 1: entertainment trailblazer Deborah Martin Chase, who is currently the executive

1883
01:37:32,920 --> 01:37:36,640
Speaker 1: producer on Queen Latifa's new CBS drama series, The Equalizer.

1884
01:37:36,840 --> 01:37:40,360
Speaker 1: I got in this business because, like I was growing up,

1885
01:37:40,520 --> 01:37:43,040
Speaker 1: I did not see people on screen who looked or

1886
01:37:43,120 --> 01:37:46,760
Speaker 1: felt like me, and so I wanted to break down stereotypes.

1887
01:37:46,920 --> 01:37:50,040
Speaker 1: I wanted to create images that would empower us and

1888
01:37:50,160 --> 01:37:52,559
Speaker 1: would help people to understand that, you know, they had

1889
01:37:52,600 --> 01:37:55,120
Speaker 1: the power to do whatever they wanted to do in life.

1890
01:37:55,240 --> 01:37:58,880
Speaker 1: And there was a period in Hollywood where people weren't

1891
01:37:58,880 --> 01:38:02,240
Speaker 1: interested in making movies about women, about people of color.

1892
01:38:02,600 --> 01:38:05,040
Speaker 1: It was all about the big temp pole movies and

1893
01:38:05,200 --> 01:38:08,920
Speaker 1: action movies. I would walk into offices and people's eyes

1894
01:38:08,960 --> 01:38:11,400
Speaker 1: with glaze over when I told them, you know what

1895
01:38:11,479 --> 01:38:13,040
Speaker 1: I was thinking about. If you want to hear this

1896
01:38:13,160 --> 01:38:16,640
Speaker 1: full interview with Deborah Martin Chase, visit Money Making Conversation

1897
01:38:16,720 --> 01:38:20,880
Speaker 1: dot com. Keep winning. Welcome back, Hi everyone. Al Roker

1898
01:38:21,000 --> 01:38:23,720
Speaker 1: here as a guy with his own catchphrase. I appreciate

1899
01:38:23,840 --> 01:38:27,640
Speaker 1: that Smokey's only said only you can prevent wildfires, but

1900
01:38:27,840 --> 01:38:30,400
Speaker 1: I'm filling in because there's a lot more to report,

1901
01:38:30,840 --> 01:38:33,640
Speaker 1: like when they're parched or windy conditions out there. You

1902
01:38:33,840 --> 01:38:36,840
Speaker 1: gotta be extra careful with things like burning yard waist.

1903
01:38:37,400 --> 01:38:40,920
Speaker 1: After all, wildfires can start anywhere, even in your neck

1904
01:38:41,000 --> 01:38:43,439
Speaker 1: of the woods. Go to Smokey Bear dot com to

1905
01:38:43,600 --> 01:38:46,640
Speaker 1: learn more about wildfire prevention brought to you by the U. S.

1906
01:38:46,680 --> 01:38:50,120
Speaker 1: Forest Service, your state Forrester, and the ad Council. And

1907
01:38:50,320 --> 01:38:53,960
Speaker 1: we're live here outside the Perez family home, just waiting

1908
01:38:54,000 --> 01:38:57,200
Speaker 1: for the and there they go, almost on time. This morning,

1909
01:38:57,400 --> 01:38:59,680
Speaker 1: Mom is coming out the front door strong with a

1910
01:38:59,760 --> 01:39:02,559
Speaker 1: dumb alarmed kid carry looks like Dad has the bags.

1911
01:39:02,680 --> 01:39:05,920
Speaker 1: Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh, but the diaper

1912
01:39:06,040 --> 01:39:11,800
Speaker 1: bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere. But Mom

1913
01:39:11,880 --> 01:39:15,240
Speaker 1: has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler.

1914
01:39:15,680 --> 01:39:18,040
Speaker 1: And now the eldest daughter, who looks to be about

1915
01:39:18,160 --> 01:39:20,960
Speaker 1: nine or ten, has secured herself in the booster seat.

1916
01:39:21,080 --> 01:39:25,160
Speaker 1: Dad SIPs the bad clothes and they're off, But looks

1917
01:39:25,200 --> 01:39:27,439
Speaker 1: like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is still on

1918
01:39:27,479 --> 01:39:31,320
Speaker 1: the roof of the car and there it goes. Oh,

1919
01:39:31,760 --> 01:39:34,719
Speaker 1: that's a shame that mug was a fam favorite. Don't

1920
01:39:34,760 --> 01:39:37,280
Speaker 1: sweat the small stuff, just nailed the big stuff, like

1921
01:39:37,360 --> 01:39:39,160
Speaker 1: making sure your kids are buckled correctly in the right

1922
01:39:39,200 --> 01:39:41,360
Speaker 1: seat for their agent's eyes. Learn more n h t

1923
01:39:41,520 --> 01:39:44,080
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat visits h

1924
01:39:44,760 --> 01:39:48,000
Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat, brought to

1925
01:39:48,040 --> 01:39:51,439
Speaker 1: you by NITZA and the AD Council. What grows in

1926
01:39:51,520 --> 01:39:55,400
Speaker 1: the forest trees? Sure no. What else grows in the forest,

1927
01:39:55,680 --> 01:39:59,559
Speaker 1: our imagination, a sense of wonder, and our family bonds

1928
01:39:59,600 --> 01:40:04,600
Speaker 1: grow to you because when we disconnect from this and

1929
01:40:04,720 --> 01:40:09,639
Speaker 1: connect with this, we reconnect with each other. The forest

1930
01:40:09,800 --> 01:40:12,400
Speaker 1: is closer than you think. Find a forest near you

1931
01:40:12,800 --> 01:40:16,120
Speaker 1: and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot org, brought

1932
01:40:16,160 --> 01:40:18,600
Speaker 1: to you by the United States Forest Service and the

1933
01:40:18,680 --> 01:40:23,760
Speaker 1: AD Council. To money making conversations with your host Rashaan McDonald,

1934
01:40:24,040 --> 01:40:27,400
Speaker 1: My next guest is a former NFL star Herman Moore.

1935
01:40:27,760 --> 01:40:30,240
Speaker 1: Herman isn't a football player who now owns a business.

1936
01:40:30,280 --> 01:40:33,439
Speaker 1: He's a businessman who happens to their played professional football.

1937
01:40:33,600 --> 01:40:36,040
Speaker 1: Football is his playing career. That's something he did like

1938
01:40:36,240 --> 01:40:38,519
Speaker 1: everybody has something they've done in their past, what should

1939
01:40:38,520 --> 01:40:40,479
Speaker 1: you hold onto it? And he's made that transition as

1940
01:40:40,520 --> 01:40:44,880
Speaker 1: a very successful NFL analysts promoting products as offender Centa Bond,

1941
01:40:45,000 --> 01:40:49,680
Speaker 1: I love Sinnabal, business consul, the corporate and nonprofits. He

1942
01:40:49,760 --> 01:40:53,000
Speaker 1: has been trading cryptocurrency, which I know nothing about, and

1943
01:40:53,000 --> 01:40:55,200
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's an expert. Well, we definitely got

1944
01:40:55,280 --> 01:40:56,880
Speaker 1: to talk about that because that has been the top

1945
01:40:56,920 --> 01:40:59,240
Speaker 1: of my list. Is has been the headlines of every

1946
01:40:59,320 --> 01:41:02,920
Speaker 1: financial trade magazine the last couple of years, is Crystal Currency.

1947
01:41:03,240 --> 01:41:05,560
Speaker 1: And he's the founder of what all these products you

1948
01:41:05,640 --> 01:41:08,640
Speaker 1: see in front of me, Golden Grooming Company. I've had

1949
01:41:08,720 --> 01:41:11,400
Speaker 1: this product for about a month the schedule interview. But

1950
01:41:11,479 --> 01:41:14,000
Speaker 1: guess what, I've been sneaking and using it now, you

1951
01:41:14,080 --> 01:41:16,479
Speaker 1: know you kind of holding on to it. His products

1952
01:41:16,479 --> 01:41:18,760
Speaker 1: so good. And this this little calm right here I'm

1953
01:41:18,800 --> 01:41:21,120
Speaker 1: holding up. It sits on my desk because I have

1954
01:41:21,200 --> 01:41:22,640
Speaker 1: with everybody know, I have a nice little beer. I

1955
01:41:22,760 --> 01:41:24,479
Speaker 1: keep my beer tight. You know what I'm saying. The

1956
01:41:24,560 --> 01:41:27,160
Speaker 1: company's mission is to help black young men and adult

1957
01:41:27,280 --> 01:41:30,479
Speaker 1: men look and feel their best because we believe that

1958
01:41:30,600 --> 01:41:32,760
Speaker 1: when you look good you feel good and then when

1959
01:41:32,840 --> 01:41:36,280
Speaker 1: you also do good, please work with the money making conversations. Herman,

1960
01:41:36,400 --> 01:41:41,200
Speaker 1: more pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. Hey, Herman,

1961
01:41:41,240 --> 01:41:44,080
Speaker 1: I'm telling you man this like here because my staff

