Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Money Making Conversations: Best of 2021: Grammy Award wining artist & Actress, Tamela Mann, & Co Host of the Today Show, Craig Melvin.

Transcript

Money Making Conversations: Best of 2021: Grammy Award wining artist & Actress, Tamela Mann, & Co Host of the Today Show, Craig Melvin. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There's a monumental shift in power at work. Employees are
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: speaking up, Turnover is rising, salaries are increasing, hiring is tough,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and burnout is real. It's time to unleash growth. It's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: time to transform your HR from powerless to powerful. Join
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a DP on February. Reserve your spot now. Go to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: get the plan dot ADP dot com to register for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the Work Interrupted Summit. Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to show that she has the secrets of success experience
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: firsthand by marketing a Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: know he's given me advice on many occasions. In the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: occasion didn't notice I'm not broke. You know. He'll be
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what
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  Speaker 1: he likes to do, it's what he likes to share.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Now it's time to hear from my man, Rashan McDonald.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Money making Conversations. Here we go. Welcome to money Making Conversations.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I am your host, ra Sean McDonald. Like I said
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: every time every episode, it's time to stop reading other
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: people's success stories and start writing your own. And we
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: talk about gifts. We talk about passions. We'll leave with
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: your gifts and don't let your age, friends, family, or
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: co workers stop you from planning or living your dreams.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: My interviews on this show is about and with celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and people I like to call industry decision makers. My
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: next guest is Tamila Man. She's a Grammy Award winner,
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  Speaker 1: b ET Award winner, Billboard Music Award winner in Double, a,
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  Speaker 1: CP Image Award winner, Gospel Music Stell Award winner, g
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  Speaker 1: m A Dove Award winner, songwriter, producer, and businesswoman. As
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  Speaker 1: an actress, she stars in Tyler Pears Assistant Living on
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  Speaker 1: b ET. Tyler Pear's Assistant Living is the number one
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  Speaker 1: new scripted series for African Americans eighteen to forty nine
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  Speaker 1: and twenty five and fifty four and I'm Not through y'all.
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  Speaker 1: Tamla's on the show to talk about her career and
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  Speaker 1: her new gospel album Overcome or a compare link collection
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  Speaker 1: of songs that takes the listener on the journey Tamla
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  Speaker 1: has been traveling in the past few years. Please welcome.
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  Speaker 1: We always have a good time. She puts a smile
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  Speaker 1: on my face and she inspires my viewers and my listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Tamla Man to money making conversations, Tamla, what's going on?
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  Speaker 1: Hey are you? I'm doing fantastic And I always got
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  Speaker 1: a lot to say. When you come on the show,
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  Speaker 1: you look fantastic. I see awards behind you. Are they blessings?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: You know? People A would say, you know you're your
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: achieve a certain level. It can be a blessing and
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a curse. Talk about that experience of being successful talent
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  Speaker 1: a man. Well, I wouldn't say it's a curse, but
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes you're not gonna please. The thing how I've learned
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  Speaker 1: is you're not gonna please everybody, so I enjoy it.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just living, as the kids say. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I'm living my best life. And I really thank God
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  Speaker 1: for the favor that he's giving me. But I mean
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  Speaker 1: thank God for the wars. But I don't try not
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: to get caught up into all of that. I just
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: like serva. I just love certain Well know, look at
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  Speaker 1: Tom Brady when he wanted the super Bowl. You know,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: he said he wanted to win another super Bowl. And
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: that's and I think that's that's what we have to
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  Speaker 1: understand that don't hold on what sometimes to what you've accomplished,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: look at what you can do. And I've always thought
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: that about you. Know you know, I love David. Your
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: husbands are deaf. And today I got you by yourself
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  Speaker 1: today to talk about the things you're doing for your career,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: because it always seems that sometimes when you are married,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you can get caught up and people just think you
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: can only do things as a pair, you don't have
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a life. But I've always seen you as an individual
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: and saw him as a successful individual. Talk about that
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  Speaker 1: relationship as a couple, and then defining yourself as Tamiler
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  Speaker 1: Man as a couple. I can say for myself, I
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  Speaker 1: look at us as being a powerful couple because of
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  Speaker 1: us believing in supporting one another, and we just try
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  Speaker 1: to be examples for other people to see that you
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  Speaker 1: can work together and you know, be some shakers and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: be some movers to get some things done because we're
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  Speaker 1: just really to be encourages and as individuals. It works
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  Speaker 1: for us because we we're not jealous of each other.
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  Speaker 1: We're in each other's corners. We have each other's best
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  Speaker 1: interested hard and making whatever that gold is or desire
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  Speaker 1: that you have, we want to make it come to
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  Speaker 1: pass for each other, Like now David got my career
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  Speaker 1: often going, and now I want him. I told him,
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  Speaker 1: let's do it. Let's go do whatever you need to do,
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  Speaker 1: we want to do. Let's make that happen. And we're
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  Speaker 1: just used to allowing each other to have that light.
