Yusuf Muhammad On Managing Desi Banks and Building a Creative Career

WEBVTT
00:00:10.430 --> 00:00:17.545
Hello everyone and welcome to Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together.
00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:23.452
I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we're continuing our fan favorite series.
00:00:23.452 --> 00:00:37.631
This is the fourth episode in the countdown to the season three premiere on October 20th, and I am beyond excited to share today's conversation with you, with Yousef Muhammad, aka Veteran Freshman.
00:00:37.631 --> 00:00:47.746
Youi is an entrepreneur, event curator and artist manager whose work has spanned across music festivals, branded experiences and so much more.
00:00:47.746 --> 00:00:55.509
At the time of this interview, yui was managing comedian and actor Desi Banks, but his story goes way beyond that.
00:00:55.509 --> 00:01:02.951
In this episode, we dive deep into Yui's journey, his creative philosophy and the lessons he's learned along the way.
00:01:02.951 --> 00:01:06.269
So, without further ado, here's the interview.
00:01:06.269 --> 00:01:15.024
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together.
00:01:15.024 --> 00:01:34.721
I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we have the pleasure of chatting with Yusuf Muhammad, aka Veteran Freshman, an entrepreneur, event curator, talent buyer and manager who's worked around the globe on music festivals, branded experiences and much, much more.
00:01:34.721 --> 00:01:42.403
He's also an artist manager and currently manages the super talented comedian and actor, desi Banks.
00:01:42.403 --> 00:01:44.746
Welcome to Creative Space, yui.
00:01:44.766 --> 00:01:46.709
Yeah, thank you for having me.
00:01:46.709 --> 00:01:47.652
Thank you for having me.
00:01:47.652 --> 00:01:49.093
Really excited to be here.
00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.432
Oh my gosh, it's an honor to have you on this show, and I'm thinking back.
00:01:59.432 --> 00:01:59.933
How did we first meet?
00:01:59.933 --> 00:02:01.058
Was it Rock on Philly TV back in the day?
00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:04.123
Yeah, yeah, you're talking about a time.
00:02:04.123 --> 00:02:08.210
I mean, this was close to almost 10 years ago, most likely.
00:02:08.490 --> 00:02:09.131
Oh my gosh.
00:02:09.290 --> 00:02:23.751
We were talking yeah, we were talking 20, probably that 2013, 2014, 2015 time, maybe even a little earlier.
00:02:23.751 --> 00:02:24.574
But yeah, I believe that's how we met.
00:02:24.574 --> 00:02:25.699
I believe you were doing journalism in Philadelphia.
00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:26.842
I was doing a lot of different events.
00:02:26.842 --> 00:02:35.330
I don't know if someone connected us I'm not sure if you came to one of my events, but I do remember that once we did connect, we were connected.
00:02:35.330 --> 00:02:37.804
I do remember that, like it was, it was instant.
00:02:37.804 --> 00:02:39.348
You know, we were connected and that was it.
00:02:39.348 --> 00:02:39.870
We were friends.
00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:49.106
Yeah, cause you were always putting on events in Philly and, you know, just making an impact on the city and it was a pleasure to write about and you know.
00:02:50.389 --> 00:02:50.991
I appreciate it.
00:02:50.991 --> 00:02:53.947
I told you I kept a lot of those writings.
00:02:53.947 --> 00:02:56.132
They still are there.
00:02:56.132 --> 00:03:03.810
You know keepsakes of mine I it reminds me of a time that I didn't realize.
00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:07.756
When you know it's so much, time really does fly.
00:03:07.756 --> 00:03:23.709
So it helps to have those reminders of some of the things that you've done and some of the places you've been and you know some of the, some of the impact that you've had and I'm extremely appreciative of a lot of the things that I was able to do in Philly.
00:03:23.709 --> 00:03:31.817
And I told, I used to tell people all the time that you know Philly was, philly was school and the world was my graduation.
00:03:32.098 --> 00:03:35.288
You know what I'm saying, so I was able to kind of graduate into the world.
00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:36.686
But Philly was definitely my school.
00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:39.264
For people who aren't familiar with you and your work.
00:03:39.264 --> 00:03:43.981
Let's go way back, yeah let's go.
00:03:43.981 --> 00:03:49.328
I know where you're from originally, but for everyone else listening, where are you from originally?
00:03:50.550 --> 00:03:56.135
So I am originally born and raised in Philadelphia, pennsylvania.
00:03:56.135 --> 00:04:13.814
I was raised in southwest Philadelphia and I also have family ties all over Philly, so West Philly, north Philly but where I was really spent the initial kind of younger years of my life was in Southwest Philadelphia.
00:04:13.814 --> 00:04:37.834
My mother was from New York, my father was from Philadelphia and my mother she did do a good job of giving me the balance of New York and Philly, you know, as I was growing up, but a large majority of my time was spent in Philadelphia and learning and experiencing Philly in the 80s and 90s.
00:04:37.834 --> 00:04:43.471
That was my upbringing and it was.
00:04:43.471 --> 00:04:44.334
It was great.
00:04:44.334 --> 00:04:45.992
It was a different city.
00:04:45.992 --> 00:04:46.555
It was a different city.
00:04:46.555 --> 00:04:47.581
It was a different time.
00:04:47.581 --> 00:04:55.995
You know it was um I, you know I used to grow up you don't really know where you're from.
00:04:57.142 --> 00:05:09.196
It's like there's a, there's a point where you become conscious of where you're from right but I remember watching, like this tom hanks movie when I was like a kid and I was like that looks like Philadelphia, that looks like downtown Philly.
00:05:09.196 --> 00:05:14.290
And I remember watching like Rocky and I was like wait, that looks like Philly.
00:05:14.290 --> 00:05:19.086
And then I think I was watching um, I even think they may have filmed some of um.
00:05:19.086 --> 00:05:22.942
There was a film with Eddie Murphy I think it was called trading places.
00:05:23.084 --> 00:05:24.206
Oh, I love that movie.
00:05:24.247 --> 00:05:26.192
They did Philadelphia as well.
00:05:26.192 --> 00:05:51.610
So, growing up, you know, I I knew that I was from somewhere that was special because I would see it on my TV screen, I would see it in movies, you know, and, and that was a it was, you know, when I, as I grew up, and I was watching you know, the BETs, and I was watching you know the MTVs, and I was just watching the kind of world of music I realized very quickly that Philly held a special place there.
00:05:51.610 --> 00:05:54.687
There was a lot of, I always would see Philadelphia.
00:05:54.687 --> 00:05:56.891
Philadelphia was a place that artists were coming to.
00:05:56.891 --> 00:06:01.091
So, yeah, it was an interesting, very, very interesting upbringing.
00:06:01.091 --> 00:06:02.961
But yep, that's, that's where I grew up.
00:06:02.961 --> 00:06:04.322
I grew up in southwest Philly.
00:06:04.963 --> 00:06:05.264
Cool.
00:06:05.264 --> 00:06:07.507
What did you want to be as a kid, do you remember?
00:06:08.588 --> 00:06:29.932
So as a kid, I think you know, I think we may have spoken this in the past, but you know I had a very interesting childhood, specifically from an educational perspective, like I was, you know I was a, you know, dare I say I was, I was a pretty advanced kid, um, and so, uh, I was in the first grade, I think.
00:06:29.932 --> 00:07:10.509
I, you know, I think they went to go put me in like preschool and kindergarten, but I was like surpassed that so I went directly into, like the first grade, like five, like I was six years old, in first grade, in the first grade, um, and it wasn't, oh my gosh, me through life formulas and systems, and I think once you realize, or you understand formulas and systems, just in life in general, it just makes navigating that much easier.
00:07:10.509 --> 00:07:11.552
That's all it is.
00:07:11.552 --> 00:07:15.088
It's just, it's the control, all the neat delete to life.
00:07:15.088 --> 00:07:15.911
You know what I mean.
00:07:15.911 --> 00:07:26.132
It's, it's the, it's the shift into to life, it's the, it's the wow, you're blowing my mind right now, I mean you knew this from like the first grade.
00:07:26.872 --> 00:07:33.023
So from when I was a kid, yeah, that was just my thing, I would, I was just a system person.
00:07:33.023 --> 00:07:43.891
It was, hmm, you know, I remember that one of the earliest videos of me, uh, like home home recordings of me, um, they gave, you know, they used to give us, like you know, he had plate spools and I removed the screen door.
00:07:43.891 --> 00:07:49.711
I don't know how, but I took the screen door like off the thing and my dad, my dad's on video.
00:07:49.711 --> 00:07:51.216
He's like, oh, that's interesting.
00:07:51.216 --> 00:07:54.466
He's like, um, are you going to put it back?
00:07:55.569 --> 00:08:02.812
And I basically, like I was like as a kid, I like retraced my steps and was able to put the door back, you know, the bottom of the door back.
00:08:02.812 --> 00:08:34.974
I was probably like I had to be like five or six years old, but very early my dad recognized that and was like, hmm, and so, education wise I think that's part of the question you asked me but education wise, I started off, you know, very, very young and worked my way up and you know, eventually, you know the story goes that I, you know, I went to college at, uh, at 14 years old, um wow, I didn't know that about you.
00:08:35.980 --> 00:08:46.471
Yeah, it's crazy, I just found, I just found the uh certificate for it and I had been looking for it for a very long time, cause you know, you know you tell people that sometimes they believe you.
00:08:46.471 --> 00:08:47.981
Sometimes, yeah, okay, right.
00:08:47.981 --> 00:08:59.761
But yeah, I actually just found the certificate and you look at the date and you look at it and it's like Yousef is the youngest honoree to like enter college at like 14 years old.
00:09:00.263 --> 00:09:01.224
Incredible.
00:09:02.085 --> 00:09:03.725
Signed by the senator at the time.
00:09:04.147 --> 00:09:07.910
So yeah, and you went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
00:09:08.110 --> 00:09:10.614
Yes, so I was saying all that.
00:09:10.614 --> 00:09:11.534
That's what I was talking about.
00:09:11.534 --> 00:09:13.115
Education, there you go, Reminded me.
00:09:13.115 --> 00:09:27.404
I was saying all that to say, like when I was younger, originally, I was able to.
00:09:27.404 --> 00:09:53.418
I think it's part of the reason why I was able to like use social media so well when it first came around and like get this large following and, like you know, I just knew how to use it in a different way is because I literally watched the internet be born like literally like I remember when see like dvds, like when those first the first ones, like when they first.
00:09:53.498 --> 00:09:54.441
I remember us being at like a.
00:09:54.441 --> 00:10:04.807
We were at like this party and this guy was like, um, I have this new thing, it's called a dvd and he's like you know, he puts it into like this player and everybody was like surrounding the TV.
00:10:04.807 --> 00:10:06.791
But I remember that moment.
00:10:06.791 --> 00:10:10.317
But I remember when, like you know when.
00:10:10.317 --> 00:10:15.748
I remember when wifi was just you know, being used.
00:10:15.748 --> 00:10:30.221
I remember when social media I was on Facebook way before most of my peers because I was 14 years old, incredible, so Facebook was only for college kids at a certain time.
00:10:30.221 --> 00:10:33.129
So I was on a lot of these things very, very early.
00:10:33.168 --> 00:10:35.923
So my first love was into electronics.
00:10:35.923 --> 00:10:36.846
That was my first love.
00:10:36.846 --> 00:10:39.270
My first love was the world of electronics.
00:10:39.270 --> 00:10:45.230
I wanted to do anything in that space and as life kind of kept going forward.
00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:53.143
My second, my second love, which became kind of like one of my more passions and I'm still very passionate about it, was films and filmmaking.
00:10:53.143 --> 00:11:12.392
I believe that the ability to just take an idea or a concept and turn it into a movie or cinema or a story was just really really intriguing to me and from very young I remember I would always watch like the making of.
00:11:12.392 --> 00:11:15.730
I loved watching the scenes of how films were made.
00:11:15.730 --> 00:11:20.831
I don't think a lot of kids today don't know that that used to be.
00:11:20.850 --> 00:11:28.599
A part of the rollout for the movie was that they would show you the behind the scenes on entertainment tonight and weekly, like they would do these interviews.
00:11:28.599 --> 00:11:35.269
They'd be on set and they'd be interviewing the actors and they'd be like this movie comes out, you know, at the end of the year, but we're over here.
00:11:35.269 --> 00:11:41.186
You know there's explosions going on, you know, going off in the back, in the back, you know, and I was captivated by that.
00:11:41.186 --> 00:11:43.029
I just loved everything about you.
00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:49.249
You know the behind the scenes again, formalists, you know, and strategy and how you build it out.
00:11:49.249 --> 00:11:50.711
You know it was intriguing to me.
00:11:50.711 --> 00:11:52.846
So, yeah, I ended up.