1962
01:41:44,120 --> 01:41:46,640
Speaker 1: there was we finally got her and I said, hey man,

1963
01:41:46,920 --> 01:41:49,320
Speaker 1: I I kind of know him because this little comb

1964
01:41:49,439 --> 01:41:53,120
Speaker 1: here sits on my desk every day, so at least

1965
01:41:53,160 --> 01:41:55,519
Speaker 1: for three or four time is on my face. And

1966
01:41:55,640 --> 01:41:57,640
Speaker 1: so these are the type of products that you have

1967
01:41:58,320 --> 01:42:01,479
Speaker 1: for golden grooming that makes a thing accessible and makes

1968
01:42:01,520 --> 01:42:04,080
Speaker 1: it comfortable for a person like me can carry in

1969
01:42:04,160 --> 01:42:06,280
Speaker 1: your bag. I can, like this little calmer here, I

1970
01:42:06,320 --> 01:42:08,719
Speaker 1: can slip it into my top pocket and nobody would

1971
01:42:08,720 --> 01:42:12,800
Speaker 1: ever notice it. Correct, That's that's correct. What we look

1972
01:42:12,840 --> 01:42:15,240
Speaker 1: for is grooming is something that I think we all

1973
01:42:15,320 --> 01:42:18,920
Speaker 1: need to pay attention to, especially when you're looking at

1974
01:42:19,000 --> 01:42:21,960
Speaker 1: trying to make sure you present yourself as your best.

1975
01:42:22,200 --> 01:42:26,080
Speaker 1: And we we know that when you you feel good

1976
01:42:26,680 --> 01:42:28,720
Speaker 1: and you look good, you do good. I mean, that's

1977
01:42:28,760 --> 01:42:30,840
Speaker 1: just that's just a fact. And I think if we

1978
01:42:30,960 --> 01:42:33,920
Speaker 1: provide those products and we're not just products, but high

1979
01:42:34,000 --> 01:42:37,040
Speaker 1: quality products and an affordable price that allows us to

1980
01:42:37,120 --> 01:42:39,040
Speaker 1: be able to make an impact there. Well, you know

1981
01:42:39,160 --> 01:42:41,519
Speaker 1: the interesting thing about all your product because they sent

1982
01:42:41,560 --> 01:42:44,479
Speaker 1: me a nice little line from the brush too, like

1983
01:42:44,560 --> 01:42:46,600
Speaker 1: an off air. I shared a little secret with you.

1984
01:42:46,720 --> 01:42:50,240
Speaker 1: You have thisself small patch solid cologne, which I've never

1985
01:42:50,400 --> 01:42:53,160
Speaker 1: seen in my life. You know, we all know cologns

1986
01:42:53,200 --> 01:42:55,840
Speaker 1: coming a little scroped by a little spray. You have

1987
01:42:56,200 --> 01:42:59,760
Speaker 1: what what what made you think of this idea? Because

1988
01:42:59,760 --> 01:43:02,120
Speaker 1: I love up it and again something else I care

1989
01:43:02,240 --> 01:43:05,840
Speaker 1: with me when I travel, So it really it makes

1990
01:43:05,880 --> 01:43:09,120
Speaker 1: me believe that you are a forward thinking individual because

1991
01:43:09,120 --> 01:43:11,439
Speaker 1: you're thinking of things that a person like me who's

1992
01:43:11,479 --> 01:43:14,679
Speaker 1: super busy, who wants to stay groom but also likes

1993
01:43:14,720 --> 01:43:17,880
Speaker 1: to smell good but not I would like to use

1994
01:43:17,920 --> 01:43:22,360
Speaker 1: the word discreetly and also carried Colma necessary discreetly but

1995
01:43:22,439 --> 01:43:25,080
Speaker 1: still have them available because they have high quality. Talk

1996
01:43:25,120 --> 01:43:30,320
Speaker 1: about this uh, this small past solid cologne. Yeah, the

1997
01:43:30,840 --> 01:43:34,760
Speaker 1: solid cologne is a nice little product because when you

1998
01:43:34,880 --> 01:43:38,280
Speaker 1: typically use aerosol or you use a spray, there's a

1999
01:43:38,320 --> 01:43:40,320
Speaker 1: lot of it that's being lost in the air, and

2000
01:43:40,800 --> 01:43:42,560
Speaker 1: you know, when you're trying to transition it from that

2001
01:43:42,840 --> 01:43:46,599
Speaker 1: actual packaging to your your body or your your fabric

2002
01:43:46,680 --> 01:43:49,240
Speaker 1: or wherever you you play Sir Colone with this. It's

2003
01:43:49,280 --> 01:43:52,320
Speaker 1: just an application that simply rub it on and it

2004
01:43:52,400 --> 01:43:55,400
Speaker 1: stays on pretty good. It really has nice sense and smells.

2005
01:43:55,439 --> 01:43:57,080
Speaker 1: We're gonna be coming out with a different line of

2006
01:43:57,160 --> 01:44:00,640
Speaker 1: the solid cologne and not only gives your further a

2007
01:44:00,720 --> 01:44:03,759
Speaker 1: longer yield in terms of the product, but it also

2008
01:44:04,280 --> 01:44:06,960
Speaker 1: gives you the convenience that you've mentioned, being able to

2009
01:44:07,000 --> 01:44:08,519
Speaker 1: take it with you wherever you want and if you

2010
01:44:08,560 --> 01:44:10,240
Speaker 1: want to, you know, just tap it in and refresh

2011
01:44:10,320 --> 01:44:13,000
Speaker 1: up a little bit. You can do that. Um, I

2012
01:44:13,120 --> 01:44:16,400
Speaker 1: can't take credit for that. That is our our development team.

2013
01:44:16,560 --> 01:44:20,519
Speaker 1: That is our our scientists and our chemists that we

2014
01:44:20,680 --> 01:44:24,280
Speaker 1: have that constantly of working on ways to provide better

2015
01:44:24,400 --> 01:44:27,280
Speaker 1: quality products and also just innovative products to the to

2016
01:44:27,320 --> 01:44:29,280
Speaker 1: the marketplace. Well, you know this is why I love

2017
01:44:29,360 --> 01:44:31,800
Speaker 1: it because of the fact you're absolutely right. Because you've

2018
01:44:31,880 --> 01:44:34,720
Speaker 1: seen some people they spread in the air and they

2019
01:44:34,800 --> 01:44:38,120
Speaker 1: walk into the walk into the aroma of the scent

2020
01:44:38,640 --> 01:44:41,439
Speaker 1: or and sometimes when I have the aerosault, I have

2021
01:44:41,520 --> 01:44:45,360
Speaker 1: pointed towards me and then it hits sometimes on my clothes,

2022
01:44:45,800 --> 01:44:48,519
Speaker 1: not exactly where I wanted, and then I finally have

2023
01:44:48,680 --> 01:44:51,800
Speaker 1: control of my cologne. That's what I really like about it.

2024
01:44:51,800 --> 01:44:53,240
Speaker 1: If I want to put it on my neck, I

2025
01:44:53,280 --> 01:44:55,879
Speaker 1: want to put it on my wrist. I feel comfortable

2026
01:44:55,960 --> 01:44:58,320
Speaker 1: with that. And I really really think that this is

2027
01:44:58,400 --> 01:45:00,320
Speaker 1: something I've never seen this before. That's why I have

2028
01:45:00,439 --> 01:45:02,160
Speaker 1: to bring it up at the top of our conversation,

2029
01:45:02,240 --> 01:45:04,320
Speaker 1: her Man, because of the fact that I know you're

2030
01:45:04,320 --> 01:45:06,720
Speaker 1: giving credit to somebody else for doing it, but you

2031
01:45:06,840 --> 01:45:11,960
Speaker 1: have to be the visionary and bringing it to the stores. Correct. Yeah,

2032
01:45:11,960 --> 01:45:15,120
Speaker 1: that's correct, and we we always look at also, um

2033
01:45:16,080 --> 01:45:19,599
Speaker 1: coming you mentioned earlier some of my earlier ventures like Centabon,

2034
01:45:20,040 --> 01:45:22,280
Speaker 1: and we looked at everyone had to have, for instance,

2035
01:45:22,360 --> 01:45:24,840
Speaker 1: like the cinnamon rolls a big cinnamon role and you

2036
01:45:24,920 --> 01:45:26,280
Speaker 1: have to have the knife and the fork to eat it.

2037
01:45:26,360 --> 01:45:28,519
Speaker 1: Then we started getting into what was called manis because

2038
01:45:28,560 --> 01:45:29,840
Speaker 1: we want to have something that was a little bit

2039
01:45:29,840 --> 01:45:33,200
Speaker 1: more portable and has a different functionality to it. That's

2040
01:45:33,200 --> 01:45:35,400
Speaker 1: no different. You have to constantly look at ways to

2041
01:45:35,520 --> 01:45:39,320
Speaker 1: improve and innovate within your product category or your service category,

2042
01:45:39,800 --> 01:45:42,360
Speaker 1: and that's what allows you to be distinguish yourself and

2043
01:45:42,439 --> 01:45:46,160
Speaker 1: differentiate yourself from the competition. But also you're you're also

2044
01:45:46,200 --> 01:45:49,559
Speaker 1: addressing a need anytime you can solve problems, and then

2045
01:45:49,640 --> 01:45:53,479
Speaker 1: also we can also eliminate waste and add profitability to

2046
01:45:53,560 --> 01:45:56,080
Speaker 1: our company, but also give a greater yield to the customer.