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  Speaker 1: If it's his time to be in the light, I'm
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  Speaker 1: cool with just standing in the background, sharing them on
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  Speaker 1: and vice versa. For me, well, the beauty of being
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  Speaker 1: in the background. You really ain't in the background, Tama, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you know you und you're so much. You're in front
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  Speaker 1: of meet. You're from a lot of people, girl, especially
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  Speaker 1: in the gospel world, and that's a beautiful thing because
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  Speaker 1: we don't know the journeys that we see. We all
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  Speaker 1: we do is wake up in the morning. We feel
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  Speaker 1: blessed because guard allowed of with your people. A long
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  Speaker 1: clock doesn't wake me up. God, yeah, you know. LO
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  Speaker 1: just have to be some physical tool that reminds me
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  Speaker 1: that I can get up at a certain time. But
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I get up, but I look at your schedule. Let
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: me just tell y'all something about Tiler Man when they
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the hard working should be her middle name. Hard working
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  Speaker 1: should be David Man's mid While working on her album Overcoming,
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  Speaker 1: she filmed two movies, So Sata and the new Tyler
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  Speaker 1: Parish movie mcdea. Because Tyler said he wasn't gonna do
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  Speaker 1: madeal no more. Okay, but they roll that check in
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  Speaker 1: front of you, making do a lot of things, making
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: do a lot of things. Okay, you know what he
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: wanted to bring laughter two And we've been going through
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: so much. She was like, yeah, I just wanted us
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  Speaker 1: to get together and make people laugh. So he's really
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: this movie Mother Is Homecoming is gonna make y'all laugh.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, it's some funny jump going on in
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: this movie. And when y'all see what's going on, Mrs Brown,
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you it's HILARI it's I can see I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: can see Tyler Perry at the Netflix office, right, I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: ain't ever gonna do uh madea no more? Then that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: man said wrote some numbers out. He probably broke out
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: the mcdea right there, which I won't which I wont girl,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: which start calling y'all from Netflix girl, Mr Brooke, damn
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Mr Browser from get close out that closet. Mdina is
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: back in the filmmaking business right right. I love it.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: I love it. Tell us about Soul Santa now, because
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I mean and that that's the whole Soul Santa is
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: gonna be something really different for us as a couple.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: We still as a couple, but we have some disagreements
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: going on here. But it's serious and you know it's
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a drama. Um normally you know we have comedy, uh
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and drama, but this time it's just more druma and
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  Speaker 1: David is you get to see him in a different light.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And I really believe it's a really really cute, loving
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Christmas movie. It's just gonna put you in a Christmas fhere. Well,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: you know the thing about that when I talked about
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: like I always look at Kevin Hart, and I always
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: telling people Kevin Hard's gonna win Oscar because you can
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: really acted. He's a he structured his career where you
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: can accept him as a comedian and now you can
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: accept him as a serious actor. And and I've always
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: seen David and because he's he's he's he's a person.
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  Speaker 1: When you sit out and talked to him, you can
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  Speaker 1: just see that other side of him because he's not
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: a guy who has to be owned all the time
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to entertain you and that allows me to let him
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  Speaker 1: know that he can cross over and be serious, He
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: can cross over, be focused. He the role. So so
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: when you start seeing him and the script came to you,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: what were your thoughts of the opportunity and what was
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  Speaker 1: his thoughts that he shared with you when he saw
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  Speaker 1: he had to do a more serious role. He was
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: He was serious and he was serious of happy about it.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: And for him to be serious, I mean it was hard.
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  Speaker 1: Like when we were recording of Feminine, you know, some
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: things he wanted to bring in some comedy, but he
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: had to really structure himself to just be straight. And um,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Terry Vaughan was out directed ball. When I tell you
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: she was working with it, she was like, no, we're
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: not doing anything like sitcoms. It's straight. I don't want
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: no laughter right here. So it was really challenging, but
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  Speaker 1: a great challenge for him. And even to the extent
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: that him you know, he was a drinker in the movie,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: so he had to be drunk, so that was something
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  Speaker 1: totally different from him. So it's crazy, it's really crazy,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: but he did it. He did was done during the pandemic. Okay,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: which means which means we're gonna get to some more
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: stuff you've done because you were busy doing the pandemic pandemic,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: they show you it didn't, Thank the Lord, it really didn't.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: So how was that done? When you know, when you
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: when you guys are quarantined to on his uh compound?
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: How are you able to do these movies and they
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: feel still comfortable that you could be saved and your
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: family was safe when you saw him again on the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: compound with Tyler Perry Studios. Yes, we once you you
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: had the test before you got in. We tested like
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: two to three times a week, and it was like
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: once you got on you cannot you couldn't leave. So
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: we were on campus the whole time that we were
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: there filming, which was great. Tyler made sure that everybody
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: had everything they needed. It was it was incredible. It
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: was it was expensive for him, but it was very
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: incredible how he took care of everybody. And safety was
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the first thing that they, I mean they pumped it
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: into us with being writing up on each other and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: still social distance and all of that. Then when we
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: did the movie, we were being tested as well to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: three times a week, and it was not so as
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: confined as the base of Tyler Perry Studios. But they
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: kind of told us didn't really want us going out.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: It's like we will go film tests and be like
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: right in the hotel pretty much everybody. They had everybody
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: stay at one hotel. They almost runted out the whole
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: hotel for everybody, so it would just be us there.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: But we tested like two to three times a weekend.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: They were really pushing you know, social distance and keeping
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: your mask on, and the actors we had to do
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: these shields once they put your makeup on, but everybody
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: had to be masked up like hair makeup has to
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: have on two masks, like a mask and a shield.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So they were being everybody was being very careful. We've
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: been really blessed. We've been really blessed. So now that's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: what we got the two movies. We got the sold
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Santa out the way, We got the Tyler Parabadilia film
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: out the way. Then she shot two seasons I'm talking
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: about she'd been time o man shot two seasons Tyler
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Perry's and Sister Living Girl. Okay, uh, how you interviewing
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: with me? Why you ain't tied? I was tired. I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: took I took a few breaks breaks but and then
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to working on the music. But you know what, you
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: have to kind of work while it is day. You
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: have to just keep doing why you can because you
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: don't know what we do. You don't know what's gonna
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: happen there. So you kind of have to work when
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: it's time to work. And I think a lot of
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: people don't talk to play then you play, a lot
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: of people don't do that. They put restrictions on what
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: they can do. I can I do say. They'll say
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: something like I do it later, or that opportunity they're
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: gonna come back around, and it's not always true. That's
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: not it's not and so that it's not true that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: it's gonna come back, they may go get somebody else.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: And that I love about you because I always talk
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: about you being a businesswoman. Was the launch of your
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: clothing line, the Tambla Man Collection because to me, you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: because you know, I I love seeing talent, I love
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: seeing gifted people. But some people just can see you