00:11:53.789 --> 00:11:54.051
I was.
00:11:54.051 --> 00:11:55.677
I remember it like it was yesterday.
00:11:55.677 --> 00:11:58.423
I was in my apartment at the time.
00:11:58.423 --> 00:12:01.947
I was working at a place called Penn Children's Center.
00:12:01.947 --> 00:12:08.998
I was a, I was a, I was a assistant.
00:12:08.998 --> 00:12:14.052
I was an assistant like teacher.
00:12:14.052 --> 00:12:16.267
I was like an assistant teacher, like tutor there.
00:12:16.267 --> 00:12:28.067
And I saw a commercial on television that said you know, do you want to be a filmmaker, you know, do you want to make movies, you should go to the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
00:12:28.067 --> 00:12:29.706
I never heard of the Art Institute, ever.
00:12:29.706 --> 00:12:38.981
And being, as you know, as determined as I was at that age, I still am now.
00:12:38.981 --> 00:12:42.350
But being as determined as I was at that age, I just called the number.
00:12:43.231 --> 00:12:43.732
Nice.
00:12:48.602 --> 00:12:50.370
And I was like, hey, you know, I would like to go to college, you know.
00:12:50.370 --> 00:12:51.875
And she was like, oh, okay, well, you know, have you been before?
00:12:51.875 --> 00:12:53.283
And I was like, yeah, I went to community.
00:12:53.283 --> 00:13:04.312
And so this woman that I ended up speaking to I mean talk about just the universe, but that person that I ended up speaking to, um, she ended up literally just helping me throughout the whole process.
00:13:04.312 --> 00:13:05.875
Wow, and helped me.
00:13:05.875 --> 00:13:09.206
Yeah, she was from that first conversation on the phone.
00:13:09.206 --> 00:13:13.567
She was like I'm going to help you get into the school and she helped me get into the school and it was great.
00:13:13.567 --> 00:13:16.827
And from there it just my life changed.
00:13:18.192 --> 00:13:20.788
Yeah, who are your biggest film inspirations?
00:13:22.259 --> 00:13:28.360
So some of my biggest film inspirations off the top is um, is spike lee for sure.
00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:35.947
So yeah, somebody who, from very, very young I watched all of his films, studied his films um, I believe his name is wes anderson.
00:13:35.947 --> 00:13:38.373
Um, I wanted to say his name is wes anderson.
00:13:38.373 --> 00:13:48.746
Just because of his extremely unique style of storytelling has just always been incredibly unique to me and I feel like he makes funny movies for intelligent people.
00:13:48.746 --> 00:13:56.312
Like he makes movies that like anybody, no matter what you find funny he makes, he makes films that speak to everybody.
00:13:56.312 --> 00:13:59.504
So, big fan of Wes Anderson.
00:13:59.504 --> 00:14:03.090
Sorry, my daughter just walked in on me as we were talking, right?
00:14:03.210 --> 00:14:04.030
now, I love it.
00:14:04.030 --> 00:14:06.855
I tried my best.
00:14:12.341 --> 00:14:14.582
I thought I could find some actual free time to do this, but it's just yeah.
00:14:14.582 --> 00:14:19.288
Unfortunately it's not working out as good as I wanted it to, but you can battle with me.
00:14:19.288 --> 00:14:20.311
Hopefully you can battle with me.
00:14:20.650 --> 00:14:21.993
That's a slice of life.
00:14:21.993 --> 00:14:24.355
It's a slice of life of a beautiful life.
00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:32.923
So you know, yes, yes, which is great, though, like I had a lot of time to myself, so now I, now I have to, now I get to share it with these, uh, these blessings, so it's awesome.
00:14:33.124 --> 00:14:36.229
Yeah, um.
00:14:36.229 --> 00:14:49.763
So how did you transition to the to the event side of entertainment, from film, and you're doing photography too, I think entertainment from film and you're doing photography too, I think yes.
00:14:49.783 --> 00:14:51.245
So all right, I can tell this story.
00:14:51.245 --> 00:14:52.807
I'll try not to be too long-winded.
00:14:52.807 --> 00:14:54.311
So I am at the Art Institute.
00:14:54.311 --> 00:15:00.192
Very quickly, I realized that there was a couple of things that all happened at one time.
00:15:00.192 --> 00:15:10.000
So I get to the Art Institute and one thing that my dad used to always tell me was that when you go somewhere, he used to say make friends with all the older people.
00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.047
That was a that was an intentional.
00:15:14.047 --> 00:15:22.000
Goal was that if you go somewhere, don't try to impress the people at your age.
00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:23.461
They have no power.
00:15:23.461 --> 00:15:33.663
Impress the people who who actually have power and can actually help you as you are motivated and as you have ideas, the people that are your age.
00:15:33.663 --> 00:15:38.323
They'll come as you continue to extend, but don't pursue that.
00:15:38.323 --> 00:15:43.009
He's always I don't know why, but that was his thing he's like don't pursue that, pursue wisdom.
00:15:43.179 --> 00:15:51.061
Basically, that was the lesson that my dad, you know, uh, instilled in me and I and I would say my dad like he, definitely that was something he put in me.
00:15:51.061 --> 00:15:53.392
He used to say make friends with everybody who's older.
00:15:53.392 --> 00:15:56.765
You know, they are the ones that are going to be able to actually look out for you.
00:15:56.765 --> 00:16:00.317
So I was very intentional about that.
00:16:00.317 --> 00:16:02.302
I was friends with the financial aid department.
00:16:02.302 --> 00:16:03.966
I was friends with the counselors.
00:16:03.966 --> 00:16:05.448
I was friends with the financial aid department.
00:16:05.448 --> 00:16:06.171
I was friends with the counselors.
00:16:06.191 --> 00:16:07.113
I was friends with the president of the school.
00:16:07.133 --> 00:16:08.174
And it was very simple.
00:16:08.174 --> 00:16:15.096
I would, before I would go to my classes in the morning, I had like set up a route that I would take.
00:16:15.096 --> 00:16:18.547
I would walk through the school, I would walk through the financial aid area.
00:16:18.547 --> 00:16:19.770
I would say hello, good morning.
00:16:19.770 --> 00:16:20.802
I hope you have a good day today.
00:16:20.802 --> 00:16:22.325
Oh, it's so good to see you, man.
00:16:22.325 --> 00:16:24.067
I hope you're good man.
00:16:24.067 --> 00:16:26.813
I hope your kids are great man, I hope everything's fine with you.
00:16:26.813 --> 00:16:28.363
It was like you know.
00:16:28.363 --> 00:16:31.030
I was basically saying I was like you know how was you?
00:16:31.030 --> 00:16:31.922
You know how's your kids?
00:16:32.283 --> 00:16:34.931
Then I walk through the student affairs area.
00:16:34.931 --> 00:16:38.028
I say hello to the young lady who was like the security.
00:16:38.028 --> 00:16:41.352
You know, like the secretary person, I say hello to security.
00:16:41.352 --> 00:16:43.573
I'd go in and say what's up to the president.
00:16:43.573 --> 00:16:45.955
Hey president, you know, great, great seeing you man.
00:16:45.955 --> 00:16:51.597
You know, I appreciate good to know you and I just would keep moving, doing that over and over and over again.
00:16:51.597 --> 00:16:52.697
Eventually they recognized me.
00:16:52.697 --> 00:16:59.826
They were like who is this kid Like that just keeps us walking through here and he's always asking us questions and he's always very jovial and he's always asking us how our day is.
00:17:00.428 --> 00:17:09.569
So one day, you know, just from doing that, I asked the woman who was working at the desk.
00:17:09.569 --> 00:17:11.859
I was always coming here and talk to her and I was a new student, so they wanted to be nice and help me.
00:17:11.859 --> 00:17:13.343
I just ask her.
00:17:13.343 --> 00:17:14.988
I say you know, do you all ever need help here?
00:17:14.988 --> 00:17:15.769
Let me know if you do.
00:17:15.769 --> 00:17:18.862
And she said, yeah, we do.
00:17:18.862 --> 00:17:19.963
She said what do you do now?
00:17:19.963 --> 00:17:22.066
I said, well, I currently have another part time job, you know, with kids.
00:17:22.066 --> 00:17:24.769
I said, well, I currently have another part-time job, you know, with kids.
00:17:24.769 --> 00:17:26.671
I said but you know, you know, just let me know if you ever need help.
00:17:26.691 --> 00:17:29.634
So she said, well, you know you should come work in the office.
00:17:29.634 --> 00:17:30.515
I said really.
00:17:30.515 --> 00:17:31.737
She said, yeah, come work in the office.
00:17:31.737 --> 00:17:37.970
So I ended up working at the student affairs office part-time.
00:17:37.970 --> 00:17:39.655
So now I have the part-time job in student affairs.
00:17:39.655 --> 00:17:42.560
I have the part-time job off-site at the University of Penn, at this Penn Children's Center.
00:17:42.560 --> 00:17:49.613
Sitting at that desk was the best networking tool that I could have.
00:17:49.613 --> 00:17:50.535
I met everybody.
00:17:51.701 --> 00:17:52.946
I met all the cool kids.
00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:57.230
I met all the top leads of all of the organizations.
00:17:57.230 --> 00:18:01.211
I met any of the donors that would come and meet with the president.
00:18:01.211 --> 00:18:04.367
When they would come in they would have to say, hey, yusef.
00:18:04.367 --> 00:18:05.211
And I'd say, hey, how are you?
00:18:05.211 --> 00:18:07.423
And I'm like my name is Yusef and he'd be like, oh, nice to meet you.
00:18:07.423 --> 00:18:08.488
And I'm like, well, what are you doing?
00:18:08.488 --> 00:18:27.124
And he'd be like, oh, I own da-da-da-da-da-da and I'm here to make a donation to the school Great meeting to come into the office.
00:18:27.124 --> 00:18:28.307
So I would just meet them all the time.
00:18:28.307 --> 00:18:30.515
So I began networking that way and eventually I met the person.
00:18:30.535 --> 00:18:31.438
They recommended me to be an RA, okay.
00:18:31.438 --> 00:18:34.065
So I said, okay, well, shoot, cool, I will be an RA.
00:18:34.065 --> 00:18:37.413
I didn't know what an RA was, but again, I work with kids already.
00:18:37.413 --> 00:18:40.884
So I was like this is just working with grown kids.
00:18:40.884 --> 00:18:49.634
So I ended up leaving Penn Children and I ended up having a part-time job in the student affairs.
00:18:49.634 --> 00:18:51.516
I'm still going to school and I'm an RA now.
00:18:51.516 --> 00:19:00.609
One of the things about being an RA was that they said you had to create one of the.
00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:02.972
One of the rules was that you had to create three events.
00:19:02.972 --> 00:19:07.442
Three events per quarter for your, for your, uh, for your students.
00:19:07.442 --> 00:19:22.388
And I immediately I don't know why, but I was like, instead of me creating the events for them, why don't I just go create the events that they want?
00:19:22.388 --> 00:19:22.429
I?
00:19:23.349 --> 00:19:24.191
just go create the events that they want.
00:19:24.211 --> 00:19:36.568
So I called a meeting and at the meeting they started telling me the type of events that they wanted and I said, oh, okay, cool, I got that, that's easy, that's great.
00:19:36.568 --> 00:19:37.170
Okay, cool, I can do that.
00:19:37.170 --> 00:19:38.614
But I couldn't figure out my third event.
00:19:38.614 --> 00:19:40.384
My third event, I could not figure out.
00:19:40.384 --> 00:19:43.508
My third event had to be something that brought the community together.
00:19:43.508 --> 00:19:44.027
So I was like hmm.
00:19:43.993 --> 00:19:45.343
So one thing as an RA you had to do was event had to be something that brought the community together.
00:19:45.310 --> 00:19:51.078
So I was like so one thing as an RA you had to do was you had to do your rounds and you would go to your rounds.
00:19:51.078 --> 00:19:55.174
You go to every apartment just to make sure that they were, you know, not doing crazy stuff.
00:19:55.174 --> 00:20:00.108
Um, even though I was the most lenient RA of all time, like of all time, I did not.
00:20:00.108 --> 00:20:01.571
I never told them.
00:20:01.921 --> 00:20:05.611
I was always like I used to tell them don't make me do my job.
00:20:05.611 --> 00:20:07.026
That's what I used to say to them.
00:20:07.026 --> 00:20:16.095
So, trying to wrap this story up, but it's just a unique way that I fell into this world.
00:20:16.095 --> 00:20:19.679
So all of this is simultaneous.
00:20:19.679 --> 00:20:39.131
At the same time that I'm doing this community event and I'm doing my rounds, and I walk into every dorm, I'm seeing art pieces that are phenomenal, like, I'm seeing stuff, I'm seeing art, I'm seeing fashion designs and I'm like who made this, who did this?