2047
01:45:56,439 --> 01:46:00,840
Speaker 1: You're giving a minute of mutually beneficial value back, and

2048
01:46:01,000 --> 01:46:03,120
Speaker 1: I will take credit and the fact that that is

2049
01:46:03,200 --> 01:46:04,920
Speaker 1: what we look for. That's what I look for all

2050
01:46:04,960 --> 01:46:08,000
Speaker 1: the time, because you want to make sure that you

2051
01:46:08,120 --> 01:46:11,160
Speaker 1: have a very balanced business approach. I'll just tell you something, man,

2052
01:46:11,240 --> 01:46:13,160
Speaker 1: about send the ball. I wonder I was just gonna

2053
01:46:13,200 --> 01:46:14,639
Speaker 1: say that as a credit, you know, but you're gonna

2054
01:46:14,680 --> 01:46:16,800
Speaker 1: just bring it up in our conversation. So now you

2055
01:46:17,000 --> 01:46:19,720
Speaker 1: because I'm I'm a desert nut. Everybody knows that about me.

2056
01:46:20,280 --> 01:46:23,080
Speaker 1: Now you have the minis and then you have the

2057
01:46:23,200 --> 01:46:25,800
Speaker 1: regular huge that sound like to get that right when

2058
01:46:25,800 --> 01:46:28,599
Speaker 1: they putting the putting the uh the cream on top.

2059
01:46:28,720 --> 01:46:30,880
Speaker 1: You know, I like it when you know it's hot.

2060
01:46:30,960 --> 01:46:32,920
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you, man, And so I would just

2061
01:46:32,960 --> 01:46:35,880
Speaker 1: tell you it's the same bond now the Mini and

2062
01:46:36,000 --> 01:46:39,160
Speaker 1: the regular, but the regulars taste so much better. I'm

2063
01:46:39,200 --> 01:46:41,320
Speaker 1: just gonna let you herman, for some reason, getting that

2064
01:46:41,439 --> 01:46:44,120
Speaker 1: big old piece of bad and breaking it up and

2065
01:46:44,200 --> 01:46:47,120
Speaker 1: taking that fuck and separating it. You can't go wrong, man.

2066
01:46:47,200 --> 01:46:49,920
Speaker 1: I know, I know the whole packaging about the minis,

2067
01:46:49,960 --> 01:46:52,600
Speaker 1: but those those giants, I call them giants since you

2068
01:46:52,680 --> 01:46:55,320
Speaker 1: have the minute now, but those are the way to go, man,

2069
01:46:55,600 --> 01:46:57,720
Speaker 1: the regular size of the way to go. I can

2070
01:46:57,760 --> 01:46:59,720
Speaker 1: tell you this. I can tell you're not eating many

2071
01:46:59,760 --> 01:47:07,560
Speaker 1: at though, because those things pack lock calories. That was

2072
01:47:07,800 --> 01:47:10,400
Speaker 1: rolling with love and it was rolling and we had

2073
01:47:10,479 --> 01:47:13,080
Speaker 1: that that that to make sure that we know Heyshon's

2074
01:47:13,160 --> 01:47:15,280
Speaker 1: coming in and make sure his has got that extra

2075
01:47:15,560 --> 01:47:20,519
Speaker 1: icing on it. A glass of milk. Come on that, brother,

2076
01:47:20,840 --> 01:47:22,720
Speaker 1: you you're gonna run me out that store. We're gonna

2077
01:47:22,760 --> 01:47:24,960
Speaker 1: run me out that store. And I really, you know,

2078
01:47:25,600 --> 01:47:28,160
Speaker 1: let's go a little history because I'm a football's fan

2079
01:47:28,960 --> 01:47:31,960
Speaker 1: and so I know about your athletic abilities on the field.

2080
01:47:32,280 --> 01:47:35,000
Speaker 1: But we all know there is a time that you're

2081
01:47:35,040 --> 01:47:37,080
Speaker 1: gonna realize that you can't play anymore. You can you

2082
01:47:37,120 --> 01:47:40,040
Speaker 1: can you can hear it every day. Average life, especially

2083
01:47:40,120 --> 01:47:42,280
Speaker 1: of a football player. Maybe five years, five or six

2084
01:47:42,400 --> 01:47:45,840
Speaker 1: years of a full time NFL player. Now, when did

2085
01:47:45,880 --> 01:47:50,160
Speaker 1: you start transitioning mentally? Interesting? I want to be what

2086
01:47:50,360 --> 01:47:54,519
Speaker 1: is my life after football? Well? I started doing it

2087
01:47:54,720 --> 01:47:57,160
Speaker 1: my career ended a two dollars and two and I

2088
01:47:57,280 --> 01:48:01,559
Speaker 1: really started making that transition my final year two thousand,

2089
01:48:01,600 --> 01:48:04,360
Speaker 1: two thousand and one. I started reading for about a

2090
01:48:04,479 --> 01:48:06,760
Speaker 1: year and learning a little bit about the industries that

2091
01:48:06,800 --> 01:48:10,120
Speaker 1: I wanted to approach, understanding also was I going to

2092
01:48:10,600 --> 01:48:12,840
Speaker 1: basically start to a startup or was I going to

2093
01:48:12,920 --> 01:48:16,040
Speaker 1: take on a franchise system. And I chose to go

2094
01:48:16,160 --> 01:48:18,879
Speaker 1: with Mailbox et cetera, which was my very first franchise

2095
01:48:18,920 --> 01:48:21,000
Speaker 1: that I purchased, and then from there I ended up

2096
01:48:21,040 --> 01:48:23,960
Speaker 1: becoming the second largest cente Bond partner, owning all of

2097
01:48:24,040 --> 01:48:28,200
Speaker 1: Florida and all of Michigan stores. And doing that process,

2098
01:48:28,240 --> 01:48:30,400
Speaker 1: I assembled and put together a team that would help

2099
01:48:30,439 --> 01:48:33,360
Speaker 1: me with the operations because that wasn't my background. My

2100
01:48:33,439 --> 01:48:36,360
Speaker 1: background is in marketing and communications. But I want to

2101
01:48:36,400 --> 01:48:39,080
Speaker 1: make sure I surrounded myself with those that would would

2102
01:48:39,120 --> 01:48:41,479
Speaker 1: give me the right advice. Now, will say this, you

2103
01:48:41,560 --> 01:48:43,280
Speaker 1: can put all the people around you that you want,

2104
01:48:43,640 --> 01:48:48,000
Speaker 1: but if you don't understand what they're doing and the

2105
01:48:48,080 --> 01:48:50,679
Speaker 1: direction that they're leading you or the information that they're

2106
01:48:50,760 --> 01:48:53,560
Speaker 1: giving you, then it's it's really not doing you that

2107
01:48:53,760 --> 01:48:56,439
Speaker 1: great of because because then it's all based on who

2108
01:48:56,560 --> 01:48:59,519
Speaker 1: they are and the character that they possessed on whether

2109
01:48:59,600 --> 01:49:01,479
Speaker 1: or not they're leading down the right path. So I

2110
01:49:01,840 --> 01:49:04,200
Speaker 1: I learned I had some bumps and bruises in there,

2111
01:49:04,240 --> 01:49:06,719
Speaker 1: But at the same time it's allowed me to become

2112
01:49:07,160 --> 01:49:11,639
Speaker 1: a very disciplined business owner now going through all those experiences.

2113
01:49:11,680 --> 01:49:13,800
Speaker 1: So I'll be tough to change any of those things. See,

2114
01:49:13,920 --> 01:49:15,680
Speaker 1: I've been keeping you in business, not you said you

2115
01:49:15,760 --> 01:49:18,080
Speaker 1: in Florida and all that. I actually have been keeping

2116
01:49:18,120 --> 01:49:19,960
Speaker 1: you in business because I used to go to Orlando

2117
01:49:20,080 --> 01:49:22,320
Speaker 1: all the time because they got a center bar right

2118
01:49:22,360 --> 01:49:24,880
Speaker 1: there in Orlando that I would go into all the time.