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: in that lane and think that's all you can do,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: and that's all I always champion your business on the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: side of you. You You know, every time I talk to you,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: we talk business to talk that holds the Tambla Man Collection.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: How did it get started and what motivated you to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: do it? What motivated me to do it was trying
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to go find some nice things for a plus size
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: because you know, a lot of times when it comes
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to our fabric, you know, they have some stuff that
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: look like table cloths, and we don't want to look
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: like a table cloth. Know, we may be thick, you
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: don't wanna look like. We want to look cute too,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: So I was really tuned in on like the plus
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: size thick ladies out of't you know, I hate I
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: don't even like the word plus size. I say thick,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: you know, nice with our curves everywhere. But whoever we
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: got wherever your curves are, I like that, that's we're thick.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: So size is two up thirty two. It is for
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: your everyday woman. Something nice and comfortable is what we
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: were aiming for. And the quality it was all. It's
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: all about Templeman Collection, with the quality of work and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: how well it's put together. So when I'm talking to
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: my uh my young the managers, which is my darline
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: that runs it, and the other lady that helps us
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: with distribution, I'm all about pushing the fabrics that we choose.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: My daughter helps my daughter and my daughter and we
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: all three of us, and they're younger, so we're trying
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to help for my age group and the younger age
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: group so we can have something for everybody. So we
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: try to, you know, dress up. I want to be cute, comfortable,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: where it's you can do do your errands, actually work
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: out in it. Those comfortable clothes you can just throw
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: on and throw and go and get worried about ironing it,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: things like that. That's how that came about. It's something
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: comfortable and cute for our big ladies. So till David
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to do the same thing for me. Because when I
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: get out of these suits, I just want some comfortable
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: stuff that I can just go out in the yard,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: or I can just go to the store and go
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to home deep or go to the Krogers or whatever. Comfortable,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: but look good. I still I have my little style
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: on me, you know, my flavor. That's what you're saying.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Your clothing line is you can comfortable, you can feel comfortable,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: but you still look good and cute. The collection. That's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: what we talked about. Now that now this leads to
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the song he did it for me. Now, when I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: when I heard that title he did it for me,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: that that that resonated with me because I'm not a
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: person that I'm not I'm telling straight up, for I'm
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: not the Church Gore. I'm not a person can recite
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: quotes from the Bible. You know, I'm not gonna even
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: say that, but that my faith. You cannot question that
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: because I am strong in my faith. I'm strong in
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: my belief that I'm blessed to be here. I wake
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: up because of the mercy of God. My family is
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: here because of the blessings that He had provide for
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: me to be able to take care of them, and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the fact that I come home every day. It's tied
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: to his blessings. So when I hear he did it
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: from me, what did it resonate to you? Because you
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: created the song You've seen the song he did it
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: for me comes from a place I had did this.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I had did um interview and then I heard I
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: got back of of someone saying, you know that I'm
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: doing a lot of things and a lot of doors
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: are opening for me, and why is she getting all
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: these things? And it really hurt me to the core.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Honestly where it brought me to tears where I'm not
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: out here, no one is handing me anything. We're working for.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: We've worked for everything that we have, and I just
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I was talking to the producer, which was Phil Briant
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: at the time, and I was like, man, this don't
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: come easy, the gifts that we have, and I just
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: didn't understand why the words were being saying, why is
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: everything coming to her? Why Like it's I guess it
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: looks easy, but it's not easy for me, and I
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: just don't I just really, I just really didn't understand, honestly.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: So I was like, it was God who did this
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: for me. I didn't do it for myself. It was
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: a favor that He's placed up in my life with
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the work that I've put in, and that's how he
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: did it for me. Came about that. It's no goodness
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: of my own, but the Lord saw fit to bless me.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: It's finally here the season of celebration. And no matter
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: how you celebrate with family and friends, whether you're preparing
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: for Reis Magos or Karamu lighting the Manura, are going
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to midnight mass, Coals has just what you need to
• 16:27
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• 16:31
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• 17:01
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• 17:05
  Speaker 1: all your heart with great gifts from Coals or coals
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: dot Com. You know, the interesting thing about it is
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: that I look at I look at my life, you know,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and and I look at your life too, because you know,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: we've known each other long time. And then when when
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: you're young, you know, when you're young and you're twenties,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and third, you don't see forties and fifties. You just
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: don't see it. And then and then I look at
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: young people being successful when their twenties and thirties, and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: I often think, do they understand how much it takes
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: to get to the forties and fifties with that same
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: level of success. And then I realized, I'm blessed. I'm
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: blessed because I work hard, but I blessed because the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: opportunity is presented to me. And I just I guess
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: what I'm just trying to say to you is that
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: he did it for me. Really, it's a testimony to
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: that you understood that twenty he did it for you,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: thirty he did it for you. In your forties and older,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: he did it for you. So a lot of people
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: don't understand that. They get lost because they only live
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: in for the moment, much because I tell people I'm
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: gonna live as long as I don't know what retirement means.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know how you supposed to walk in fifty
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: or sixty or seventy. But rus shan gonna walk over
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Shanna Sean. And I think that when I hear this
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: here and hear the title, he did it for me,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: that's all you're saying. Don't criticize me for what I'm achieving,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: because I'm not trying to take credit for what I'm
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: achieving exactly exactly. That's so true. That's true. And and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I think sometimes people feel like, you know, give me
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a shot. But you know it once up all the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: time in my life, I can't see I would be
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: looking at like, Lord, I'm not being blessed. But once
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I honestly started putting the work in and started believing
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: what I prayed for, that's when the Lord started moving
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in my behalf, because my faith started standing on its
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: own to trust God to be God, and he started
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: doing it. He started doing it for me right now.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: You know when I when we think about your life,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: you know, my my I got on the scale of
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the day. I just recently had a gall bladder surgery,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, like three weeks ago, and uh, what you're
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: doing it. I'm telling some enjoyed my life. Okay, God
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: told me I can get up. I'm just telling you, Tami,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: be telling me, don't be criticizing me for sitting up
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: her interviewing you. Okay, I keep telling you. God woke
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: me up saying okay, it's good. I'm not pushing myself.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I ain't out there running on marathon. I'm not on
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not on the balance being okay, I'm not doing
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: none of that I'm just getting up, putting on a
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: nice suit, sitting in the acritist in the room, interviewing
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: a friend. Okay, you can stop. Stop. Okay. So I
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: had gone blot of surgery and then and just so