00:20:39.131 --> 00:20:40.082
And they're like I did.
00:20:40.082 --> 00:20:41.586
And I'm like well, are you?
00:20:41.586 --> 00:20:43.112
Are you like like, what is this for?
00:20:43.112 --> 00:20:43.740
Like, are you selling it?
00:20:43.740 --> 00:20:44.824
And they're like this is just a project.
00:20:44.824 --> 00:20:52.888
I just got bored one day and I just painted this mural and I'm like so I took that information with me.
00:20:53.269 --> 00:20:54.553
Okay, that's one part of it.
00:20:54.553 --> 00:21:00.483
The other part of it was I'm in film school, and when you're in film school, usually you have to rent your equipment.
00:21:00.483 --> 00:21:02.666
But I got to the point where I was like you know what?
00:21:02.666 --> 00:21:04.189
I cannot keep running my equipment.
00:21:04.189 --> 00:21:05.431
I have to own a camera.
00:21:05.590 --> 00:21:06.632
I'm going to have to get a camera.
00:21:07.313 --> 00:21:19.410
So at the same time, it just so happened that technology is meeting me in school at the same time and the first DSLR camera dropped, which was called it, was like a Canon TS1.
00:21:19.410 --> 00:21:19.951
The DSLR.
00:21:19.951 --> 00:21:22.261
It allowed you to shoot at high resolutions.
00:21:22.261 --> 00:21:32.152
You can only shoot for a short amount of time, but it allowed you to kind of do these like one minute clips and like the best high resolution anyone had ever seen before.
00:21:32.152 --> 00:21:38.852
And at that same time I'm doing an RA.
00:21:39.760 --> 00:21:41.949
I end up getting my own camera from a friend of mine.
00:21:41.949 --> 00:21:43.125
He loaned me some bread.
00:21:43.125 --> 00:21:43.720
Thank.
00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:44.401
Shots to shouts to Akeel.
00:21:44.401 --> 00:21:46.525
Akeel helped me get my own camera from a friend of mine's he loaned me some bread.
00:21:46.525 --> 00:21:47.527
And shots to shouts to ikeel.
00:21:47.527 --> 00:21:48.709
Ikeel helped me get my first camera.
00:21:48.709 --> 00:21:53.402
I get my first camera and, um, I'm using this ra job to pay off this camera.
00:21:53.402 --> 00:21:59.094
So then I'm like, okay, I need to get money to like just fund myself, to like live.
00:21:59.094 --> 00:22:02.344
So I said, well, why don't I start doing freelance with this camera?
00:22:02.904 --> 00:22:12.056
So I started doing freelance filming and photography for artists and some of these artists are like big artists now.
00:22:12.861 --> 00:22:14.944
At the time they were not.
00:22:14.944 --> 00:22:18.752
At the time they were just dope buzzing artists from their cities.
00:22:18.752 --> 00:22:22.826
But I went on Facebook and I put up there and I told them.
00:22:22.826 --> 00:22:29.044
I said, listen, I will film you for free If you just give me the access.
00:22:29.044 --> 00:22:32.653
So they would give me the access, I will go film for free.
00:22:32.653 --> 00:22:35.829
I would then take that film work, bring it back to school, get an A.
00:22:35.829 --> 00:22:39.583
I would then you know.
00:22:39.583 --> 00:22:43.413
So all of these things are all happening at once.
00:22:43.413 --> 00:22:44.201
All these things are happening.
00:22:44.201 --> 00:22:48.351
I'm meeting different artists, music artists and people in the film and photography world.
00:22:48.351 --> 00:22:49.614
I'm getting access.
00:22:49.614 --> 00:22:51.467
I'm getting relationships through the school.
00:22:51.467 --> 00:22:53.747
I'm connecting with my students.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:01.614
I have to do events and one day I'm in my dorm room and I come up with this event called Whose Art Is this Anyway?
00:23:01.614 --> 00:23:04.200
Whose Art Is this Anyway?
00:23:04.200 --> 00:23:06.888
It was the first ever event I ever curated.
00:23:06.888 --> 00:23:11.125
The rules to the event was this how I promoted?
00:23:11.125 --> 00:23:14.673
It was everything at the event.
00:23:14.673 --> 00:23:17.930
No matter what the event, no matter what it was, no matter what medium it was.
00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:21.643
You could only price it from $1 to $20.
00:23:21.643 --> 00:23:25.089
The reason why I did that was I knew that it would sell.
00:23:25.089 --> 00:23:32.550
Somebody's going to buy it and what I would tell them was you set the price on the go.
00:23:32.550 --> 00:23:35.142
So somebody comes up to you and they ask you how much it is.
00:23:35.142 --> 00:23:42.445
You now have to negotiate with them, almost like a bartering style, to be able to sell your artwork and you have to talk to them.
00:23:43.907 --> 00:23:47.114
First event we did it was actually pretty successful.
00:23:47.114 --> 00:23:50.828
There was about 300 people that came and it was a mixture of everything.
00:23:50.828 --> 00:24:00.685
It was a mixture of art, it was a mixture of music, it was a mixture of a DJ, you had poetry, it was any medium that went under the term art.
00:24:00.685 --> 00:24:02.734
I actually still have the poster somewhere.
00:24:02.734 --> 00:24:03.479
I wish I could find it.
00:24:03.479 --> 00:24:06.144
I would pull it up and show you, but it's a hilarious, amazing.
00:24:06.144 --> 00:24:08.769
It was like my first ever event.
00:24:08.769 --> 00:24:15.904
So the second one was huge.
00:24:15.904 --> 00:24:22.194
The second one, after the success of the first, one word started getting around.
00:24:22.194 --> 00:24:29.510
Of the first one word started getting around, there's this art show that's being thrown at the Art Institute downtown.
00:24:29.510 --> 00:24:31.577
And at that point I had a lot of relationships.
00:24:31.577 --> 00:24:32.780
I was just connecting with people.
00:24:32.780 --> 00:24:41.222
I was telling all the different organizations in my school and 650 people showed up.
00:24:42.464 --> 00:24:51.126
And I was like whoa, I'm like OK, like this is a lot of people, and it was actually you know what.
00:24:51.126 --> 00:24:53.291
Let me circle, let me go back.
00:24:53.291 --> 00:24:55.605
Memory makes you pat a little bit.
00:24:55.605 --> 00:25:00.279
It might have been 150 for the first event, 350 for the second event, not 650.
00:25:00.279 --> 00:25:01.883
It might have been 350 for the second event.
00:25:01.883 --> 00:25:03.045
But this is where the kicker is.
00:25:03.045 --> 00:25:13.491
This is where this is the reason why I got that at 650 number for the second event, like 350, 350 people came, but like 650 people RSVP.
00:25:13.491 --> 00:25:22.568
Oh, and this was the time back in back when Facebook, when people RSVP, it meant they were actually going on Facebook.
00:25:23.560 --> 00:25:24.625
I remember those days.
00:25:27.619 --> 00:25:30.085
It meant that they were actually going on Facebook.
00:25:30.085 --> 00:25:31.587
I remember those days.
00:25:31.587 --> 00:25:33.731
It meant that they were actually going, you know.
00:25:33.731 --> 00:25:36.056
And so for the third one, there was like 2000.
00:25:36.056 --> 00:25:37.439
Rsu MPs, oh wow.
00:25:37.439 --> 00:25:43.172
And the school was concerned because they were like there's going to be like 650 people here.
00:25:43.172 --> 00:25:54.948
Like that's way too many strangers that you're bringing to the school, right, like this has started off as a school event and now this is becoming something that, like people are coming to, so they shut my event down.
00:25:54.948 --> 00:25:57.165
They shut my event down.
00:25:57.500 --> 00:25:58.423
All that publicity.
00:25:59.969 --> 00:26:02.973
It was sad I had to put out this big thing.
00:26:03.319 --> 00:26:04.625
I had to send a message to everybody.
00:26:22.740 --> 00:26:25.707
I was devastated and so my career in concert started from one Facebook post Out of my anger that my event got shut down right due to politics.
00:26:25.707 --> 00:26:25.372
That's what I use.
00:26:25.372 --> 00:26:26.169
I use the word politics right Because you know I was just a student.
00:26:26.169 --> 00:26:28.992
I didn't have any control over the venue space.
00:26:28.992 --> 00:26:32.546
I didn't have any control over you know who attended, who didn't attend.
00:26:32.546 --> 00:26:38.000
I went on Facebook and I said my school just shut down my art show.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:41.426
I was expecting like 2000 people and I'm like man, this is like messed up.
00:26:41.426 --> 00:26:56.946
I said I need to have my own space to throw my own events A guy responded to that thread and he said there's a spot called the Blockley Wow that I am friends with.
00:26:57.667 --> 00:27:00.172
There's a guy named Chris over there that I'm really friends with.
00:27:00.172 --> 00:27:02.115
You should let me introduce you to them.
00:27:02.115 --> 00:27:04.318
He said I've heard about the art show.
00:27:04.318 --> 00:27:06.124
You should let me introduce you to them.
00:27:06.565 --> 00:27:24.683
And that was my career from there, from that moment, that moment of the universe coming together of me being an RA of me going to school for film and photo of me meeting the specific people that I've met during that time in Philadelphia who are all superstars now.
00:27:24.683 --> 00:27:27.611
I mean, these guys are all over the industry, all over the world right now.
00:27:27.611 --> 00:27:33.723
That was the launch of Veteran Freshman and my career.
00:27:33.723 --> 00:27:41.115
I remember, once I got the venue, my goal was to throw a birthday concert.
00:27:41.115 --> 00:27:41.921
That was my goal.
00:27:41.921 --> 00:27:49.982
I knew all these different people, I was meeting all these different artists throughout the year and I wanted to throw a birthday concert and I was like what can I name it?
00:27:51.047 --> 00:27:56.102
And this is again me being this kind of like, very like militant kind of you know kid.
00:27:56.102 --> 00:27:57.728
I named it.
00:27:57.728 --> 00:28:08.848
I came up with veteran freshmen and the goal was to basically say because I felt like people were treating me as a freshman but I used to say I have veteran relationships.
00:28:08.848 --> 00:28:19.807
So I was like I'm a veteran freshman, like imagine the, you know the person that is a veteran, you know, you know how to do this, but you're in freshman circumstances.
00:28:20.529 --> 00:28:22.641
I see and that was the whole idea was that.
00:28:22.641 --> 00:28:31.227
You know, I was like I want to showcase veteran talent that people know, but they might be a fresh face to you, I see, know if that rings.
00:28:31.227 --> 00:28:32.667
And I was like, what is freshman veteran?
00:28:32.667 --> 00:28:47.586
I was explaining something like, yeah, you know, it's freshmen, but they really better.
00:28:47.586 --> 00:28:51.663
And they were like and then I just was like, well, what about veteran freshmen?
00:28:51.663 --> 00:28:53.907
And they were like, ah, that's it.
00:28:53.907 --> 00:28:56.722
That's the sound like that's it it sticks.
00:28:56.722 --> 00:29:00.376
No, that's a nice ring to it that was how my career started.
00:29:00.416 --> 00:29:09.125
So sorry for that very long-winded answer, but that is how my no, it's so fascinating to hear your story and the way things happened.
00:29:09.125 --> 00:29:10.327
Everything was so organic.
00:29:11.211 --> 00:29:13.247
Yes, I am big on.
00:29:13.247 --> 00:29:23.351
I paid attention to A making B happen, that makes C happen, that makes D happen, that makes E happen, that makes F happen, that makes G, that makes H.
00:29:23.351 --> 00:29:50.863
I pay attention to that and I think more people should pay attention to that.
00:29:50.863 --> 00:29:54.070
It allows you to appreciate the moment, but next moment it's only going to lead to something.
00:29:54.070 --> 00:30:05.740
Next, it's either going to lead to you never doing it again, or you're doing it better, or you're doing it in a different way or a different light, and so that was a lesson that I started learning very young and I used to, and so that was a lesson that I started learning very young and I used to.
00:30:05.760 --> 00:30:18.729
You know, being a promoter is, it is it's like I'm trying to figure out what you can describe it as.
00:30:18.729 --> 00:30:24.915
Imagine, imagine you are.
00:30:24.915 --> 00:30:55.586
It's the longest, it's, it's, it's an, it's a, it's an everlasting checklist, right Mixed with the reality that anything can happen and that you can lose it all that anything can happen and that you can lose it all and there's so many factors that can lead to that that have nothing to do with you.
00:30:55.605 --> 00:31:02.826
There's the right before the door opens jitters, where there's been shows where there were two people standing outside and the show ended up selling out.
00:31:02.826 --> 00:31:05.609
And then there's been shows where there's a line outside and the show ended up selling out.
00:31:05.609 --> 00:31:08.256
And then there's been shows where there's a line outside and the show ended up taking a loss.