2119
01:49:25,120 --> 01:49:27,160
Speaker 1: When when I look at you as a leader, because

2120
01:49:27,240 --> 01:49:29,799
Speaker 1: this is this is about leadership, this is about team

2121
01:49:30,360 --> 01:49:32,800
Speaker 1: by walking in because you're also saying you you you know,

2122
01:49:33,000 --> 01:49:35,719
Speaker 1: because I'm assuming you're based in the in the Detroit area,

2123
01:49:35,920 --> 01:49:39,640
Speaker 1: are not correct? That's okay. So when you're saying you

2124
01:49:39,760 --> 01:49:43,759
Speaker 1: have businesses that are not drivable, how do you maintain

2125
01:49:43,880 --> 01:49:47,280
Speaker 1: that level of management, that level of professional listener to

2126
01:49:47,400 --> 01:49:50,599
Speaker 1: make sure you're meeting your your bottom line and your

2127
01:49:50,640 --> 01:49:53,640
Speaker 1: expectations of service to people, even though you can't just

2128
01:49:53,760 --> 01:49:57,800
Speaker 1: walk into door and check yeah, well, what I did

2129
01:49:57,920 --> 01:50:01,880
Speaker 1: is interesting. I've always been into technology, and getting involved

2130
01:50:01,920 --> 01:50:03,959
Speaker 1: with this allowed me to bring some of the discipline

2131
01:50:04,000 --> 01:50:06,960
Speaker 1: only as an athlete and just having this very regimented

2132
01:50:07,479 --> 01:50:09,400
Speaker 1: process in which we go by, but I brought the

2133
01:50:09,439 --> 01:50:12,439
Speaker 1: concept of team knowing that it was more than just myself.

2134
01:50:12,560 --> 01:50:15,200
Speaker 1: So you when you talk about that leadership, there's no different.

2135
01:50:15,200 --> 01:50:18,479
Speaker 1: It's transitioning that into the business world and knowing that

2136
01:50:18,760 --> 01:50:21,160
Speaker 1: you're willing to go in not only learn all the

2137
01:50:21,320 --> 01:50:23,840
Speaker 1: things that my employees were doing in my team members,

2138
01:50:24,120 --> 01:50:25,920
Speaker 1: but also to show them that I was willing to

2139
01:50:25,960 --> 01:50:28,599
Speaker 1: put in the work. And by doing that, they saw

2140
01:50:28,680 --> 01:50:31,519
Speaker 1: I was an absentee owner. Uh, that I was very

2141
01:50:31,600 --> 01:50:34,120
Speaker 1: much hands on, but I wasn't so much where it

2142
01:50:34,200 --> 01:50:38,360
Speaker 1: was granular and that I was micromanaging uh them, but

2143
01:50:38,479 --> 01:50:41,440
Speaker 1: I was showing that there was there was an expectation

2144
01:50:42,240 --> 01:50:46,960
Speaker 1: that there was accountability on all levels from your top down. Uh.

2145
01:50:47,080 --> 01:50:50,120
Speaker 1: And then from there it's it's really learning from your mistakes.

2146
01:50:50,120 --> 01:50:52,120
Speaker 1: You gotta make mistakes in business, You're gonna make mistakes

2147
01:50:52,160 --> 01:50:54,200
Speaker 1: in life. It's all about what do you do with

2148
01:50:54,320 --> 01:50:57,160
Speaker 1: those lessons in those those things that don't quite work

2149
01:50:57,280 --> 01:50:59,160
Speaker 1: sometimes and the things that do work well, How do

2150
01:50:59,280 --> 01:51:02,519
Speaker 1: you utilize that to help you continue along that path?

2151
01:51:02,840 --> 01:51:04,479
Speaker 1: And for me, I was able to take all of

2152
01:51:04,560 --> 01:51:07,800
Speaker 1: those elements and and really start to develop what I

2153
01:51:07,840 --> 01:51:09,920
Speaker 1: call a playbook. So it's once again bringing in a

2154
01:51:10,000 --> 01:51:11,640
Speaker 1: lot of those that you know, I don't try and

2155
01:51:11,760 --> 01:51:13,479
Speaker 1: use the analogy of sports all the time, but it

2156
01:51:13,640 --> 01:51:16,160
Speaker 1: is is developing a playbook that leads you down this

2157
01:51:16,280 --> 01:51:19,880
Speaker 1: path to success, and that that's really have been all

2158
01:51:19,920 --> 01:51:22,400
Speaker 1: about it. So watching my business, when you mentioned that

2159
01:51:22,880 --> 01:51:25,839
Speaker 1: I put technology in place, I actually started to develop

2160
01:51:25,920 --> 01:51:28,360
Speaker 1: a back end piece on our point of sales systems

2161
01:51:28,640 --> 01:51:30,920
Speaker 1: which will allow me at that time to receive real

2162
01:51:31,040 --> 01:51:34,960
Speaker 1: time receipts UH to my computer, which wasn't was unheard

2163
01:51:35,000 --> 01:51:36,840
Speaker 1: of at that point because you typically had to get

2164
01:51:36,880 --> 01:51:39,200
Speaker 1: the printed receipts and then have everyone facts that to you.

2165
01:51:39,880 --> 01:51:42,280
Speaker 1: But we're able to develop programs to do that. And

2166
01:51:42,800 --> 01:51:45,240
Speaker 1: every time I've I've been part of any type of

2167
01:51:45,280 --> 01:51:48,480
Speaker 1: business or startup, I've looked at what resources are available,

2168
01:51:48,560 --> 01:51:52,120
Speaker 1: including technology as being a platform and a foundation of

2169
01:51:52,200 --> 01:51:54,600
Speaker 1: that work. You know, an interesting thing about when I

2170
01:51:54,680 --> 01:51:58,479
Speaker 1: listened to you, your articulation, your professionalism. You just happen

2171
01:51:58,520 --> 01:52:02,240
Speaker 1: to play football, you know, because I consider the Magic

2172
01:52:02,320 --> 01:52:04,160
Speaker 1: Jobs is a good friend of mine. And you know,

2173
01:52:04,439 --> 01:52:07,640
Speaker 1: even before he became a basketball star, he wanted to

2174
01:52:07,680 --> 01:52:09,759
Speaker 1: be a business owner. He wanted to be an entrepreneur.

2175
01:52:09,920 --> 01:52:12,519
Speaker 1: And he's and and he's shown it. After his basketball

2176
01:52:12,560 --> 01:52:15,120
Speaker 1: life is ended, he's equally as a Hall of Famer

2177
01:52:15,320 --> 01:52:16,920
Speaker 1: in the business world as he has been on the

2178
01:52:16,960 --> 01:52:19,240
Speaker 1: basketball courts. What did it all start for you? This

2179
01:52:19,400 --> 01:52:22,519
Speaker 1: mentality to be an entrepreneur? What did it start for you? Know?

2180
01:52:22,640 --> 01:52:25,360
Speaker 1: You came from a single parent home. Talk about that

2181
01:52:25,720 --> 01:52:28,800
Speaker 1: upbringing that shifted you in this direction about where you

2182
01:52:28,920 --> 01:52:32,920
Speaker 1: are at today, it was always you know, it goes

2183
01:52:33,000 --> 01:52:36,639
Speaker 1: back to my my youth. I started out in school

2184
01:52:36,720 --> 01:52:39,519
Speaker 1: and I was in the head Start program, which has

2185
01:52:39,520 --> 01:52:41,960
Speaker 1: been in the news as of late in some areas.

2186
01:52:42,240 --> 01:52:45,720
Speaker 1: And uh, you're you're giving you you're already put at

2187
01:52:45,760 --> 01:52:49,120
Speaker 1: a limitation sometimes before you get started. I noticed when

2188
01:52:49,160 --> 01:52:51,960
Speaker 1: I went into a college or high school, I was

2189
01:52:52,000 --> 01:52:57,000
Speaker 1: always directed into courses that were really weren't challenging me.

2190
01:52:57,080 --> 01:53:00,120
Speaker 1: They weren't gonna they weren't going to stretch me or

2191
01:53:00,200 --> 01:53:01,760
Speaker 1: put me in a place where I get to go

2192
01:53:01,920 --> 01:53:03,960
Speaker 1: and say, okay, can I test and utilize all the

2193
01:53:04,000 --> 01:53:06,880
Speaker 1: ability that I have now, they give me that opportunity

2194
01:53:06,920 --> 01:53:09,840
Speaker 1: in sports when they can see that potential in the athleticism,

2195
01:53:10,080 --> 01:53:12,120
Speaker 1: But why can't you see that potendial in my my

2196
01:53:12,520 --> 01:53:17,400
Speaker 1: my ability from a mental standpoint and from an intelligence standpoint. Um,

2197
01:53:17,520 --> 01:53:19,960
Speaker 1: and quite often sometimes we start to buy into that.

2198
01:53:20,080 --> 01:53:23,080
Speaker 1: So I stopped buying into that, uh long into you know,

2199
01:53:23,400 --> 01:53:26,519
Speaker 1: very early into my football career. Uh midway through my

2200
01:53:26,800 --> 01:53:29,680
Speaker 1: my college career. I started realizing that, you know what,

2201
01:53:30,240 --> 01:53:32,400
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna take these classes just that it's gonna

2202
01:53:32,479 --> 01:53:34,519
Speaker 1: keep me eligible. I want to take classes that we're

2203
01:53:34,560 --> 01:53:37,519
Speaker 1: gonna provide me a career any event that football doesn't

2204
01:53:37,520 --> 01:53:40,400
Speaker 1: work out, because it's not gonna be long term transition

2205
01:53:40,479 --> 01:53:43,880
Speaker 1: that into the football professional football stage. I started to

2206
01:53:43,920 --> 01:53:46,640
Speaker 1: see that as much as we think we're in controlful,

2207
01:53:47,040 --> 01:53:49,240
Speaker 1: we don't own the team. We don't own the ability

2208
01:53:49,360 --> 01:53:52,560
Speaker 1: to to really create our faith. Uh. You could be

2209
01:53:52,600 --> 01:53:54,200
Speaker 1: a great player, and at that time I was doing

2210
01:53:54,240 --> 01:53:57,040
Speaker 1: really well, but if I have a disagreement with my coach,

2211
01:53:57,160 --> 01:53:59,640
Speaker 1: he still has the ability, just as an owner of

2212
01:53:59,720 --> 01:54:03,080
Speaker 1: a business, to basically fire me or let me go.