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: in my stupid behind, I'm taking uh accessor I'm talking
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Tom's I'm thinking it's a stomachache. You know what I'm saying,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: because that's what we do. You know, we don't realize
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: our bodies talking to us. We try to ignore and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: try to remitive of certain needs. So recently in your life,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: this journey we're talking to that led you to the
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: album that we're gonna hear the Overcomer. You had double
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: knees surgery, have physical therapy or a wellness journey? Talk
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: about that because I always check you on the show.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I try to present a life that I'm not perfect.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I try to present a life that I make mistakes
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and sometimes I don't understand because people look at me
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: like I know it all. I'm successful. I don't have
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: any problems. You know, I don't have any money issues.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: I do have money issues every day. And so any surgery,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: your physical talk about that whole journey of wellness for you,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that makes you comfortable to talk about it today. Okay,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Well that's how Overcoming came about the last five or
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: six years. I was actually working in pain, dancing around,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: doing filming. All of these things were happening, and I
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: will be in so much pain, and you know, once
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: but while I was working, it's like it didn't bother me.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: But once I came off stage or sit down, my
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: knees will be hurting me so bad. And after going
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: through the surgery, not knowing how I was gonna if
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: everything was gonna work properly, you know, if my body
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was gonna just to this material being in my body,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, Lord, you know I need you to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: help me overcome this. And then with the wellness thing again,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: it's like I didn't want to be a liability of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: my family, so it's like, you gotta do something different
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: if you want some different results. So it's I'm still
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: That's why I took the album the name Overcoming, because
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: it's a day by day walk that by faith, I'm
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: gonna overcome. I'm overcoming. I've lost some weight, but it's
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I still got goals that I want to reach. I
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: want to complete and finish that that I started and
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: with the with the needs and everything. I went through
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: therapy like you said, and it's like every day, every day,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: you know, it's getting better and better. It's it's been
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: two years July, so it's like I'm getting better and better.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: And I just want to be like that. Even in
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: my life, I just want to get better. I don't
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: want to be even though I'm fifty, in my fifties,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I still want to be able to learn from somebody.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: I can learn from a young person or even an
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: older person, I'm open to receive. It's because if it's
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: gonna make me better, I'm willing to do that. So
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: that's how I'm working at being an overcome up every day,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and I'm encouraging those who are watching it and listening
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: that we all can overcome and we can conquer. Come
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: on that special that the two albums songs on the
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: album Overcoming and Comfort, did you just slip that in
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: so smooth? That's we're dealing with a pro you know,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: and you can overcome and that's not The words started
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: with completion And when I looked the word up finishes
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: in it so a lot and I realized a lot
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: of things we've started in our lives, and I even
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in my own life, I took it personal. All these songs,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I took it personally. I've started things that you know,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you start cleaning up in the room and before you know,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you know, started another room and you haven't even finished
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: completing that task. So my thing is to stay focus
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and finish this album. We started with finished work, the
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: work that God has begun in us. We're gonna finish
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: and with his help, we're gonna complete it. And then
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: the album. The last song on the album is called
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: finish that we wouldn't finished, and we're gonna finish. Well,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: well the beauty If this's not you've always had people
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: write songs for you, you always never participating in that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: side of it. Talk about that because you know it's
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it's about confidence too, It's about well what you write
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: makes sense. Well, if you told somebody you wrote this
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: with they what they look at you and just pacify you,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: but and then say that's good you you you well
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: you in order to do what you do, because those
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: are my exact out as a as a songwright, it's
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: just gonna make sense. I don't know, and I mean
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: me and my daughter were sitting with the producer and
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: he really helped me on. He did it for me.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: He helped me on, help me to really realize that
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: my words and even with Travis Green he wrote Finished.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: I sit and talk to him for about about hour
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of what I wanted to talk about it. He took
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: all my words and put them into Finished. And the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: same thing when he did it for me with feel
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: and all of us just working together. It's like he
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: helped my confidence come alive, you know, like dealing with
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: sometimes you know, it takes you switching up and doing
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: something with somebody else to see to stir up the
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: gift in you know. And that's what's happened on this
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: album that I realized that my words can be good,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: and that that they are important, and that they're not
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: too small, that they can be that they can be used.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Absolutely know that she's talking about Philip Bryant and my
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: boy are Kurt Franklin knows only Travis Green, who I love.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I loved it. I gotta get back on the show.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: And then you have my bar. I called him the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: church outlaw. Todd the lady outlaw is good for him.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: How did you get the church out law all your
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: church girl, huh overcome punk? He did it for men.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I called Tied and I said, tod, I wanted to
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: talk about finishing. I said, I wanted to talk about
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the work that we've begun in the Lord to finish.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: And when I tell you, he called me back and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I was it was a scratch of him playing on
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the piano and I said, man, I said, this is it.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: So we wound up going to Chicago with his band
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and singers and recording it live with his producer, and man,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I tell you, it was so it was like a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: heavenly experience. And we was in a in a sanctuary
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: with just us and just a very few people that
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: work in the church. But when I tell you, it
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: was like the Lord met us there. And I'm I'm
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: so excited because it's like another side of me that
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: no one's seen or heard on finished work. And I'm
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: just I'm just geet and nervous forever. You know. Of course,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: when you come with new music, you don't know what
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: people gonna receive and all that, But I just believe
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: in my heart that that God has given me it's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: gonna really be able to bless the people and that's
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: my goal is to bring hope, inspiration and let people
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: know that the mercies of God still exist on this
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: earth and everybody is not out to get us, and
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: that we can accomplish those things that God has begun
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: on us. He's a healer that he can heal us
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: of all manner of diseases that's going on in the world.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: We don't have to walk in fear. If we do
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: what we need to do and do what we're supposed
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: to do, we're gonna work out and we're gonna be fine.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Rita Franklin one of my all time favorites, and when
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: she did the amazing Grace and i'ma be honest with you, Um,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: every time I see you, I see I see that
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: moment if there's gonna be a moment when you're gonna
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: just shell into understanding all your blessings. Like That's why
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: this album was special, Overcome Up, because you you finally
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: stepped past the things and said, my words have value,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: you know, and I can write it down and it's
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: gonna mean something to somebody else because it means something
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to meet. The next thing is going to be like
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: that journey you went up to Chicago, and then with