00:31:08.256 --> 00:31:22.076
And then there are shows where it's sold out but a water main breaks and the entire show is canceled and you have to rerun everybody's ticket.
00:31:22.979 --> 00:31:27.540
Oh my gosh, and you just got to roll the punches and just go through it.
00:31:27.549 --> 00:31:30.999
I have so many stories of just you have to roll with the punches.
00:31:30.999 --> 00:31:32.162
You have to roll with the punches.
00:31:32.162 --> 00:31:34.976
I was at one show, and it was an accident.
00:31:34.976 --> 00:31:41.858
It was in Atlanta, the show was happening, everything was going good, the venue, the club, was one of these older clubs.
00:31:41.858 --> 00:31:50.064
An ornament from the ceiling fell down, down hit the performer in the head and what show was over?
00:31:50.084 --> 00:31:51.248
he was okay oh show was over.
00:31:51.248 --> 00:31:53.112
Oh god, I thought the show was over.
00:31:53.132 --> 00:31:54.413
No, not him no not him.
00:31:54.575 --> 00:32:04.281
Oh god, I was like oh my gosh, the next time I go on stage it'll be like no, no, the show was over.
00:32:04.643 --> 00:32:06.910
He was fine, thankfully, you know he flew off the stage.
00:32:06.910 --> 00:32:09.700
He flew off the stage a couple feet, but you know he was fine.
00:32:09.700 --> 00:32:14.644
He was okay praise god funny thing is he kept performing.
00:32:14.644 --> 00:32:22.959
That was hilarious that he kept rapping, even on the ground he's still rapping, that's the mark of a professional, oh my gosh, professional, amazing.
00:32:24.560 --> 00:32:28.925
Um so what led you then to artist management?
00:32:28.925 --> 00:32:40.053
Yes, you, you initially were managing distorted, the Philly visual artist yes and then you manage a few artists after that a few bars after that.
00:32:40.053 --> 00:32:42.277
Yes, we'll throw you to it.
00:32:43.439 --> 00:32:48.567
Artist management was something that I used to run away from via the.
00:32:48.567 --> 00:32:51.281
I used to run away from it.
00:32:51.281 --> 00:32:52.227
We're just going to use that word.
00:32:52.227 --> 00:33:00.914
You see that sometimes you got to use a really intelligent word, but your lips don't work with that word that's me all the time but for anyone who's listening to it, I ran far away.
00:33:01.155 --> 00:33:12.470
So I ran far away from from artist management for a very long time because I just didn't want to be solely responsible for the advancement of someone else's career.
00:33:12.470 --> 00:33:16.380
I felt like that was just not the way that it should work.
00:33:16.380 --> 00:33:33.800
I, you know, and a lot of times, a lot of the the, a lot of it's telling you is so crazy because I'm not going to say her name but there's one artist who's buzzing, she's huge Now, she's huge in Philly, and at that time she used to ask me to manager but I just was not ready.
00:33:33.800 --> 00:33:36.759
I was not ready to be a manager at the time, you know, and I was.
00:33:36.759 --> 00:33:41.214
I really did feel like, you know, management is something that you should do.
00:33:41.214 --> 00:33:45.882
You know when you, when you're able to, you know when you, when you're able to, you know when you, when you know how you know.
00:33:45.882 --> 00:33:49.704
It's something that you should do when you're, when you're confident in your abilities.
00:33:49.704 --> 00:33:54.731
It's just not something that you take for light because it really is another person's career.
00:33:54.731 --> 00:34:05.570
So Anya distorted and I refer to her as Anya because that's how I met her as Anya, you know, before I knew she was distorted.
00:34:07.594 --> 00:34:14.985
I was throwing a Cameron concert and at the time, used to sell tickets by hand.
00:34:14.985 --> 00:34:15.630
You would.
00:34:15.630 --> 00:34:20.983
You would literally get a group, a stack of tickets and you would put it on Facebook.
00:34:20.983 --> 00:34:28.164
You would say hey, you can either buy tickets online or you can meet up with me and I'll sell you tickets as the promoter.
00:34:28.164 --> 00:34:30.708
So I sold a bunch of tickets that week.
00:34:30.708 --> 00:34:32.693
We were trying to get together but we finally found a day.
00:34:33.275 --> 00:34:37.070
She pulls up on me and she's like I'm you know.
00:34:37.070 --> 00:34:38.657
She wanted to get two tickets to Cameron.
00:34:38.657 --> 00:34:43.755
I said, oh good, and it just so happened that we struck up a conversation.
00:34:43.755 --> 00:34:48.130
Like we we had already knew of each other, but we kind of just struck up a conversation and she's like yo, I'm a big fan of yours.
00:34:48.130 --> 00:34:49.456
I'm like yo, I'm a big fan of yours.
00:34:49.456 --> 00:34:53.001
Like you know, tell me about you know, kind of tell me about yourself.
00:34:53.010 --> 00:34:55.378
She's like oh well, you know, I'm an artist, my name is Distorted.
00:34:55.378 --> 00:34:56.159
I'm like, oh, that's dope.
00:34:56.159 --> 00:35:04.534
Well, you know, you should definitely check me out.
00:35:04.534 --> 00:35:05.981
She's like you know, currently I work with she also worked with kids.
00:35:05.981 --> 00:35:06.704
So she's like I work with kids.
00:35:06.704 --> 00:35:09.293
And I said, where she said yeah, she said my art is a little, you know, a little freaky.
00:35:09.293 --> 00:35:12.672
So she's like I can't really, you know, I don't really show it to the kids.
00:35:12.672 --> 00:35:18.092
She's like because it's a very unique style of art, she's like, but it's very creative and I feel like it go places.
00:35:18.092 --> 00:35:18.893
And I said, oh bet.
00:35:18.893 --> 00:35:22.036
I said, well, you know, that's really really dope and it was great meeting you.
00:35:22.036 --> 00:35:24.739
And she said, yeah, it was really good meeting you.
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:30.532
And she said you know, the only thing I'm really missing right now is I really need, like you know, I really need like, a manager.
00:35:30.532 --> 00:35:32.159
And I'm like, oh well, you know, good luck with that.
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:35.552
I hope you, hope you find a good manager.
00:35:35.552 --> 00:35:37.516
You know, god bless you.
00:35:37.516 --> 00:35:39.478
You know, so we do the Cameron show.
00:35:39.478 --> 00:35:40.458
Cameron show was great.
00:35:40.518 --> 00:35:53.824
She was there, but then I kept seeing her, we kept seeing each other at places and every time I saw her she would tell me you need to manage me, you should be my manager.
00:35:53.824 --> 00:35:56.697
She's like why don't you just be my manager?
00:35:56.697 --> 00:35:59.061
And I'm like I don't want to be a manager.
00:35:59.061 --> 00:36:02.376
I'm like look, I appreciate that you think I am, but I'm a promoter.
00:36:02.376 --> 00:36:03.358
Like you know, I don't manage.
00:36:04.320 --> 00:36:06.244
She said, no, I really believe that you could manage me.
00:36:06.244 --> 00:36:07.847
So she would.
00:36:07.847 --> 00:36:13.391
She would just constantly like tell me that she would text me, she would see me at parties, she would send messages to other people.
00:36:13.391 --> 00:36:17.519
She was very like adamant that she felt like I could be her manager.
00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:25.222
So one day, in like a fit of like frustration, I was like you know what, forget it, just come meet me.
00:36:25.222 --> 00:36:26.452
I was like come downtown today.
00:36:26.452 --> 00:36:29.440
You can come down today, come downtown and meet me.
00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.458
And I said we will talk about partnership.
00:36:32.458 --> 00:36:34.789
I said I don't, I can't be a manager.
00:36:34.789 --> 00:36:36.271
I said, but I can be your business partner.
00:36:36.271 --> 00:36:44.056
So she came down and that day I feel like we met for like nine hours.
00:36:44.056 --> 00:36:54.983
By the time she left that meeting we had the entire year planned out of everything we wanted to do with each other and we went off.
00:36:54.983 --> 00:36:57.605
We started doing art shows, we started doing merch.
00:36:57.605 --> 00:37:01.686
Her following started growing and getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:37:02.007 --> 00:37:02.568
Incredible.
00:37:07.349 --> 00:37:10.117
We started doing um shows we put together because I was in concert where I put together an art show for us.
00:37:10.117 --> 00:37:11.721
So I said listen, let's do an art show.
00:37:11.721 --> 00:37:14.458
That's part art show but also a concert.
00:37:14.458 --> 00:37:23.431
So we used to do these things called art parties, where we would go from city to city and whoever was the popping artist from there they would come and perform on her art show.
00:37:23.431 --> 00:37:26.436
So you got the music community, you got the art community.
00:37:26.436 --> 00:37:32.204
These shows are blowing up and we did like a 12 city tour.
00:37:32.204 --> 00:37:39.949
You know it's just in her as just an independent kind of artist and it was great and it went very, very well.
00:37:39.949 --> 00:37:42.452
You know, we did a lot of phenomenal things together.
00:37:42.452 --> 00:37:44.233
We're still in touch.
00:37:44.233 --> 00:37:46.414
We still have, you know, great friendships.
00:37:46.414 --> 00:37:49.396
Even the manager that she has now is a friend of mine.
00:37:49.396 --> 00:37:51.077
He's someone that you know.
00:37:51.197 --> 00:38:11.728
Once I stepped down as her management, he ended up kind of stepping in, and I don't say that in a negative way, I just say that even once you get to a point where you feel like you can't take them to that next level, you automatically say absolutely to whoever else wants to step up and work with that talent.
00:38:11.728 --> 00:38:13.615
Oh for sure, and I handed everything over.
00:38:13.615 --> 00:38:16.693
I mean I didn't hold anything back, Any connections, relationships, anything.
00:38:16.693 --> 00:38:18.275
He asked for any data.
00:38:18.275 --> 00:38:22.224
I handed it right over because I wanted to still see her become a success.
00:38:22.224 --> 00:38:26.795
Because I wanted to still see her become a success Between Distorted and going into music.
00:38:26.795 --> 00:38:32.240
I did manage a few music talents but they were like hit or misses and that's another thing.
00:38:32.240 --> 00:38:40.512
A lot of managers we have hit or misses Before you get that one client.
00:38:40.512 --> 00:38:53.389
I use a perfect example Doja Cat's current manager at one point was a co-manager with me for christian combs and which is puff sun, you know I ended up managing.
00:38:53.409 --> 00:38:54.494
I ended up managing puff sun.
00:38:54.494 --> 00:39:05.184
It's a long story how I ended up getting that job, but once I ended up getting that gig, the guy who is now currently doja cat's manager at one point was supposed to be my co-manager.
00:39:05.184 --> 00:39:14.766
We both kind of left that situation and we moved on to, you know, our next situations, but now he's managing Doja Cat.
00:39:14.766 --> 00:39:23.840
You know what I'm saying and so and I say that as uh, as a as an amazing, you know that's an amazing, amazing accomplishment that you can go as you kind of keep moving forward.
00:39:23.900 --> 00:39:27.903
So sometimes when it doesn't work out, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a negative.
00:39:27.903 --> 00:39:32.106
It just means that you know you two weren't able to create together and you just have to move on to the next.
00:39:32.106 --> 00:39:40.981
You know the next thing Usually when you see people falling out with their management and it's like really negative, a lot of times they didn't really start with the purest intentions.
00:39:40.981 --> 00:40:04.253
You know what I'm saying, um, and I think when you, when you do have that relationship, that does start with real intentions of partnership, not this idea that I'm your boss or that you're my boss, but more so this idea that you know you take what you do well and I take what I do well and let's just do that together and let's just see what happens.
00:40:04.273 --> 00:40:06.717
You do well and I take what I do well, and let's just do that together and let's just see what happens.
00:40:06.717 --> 00:40:10.851
Even your initial approach to distorted, making it a partnership like just coming to the table.
00:40:10.851 --> 00:40:22.418
With that in mind, I mean, I think that just set a foundation for success and because it's a collaboration, it's a creative collaboration at the end of the day.
00:40:22.440 --> 00:40:23.181
Absolutely.
00:40:23.181 --> 00:40:24.983
Managers are not miracle workers.
00:40:24.983 --> 00:40:33.320
You know, that's something I used to always tell people, and I really believe that Managers are not miracle workers, like, we can't create out of thin air.
00:40:33.320 --> 00:40:37.019
You know, we need to know the things that you like in order to bring the things that you like to you.
00:40:37.019 --> 00:40:44.402
You know we need to know the things that you want to do in order to be able to go out and hunt for those things and bring them back to you.
00:40:44.402 --> 00:40:48.865
But it has to be a partnership and and and.
00:40:48.865 --> 00:40:51.507
Yeah, you know, from there I ended up going into music.