2213
01:54:03,880 --> 01:54:05,719
Speaker 1: So I wanted to make sure I always had control

2214
01:54:05,800 --> 01:54:08,559
Speaker 1: of my destiny, and from there I decided I would

2215
01:54:08,640 --> 01:54:11,800
Speaker 1: never settle for good when great is available. I heard

2216
01:54:11,840 --> 01:54:15,120
Speaker 1: that one place and I said, you know what, going forward,

2217
01:54:15,160 --> 01:54:17,839
Speaker 1: everything that I do, I'm always gonna push the envelope.

2218
01:54:17,920 --> 01:54:20,880
Speaker 1: I'm always gonna try and figure out disruption in a

2219
01:54:20,960 --> 01:54:23,640
Speaker 1: good way, not in a negative way, but one that

2220
01:54:23,680 --> 01:54:27,880
Speaker 1: would always say, am I truly trying and achieving at

2221
01:54:27,960 --> 01:54:31,320
Speaker 1: that level that is afforded to me as a person,

2222
01:54:31,760 --> 01:54:34,120
Speaker 1: as an individual. You know, it's really interesting when I

2223
01:54:34,280 --> 01:54:37,040
Speaker 1: to hear you because you know the modern athlete, No,

2224
01:54:37,120 --> 01:54:39,600
Speaker 1: I said the model athlete. Maybe the last I put

2225
01:54:39,640 --> 01:54:41,440
Speaker 1: you in that modern athlete group because it was after

2226
01:54:41,480 --> 01:54:45,880
Speaker 1: two thousands that the mentality changed. It was all about

2227
01:54:46,280 --> 01:54:49,880
Speaker 1: you know, football and then football in and players were

2228
01:54:49,960 --> 01:54:52,200
Speaker 1: just shocked. You know what it was gonna do with

2229
01:54:52,240 --> 01:54:54,640
Speaker 1: the next step. Now we have the modern athlete who

2230
01:54:54,720 --> 01:54:58,400
Speaker 1: are planning after the game. You know, a classic modern

2231
01:54:58,480 --> 01:55:02,720
Speaker 1: athlete is Lebron James. A classic modein athlete is Magic Johnson,

2232
01:55:02,720 --> 01:55:05,880
Speaker 1: a classic morthin that marthin and modern athlete is Steph Curry.

2233
01:55:06,240 --> 01:55:09,560
Speaker 1: You are a classic modern athlete, but you are earlier

2234
01:55:09,640 --> 01:55:13,160
Speaker 1: than them. So what who are your role models? Herman

2235
01:55:14,080 --> 01:55:16,320
Speaker 1: to point you in the right direction that you should

2236
01:55:16,360 --> 01:55:18,840
Speaker 1: be like this, that you should be prepping for this,

2237
01:55:19,320 --> 01:55:22,240
Speaker 1: because you seem to have laid a great foundation for

2238
01:55:22,360 --> 01:55:27,920
Speaker 1: a future as an entrepreneur post football. All right. So

2239
01:55:28,000 --> 01:55:30,880
Speaker 1: being in Detroit, we are around a lot of very

2240
01:55:30,960 --> 01:55:36,000
Speaker 1: successful former athletes like Bennie Johnson UH owning and running

2241
01:55:36,200 --> 01:55:40,120
Speaker 1: a billion dollar enterprise, Dave being former basketball player, UH

2242
01:55:40,520 --> 01:55:44,280
Speaker 1: professional basketball player becoming a mayor as well as having

2243
01:55:44,320 --> 01:55:48,120
Speaker 1: successful businesses. I watched Magic Johnson. I looked at how

2244
01:55:48,240 --> 01:55:51,880
Speaker 1: he started to command his brand, not just on the

2245
01:55:52,000 --> 01:55:54,600
Speaker 1: basketball court, but what he starts to do in terms

2246
01:55:54,640 --> 01:55:57,760
Speaker 1: of getting the value out of that, not just I'm

2247
01:55:57,800 --> 01:55:59,680
Speaker 1: gonna show up and be the face of something, but

2248
01:55:59,800 --> 01:56:03,800
Speaker 1: actually owning it. Um. That was that was impowerful and

2249
01:56:03,920 --> 01:56:07,080
Speaker 1: impactful for me to see Michael Jordan's going in and say,

2250
01:56:07,120 --> 01:56:08,720
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna have a brand that runs

2251
01:56:08,720 --> 01:56:10,680
Speaker 1: a line if I want to stand in the sports

2252
01:56:10,720 --> 01:56:13,160
Speaker 1: world that we have with the Nike, but I'm gonna

2253
01:56:13,200 --> 01:56:17,320
Speaker 1: have my own brand that is just that is solely him,

2254
01:56:17,840 --> 01:56:20,400
Speaker 1: and it's gonna run parallel but just as powerful and

2255
01:56:20,480 --> 01:56:23,520
Speaker 1: more recognized than even that. And he elevates, like in

2256
01:56:23,600 --> 01:56:26,560
Speaker 1: my opinion, so it's it's those are the people that

2257
01:56:26,640 --> 01:56:28,360
Speaker 1: I can look at, and there's many, many more. I'm

2258
01:56:28,400 --> 01:56:30,640
Speaker 1: sure if I really start to think back about it,

2259
01:56:30,720 --> 01:56:33,480
Speaker 1: But I said, you know what I see people who

2260
01:56:33,520 --> 01:56:37,320
Speaker 1: have pet have paved the way out of a profession

2261
01:56:37,400 --> 01:56:39,760
Speaker 1: like mind, and that you can talk about entertainment, you

2262
01:56:39,800 --> 01:56:42,240
Speaker 1: can talk about actors and actresses, you can talk about

2263
01:56:42,280 --> 01:56:45,880
Speaker 1: successful business people as a whole. But if the playbook

2264
01:56:45,960 --> 01:56:48,280
Speaker 1: is there, you just have to be a student and

2265
01:56:48,440 --> 01:56:51,040
Speaker 1: willing to receive it. And I was listening to tv

2266
01:56:51,160 --> 01:56:53,480
Speaker 1: ja'son one time and he talked about how sometimes we

2267
01:56:53,680 --> 01:56:56,920
Speaker 1: run behind opportunity, sometimes we run ahead of it, but

2268
01:56:56,960 --> 01:56:58,640
Speaker 1: we gotta figure out a way in which we put

2269
01:56:58,680 --> 01:57:01,560
Speaker 1: ourselves to where we're running parallel after where we're not

2270
01:57:01,760 --> 01:57:03,760
Speaker 1: missing it, we're not there before we're supposed to be,

2271
01:57:03,880 --> 01:57:06,200
Speaker 1: and we're not behind it, always never being able to

2272
01:57:06,240 --> 01:57:09,080
Speaker 1: catch up. And I've tried to figure out the position

2273
01:57:09,160 --> 01:57:11,080
Speaker 1: myself that way. And so you can take all these

2274
01:57:11,120 --> 01:57:13,680
Speaker 1: things in and you have a recipe, and but you

2275
01:57:13,760 --> 01:57:15,560
Speaker 1: gotta be willing to put in the work. Well, you

2276
01:57:15,600 --> 01:57:17,960
Speaker 1: know that the key is we was working. But also

2277
01:57:18,040 --> 01:57:20,640
Speaker 1: when I read on your history, it's always about young

2278
01:57:20,720 --> 01:57:24,000
Speaker 1: people here, like even the Golden Groom. It is about

2279
01:57:24,320 --> 01:57:28,560
Speaker 1: young people preparing themselves, looking professional, feeling good about themselves.

2280
01:57:28,840 --> 01:57:32,800
Speaker 1: And then you have a new entrepreneursial program or your foundation,

2281
01:57:33,280 --> 01:57:36,560
Speaker 1: tackle Life Foundation that you have you launched already of

2282
01:57:36,680 --> 01:57:40,280
Speaker 1: what stages it of that foundation called tackle Life, which

2283
01:57:40,360 --> 01:57:43,160
Speaker 1: is like tackling somebody, but tackling life instead of a

2284
01:57:43,240 --> 01:57:45,720
Speaker 1: player on the field. So you're about tackling life. And

2285
01:57:45,760 --> 01:57:48,120
Speaker 1: that's the foundation that is based on. Talk about it.