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Todd the next half, all y'all gonna be in the room,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Travis Green gonna be in the room with you, Kurt
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Franklin gonna be in the room, Philip Bryan gonna, kimbro
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: gonna be in the room with you. And it's gonna
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: be about you telling everybody you know about the King,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: about he did it for me, talk about the Conqueror,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: talking about all these journeys that means something. And I
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: just want to let you know this, this album is
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: a blessing for you because finally, I think that's the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: final step. Because you know, every time I interview you,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I'm always I love David, I'm always stepping into you
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: because I know you're a person, had all these great talent,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you kind of background in a little bit, and David
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: has put you out there and finally you fill the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: anointment of who and what you can be. I just
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I was just so happy for you. I am so
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: happy for you. Thank you so much. You look, you're
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: bringing tears to me. That that's great, you know. I know.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And then you know, every time I come on the show,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I talk about the family because you mentioned your daughter earlier,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: and you know, y'all. Y'all went out on tour a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: couple of years before the pandemic, was all of the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: country doing there the telling man entertainment to him, talk
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: about the family is all coming together, how they how
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: they how they went through the pandemic and all that
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: good stuff. Just just talk about the journey that you
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: and your husband are putting together in the future that
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have for us, because we already know you
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: got movies coming out, TV shows coming out, Alvin overcoming
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: coming out. What's coming out with you and your husband.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I gotta go back to the family of Core. Not
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: my daughter till the youngest one vocal produced me in
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the album. She had her hand and everything. Uh and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: her her boyfriend name is Justin Pearson. They're actually sitting
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: right here with me right now, and it's amazing how
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: they were able to help. They took a relief off
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: of David sr. And they were they stepped into the role,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: and I mean they really stepped into the role to
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: help me with this thing. And it's been incredible just
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: to see her develop and and for her skills to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: come out, and for all of us to see that
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: this hidden and fear that she's had. It's like finally
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: she's stepping into herself and into her own and you know,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: even like everybody, you know, with my other daughter that
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: works in the in the company Porsche and then David Jr.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Everybody is finding their rightful place which is causing the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: company to grow. And you know, I have to pray
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: hard because once everything gets really smooth, the enemy tries
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to show his head and it's like of course to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: try to bring discord and make try to mess things up.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: But he's doing his job. That's why say, on my
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: job praying, and we have to stay on our job
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: in what we need to be doing and stand in
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: our lane to make this thing grow. Because even as individuals,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: they have great talents of their own that I really appreciate.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: You thank God for the Lord stirring up. But I
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: always tell them you gotta keep God at your base
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: if you want to be blessed. This is how your
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: mom and dad has been blessed. It's been the favor
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: of God. It's been God keeping his hand on our lives.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: I can't take no credit for none of it. It's
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: all been God using us and be directing us. We know, Um,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: we laugh with her. We've seen her grow as a
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: young lady, as a as a wife, as a mom,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: and but her new CD an Overcoming Tamelaman has been
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: more involved than ever in this songwriting, lending her input
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to nearly every track. Never actually been more creative with
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: her vision, been more powerful or heart more open than
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: this collection upon your songs. The past few years, you've
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: seen these will sat back, You've seen overcome, You've seen
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: her smile when she had paint and all painting her body.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: But what never stopped me is telling you I love you,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: telling you I love your husband, and thank you for
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: coming on money making conversations again. Thank you so much,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you. This has been a joy today. You got
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: you got me hyped up. Boy. I hope whoever's after
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: you today is gonna be as hype. I know that
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: not because you you You got your own, You got
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: your own vain. You're in the lane out a bout yourself.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for shocks as usual. You're a
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: blessing to me, and you're a blessing to our community.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing and bringing us some good information.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Cool. We will be right back
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: with more money making conversation with Rashan McDonald. Look at
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: your children's eyes to see the true magic of a forest.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: It's a storybook world for them. You look and see
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: a tree. They see the wrinkled face of a wizard
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: with arms outstretched to the sky. They see treasure and pebbles.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: They see a windy path that could lead to adventure,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: and they see you. They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world?
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Find a forest near you and start exploring and discovered
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: the forest dot Org brought to you by the United
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the Council. You are now tuned
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: into the money making conversations. Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Hollywood superproducer Will Packer has produced films that have earned
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: more than one billion dollars at the box office. Will
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Packard tells me why marketing his brand as a producer
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't normal in Hollywood. Well, when I came in as
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: a producer, I knew how important it was to connect
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: with an art. That really started with my journey at
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Family because I made my first film project, which was
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Chocola City, while I was still an undergraduate at Family,
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I was a junior. We shot Chocola City. This a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: little bity movie, and in order for that film to
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: be successful, I had to go out to my arty,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: my core arty, and I realized I needed to go
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: out and explain to that audience why they should care
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: about this family. And that really started something that I
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: still do to this day, which is going out and
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: trying to touch people with every project that I had.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear this full interview with Will Packer,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: visit money Making Conversation dot com. Now let's return to
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation with Rashan McDonald. My next guest is
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: a Craig Melville. He's the co host of The Today
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Show and the author of the book Pops Learning to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Be a Son and a Father. You may know Criggs
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: in the war winning news anchor. As I said earlier
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: on The Today Show, you also have seen him on
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: MSNBC Live and the host of Dateline. He's on the
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: show discussed his book, Pops Learning to Be a Son
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and the Father. It's the story of all the father
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: figures in Craig's life and that includes inspiring men from
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: his program or his series called Dad's Got This series
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: on NBC NBC News Today these experiences, encounters of shapes
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: creates understanding of his own role as a dad. And
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I can be related and we'll have a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: nice conversation. Since father has recently passed, he has two
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: young children. Please wrap me the money making conversation, my man,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Craig Melvin, How you're doing, Craig Sean, I'm well, I'm well.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me. I always enjoy
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: your conversation, so I don't have to be a part
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: of one. Thank you. Man. A Southern boy, South Carolina, Okay,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: you know uh, you know when I when I see
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: people on TV and you saw articulate, there's no yaws,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: there's no access. How does a man come straight out
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: of Columbia? I know color because Steve Harvey. I used
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to go down a lot of performative town center selling
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: that place out all the time. So I'm fair for
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: me with South Carolina, Charleston, that whole low country. There's
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: no low country in your tone? What's going on there?