00:40:51.507 --> 00:40:55.108
I, you know, worked with Puff and I ended up, you know, managing Christian Combs.
00:40:55.108 --> 00:41:00.197
For two years I was a part of his management team, which was a crazy, crazy experience.
00:41:00.197 --> 00:41:10.701
I then ended up going over to Janelle Monae's team and managing and well being on the management team for Jidenna, and I was, you know, his day-to-day manager as well.
00:41:10.701 --> 00:41:18.143
And then the pandemic hit, so I left music and now I'm in comedy.
00:41:19.489 --> 00:41:22.360
Yeah, and we're going to talk about that a little more.
00:41:22.590 --> 00:41:23.434
Sorry if I fast forward it.
00:41:23.434 --> 00:41:25.398
Oh no, oh no oh, no, it's fine.
00:41:26.090 --> 00:41:30.139
Now you're managing desi banks, who's hilarious and so talented.
00:41:30.139 --> 00:41:36.561
Oh, my gosh, really funny guy, really funny guy I mean, I I actually started following him because you were sharing his stuff.
00:41:36.561 --> 00:41:43.364
Wow, I'm just like, oh my god, he's so funny and so talented, so I'm a big fan of this guy.
00:41:43.385 --> 00:41:45.230
Yeah, he is so funny and so talented so I'm a big fan now, really talented guy.
00:41:45.250 --> 00:41:49.539
Yeah, so thank you for sharing his work.
00:41:49.539 --> 00:41:52.594
Absolutely, but this is Creative Space.
00:41:52.594 --> 00:41:59.543
Yes, I love asking this question of everyone, because everyone has a different perspective on creativity.
00:41:59.543 --> 00:42:02.603
But how do you define creativity?
00:42:09.068 --> 00:42:10.750
But how do you define creativity?
00:42:10.750 --> 00:42:18.567
How I've described it, probably over the last 10 years, is that I tell people that your purpose is like a tree.
00:42:18.567 --> 00:42:21.675
Your purpose is a tree, so your purpose is your center.
00:42:21.675 --> 00:42:29.014
Your passions are the leaves and the branches that come from that tree right.
00:42:29.014 --> 00:42:37.112
Each leaf that hits the ground allows you to be able to create something from that right.
00:42:37.112 --> 00:42:50.684
It's almost like you're feeding the earth, you're feeding the soil, and so creativity, to me, has been something that it's actually interesting that you say that, because this is the first time in my life that I've actually wanted to teach this.
00:42:50.684 --> 00:42:57.262
Yeah, I wanted to teach this ability to be able to create for a living.
00:42:57.262 --> 00:43:11.106
Yes, and I don't mean this to be like too deep or anything, but I genuinely believe that, if you go back in time, your social capital was based off of what you enjoy doing and what you love doing.
00:43:11.106 --> 00:43:17.063
The butcher whole family was butchers and they enjoyed preparing and being butchers.
00:43:17.063 --> 00:43:21.641
The sowers there was a school of that.
00:43:21.641 --> 00:43:25.713
This was something that they would teach their children, their daughters, their sons, their grandsons.
00:43:25.713 --> 00:43:27.135
There was a family of that.
00:43:27.135 --> 00:43:29.757
The fishers they went and they fished.
00:43:29.757 --> 00:43:36.682
The people who wrote books and were scribers that's what they did and that was their rent for being on earth.
00:43:36.682 --> 00:43:50.813
Their rent for being here was what they enjoy doing right, what they enjoy creating right, what they enjoy creating Well, mine, personally, is joy.
00:43:50.833 --> 00:43:51.516
I enjoy creating joy for others.
00:43:51.516 --> 00:43:55.067
I enjoy creating spaces where people can have memorable moments and memorable experiences.
00:43:55.067 --> 00:43:56.353
That is my payment.
00:43:56.353 --> 00:44:05.916
My payment is that five to 10 years later, I still get messages, I still get emails, I still get people to stop me in the street telling me I met my wife at your party.
00:44:05.916 --> 00:44:08.762
That was the best concert I ever went to.
00:44:09.101 --> 00:44:19.275
No, it's a blessing to be able to um, to be able to have touched so many people and to be able to spread joy and to be able to have people you know give me so many.
00:44:19.275 --> 00:44:24.960
A lot of the memories that they pull from are from shows that they went to or seeing artists for the first time.
00:44:24.960 --> 00:44:28.659
Or you know, like I said, people telling me they met their wife at my events.
00:44:28.659 --> 00:44:32.496
Or you know people lifelong friendships.
00:44:32.496 --> 00:44:58.773
You know that I even have from concerts and music events, and you know, music is something that genuinely brings people together, probably more than anything else on the planet as well as, and so one of the things that I like to just tell people is the idea of doubt, is disregarding or disrespecting Like the only reason.
00:44:58.773 --> 00:45:09.597
Okay, in order to doubt yourself, you have to already know what you want to do, but you don't believe that you can do it.
00:45:12.007 --> 00:45:18.402
That's a lot of people Doubt, but the root of doubt is that you know what you want to do.
00:45:18.402 --> 00:45:22.233
That's the root.
00:45:22.233 --> 00:45:26.682
Okay, you can't have doubt without knowing what you.
00:45:26.682 --> 00:45:32.483
The only reason why you doubt yourself is you're telling yourself that you can't do it.
00:45:33.090 --> 00:45:34.416
Cause you do know what you want to do.
00:45:34.791 --> 00:45:35.940
You know what you want to do.
00:45:35.940 --> 00:45:41.516
You know what you want to do you know you want to write that book, but you read it like you can.
00:45:41.969 --> 00:45:46.521
I just read the war of art by Steven Pressfield, highly recommend.
00:45:47.101 --> 00:45:47.322
Yeah.
00:45:47.590 --> 00:45:48.795
Someone just recommended it to me.
00:45:48.795 --> 00:46:02.903
Shout out to Sam Jones Awesome, basically, he has this concept called creative resistance and it's you know he describes it as like that barrier between us actually doing the thing we're supposed to be doing.
00:46:02.903 --> 00:46:07.610
Yes, like procrastination, doubtination, doubt, fear, all those things.
00:46:07.911 --> 00:46:17.474
It's creative resistance sorry, that's my dog oh, okay, um, but all these inward things, the excuses we make, doubt anything.
00:46:17.474 --> 00:46:19.742
It keeps us from doing what we're supposed to be doing.
00:46:19.742 --> 00:46:24.672
And he even believes it manifests into like mental health issues.
00:46:24.672 --> 00:46:45.534
And you know, I know what I don't create, but it's something that I'm very passionate about because, yeah, it's, it's.
00:46:46.298 --> 00:46:47.465
your blessings are yours.
00:46:47.465 --> 00:46:51.139
For a reason, the things that you enjoy doing very much can be your life.
00:46:51.139 --> 00:46:53.932
Sorry about that.
00:46:53.932 --> 00:47:00.206
Very much can be your life and you know, I haven't worked a nine to five since I was 23 years old, 2030.
00:47:00.710 --> 00:47:07.074
Wow, was that the last time that I worked, you know, kind of a standard nine to five, my nine to five now is just creating.
00:47:07.074 --> 00:47:14.514
My nine to five Now is just, you know, coming up with an idea, creating the system or the avenue to success.
00:47:14.514 --> 00:47:27.226
And then, as long as I follow these systems that I've learned, you know, through different processes, through my wins and through my losses and my lessons I'm sorry, not losses through my wins and my lessons, I'm sorry, not losses through my wins and my lessons.
00:47:28.086 --> 00:47:31.550
I've now gotten to a space where a lot of these things are automatic.
00:47:31.550 --> 00:47:41.295
So I say you know, creativity to me is a life source and it's something that that is true capitalism.
00:47:41.295 --> 00:47:42.858
True capitalism is creativity.
00:47:42.858 --> 00:47:43.880
Not money, not any.
00:47:43.880 --> 00:48:04.280
Your true payment is being able to do the things that you want to create into this world and putting them out there and just doing them and trying everything, trying everything that you can, and not to get deep, but that, to me, that is how you capitalize off of your existence here.
00:48:04.280 --> 00:48:08.179
That's how you capitalize off the blessing of, of, of, of, of.
00:48:08.179 --> 00:48:12.010
You know, being in this time that you're in is that is to create something.
00:48:12.010 --> 00:48:21.617
So even this, you know, even us having this conversation, you know, taking it from a concept of wherever you were before the first episode, and now we're sitting here having this conversation.
00:48:22.670 --> 00:48:29.757
Yes, it's the act of creation, like if I'm called to do something, I have to do it, even if I don't know where it's going to go.
00:48:29.757 --> 00:48:35.541
One person might hear this and it might change their perspective completely.
00:48:35.541 --> 00:48:37.878
You want to encourage them to make something.
00:48:37.878 --> 00:48:41.077
We just don't know how we fit into the grander scheme of things.
00:48:41.838 --> 00:48:43.922
Absolutely, absolutely, so it's important.
00:48:44.610 --> 00:48:47.152
Yeah, I just found it's easier to just go go with it.
00:48:48.036 --> 00:48:49.298
Yeah, you know again.
00:48:49.298 --> 00:48:53.070
The root of doubt is that you already know what you want to do.
00:48:53.572 --> 00:48:53.751
Yeah.
00:48:53.791 --> 00:48:57.481
So remove the doubt, because you already know that you want to do it.
00:48:57.481 --> 00:49:01.135
Doubt is just, doubt is just.
00:49:01.135 --> 00:49:05.163
You know, I used to always say a no just means I have to find a different yes.
00:49:07.134 --> 00:49:08.498
Ah, I love that.
00:49:09.431 --> 00:49:10.213
That's all it means.
00:49:10.213 --> 00:49:13.101
One person's no just means I have to find a different yes.
00:49:13.990 --> 00:49:14.992
That's going on my wall.
00:49:14.992 --> 00:49:18.420
I want to have a quote wall from these interviews.
00:49:18.420 --> 00:49:20.164
All the wisdom that's awesome.
00:49:20.969 --> 00:49:22.851
There's a yes out there, you just have to find it.
00:49:22.851 --> 00:49:26.853
There's the yes, you know one one no just means you have to find that other yes.
00:49:26.853 --> 00:49:28.574
So that is you know.
00:49:28.574 --> 00:49:29.835
To me that's you know.
00:49:29.835 --> 00:49:42.581
Creativity is, you know again, you, you are the tree, you are the root, you know, and those different leaves and branches that you, that you build out, that's how you create and find those different branches.
00:49:42.581 --> 00:49:48.105
You know, don't feel like you just have to be a one-stop shop, you know, do all the different things that you want to do in this lifetime.
00:49:49.164 --> 00:49:50.945
Yeah, that's something else we'll touch on too.
00:49:50.945 --> 00:49:52.706
Well, you know what?
00:49:52.706 --> 00:49:53.427
Let's bring it up now.
00:49:53.427 --> 00:50:09.715
A conversation I've been having a lot lately with some of my artist friends is like you know, let's say you're an actor and a musician from a manager perspective, being a jack of all trades, master of none, like do you think there's truth to that?
00:50:09.715 --> 00:50:19.664
But is it possible to like enjoy your creativity, enjoy your career and do it at a high level, even if you have these different outlets?
00:50:21.710 --> 00:50:29.891
I used to say I am a jack of all trades as long as it's fun so as long as you're having fun, you should do it.
00:50:29.891 --> 00:50:33.860
Why talk yourself out of something that is fun?
00:50:33.860 --> 00:50:34.521
It's fun.
00:50:34.521 --> 00:50:41.989
If you enjoy doing it and it's fun, then do it you know what's interesting jack of all trades, master of none.
00:50:41.989 --> 00:50:43.913
For some reason does not apply to celebrities.
00:50:45.856 --> 00:50:46.896
Interesting.
00:50:47.038 --> 00:50:51.724
Celebrities can do all types of random stuff that they have no qualifications for whatsoever.
00:50:55.840 --> 00:51:02.621
Oh, we've learned that I won't get political on this Whatsoever, they're just known by a lot of people.
00:51:02.621 --> 00:51:16.614
So, because a lot of people know them, they just say, hey, I'm going to start a water company and people are like, where are you getting your water from?
00:51:16.614 --> 00:51:17.016
They don't even ask.
00:51:17.016 --> 00:51:18.057
They don't even ask where you get the water from.
00:51:18.057 --> 00:51:19.280
You just put your name on it and you have water.
00:51:19.280 --> 00:51:19.820
You know what I mean.
00:51:19.820 --> 00:51:22.724
And so if that rule applies to them, then it applies to us as well, that you can do every and anything that you want.
00:51:22.724 --> 00:51:29.224
There's no rules anywhere, anyone who's telling you that you can't do something as somebody that should not be around you.