2286
01:57:50,040 --> 01:57:52,600
Speaker 1: So the Tackle Life Foundation, I actually started running it

2287
01:57:53,040 --> 01:57:56,280
Speaker 1: as a private organization in two thousand and nine. Uh

2288
01:57:56,400 --> 01:57:59,960
Speaker 1: then I be I got my uh foundation sort of

2289
01:58:00,080 --> 01:58:04,520
Speaker 1: fied in two thousand sixteen. And the I've always done camps.

2290
01:58:04,560 --> 01:58:07,600
Speaker 1: I've always done something that would try and bring empowerment

2291
01:58:07,720 --> 01:58:10,200
Speaker 1: or have a touch point with young adults to where

2292
01:58:10,320 --> 01:58:15,120
Speaker 1: we can still touch them and and influence their foundational growth.

2293
01:58:15,840 --> 01:58:18,080
Speaker 1: And what I see is that you have to be

2294
01:58:18,160 --> 01:58:20,440
Speaker 1: able to reach back and not it's not about what

2295
01:58:20,720 --> 01:58:23,160
Speaker 1: I do and what's appealing to me, but it's what

2296
01:58:23,400 --> 01:58:27,160
Speaker 1: does the world itself offer and how do we extract

2297
01:58:27,280 --> 01:58:30,560
Speaker 1: those different abilities and the mindset from individuals say who

2298
01:58:30,600 --> 01:58:33,920
Speaker 1: am I and how can I take this this knowledge

2299
01:58:34,000 --> 01:58:36,320
Speaker 1: or this opportunity and apply it to my vision in

2300
01:58:36,400 --> 01:58:39,640
Speaker 1: my goal. So everything that we do has been around that.

2301
01:58:39,800 --> 01:58:44,360
Speaker 1: We've done programs from UH computer programming, so we design

2302
01:58:44,480 --> 01:58:49,520
Speaker 1: websites and build um different types of projects that require robotics.

2303
01:58:50,080 --> 01:58:53,200
Speaker 1: We also now are into e gaming and eat sports,

2304
01:58:53,240 --> 01:58:55,720
Speaker 1: which is a big thing. There's grants and scholarships, especially

2305
01:58:55,760 --> 01:58:59,680
Speaker 1: at HBCUs that are getting really big into the sports

2306
01:58:59,720 --> 01:59:03,760
Speaker 1: and eat aiming platforms. We with this entrepreneurship program. If

2307
01:59:03,800 --> 01:59:09,280
Speaker 1: you look at the African American community, there were very entrepreneurs. However,

2308
01:59:09,560 --> 01:59:12,200
Speaker 1: the failure rate is high because we don't have access

2309
01:59:12,320 --> 01:59:15,320
Speaker 1: to not only the partnerships, the revenue of the tools.

2310
01:59:16,000 --> 01:59:18,480
Speaker 1: When I go and I meet with these large manufacturers,

2311
01:59:18,880 --> 01:59:21,879
Speaker 1: the first thing I saw, Rishan was that they mentioned

2312
01:59:22,160 --> 01:59:24,800
Speaker 1: they would love and I won't name these big retailers.

2313
01:59:24,840 --> 01:59:27,040
Speaker 1: These are your major major retailers. They said, you know what,

2314
01:59:27,960 --> 01:59:30,160
Speaker 1: we we want the African American products. We want the

2315
01:59:30,320 --> 01:59:33,080
Speaker 1: minority based product. But you know what, the product quality

2316
01:59:33,160 --> 01:59:36,000
Speaker 1: isn't there, the labeling isn't there. They don't have the

2317
01:59:36,080 --> 01:59:38,200
Speaker 1: systems and the logistics to be able to handle the

2318
01:59:38,240 --> 01:59:41,120
Speaker 1: workload or the capacity of the distribution that we need.

2319
01:59:41,440 --> 01:59:45,240
Speaker 1: They don't have these these things. Well, question I have

2320
01:59:45,360 --> 01:59:48,800
Speaker 1: for them is are you providing resources through your manufacturing

2321
01:59:48,880 --> 01:59:53,360
Speaker 1: partners to afford them that opportunity? And not many work.

2322
01:59:53,760 --> 01:59:55,960
Speaker 1: And then I looked at who we were and that's

2323
01:59:56,000 --> 01:59:59,600
Speaker 1: what spawned this entrepreneurship program to say, we are a manufacturer,

2324
01:59:59,680 --> 02:00:02,320
Speaker 1: We're an relying on someone to help us we get

2325
02:00:02,360 --> 02:00:04,920
Speaker 1: the rock goods. We also, through Team eighty four, my

2326
02:00:05,040 --> 02:00:09,080
Speaker 1: parent company, we do logistics and transportation and procurement and

2327
02:00:09,120 --> 02:00:11,920
Speaker 1: all these things and packaging. So we know what we'll

2328
02:00:11,960 --> 02:00:14,800
Speaker 1: do this ourselves. We'll create an entrepreneurship program to help

2329
02:00:14,920 --> 02:00:18,240
Speaker 1: us bring those young, aspiring people in who would love

2330
02:00:18,320 --> 02:00:21,360
Speaker 1: to learn about manufacturing of products and services that we offer,

2331
02:00:21,880 --> 02:00:24,560
Speaker 1: and then we would team up with them to actually

2332
02:00:24,640 --> 02:00:27,360
Speaker 1: launch that vision and we're gonna create this marketplace. So

2333
02:00:27,440 --> 02:00:30,800
Speaker 1: we've already started this program under leadership of a person

2334
02:00:30,880 --> 02:00:32,640
Speaker 1: I brought in who has done a great job. Her

2335
02:00:32,680 --> 02:00:37,839
Speaker 1: name is Christie's Abacar. She's our chief marketing and Communications officer,

2336
02:00:37,960 --> 02:00:42,200
Speaker 1: but she also runs our program and we're going we're

2337
02:00:42,240 --> 02:00:44,880
Speaker 1: on our way, and we we already have identified about

2338
02:00:44,920 --> 02:00:48,080
Speaker 1: four or five different companies or that we're gonna start

2339
02:00:48,160 --> 02:00:52,080
Speaker 1: with youth. Um, so we're very excited, very very excited

2340
02:00:52,080 --> 02:00:55,080
Speaker 1: about and it costs them nothing, right, that's the beautiful thing.

2341
02:00:55,240 --> 02:00:56,800
Speaker 1: But this is not going to cost them many things

2342
02:00:56,880 --> 02:00:58,880
Speaker 1: do Well, let me let let's let's slow it down

2343
02:00:58,920 --> 02:01:01,040
Speaker 1: and talk about it, because you said a lot. But

2344
02:01:01,520 --> 02:01:05,560
Speaker 1: you mentioned your communication director in your CMO and we

2345
02:01:05,640 --> 02:01:08,040
Speaker 1: know the name Tackle Life Foundations started in two thousand

2346
02:01:08,200 --> 02:01:12,280
Speaker 1: nine official twenty sixteen, which was officially recognized as a foundation.

2347
02:01:12,720 --> 02:01:15,280
Speaker 1: How does one is it a limit to the amount

2348
02:01:15,320 --> 02:01:19,080
Speaker 1: of students young adults? Is the age requirements? What are

2349
02:01:19,080 --> 02:01:24,320
Speaker 1: the requirements for participating in the Tackle Life Foundation opportunities? Well,

2350
02:01:24,520 --> 02:01:28,640
Speaker 1: for the for that particular program, the Entrepreneurship program, it

2351
02:01:28,760 --> 02:01:31,320
Speaker 1: starts with the age of eight team. Uh, we will

2352
02:01:31,400 --> 02:01:33,640
Speaker 1: go below that, but you have to get parents involved

2353
02:01:33,680 --> 02:01:37,280
Speaker 1: and in your executing documents with them. So we're looking

2354
02:01:37,360 --> 02:01:40,160
Speaker 1: at for those particular programs at a at a different

2355
02:01:40,200 --> 02:01:43,960
Speaker 1: age group. We don't necessarily play a cap because people

2356
02:01:44,000 --> 02:01:47,760
Speaker 1: could be entrepreneurial all their lives and UH, for us,

2357
02:01:48,160 --> 02:01:51,600
Speaker 1: we don't put restrictions limitations there. And to qualify for that,

2358
02:01:52,400 --> 02:01:54,840
Speaker 1: we've created a website that should be up here in

2359
02:01:54,840 --> 02:01:57,480
Speaker 1: about a month that will start to open it up

2360
02:01:57,520 --> 02:02:00,280
Speaker 1: to the public. We put we pick a few to

2361
02:02:00,320 --> 02:02:03,880
Speaker 1: work with. We're working with juvenile justice system to work

2362
02:02:03,960 --> 02:02:07,760
Speaker 1: with some that are are incarcerated and or are getting

2363
02:02:07,800 --> 02:02:10,000
Speaker 1: out that need to have a place in a VISION,

2364
02:02:10,520 --> 02:02:12,960
Speaker 1: So we wanted to start where areas of need would

2365
02:02:13,000 --> 02:02:15,680
Speaker 1: be there. We're also working with some of the youth

2366
02:02:15,800 --> 02:02:19,080
Speaker 1: organizations where we will hand select a few that have