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Are you? Are you break that low country accident? Low
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: country accent? Funny because I didn't, I never I never
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: had it. My mom, Uh, you'll appreciate this. Growing up
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: in Houston. Uh, way that you grew up. My mom
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: grew up in the projects and first in the family
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to go to college and first in the I'm gonna
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: get a graduate degree. So when we came along, she
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: wanted to expose us to two things and places that
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: she had not been exposed to. And consequently, I think
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: it's I was probably fourteen or fifteen, and she had
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: us take part in these oratorical contests, um and and
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: that was was kind of how it started. So I
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: took some public speaking classes and then these oratorical contests,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and then the next thing you knew, I had what
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: they what they like to call in the business a
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: nondescript dialect. Right, you can't really tell based on listening
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: to me where I'm from. It's a blessing. Now. When
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I was growing up, it was always he's he's talking white. Absolutely,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: he talks like what he talks like a white boy.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: So it's you know, it's it was the course. Now
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: it's a blessing. Well, you know, it's interesting because I
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: knew in my middle school. I remember my teaching used
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to always ask me to read, just always ask me
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: to read. And you know, people talk about bullying and
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: you know when you people are talking about they call
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you snowflake. That was a trauma bully. And then so
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: it's it's popularized now because people are willing to talk
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: about it. But we all grew up in some form
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: of physical or mental abuse from high school kids or
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: people in the neighborhood. And my remember this, this this girl.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: She made such a big deal that I was always
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: asked to read that. It almost, I have to say,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: traumatized me because I went exactly the opposite. I wanted
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: to talk, I wanted to say, ain't I wanted to
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: have I wanted to slur my words. I wanted to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: fit in. And so what you I bring that story
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: up because you talk about because you was hit with it.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: You was hit, you know, talking why I didn't want
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: to act? Why you you're calling you snowflake? What kept
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: you focused? What kept you from from veering off like
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I veered off? I veered off and I said, hey, man,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I want to fit in and not be me. You know,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I think it was I wrote about in the book
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: my mother. My mother really Sean, I mean she she
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: she kept us on the straight and narrow at the time. Uh,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: we we resented the strictness. I mean, my mom. She
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: knew all of our friends, and she all of the parents.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: We weren't allowed to stay out past you know, during
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the week maybe nine o'clock, maybe on the weekends when
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: kids were going to parties and having fun. I was
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: doing oratorical contests and activities. And I went to in
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: high school, I think I probably went to maybe three
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: high school football games on Friday night. I just I didn't.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I grew up on a very tight leash, right um.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: And and part of it was my mother overcompensating for
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: for my father not being the kind of dad that
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: he should have been. But part of it was Mom knew.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: She knew back then, I think, kind of what it took.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: She was a school teacher, then she went into an administration.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: She knew what it took um to to shape and
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: mold young black boys, especially right, and and that was it.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Had it not been for her, had I grown up
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: in another house, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Well,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: you know, writing your book, you know the book we're
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: talking for talking to interviewing Craig Melvin, his book Pops,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Learning to Be a Son and the Father. Is it
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: because the fact that your father wasn't there, that she
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: may be overcompensated and wanted to make sure you didn't
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: you had a better life, or you pursued the options
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: even though I knew she went to college and think
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: in the age of twenty two is when she became
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: pregnant with you. But talk about that in the middle,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: because as we talked about trying to shape you because
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: of the fact that you've been shaped by a lot
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: of people, especially to the stories we're gonna talk about
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: the the president incident when he was out of camp grades,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: how that really kind of like started you in this
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: direction of humanizing all men, especially men who are incoss already.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Talk about your mom in her role versus your dad
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: role because you mentioned it just a little bit, but
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: that centers around us getting into the story and your
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: father changing his life at the age of sixty seven.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: The mom mom mom. Mom had to play the role
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: of mom and dad for the better part of my childhood. Um,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: it was, it was, it was a role that she
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: was Yeah, she was unfortunately well prepared for it because
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: she ended up she had to take care of her
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: three younger siblings. UM. When she was in college and
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: her father skipped out of the family, ended up essentially
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: dying on the streets and in squalor. But no a mom.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Because my father was not physically present as often as
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I would have liked, and my younger brother would have
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: liked my older brother as well. Mom stepped in the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: trip to fill the gap. She filled She filled the boy.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: And not just not just being present in a sense
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: of searing a little league games or soccer games or
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: or concerts, not just physically present, but but but emotionally
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: president right a spiritually present. I mean that the relationship
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: that I have h with God is because of my
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: mother's relationship with with So it was it was divine intervention.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: You know, had I had any other mother, things would
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: not have gone the way that they did. But you know,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: it's it's also and I write about in the book
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: as you know, and I do appreciate the fact that
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: you read the book. You'd be surprised how often to
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: talk to people about books and they hadn't read word one.