00:51:29.646 --> 00:51:51.317
One of the greatest lessons I ever got was this is something I still say to this day I was in I want to say we were in Arizona and I was with Puff's son I tell this story, sometimes most hilarious story and he was doing something.
00:51:51.317 --> 00:51:53.599
He was doing something that was very like Puff Daddy.
00:51:53.599 --> 00:51:55.769
She was doing something that was very like not even Puff Daddy.
00:51:55.769 --> 00:51:58.478
She was doing something that was very Christian, where he was just being free.
00:51:58.478 --> 00:52:01.893
And I said to him I said yo, man, come on, man, we can't do this.
00:52:01.893 --> 00:52:06.081
And he pulled me to the side and he like grabbed like the front of my shirt.
00:52:06.081 --> 00:52:08.764
He was like stop speaking and can't.
00:52:08.764 --> 00:52:14.954
He was like stop speaking and can't.
00:52:14.954 --> 00:52:17.059
You can Stop speaking and can't.
00:52:17.059 --> 00:52:18.251
We can do whatever we want to do.
00:52:18.251 --> 00:52:26.485
And I said, ok, he's like now, if there's repercussions from that, cool, but don't tell me like, don't even talk to me in camp.
00:52:26.485 --> 00:52:28.456
You know, we always can try.
00:52:28.456 --> 00:52:31.978
This is a young 19-year-old kid teaching me this, you know.
00:52:32.257 --> 00:52:33.240
Oh my gosh, but he told me that.
00:52:33.530 --> 00:52:37.221
And that was a great lesson that I got from him when I wrote it that day and I keep it with me.
00:52:37.221 --> 00:52:38.510
I don't speak in camp anymore.
00:52:38.510 --> 00:52:39.652
There's no such thing as camp.
00:52:39.871 --> 00:52:43.735
I I'm not speaking in Canton anymore either, and I'm learning it way later.
00:52:44.396 --> 00:52:46.036
It's a language that you don't want to speak in.
00:52:46.036 --> 00:52:46.657
You, just you, just.
00:52:46.657 --> 00:52:48.398
That's a language that you don't even want to speak.
00:52:48.398 --> 00:52:49.559
You just leave it alone.
00:52:49.559 --> 00:52:53.202
You know there's no rules to language.
00:52:53.202 --> 00:52:54.463
There's no rules to this.
00:52:54.463 --> 00:52:56.365
You can make up language, literally.
00:52:56.365 --> 00:52:57.427
People understand this.
00:52:57.467 --> 00:52:59.809
There's different dialects, you know.
00:52:59.809 --> 00:53:00.992
You go to the South there's a certain way that they speak.
00:53:00.992 --> 00:53:02.755
You go to the West coast there's a certain way to speak.
00:53:02.755 --> 00:53:05.521
You go to Norway there's a certain way that they speak.
00:53:05.521 --> 00:53:07.704
Everyone has their own form of slang.
00:53:07.704 --> 00:53:09.393
What is your slang?
00:53:09.393 --> 00:53:13.262
What type of speech will you speak into your life and speak over your life?
00:53:13.262 --> 00:53:27.996
You know, and so, speaking in can't, speaking in what you don't think you can do, speaking in what you've seen other people fail at, you know, and you applying that to yourself, those are things that you have to remove from your you know.
00:53:27.996 --> 00:53:37.362
Remove it, remove it from your spirit, remove it from your mind and just stop speaking at it and speak in can and speak in will and speak in.
00:53:37.362 --> 00:53:39.152
Try, you know, at least try.
00:53:39.152 --> 00:53:44.541
And even if you you know there's some things.
00:53:44.541 --> 00:53:47.224
It's funny that I said that now I want to teach this.
00:53:47.224 --> 00:53:51.338
In 2016, I did an event called Curator Class.
00:53:51.920 --> 00:53:52.202
Okay.
00:53:54.369 --> 00:53:59.161
Now, almost 18 years later, I'm finally at the space where I'm like I want to actually teach this.
00:53:59.161 --> 00:54:03.079
So I reached out to like Temple University and stuff you know, and it's like something that.
00:54:03.079 --> 00:54:04.021
I really want to teach.
00:54:04.561 --> 00:54:04.802
Yeah.
00:54:05.130 --> 00:54:07.478
But it's my older self speaking to my newer self.
00:54:07.478 --> 00:54:08.471
I did it back in the day.
00:54:08.471 --> 00:54:09.715
I tried it once.
00:54:09.715 --> 00:54:10.938
I was like man, I'll put it down.
00:54:10.938 --> 00:54:16.213
But because I did it, I have the entire blueprint on how to do it now.
00:54:16.632 --> 00:54:17.134
Yes.
00:54:17.715 --> 00:54:21.583
And I was able to just go back, pull it right back up and start it.
00:54:21.583 --> 00:54:22.385
So that's another thing.
00:54:22.385 --> 00:54:29.871
Also, don't be afraid to, later on in life, start something that you might not have been able to do earlier in life, you know.
00:54:29.871 --> 00:54:34.963
Don't think that because it failed in 2003 or 2013, that it can't work in 2023.
00:54:35.590 --> 00:54:36.413
That's true.
00:54:36.413 --> 00:54:38.981
You can always pick up a project again.
00:54:40.291 --> 00:54:47.302
That's something that I've learned to do, and I enjoy that probably even more because it's like almost like your old self is guiding your new self, so it's pretty cool.
00:54:47.969 --> 00:54:50.856
That is a great perspective to have.
00:54:50.856 --> 00:54:54.202
It's not just because you close a chapter doesn't mean you can't pick it back up again.
00:54:54.202 --> 00:55:00.675
Absolutely, and you come at it with more wisdom 100% and no more can't talk.
00:55:00.797 --> 00:55:02.000
So you can, you know you can pull it off.
00:55:02.530 --> 00:55:03.289
And get rid of all the can'ts.
00:55:03.289 --> 00:55:04.570
Yeah, no more can't talk, so you can pull it off and get rid of all the can'ts.
00:55:04.570 --> 00:55:05.514
Yeah.
00:55:11.809 --> 00:55:23.559
So how does creativity come into play in your work as an artist manager and in events In management, especially working with a comedian and an actor?
00:55:23.559 --> 00:55:45.918
This has allowed me to tap back into my love of film, my love of directing, my love of coming up with creative ideas and skits and sketches, and my love of structure, my love of you know free creativity to be able to go into any space, to be able to go into this room that you're in right there and turn that into a scene.
00:55:45.938 --> 00:55:59.797
You know whether it's dramatic, whether it's action, whether it's comedy, whether it's romance, you know to be able to take that room and tell a story with it is incredible, and the blessing that you know with him that we have is it's a partnership.
00:55:59.797 --> 00:56:11.541
You know he allows me to bring to him the things that I enjoy doing and, vice versa, the things that he enjoys doing he puts on my plate to help him kind of navigate, and so that's how we work.
00:56:11.541 --> 00:56:20.257
And we're going on our third year and it's really been a blessing, you know, working with him and I'm really happy that you know whether we continue to work together or not.
00:56:20.257 --> 00:56:31.405
And I say that with all my clients because you never know that our relationships are built off of just wanting to see each other win.
00:56:31.425 --> 00:56:32.570
Oh yeah.
00:56:33.030 --> 00:56:36.318
And that is the ethos of like.
00:56:36.318 --> 00:56:41.773
That's the core of how we work together On the event side.
00:56:41.773 --> 00:56:45.663
It's the creativity there is endless.
00:56:45.663 --> 00:56:57.364
The pandemic really kind of shocked the system because it was the first time since 2012 that I couldn't do an event.
00:56:58.110 --> 00:57:00.034
And I couldn't bring people together.
00:57:01.135 --> 00:57:03.518
That I couldn't.
00:57:03.518 --> 00:57:06.204
It was devastating.
00:57:06.204 --> 00:57:07.164
I mean, it was devastating.
00:57:07.164 --> 00:57:14.994
It was and I tell people all the time, like my life, my life's passion, is bringing people together.
00:57:14.994 --> 00:57:50.056
Of like, I can't, you know, when you insert culture, you remove color and in this country specifically and not again not getting to do you because this is a creativity talk but you're taught that you know certain people, you can hang out with certain people that you know they have this way and you allow people to to, to to to see that and be a part of that and have fun with that on all mediums.
00:57:50.056 --> 00:57:52.139
Um, it removes that.
00:57:52.139 --> 00:57:56.777
It removes all of that type of energy and that's what I enjoy doing.
00:57:57.239 --> 00:58:13.695
That was probably the more of the reason why, you know, the work that I did in Philadelphia was so impactful to me was that I knew I used to always, you know it was more than just coming, and just coming to a show or a concert is that I really wanted you to have an experience.
00:58:13.695 --> 00:58:17.523
You know I used to leave and I still do it.
00:58:17.523 --> 00:58:25.278
You know, after the show I would stand at the door and I would thank people for coming and they didn't know who I was.
00:58:25.278 --> 00:58:30.021
They used to think it was just some random guy saying hey, get home safe, get home safe, have a good night.
00:58:30.021 --> 00:58:30.630
Thank you so much.
00:58:30.630 --> 00:58:31.512
I appreciate you for coming.
00:58:31.512 --> 00:58:35.690
I still do that, even now with Desi whenever I'm on a road with him.
00:58:36.231 --> 00:58:37.931
I say in the door and I thank people for coming.
00:58:37.931 --> 00:58:38.632
Hey, thank y'all so much.
00:58:38.632 --> 00:58:46.880
They have no idea who I am, just some random guy to tell them thank you, but it's because I really appreciate being able to be a part of those spaces that bring people together.
00:58:46.880 --> 00:59:05.215
So in the events world, you know, the concert world, the comedy world, if you notice that medium, that medium is joy and that medium for me is bringing people together as long as those two things are there, where there's going to be joyful energy.
00:59:05.235 --> 00:59:15.039
You know whether it's laughter, whether it's people singing their favorite songs, nothing better to me than seeing a dad with his daughter and the dad is literally singing at the top of his lungs and they have that moment.
00:59:15.039 --> 00:59:28.181
Nothing better to me than seeing a room full of you know black, brown, you know white, anybody, all types of people of different nationalities, different cultures in one room laughing their hearts out.
00:59:28.181 --> 00:59:33.961
Yes, that joke doesn't have any race on it.
00:59:33.961 --> 00:59:37.139
That joke is just a joke, because life is hilarious.
00:59:37.139 --> 00:59:39.445
Life is hilarious.
00:59:39.445 --> 00:59:45.077
So those are the things that I enjoy being a part of.
00:59:45.077 --> 00:59:48.443
So I put creativity in everything I do, even with my children.
00:59:48.443 --> 00:59:49.885
You know, my daughter was a ladybug yesterday.
00:59:50.670 --> 00:59:55.016
Oh she wouldn't be, cute my son.
00:59:55.016 --> 01:00:02.326
We do something called hip hop class, where he'll come in in the morning and I will curate the different music videos that I want him to watch.
01:00:02.827 --> 01:00:14.353
I let him watch everything from Janet Jackson to Paula Abdul, to MC Hammer, to, you know, tupac, to Biggie, to the Isley Brothers, to Marvin Gaye, to the Beatles, to.
01:00:14.353 --> 01:00:15.755
We just got out.
01:00:15.755 --> 01:00:16.918
We just got to Led Zeppelin.
01:00:16.918 --> 01:00:21.050
I gave them my top 10 Led Zeppelin songs and they were in here.
01:00:21.050 --> 01:00:23.692
My son's going like this and my daughter's going like that.
01:00:24.592 --> 01:00:28.755
So you creativity, I feel like you know that's what I want to teach my children.
01:00:28.755 --> 01:00:34.838
I want to be able to teach them how to create for a living, not work for a living.
01:00:34.838 --> 01:00:39.141
How to create for a living.
01:00:39.141 --> 01:00:44.202
Whatever you enjoy doing, whatever you appreciate, whatever you enjoy.
01:00:44.202 --> 01:00:46.224
Turn that into your life.
01:00:46.224 --> 01:00:49.266
Let that be your social currency in this world.
01:00:49.606 --> 01:00:51.467
It's a mindset, absolutely.
01:00:51.487 --> 01:00:52.827
It's a mindset shift.
01:00:53.208 --> 01:00:54.371
You know, absolutely.
01:00:54.371 --> 01:01:00.057
I think there's generational traditions of working a certain way.
01:01:00.057 --> 01:01:04.503
You know, and you know some of us break out of that.
01:01:05.324 --> 01:01:05.786
Absolutely.
01:01:06.289 --> 01:01:07.012
And change.
01:01:07.012 --> 01:01:10.201
Change the narrative for your family, for future generations.
01:01:10.201 --> 01:01:10.501
You know.
01:01:11.210 --> 01:01:23.628
And I hope that, with all of the incredible things that I've been able to do in my life I mean one day I said I was like you know, if I ever did a podcast, I would.