2367
02:02:19,320 --> 02:02:21,560
Speaker 1: VISION to come in and participate in our program. But

2368
02:02:21,600 --> 02:02:24,680
Speaker 1: we're gonna open us up and uh, if you qualify,

2369
02:02:24,960 --> 02:02:26,720
Speaker 1: that'll be great, but we will do you know, some

2370
02:02:26,840 --> 02:02:31,000
Speaker 1: contract manufacturing as well. I have to mention that for

2371
02:02:31,080 --> 02:02:33,480
Speaker 1: those that are looking for partnerships that will help them

2372
02:02:33,520 --> 02:02:35,200
Speaker 1: scale so they don't have to do it out their house,

2373
02:02:35,840 --> 02:02:38,560
Speaker 1: right Uh, So they can definitely reach out to us

2374
02:02:38,720 --> 02:02:41,280
Speaker 1: uh and and at that capacity, and we're gonna do

2375
02:02:41,320 --> 02:02:43,960
Speaker 1: as much as we can within our means to be

2376
02:02:44,000 --> 02:02:46,240
Speaker 1: able to help. Well, I would tell you this, I

2377
02:02:46,320 --> 02:02:48,960
Speaker 1: want to know more and I would love to learn

2378
02:02:49,080 --> 02:02:51,560
Speaker 1: more be a part of this for you. Uh. My

2379
02:02:51,800 --> 02:02:54,240
Speaker 1: my talents, I've been doing this since I was eighteen

2380
02:02:54,280 --> 02:02:59,200
Speaker 1: years old, uplifting educating our backgrounds, degrees in mathematics, my

2381
02:02:59,240 --> 02:03:02,760
Speaker 1: mindors sociology. Work five years for IBM, so I have

2382
02:03:02,920 --> 02:03:06,280
Speaker 1: executive training and I'm an entrepreneur so and hearing this

2383
02:03:06,640 --> 02:03:08,560
Speaker 1: for the first time on this show, I'm gonna just

2384
02:03:08,720 --> 02:03:11,440
Speaker 1: let you know if you're looking for volunteers, I always

2385
02:03:11,480 --> 02:03:13,440
Speaker 1: you know I'm available. I'm not just saying that because

2386
02:03:13,840 --> 02:03:16,520
Speaker 1: I'm on this show trying to getting good good with you,

2387
02:03:16,680 --> 02:03:18,560
Speaker 1: because you already already got my groom and stuff. I

2388
02:03:18,560 --> 02:03:23,360
Speaker 1: don't need you no more. But I just know that

2389
02:03:23,880 --> 02:03:26,800
Speaker 1: what you're doing is important, especially for men of color

2390
02:03:27,480 --> 02:03:29,480
Speaker 1: and UH and if if I'm in a position to

2391
02:03:29,560 --> 02:03:33,280
Speaker 1: help you, I will help you. Okay, Now, I really

2392
02:03:33,320 --> 02:03:36,200
Speaker 1: appreciate that, and by all means I will reach out

2393
02:03:36,320 --> 02:03:38,880
Speaker 1: because I can't do it alone. So I appreciate that.

2394
02:03:39,000 --> 02:03:41,280
Speaker 1: Thank you. Cool. Well, I'm goning to switch gears to

2395
02:03:41,360 --> 02:03:44,320
Speaker 1: another subject that I know nothing about, but it's making

2396
02:03:44,360 --> 02:03:48,520
Speaker 1: the headlands cryptocurrency. First of all, explain to my listeners

2397
02:03:48,600 --> 02:03:53,840
Speaker 1: and views what exactly is cryptocurrency. Well, it depends on

2398
02:03:53,880 --> 02:03:55,720
Speaker 1: who you're speaking with. There. There are many of us

2399
02:03:55,760 --> 02:04:00,400
Speaker 1: who think that it is a decentralized service in the

2400
02:04:00,480 --> 02:04:05,720
Speaker 1: financial market that allows UH very steamless transactions and the

2401
02:04:05,960 --> 02:04:10,920
Speaker 1: the the purchase of of just basically this this coin

2402
02:04:11,200 --> 02:04:15,080
Speaker 1: that people think is just a phantom value, but it

2403
02:04:15,240 --> 02:04:17,560
Speaker 1: is a way in which to be able to move

2404
02:04:18,320 --> 02:04:21,840
Speaker 1: M dollars around UH in a in a digital space,

2405
02:04:22,560 --> 02:04:25,200
Speaker 1: versus using FIAT, which is you know what we use now,

2406
02:04:25,280 --> 02:04:27,360
Speaker 1: the American dollar, or something that is more physical and

2407
02:04:27,440 --> 02:04:33,480
Speaker 1: tangible that's tied to a UM some type of collateral.

2408
02:04:34,240 --> 02:04:36,720
Speaker 1: But it's something that I think it's worth looking at.

2409
02:04:36,800 --> 02:04:38,840
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned to you earlier, you know, I'm

2410
02:04:38,880 --> 02:04:41,040
Speaker 1: not an expert on it. But what I've learned is

2411
02:04:41,680 --> 02:04:43,920
Speaker 1: I look at the value of systems, and I look

2412
02:04:43,960 --> 02:04:47,040
Speaker 1: at blockchain technology, and I look at a way in

2413
02:04:47,120 --> 02:04:49,960
Speaker 1: which you improve on some of the deficiencies that you

2414
02:04:50,080 --> 02:04:53,280
Speaker 1: find in the financial system. And that's what I think

2415
02:04:53,440 --> 02:04:55,960
Speaker 1: is grown. Has pretty much grown quite a bit, and

2416
02:04:56,040 --> 02:04:58,720
Speaker 1: it's caught the attention of many of those in the

2417
02:04:58,800 --> 02:05:02,320
Speaker 1: financial space. But the regulations are a lot lighter UH

2418
02:05:02,440 --> 02:05:05,800
Speaker 1: than what uh an unregulated, than what you see in

2419
02:05:05,840 --> 02:05:10,280
Speaker 1: the central banking system. But as those things get ironed out,

2420
02:05:10,400 --> 02:05:12,360
Speaker 1: I think there is a play here. I don't think

2421
02:05:12,400 --> 02:05:15,040
Speaker 1: it's going away. Well, I'm I'm pretty sure it's not.

2422
02:05:15,880 --> 02:05:17,960
Speaker 1: You can put regulations there, but there's just too many

2423
02:05:18,560 --> 02:05:21,840
Speaker 1: places in parts of the world, and it's a global participation.

2424
02:05:21,920 --> 02:05:24,240
Speaker 1: This isn't just about the United States. So for me,

2425
02:05:24,360 --> 02:05:28,960
Speaker 1: I mainly just play around with some of the smaller coins,

2426
02:05:29,360 --> 02:05:34,480
Speaker 1: but I will find some that especially Ethereum. That is

2427
02:05:34,840 --> 02:05:38,000
Speaker 1: where I put more of my time in every Well

2428
02:05:38,560 --> 02:05:41,640
Speaker 1: before I close, you know, we talked about the Golden Grooming,

2429
02:05:41,720 --> 02:05:43,720
Speaker 1: which I like. I said, this is at my desk

2430
02:05:43,840 --> 02:05:47,200
Speaker 1: every day. I'm you know, I use this all right,

2431
02:05:47,680 --> 02:05:50,080
Speaker 1: I use this. Man makes me feel good. I like

2432
02:05:50,160 --> 02:05:53,320
Speaker 1: to believe it makes me look good. Okay about coming

2433
02:05:53,360 --> 02:05:55,720
Speaker 1: from my dad right there, I'm grooming brother right in

2434
02:05:55,800 --> 02:05:58,160
Speaker 1: front of you on this interview. Okay, and that, but

2435
02:05:58,280 --> 02:06:00,960
Speaker 1: more importantly, we talked about you. You You're you're you're

2436
02:06:01,000 --> 02:06:03,560
Speaker 1: giving back. We talked about your ability to run a

2437
02:06:03,640 --> 02:06:06,800
Speaker 1: country from running run your business from state across this

2438
02:06:06,920 --> 02:06:10,240
Speaker 1: country using technology. Now you're in the podcast world and

2439
02:06:10,320 --> 02:06:13,720
Speaker 1: you I'm a big fan of this deep deep force.

2440
02:06:14,600 --> 02:06:18,120
Speaker 1: Uh sidekicker yours lo much Brown? How did you Why

2441
02:06:18,120 --> 02:06:20,440
Speaker 1: didn't you get decided to get into the podcast world

2442
02:06:20,520 --> 02:06:24,480
Speaker 1: with offensive tackle Lomas Brown talking about is that you're

2443
02:06:24,520 --> 02:06:30,040
Speaker 1: former Detroit Ty Detroit Lions teammates yeah, so with moments. Uh,

2444
02:06:30,400 --> 02:06:34,240
Speaker 1: what a great, great guy. We ended up being teammates

2445
02:06:34,400 --> 02:06:38,760
Speaker 1: when I came in one he was probably the toughest

2446
02:06:38,760 --> 02:06:41,320
Speaker 1: guy on me because lineman don't like for you to

2447
02:06:41,400 --> 02:06:44,600
Speaker 1: make mistakes because if you drop a pass that could

2448
02:06:44,600 --> 02:06:46,600
Speaker 1: have led to the yards closer to the end zone,

2449
02:06:46,720 --> 02:06:48,680
Speaker 1: that's fifty last yards they have to work off of.