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: But I can tell you read the whole thing. And
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: I write about in the book. My father, I asked
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: him during the course of my my interviews with him
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: for the book I said, Pops, what was the most
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: money you ever wasted? M Without missing a beat, he
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: said it was about fifteen dollars back in nineteen six.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: I said, that was a lot of money back then,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: when you spend that money on he said, that's how much.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: That's how much it cost to put my daddy in
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: the ground. And in that moment I realized, um, that
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: while I had been frustrated by the lack of relationship
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I had with my dad, it was exponentially better than
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: the relationship he had with his own father. Right, he
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: know who Dad was until he was almost a teenager.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: So it was it was wholly unrealistic of me to
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: expect him to be the kind of dad that I
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: had come to to to idolize. He couldn't be it
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: because he hadn't seen it, And you can't be something that.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: It's really hard to be something. Yes, if if you
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: if you haven't seen it, if you haven't been exposed
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: to it. So that's when my dad was up against
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you know, when I when I read the book, you know, um,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: you know I heard shotgun House. Okay, I grew up
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: in there. I was born in the shotgun House. Two
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: very shotgun house. A lot of people. If you're listening
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: to the shotgun house, over to the front door, shoot
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: the gun out, to shotgun out, to go out the
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: front back door. Don't hit anything that's a shotgun house. Okay,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: you reference pig feats. Grew up with big feasts, but man, hey, Greg,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: I would touch but big feasts or part of my lifestyle.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: And so that's the Southern I'm from Houston, Texas. I'm
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: from the South. It was it was a lifestyle that
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: was normal to me. But it was also a community
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: lifestyle of people taking care of each other. And that
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: was really important. Not only your dad, even though there
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: were some missteps, there were still people there to take
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: care of him, you know, to make sure he was focused,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: to shout at him as he became an adult. There
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: were people in the community. That's really important in this
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: book that no matter what, there's some form of family
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: tied to your story, and the people in your life
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: talk about that. You know, it's a It's It's funny
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: because long before people started talking about it taking a village,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: uh to to to rear a child, I had a village.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't called that back back in the
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: eighties in South Carolina, back in the eighties and nineties
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: where I grew up and I had a village, and
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: and yes, there were a number of men who played
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: the role of dad along the way, my uncle James,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: my uncle Jake, my uncle Frank Um. But there were
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: also a lot of women that that that played the
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: part as well. I was disciplined, and I think that's
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: the politically correct term I was. I was disciplined by
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: more women growing up than men, whether it's my mom
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: or one of my aunts and my grandma. I spent
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of time with my two grandmothers growing up,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: and they really shaped me in myriad ways that I
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: didn't fully appreciate until I was older. But and then
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: after that, I had coaches along the way. I always
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: God always blessed me with with with people along the road.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Uh that that gave me a little part of something
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: that I was. I was able to take and build on.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: It's difficult for young black men especially, it's it's difficult
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: to to learn how to carry yourself in this world,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: um with without examples of it. And I had lots
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: of examples, thankfully along the way. But the reality is,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: you know, Sean a lot of kids don't have that.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: A lot of kids don't. They just you know, through
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: no fault of their own mind, you they they don't
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: have a mother or a father, or an uncle or
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: an aunt to take their hands on this journey of life.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: And so they end up finding role models, uh that
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: they should not be held up, that should not be
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: on the battle store, and they begin to to emulate them.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: You know. The thing I really like about your book
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: is that sometimes uh, because my father was a truck driver,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: you know, so you know when he wasn't driving trucks,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: you know he was he was, he wasn't really connected
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: to me. I can I can tell you he was
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: my father. I can tell you that my mom was
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: there for me. My mom pushed me. My mom always
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: felt that could be somebody special in life. When your
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: father showed up for your ball game, that that remember.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: You don't know if you got to hit a home
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: run and got I got struck out adver time you
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: went up the bat, but you remember that moment. And
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: then when your mom excuse you, when you thought, uh,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: you had an entered early fatherhood. You know, those are
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: two moments that really I bring up those two moments prayer,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: because despite of all the things we do in our life,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: there are always memories that really some haunt people, some
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: inspire people. Your father showing up for your game and
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: your mom basically coming to the rescue because she did
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: something that enabled you to relax. Talk about those two
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: key moments of parenting. Even though your father wasn't there,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: that was a key parenting moment that he provided for
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: you that stays with you today. It probably cares into
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: your parenty with your with your children today and then
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: your mom being there for you at a moment of doubt, frustration, fear.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: But both of them were there at different times. I mean,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: you're you're you're talking about Department book where I am.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: I almost became a teenage father. I was almost a
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: statistic at the age of fourteen. Uh, you know that
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: I made a a bad choice. I made a bad choice.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: And you know what, I write about it because I
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: wrote about it because I wanted people to understand. Uh,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: there but for the grace of God go I and
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and and and I think a lot of folks can
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: relate to this, this idea that you know, there's that
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: night or sometimes that day, but usually it's it's that
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: night where you went left, but you could have gone right, right, right,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: and and and had you made a different decision, it
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: would have altered the course of your life in a
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: dramatic way. Um, that almost happened to me. I got lucky,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: and and and at that point in my life, I
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: was I didn't have much of relationship with my father.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I was I was afraid of my mother. Uh, definitely afraid,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: so I couldn't talk to her about it. And it
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: was a situation where you know, this young lady was
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: convinced she was pregnant, and I like, I had to
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: I had to do something. This was not one of
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: the situations where uh, in action was an option and
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: uh And I write in the book about how I
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: went to my my aunt, and it was my aunt
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: that finally convinced me that I had no choice but
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to talk to my mother. But my mom has always
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: been long before we started calling people fixers, my mom
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: was a fixer, like it was. It was that that
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: honestly was an extreme example, But there were so many
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: other times in my life where I thought I was
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: out of option. I didn't know what I was gonna do,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: and I prayed to God and put trust in Betty
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Joe Melvine and and Betty Joe Melvine always came through
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: and still does now. Mind you in a different way,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: my dad, you know, rute about that, that that part