01:01:23.628 --> 01:01:24.030
It would be a.
01:01:24.030 --> 01:01:27.889
It would be a crazy stories podcast, because no one will believe some of the things that I've seen.
01:01:27.889 --> 01:01:28.411
No one.
01:01:28.411 --> 01:01:32.302
No one would believe some of the rooms that I've been in.
01:01:32.302 --> 01:01:52.228
But that's the joy of being a creative is because the celebrity of it all doesn't, it doesn't impact you as much of as much as the reality of it all.
01:01:52.228 --> 01:01:57.590
That wow, just because I am doing what I love, I'm in this room right now.
01:01:58.030 --> 01:01:58.311
Yeah.
01:01:59.280 --> 01:02:04.358
That is the celebrity, that is what you celebrate, you know it's not necessarily the people you know.
01:02:04.480 --> 01:02:22.409
I think that's why I've been able to work and be trusted by and have really good, strong relationships with a lot of the like quote unquote celebrities or people that I've worked with or that I've known is because of that, is because you know as much as I'm in that world, I'm not out of it and I stay grounded and it's not fake.
01:02:22.409 --> 01:02:25.965
Like I can, I'm okay with being in the room and only having a hundred dollars in my pocket.
01:02:26.125 --> 01:02:28.351
I'm totally fine, because guess what?
01:02:28.351 --> 01:02:38.418
I'm totally fine Because guess what I'm going to eat all this free rich food in here and enjoy it and take some of it home.
01:02:38.418 --> 01:02:43.063
Oh my gosh, I'm going to take a couple of cakes home and put that in my pocket and take it home and eat it in an Uber.
01:02:43.063 --> 01:02:43.684
You know what I'm saying?
01:02:43.684 --> 01:02:44.184
Like I have no shame.
01:02:44.204 --> 01:02:55.903
Okay, I'm going to take my water bottle, fill it up with some of that rich wine and say okay everybody, you know, but like I am, you know, with love, you know, but, but I say that to say like I don't have that I there's.
01:02:55.903 --> 01:03:00.574
The celebration to me is, you know, is the creativity.
01:03:00.574 --> 01:03:06.692
The celebration to me is seeing people win and being able to put people on and connect other folks and and and and.
01:03:06.692 --> 01:03:09.556
Just that joy, you know, that's really important to me.
01:03:09.556 --> 01:03:13.268
So, you know, I'm thinking about getting back into music management.
01:03:13.268 --> 01:03:15.809
It's something that it's a bug that's been in me.
01:03:15.809 --> 01:03:20.181
You know, I still love music and it's something that I've been thinking about getting back into.
01:03:20.181 --> 01:03:22.530
And I and I have a talent, I have somebody that I have my eye on.
01:03:23.061 --> 01:03:24.045
I have a young lady.
01:03:24.085 --> 01:03:35.942
actually, it'll be my first time kind of going back and managing a young lady, but there's a young lady that I have my eye on and she's really talented and I'm excited to see what we can do together.
01:03:36.684 --> 01:03:37.670
Oh, that's exciting.
01:03:37.670 --> 01:03:43.065
Oh my gosh, you'll have to keep me posted when you're ready to announce, absolutely.
01:03:43.065 --> 01:03:47.494
So what's the greatest challenge you've faced in your career so far?
01:03:47.559 --> 01:03:53.936
So what's the greatest challenge you've faced in your career?
01:03:53.936 --> 01:03:58.559
So far, I have an associate's degree in parenthood.
01:03:58.559 --> 01:04:19.402
I'm only a few years in, not in my bachelor's degree, I'm not in my doctorate, I'm not in my master's or anything.
01:04:19.402 --> 01:04:25.614
But the one thing that has been the most challenging now for me currently is time management and balance has been the most challenging thing for me.
01:04:28.663 --> 01:04:35.690
I'm sure it is something that a lot of parents go through and a lot of parents experience, especially when you're like at the prime of your career.
01:04:35.690 --> 01:04:45.331
You know you don't and we lost those two years in the pandemic, so it's like which.
01:04:45.331 --> 01:04:46.320
We're kind of still going through.
01:04:46.320 --> 01:04:54.606
So I, you kind of go into hyperdrive because you don't want to, you don't feel like you want to lose it again, right?
01:04:54.606 --> 01:05:02.333
So finding that balance has probably been the most challenging thing for me as a parent of being able to find.
01:05:02.333 --> 01:05:08.237
You know, just just that balance of time just to be able to spend time with them.
01:05:08.237 --> 01:05:11.579
You know just just that balance of time just to be able to spend time with them.
01:05:12.619 --> 01:05:14.746
I miss them as soon as I leave the door, as soon as I walk out the door.
01:05:14.746 --> 01:05:15.268
I miss them.
01:05:15.268 --> 01:05:16.512
I'm only thinking about them when I'm on the plane.
01:05:16.512 --> 01:05:22.286
You know you don't have wifi and all I'm doing is looking at them from babies to to now.
01:05:22.286 --> 01:05:27.094
Every single time I can't like people have caught me on the plane and I've been like they.
01:05:27.094 --> 01:05:29.077
Like you know, I've had fellow dads be like.
01:05:29.077 --> 01:05:29.958
You know I do this thing.
01:05:29.958 --> 01:05:30.539
You know what I'm saying.
01:05:30.539 --> 01:05:31.844
It's literally scrolling.
01:05:31.844 --> 01:05:34.748
You know what I mean, because you just miss them so much.
01:05:34.748 --> 01:05:37.661
So that's that's what it's been.
01:05:37.661 --> 01:05:58.204
As far as being a parent is yeah, it goes back to time Wanting to do everything, just wanting to do.
01:05:58.204 --> 01:06:02.746
At this point in my life there's so many things that I want to do.
01:06:02.746 --> 01:06:06.847
It's just having the time to actually be able to execute and pull them off.
01:06:07.380 --> 01:06:09.985
Yes, I hear you there when I looked at my goal list.
01:06:10.005 --> 01:06:10.347
It was funny.
01:06:10.347 --> 01:06:15.427
I put my goal list up every year and when I put my goal list up this year it was like 15 things in there.
01:06:15.427 --> 01:06:16.231
I'm like come on y'all.
01:06:16.231 --> 01:06:22.112
And of course I tried to do all of them in like the first five days of the year.
01:06:22.112 --> 01:06:31.202
And then I'm looking at today's date it's the 16th day of the year.
01:06:31.202 --> 01:06:32.929
It's like calm down, you have 300 more days to go.
01:06:32.929 --> 01:06:33.452
You know what I'm saying?
01:06:33.452 --> 01:06:34.416
There's no reason to rush.
01:06:34.416 --> 01:06:34.938
There's no reason to rush.
01:06:34.958 --> 01:06:39.034
So that's kind of where I'm at now, where I'm at a place where, you know, I said this year is my jordan year.
01:06:39.034 --> 01:06:41.902
I'm not rushing the shot, I'm taking my time with it.
01:06:41.902 --> 01:06:44.387
I don't care if it's only two seconds left on the clock.
01:06:44.387 --> 01:06:50.903
I know my skill level, I who I am, I know the championships that I've had, I know the rings that I've had.
01:06:50.903 --> 01:06:52.327
I know I can be in the hall of fame.
01:06:52.327 --> 01:06:54.172
You know my own hall of fame.
01:06:54.172 --> 01:06:58.809
So there's no, there's no rush on taking that shot.
01:06:58.809 --> 01:07:09.465
I can take my time, I can drill up the court and I can get into the right position, have the right timing and be able to execute oops, sorry and be able to execute, and that's kind of just where I'm at now.
01:07:09.465 --> 01:07:10.565
I'm at that space of.
01:07:10.565 --> 01:07:23.474
You know, challenges are more, so you know they're like Self-imposed with like having all the goals and stuff.
01:07:24.293 --> 01:07:30.197
I think, I think something that you know, a lot of us have to do better of is just giving ourselves grace.
01:07:30.197 --> 01:07:50.000
Yes, oh, it froze a little bit, sorry, but giving ourselves grace, I think, is probably one of the key things that I think a lot of us need to do, and, especially as creatives, I think it's probably the core, and it's really, really important for us to do is just take a breather sometime, calm down, realize that you know you got this.
01:07:50.000 --> 01:08:02.271
You know, even if you don't got it today or tomorrow, and you'll be fine, and we um, we live under different rules than the majority of other people do.
01:08:02.271 --> 01:08:05.585
You know, bills are bills.
01:08:05.585 --> 01:08:06.786
They're going to always be there.
01:08:06.786 --> 01:08:19.368
You know, but when you, when you, when you put stresses and things onto it, you really you realize every time it just doesn't, it just doesn't work, it doesn't it just it doesn't help it, you know.
01:08:19.469 --> 01:08:22.003
And so I think, giving yourself that grace.
01:08:22.003 --> 01:08:26.301
You know grace will always lead to coins, you know it'll always lead to to success.
01:08:26.301 --> 01:08:28.144
So I think that that's you know.
01:08:28.144 --> 01:08:28.984
I think that's the challenge.
01:08:28.984 --> 01:08:38.615
The challenge is finding, finding, you know, making sure that you give yourself more grace, and finding that time, that balance with time.
01:08:39.560 --> 01:08:42.930
Yeah, just like staying in peace, no matter what's going on around you.
01:08:43.739 --> 01:08:44.081
Absolutely.
01:08:44.782 --> 01:08:46.743
You know, yeah.
01:08:46.743 --> 01:08:54.695
So what advice do you have for aspiring creators who want to make a living out of this, who want to create for a living?
01:08:58.640 --> 01:08:59.222
So three part.
01:08:59.222 --> 01:09:00.828
Three part answer to that question.
01:09:00.828 --> 01:09:08.307
So the first, the first thing I'm going to say is go into your phone.
01:09:08.307 --> 01:09:10.729
I'm going to say is go into your phone, right?
01:09:10.729 --> 01:09:27.667
Or, and I want you to take from A to Z on your phone, take a day or two and write down different people that you know what they do and where you know them from On paper.
01:09:27.667 --> 01:09:30.773
I want you to be able to see and look at the network that you have.
01:09:30.773 --> 01:09:32.421
Just look at your network, right.
01:09:32.421 --> 01:09:40.826
The second thing that I want you to do is I want you to write down your goals, no matter how big they are, no matter how small they are.
01:09:40.826 --> 01:09:45.483
Write your goals down, and you can write them down in keyword form.
01:09:45.483 --> 01:09:53.939
Keyword form, for me, is always the best way to create because it doesn't force you to flush out all of your creativity at once right.
01:09:54.220 --> 01:09:57.650
It allows you to be able to just say I want to paint.
01:09:57.650 --> 01:10:00.989
You don't have to talk about what you want to paint, you just want to paint, so you put down paint.
01:10:00.989 --> 01:10:03.516
I want to ride bikes?
01:10:03.516 --> 01:10:05.306
Okay, Just write down I want to ride bikes.
01:10:05.306 --> 01:10:07.548
You know, you write it down in a keyword form.
01:10:07.548 --> 01:10:18.777
And then the third thing I want you to do is I want you to take time to really look at your network, look at the things that you want to do and go have fun and go create.
01:10:20.800 --> 01:10:20.880
Cool.
01:10:21.240 --> 01:10:27.533
A lot of times 99% of the time a lot of the answers to the things that we want to do are already right there.
01:10:27.533 --> 01:10:29.264
There are already things that we know.
01:10:29.264 --> 01:10:31.831
There are already people that we know.
01:10:31.831 --> 01:10:33.686
There are already things that are in our universe.
01:10:33.686 --> 01:10:41.453
There are already places that we've been, there are already experiences that we've had, and sometimes we need to see it in order to be able to move on it.
01:10:41.453 --> 01:10:44.144
Google is your best friend.
01:10:44.144 --> 01:10:47.390
Youtube University does exist.
01:10:47.511 --> 01:10:50.518
YouTube university does exist.
01:10:50.518 --> 01:10:52.301
Free education does exist.
01:10:52.301 --> 01:10:53.204
It's right out there.
01:10:53.204 --> 01:10:54.387
There's information is there.
01:10:54.387 --> 01:11:10.140
We live in a time now where anything you want to do if right now I wanted to learn how to make a light bulb, I can go on YouTube, type in how to make a light bulb and I can go make light bulbs, and there's no reason why I can't, there's no reason why that I, that I shouldn't.
01:11:10.140 --> 01:11:12.626
There's no reason why you shouldn't.
01:11:12.626 --> 01:11:22.869
It should be a goal of yours to push yourself, not even push yourself to walk yourself into your success.
01:11:22.869 --> 01:11:30.342
It should be a goal of yours to, to, to and I know you're probably picking up my toddler, yelling and screaming in the background.