2450
02:06:48,880 --> 02:06:51,520
Speaker 1: So uh, they threatened me quite a bit, which made

2451
02:06:51,560 --> 02:06:53,880
Speaker 1: me an all pro wide receiver and actually do my job.

2452
02:06:54,400 --> 02:06:58,000
Speaker 1: But afterwards, he is someone who is very much engaged

2453
02:06:58,200 --> 02:07:02,720
Speaker 1: in the community. He's very very philanthropic. Uh, he's just

2454
02:07:02,880 --> 02:07:06,320
Speaker 1: the nicest, nicest guy you could ever meet. And because

2455
02:07:06,400 --> 02:07:08,520
Speaker 1: of that, I wanted to figure out a space for

2456
02:07:08,680 --> 02:07:11,560
Speaker 1: him within first and foremost our company. So bringing him

2457
02:07:11,560 --> 02:07:16,280
Speaker 1: in as our chief Diversity and business development arm that

2458
02:07:16,560 --> 02:07:19,400
Speaker 1: was awesome. He's done a tremendous job there. But then

2459
02:07:19,920 --> 02:07:21,640
Speaker 1: he and I both have been in media for over

2460
02:07:21,720 --> 02:07:25,440
Speaker 1: twenty years, and having that background, we decided why not

2461
02:07:25,600 --> 02:07:28,200
Speaker 1: build a studio in our office, why not come up

2462
02:07:28,200 --> 02:07:32,600
Speaker 1: with our own camera crew, our podcast equipment, and start

2463
02:07:32,680 --> 02:07:34,240
Speaker 1: to do our own show. So we started a show.

2464
02:07:34,320 --> 02:07:36,520
Speaker 1: Because Lom is always if you don't if you get

2465
02:07:36,560 --> 02:07:37,960
Speaker 1: to know him the first thing he had he will

2466
02:07:37,960 --> 02:07:39,880
Speaker 1: say when he leaves a meeting, what you say next

2467
02:07:39,920 --> 02:07:42,720
Speaker 1: time we get together? Less great bread. And so we

2468
02:07:42,800 --> 02:07:46,160
Speaker 1: decided to call our show breaking Bridge, and uh, from

2469
02:07:46,200 --> 02:07:48,320
Speaker 1: then on, we've been having a blast. It allows us

2470
02:07:48,400 --> 02:07:51,640
Speaker 1: to talk about things that are relevant to us, things

2471
02:07:51,680 --> 02:07:53,880
Speaker 1: that are relevant to our community and and to our

2472
02:07:53,960 --> 02:07:57,640
Speaker 1: base of listeners and viewers. So that's uh, it's been fun,

2473
02:07:57,840 --> 02:08:00,640
Speaker 1: as you know, is having your own show. It's liberating

2474
02:08:00,640 --> 02:08:02,760
Speaker 1: and its rewarding because it gives you a voice in

2475
02:08:02,840 --> 02:08:06,440
Speaker 1: a place. Um that is again another channel on a

2476
02:08:06,600 --> 02:08:09,080
Speaker 1: platform that's supporting to us that you know, we can

2477
02:08:09,160 --> 02:08:11,280
Speaker 1: we can go out and be ourselves. Well, all right,

2478
02:08:11,360 --> 02:08:13,600
Speaker 1: all right, I'm a fan of you. I'm a fan

2479
02:08:13,680 --> 02:08:16,280
Speaker 1: of Lomas. And uh, how does one get talent on

2480
02:08:16,400 --> 02:08:18,440
Speaker 1: your show? Dudes? To do you have a booking agency

2481
02:08:18,520 --> 02:08:20,360
Speaker 1: that books to talent? We just you know, you just

2482
02:08:20,520 --> 02:08:23,280
Speaker 1: call them out of the blue. And how does people

2483
02:08:23,280 --> 02:08:24,880
Speaker 1: get on your show? Man? It's just you and him

2484
02:08:24,960 --> 02:08:27,080
Speaker 1: talking all the time, y'all just hogging all the information.

2485
02:08:27,320 --> 02:08:30,480
Speaker 1: How do people get on your podcast? Man? Go on,

2486
02:08:30,600 --> 02:08:32,880
Speaker 1: And we're not gonna just hog it all ourselves. We

2487
02:08:32,920 --> 02:08:34,440
Speaker 1: want to make sure we get some other people and

2488
02:08:34,480 --> 02:08:38,880
Speaker 1: then they're like, but but for now, it's been us

2489
02:08:38,960 --> 02:08:42,800
Speaker 1: reaching out to other people that we know. We have

2490
02:08:43,440 --> 02:08:46,120
Speaker 1: a plitha of absolutely people that we've met and we

2491
02:08:46,360 --> 02:08:48,880
Speaker 1: we we work with over our careers. But also with

2492
02:08:49,240 --> 02:08:52,320
Speaker 1: again I mentioned Christie's avocar, who has been really good

2493
02:08:52,440 --> 02:08:55,480
Speaker 1: at working with us to help bring in that talent

2494
02:08:55,640 --> 02:08:58,240
Speaker 1: as well as be the communication channel and making sure

2495
02:08:58,280 --> 02:09:01,720
Speaker 1: that gets facilitated and book But yeah, she's the one

2496
02:09:01,760 --> 02:09:04,480
Speaker 1: who's she's running that show for us. She's running the background.

2497
02:09:04,520 --> 02:09:07,600
Speaker 1: Her background was just so you know, Uh, she used

2498
02:09:07,600 --> 02:09:10,000
Speaker 1: to manage all of the content and digital content for

2499
02:09:10,080 --> 02:09:12,760
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions for over seven years and then she

2500
02:09:12,920 --> 02:09:15,240
Speaker 1: came in to become part of our team. We've known her,

2501
02:09:15,280 --> 02:09:17,280
Speaker 1: so there's a comfort level there. She knows us as

2502
02:09:17,320 --> 02:09:19,960
Speaker 1: people and personalities. Um, so we had a we had

2503
02:09:19,960 --> 02:09:22,240
Speaker 1: a really good team. And uh, I I look forward.

2504
02:09:22,240 --> 02:09:24,240
Speaker 1: You gotta have moments and I on your show and

2505
02:09:24,280 --> 02:09:27,880
Speaker 1: then you gotta come on our show time. You gotta

2506
02:09:27,880 --> 02:09:29,560
Speaker 1: tell us what your favorite food is. You gotta eat

2507
02:09:29,600 --> 02:09:33,400
Speaker 1: when you're talking with us. That's brother. I probably because

2508
02:09:33,400 --> 02:09:36,040
Speaker 1: I gotta kitchen him stands. I probably make some pies

2509
02:09:36,200 --> 02:09:38,839
Speaker 1: and some donuts. While I'm talking to you doing the interview,

2510
02:09:39,040 --> 02:09:41,720
Speaker 1: teasing you, and you keep saying how skinny I am.

2511
02:09:41,880 --> 02:09:44,040
Speaker 1: I would just let you know how I eat right

2512
02:09:44,120 --> 02:09:48,320
Speaker 1: on your interviews yourself that we're okay, Well we'll do it.

2513
02:09:48,440 --> 02:09:50,480
Speaker 1: You know, we we got a soul food capital around here.

2514
02:09:51,720 --> 02:09:53,560
Speaker 1: Maybe you have to put the spread out. I'll put

2515
02:09:53,640 --> 02:09:56,040
Speaker 1: the spread out there on our side, and I'm gonna

2516
02:09:56,040 --> 02:09:57,920
Speaker 1: make you make your mouth all water and you're gonna

2517
02:09:57,920 --> 02:10:01,000
Speaker 1: be over there salvator too. Just read. I love it.

2518
02:10:01,640 --> 02:10:04,720
Speaker 1: It's a great interview, man. I appreciate the product promoting

2519
02:10:04,760 --> 02:10:07,840
Speaker 1: your products, and my newsletter on my social media got

2520
02:10:07,920 --> 02:10:10,240
Speaker 1: like a million followers. So I've just been waiting to

2521
02:10:10,240 --> 02:10:12,280
Speaker 1: get you on the show. And I have some friends

2522
02:10:12,320 --> 02:10:14,040
Speaker 1: of mine. I'm gonna tell her about tell her the

2523
02:10:14,040 --> 02:10:15,840
Speaker 1: contact with me and getting my boy stephen A. Smith

2524
02:10:15,920 --> 02:10:18,160
Speaker 1: on your show, so as you all the previous pace,

2525
02:10:18,360 --> 02:10:20,080
Speaker 1: you can entertain them and let them know about the show.

2526
02:10:20,440 --> 02:10:21,880
Speaker 1: So I just want to help you blow up, man,

2527
02:10:21,880 --> 02:10:23,640
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