01:11:30.444 --> 01:11:31.828
Oh no, I don't hear anything.
01:11:31.828 --> 01:11:32.932
No, you're fine.
01:11:33.676 --> 01:11:35.801
But I don't know what the listeners are.
01:11:35.801 --> 01:11:39.387
But but that's having kids.
01:11:39.908 --> 01:11:40.930
Slice of life.
01:11:41.411 --> 01:11:44.335
Yes, yes, and it is a blessing.
01:11:44.335 --> 01:11:47.131
You know, I think sometimes people look at children is like this negative thing.
01:11:47.192 --> 01:11:47.935
No, it's not.
01:11:47.935 --> 01:11:48.880
It really is a blessing.
01:11:48.880 --> 01:11:51.804
You even your tone, you know.
01:11:51.804 --> 01:12:00.413
Your tone may may sometimes be in frustration, but it's only because, as adults, you know, for some reason we get to a point where we feel like we stop learning.
01:12:00.434 --> 01:12:02.360
And you always learn, you know.
01:12:02.360 --> 01:12:06.171
You never stop being a children of a child of knowledge.
01:12:06.171 --> 01:12:20.287
You never stop that and that's the thing I want to teach my kids is that, you know, we label it as you know child, toddler, teenage, adult, and we stop at adult as if that's it.
01:12:20.287 --> 01:12:24.760
That's the last stage and, as any of us that are adults know, you continue to learn.
01:12:24.760 --> 01:12:34.261
So that's another thing I want to tell those creatives, like you know, as I kind of, like you know, in that kind of three part is never, just again, never be afraid to learn, you know.
01:12:34.261 --> 01:12:41.966
Never be afraid to learn, never be afraid to continue to be a child of your creativity and continue to, you know, to try new things.
01:12:41.966 --> 01:12:44.591
Your creativity is like a.
01:12:44.591 --> 01:12:56.453
It's like a well, you know, and the more that you pull from it, the more you'll be able to survive, the more you'll be able to create you know, you're going to be happy.
01:12:56.841 --> 01:12:59.065
You know you'll be able to give yourself that nourishment.
01:12:59.065 --> 01:13:01.412
So continue to go into your.
01:13:01.412 --> 01:13:03.742
Well, you know, don't don't.
01:13:03.742 --> 01:13:05.363
Sometimes you get to go in and hide for a couple of days.
01:13:05.363 --> 01:13:10.188
That's cool, we'll get back out and keep and keep digging, you know what I'm saying so that would be my.
01:13:10.188 --> 01:13:15.152
My advice to all creatives is you know, do not stop creating.
01:13:15.152 --> 01:13:28.515
You know, continue to follow your purpose and create from your passions and you will always see success, as long as you're doing it.
01:13:28.534 --> 01:13:29.479
You're successful.
01:13:29.479 --> 01:13:29.900
Yes, that is so true.
01:13:29.900 --> 01:13:31.185
Redefine what success means to you.
01:13:31.185 --> 01:13:32.529
That's something we have to do.
01:13:32.529 --> 01:13:33.572
We have to redefine it.
01:13:33.572 --> 01:13:35.305
Success is what you say.
01:13:35.305 --> 01:13:36.630
It is not what anybody else does.
01:13:37.500 --> 01:13:41.811
Yes, exactly, setting your own goals, setting your own parameters for what success is.
01:13:42.836 --> 01:13:43.680
Success is success.
01:13:43.680 --> 01:13:47.082
I remember for me, I used to be at the venue and I'd be celebrating.
01:13:47.082 --> 01:13:52.427
They'd be like know there was only 25 people here today and I'm like that's amazing, 25 people left their house.
01:13:53.108 --> 01:13:53.588
Yes.
01:13:55.010 --> 01:13:57.993
To come to some concert that I'm putting together.
01:13:57.993 --> 01:13:58.653
You know what I'm saying.
01:13:58.653 --> 01:14:03.256
That used to make me so happy, so I think we have to redefine what success is.
01:14:08.880 --> 01:14:12.207
You know, I appreciate social media, but the thing is, before social media, what were you comparing yourself to?
01:14:12.207 --> 01:14:12.748
Yes, that is so true, yui.
01:14:12.748 --> 01:14:17.707
It can be hard, because you see everyone's highlight reel, you know, but you don't see all the sacrifice, you know.
01:14:17.707 --> 01:14:19.612
You don't see, maybe, the misses.
01:14:19.612 --> 01:14:27.467
You know celebrating, I don't want to say failure, I want to say lessons, like you said.
01:14:27.467 --> 01:14:30.213
I like what you said earlier, you have wins and you have lessons.
01:14:30.720 --> 01:14:32.765
That's, it Wins and lessons, wins and lessons.
01:14:32.765 --> 01:14:36.243
Social media, I believe, was a good tool, but it did.
01:14:36.243 --> 01:14:37.485
It heightened that, you know.
01:14:37.485 --> 01:14:40.903
It heightened a lot of people's ability to not realize that.
01:14:40.903 --> 01:14:44.411
Again, like you said, you're only seeing that, you're all.
01:14:44.411 --> 01:14:45.701
All you're seeing is highlight reel.
01:14:45.902 --> 01:14:47.144
Most people aren't showing you the highlight reel.
01:14:47.203 --> 01:14:48.627
Most people aren't showing you the losses.
01:14:48.627 --> 01:14:51.032
Most people aren't showing you the things that they're not doing.
01:14:51.032 --> 01:14:53.421
They're only showing you the result.
01:14:53.421 --> 01:14:55.426
They're not really always showing you the work.
01:14:55.426 --> 01:15:04.353
So I always just tell people you know, before ancient 2009, uh, you know you didn't compare yourself to someone that you saw.
01:15:04.353 --> 01:15:11.125
You did it because you enjoy doing it and the people in your circle knew about it and they supported it and they loved it because of that.
01:15:11.125 --> 01:15:12.969
So continue to do that.
01:15:12.969 --> 01:15:20.829
You know, as creatives, don't psych yourself into believing that someone else's success has to be yours.
01:15:20.829 --> 01:15:25.085
Let your success be your own and continue to pour into that.
01:15:25.085 --> 01:15:28.613
Every success story that you've heard, they all had to.
01:15:28.613 --> 01:15:31.228
Every podcast had to start from episode one.
01:15:31.228 --> 01:15:42.787
If you notice, most of the most successful podcasts Unless they were already a celebrity, they are in the ones now that got like these crazy bags.
01:15:42.787 --> 01:15:45.467
They're like in episode 300 something.
01:15:45.729 --> 01:15:49.844
Yes 200 something 500 something.
01:15:49.844 --> 01:16:04.966
Yeah, maybe even more than that yes, they've been at it for a long time one okay, so don't just assume that you know outside of, like I said, just being a celebrity it you have to start at one.
01:16:04.966 --> 01:16:07.314
There had to be the first mcdonald, there had to be the first McDonald's.
01:16:07.314 --> 01:16:09.542
There had to be the first Wendy's there had to be.
01:16:09.542 --> 01:16:10.807
You have to start at one.
01:16:10.807 --> 01:16:15.752
So start at your one, you know, start at your one and make your way up to your franchise.
01:16:16.319 --> 01:16:19.509
And enjoy the process as you're going along, you know.
01:16:19.729 --> 01:16:20.211
Absolutely.
01:16:20.819 --> 01:16:29.451
And just doing these interviews for me is so fulfilling because I'm learning a lot and I know if I'm learning, people listening are going to be learning.
01:16:29.451 --> 01:16:32.305
Someone's going to appreciate it and it's going to help them.
01:16:35.484 --> 01:16:36.127
So but yeah, I hope so.
01:16:36.127 --> 01:16:39.945
I mean, I hope that, hope I wasn't too long-winded.
01:16:39.945 --> 01:16:44.207
You know, I wanted to make sure that I spoke in detail, so I hope I wasn't-.
01:16:44.801 --> 01:16:46.427
No, it was all valuable information.
01:16:46.427 --> 01:16:48.043
So, no, this was great.
01:16:48.043 --> 01:16:53.065
And I do have one more question, though what's next for you, yui?
01:16:53.065 --> 01:16:56.033
I love your hashtag, yuistaybusy.
01:16:59.024 --> 01:17:03.210
So next for me, yuistaybusy.
01:17:03.210 --> 01:17:09.798
So next for me is, by the time this probably airs, next for me is, by the time this probably airs, I will have my third child.
01:17:09.798 --> 01:17:11.747
Congratulations, oh my gosh, thank you.
01:17:11.747 --> 01:17:18.948
So you know this will be something that I play back to my son when he's here, but baby Leo is on the way.
01:17:18.948 --> 01:17:23.869
Continued success with Desi Banks is a big thing.
01:17:23.869 --> 01:17:31.422
That's something I'm really excited about is continuing to work with him, continuing in the festival and events world.
01:17:31.422 --> 01:17:42.872
I created a festival virtually called At the Crib Fest during the pandemic that was pretty successful, and I do want to bring that to life.
01:17:42.891 --> 01:17:45.284
I want to bring that to a physical entity.
01:17:45.284 --> 01:17:47.090
So that's something that I want to do.
01:17:47.090 --> 01:17:52.847
I do want to get to creating more shows where I live, which is in Las Vegas.
01:17:52.847 --> 01:17:57.122
I used to back in the day, and I want to kind of really get back into doing that.
01:17:57.122 --> 01:18:00.551
And then I think, lastly, is you know, like I said, I want to teach this.
01:18:00.551 --> 01:18:02.002
This is something that I want to teach.
01:18:02.162 --> 01:18:07.533
I feel like people need to know that you can also work.
01:18:07.533 --> 01:18:29.148
You know, working a nine to five is great, because it'll be your first investor, yeah, but, and also we live in this world where you just have to pay your bills and you have to make sure that you're taken care of, but outside of that, your passions and your purpose can be things that can lead you to successes that you've never even imagined, and I want to be able to teach that to creatives.
01:18:29.148 --> 01:18:40.733
And so, if I can hopefully put together this curriculum I've never done it before, but I'm going on YouTube university to find out how but put together this curriculum, I want to teach this to people.
01:18:40.733 --> 01:18:42.203
I want to teach this curator class.
01:18:42.203 --> 01:18:47.083
I want to teach people how to do everything that we talked about, you know, in this interview today.
01:18:47.666 --> 01:18:49.831
And yeah, I think those are the next things for me.
01:18:49.831 --> 01:18:54.692
You know, just continuing to to to do cool things, work with great talent.
01:18:54.692 --> 01:18:56.613
I do want to.
01:18:56.613 --> 01:19:10.626
You know, there's some of the things I want to do in my management kind of career that I want to continue to work on and and yeah, those are those are some of the big things, but yeah, I have some some really dope lessons coming with Desi Banks this year.
01:19:10.626 --> 01:19:13.448
I'm really excited for those to come to fruition.
01:19:13.448 --> 01:19:17.631
I'm really excited to meet my little guy, my newest little guy to the tribe.
01:19:17.912 --> 01:19:43.795
Oh little Leo, oh my gosh, so many he's going to have a lot of fun with Ja and Zayla, his, his older brother and sister, and I'm excited to uh excited to see him oh well, yui, thank you so much for taking the time to appear on creative space, for dropping all this knowledge and um, yeah, this is such a great episode.
01:19:43.875 --> 01:19:50.351
and for more on Yui, you can follow him on Instagram at YusufYui, which I'll link down below in the show notes.
01:19:50.351 --> 01:19:52.887
What an incredible conversation with Yui.
01:19:52.887 --> 01:19:58.653
I love how he shared that the root of doubt is that you already know what you want to do.
01:19:58.653 --> 01:20:01.148
That is such a powerful takeaway.
01:20:01.148 --> 01:20:08.106
Doubt exists only because, deep down, we know our purpose and we just need to push through to make it happen.
01:20:08.106 --> 01:20:13.073
As Yui said, creativity is the real source of capital.
01:20:13.073 --> 01:20:23.520
It's how we make an impact on the world, and I hope you found this episode as inspiring as I did.
01:20:23.520 --> 01:20:24.841
And, that being said, I would love to know what resonated with you.
01:20:24.841 --> 01:20:27.764
You can do this by reaching out on social media at Jennifer Logue.
01:20:27.764 --> 01:20:29.746
You can do this by reaching out on social media at Jennifer Logue, or?
01:20:29.746 --> 01:20:29.966
Well?
01:20:29.966 --> 01:20:36.230
Also, please leave a review for Creative Space on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
01:20:36.230 --> 01:20:43.416
Your support means so much and it helps other people discover creative space, so go and leave a review.
01:20:43.416 --> 01:20:45.317
That is all for this episode.
01:20:45.317 --> 01:20:55.583
My name is Jennifer Logue.
01:20:55.583 --> 01:20:57.545
Thanks for listening.