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: in the book with Chean where he showed up at
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: my little league game, and the memory steed with me
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: because it was so rare to that point my dad. Um,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: and and again now looking back on it, knowing what
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: we know about addiction, about it being a disease and
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: not a weakness, I understand why he wasn't there. I
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: understand why he had walled himself off from our family
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: and society at large. But back then I was a kid,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: you know, I was a kid who one of my
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: my my dad to to be proud of me and
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: see me, uh and certainly watch watch my little league games.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: And so when he showed up that evening, I saw
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: him down the third baseline there on the on the fence.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: It's a it's a memory that that stayed with me
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: because it was so weird. That being said, now, um,
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: he's everywhere, like you know, he was up. Two weeks ago,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: my son had a soccer game. My dad was right
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: there with me on the sideline and thirty seconds in
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: my my boy hadn't scored a goal all season, thirty
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: seconds in dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, shoot score first
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: goal of the game. And and me and my pops
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: are half five and like he had just won a
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: green jacket. And Augusta looked at your children's eyes to
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: see the true magic of a forest. It's a storybook
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: world for them. You look and see a tree, They
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: see the ring, the face of a wizard with arms
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: outstretched to the sky. They see treasuring pebbles. They see
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: a windy path that could lead to adventure, and they
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: see you. They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world? Find
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: a forest near you and start exploring. I discovered the
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: forest dot orgon brought to you by the United States
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Forest Service and the Council you know, um it was
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the book is um an emotional book? I would say
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: you emotional because I told people when I get a
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: book like this, after slow read it because sometimes they
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: hit points where I go, I'm about to about to
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: go there, I'm not let me finish this moment. And um,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: because I remember a moment with my dad. Uh two,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: when I own a comedy club and my dad had
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: never ever been to anything I've been, and he just
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: showed up at the comedy club and uh, it was
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: sold out and looked at the lobbists. What you're doing,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: your dad, He goes, I come to see my son.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: And he looked around. He looked, wow, did you did you?
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: Did you? And I went, uh, yes, sir, yes, sir.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: You know because I always said sir to my dad
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: and uh and he said, he said, I'm proud of
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: your son, and and and like I said, this is
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: because that's what the book did to me as a dad.
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: Because when you start talking about incarceration, and you talked
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: about when we're talking, you said earlier, right, turn, left,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: turn those turns. I always say that. When I was
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: in college, you know you you played a fraternity. I
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: played to make a side fire, and you always do
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: stupid things. I remember the Big Brothers said we want
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: some plants. Well, we didn't have no money, and so
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: I remember just this giant open field where they had
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: plants back in the day, and reminded the Lyon brothers.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: We went and stole these plants. Man. I mean, if
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: you look back on the Craig from the freeway, you
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: would have seen those running across this field with these plants. Okay,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: So anybody could have went, what are those black dudes
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: boys doing running with all these giant plants? And I
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: had a little Fiat X one nine, which is a
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: two seater, and the truck was in the front, so
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: I had to put the plants in the front, and
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: we were black and my wain see you. So all
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: along the way I could have stopped and stopped by
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: the police and been incarcerated, and my life could have changed.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: On that right turn left turn that you were talking
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: about earlier, you are meeting men who have done something
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: far worse than what I've talked about, but they have
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: made a mistake. And sometimes because they made a mistake,
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: we don't give them a second chance because we feel
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: that they're unworthy of that second chance. And then in
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: your book you talk about guess what they are fathers too.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that journey of you doing a story
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: I think basically changed your life, and it started with
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Camp Grace. Yeah, it was one of the most impactful
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: stories I've ever done. Uh, there's a I don't even
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: remember how we found out about this camp. But um,
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: I was probably reading some article in an obscure publication
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: about this um summer camp at a maximum security prison
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: in uh California, Selena, a state valley. Brion was the
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: name of the facility, and for one week every summer
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: UM they bring in about a dozen or so kids
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: to basically have a camp experience with their dads. I mean,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: you know, arts and crafts, and they play games, and
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: they sing songs and they do all the stuff that
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: at a camp. And these kids are between the ages
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: of you know, seven or eight and in fifteen or sixteen,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: and the guys who are part of the program have
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: to um exhibit good behavior for a full year. The
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: camp is a it's a privilege. And um I went
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: out and spend some time talking to these guys and
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: it ended up being just an emotional day because these
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: these are being First of all, most of them are
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: not going to be getting out of prison. I mean
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: they've some of them have have have been convicted of
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: doing some pretty heinous things. Um. But the two women
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: that started the camp, both of their husbands were incarcerated
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: and consequently weren't really a part of the child's lives.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: They would get the occasional visit, you know, on the weekend,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: and you've got the glass, and but they weren't able
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: to really be a part of the child's lives. So
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: they came up inside there for a camp and I
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: talked to one of the guys out there, and I
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: asked him the question I knew a lot of people
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: are going to be asking when they watched them or
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: read the story. How can someone um accused of some
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: of the things these guys were accused of. How in
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: what universe do they deserve the right to spend time
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: with with it with the child And without missing a beat,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: he said to me, tears in his eyes. Um, they
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: might be right. I may not deserve it, but you
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: know what credit my kids do. My kids deserved to
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: know their father. They didn't do anything wrong, they didn't
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: make any bad choices. Uh. And his larger point, and
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: I think this was just a valid If we're serious
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: about stopping the prison pipeline that we always talked about, UH,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: then we need to make sure the kids of of
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: incarcerated individuals have relationships with them. He spent a fair
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: amount of his time talking to his daughter about choices,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: making good choices, not ending up where he ended up.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: It's a fantastic program, and it moved me. It also
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: moved me, Sean because my grandmother, and it's the first
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: line in the book. Not to give way too much,
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: but you know, my my grandmother. Uh now what I
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: knew her. She was here, she was going to church
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: at the church or coming home from church. Like she
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: she only loved the Lord, but apparently long before I
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: came along. But this just just say she's a bootleg.
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: I want to give it. No more than that. Just
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: say she's a bootleg. I don't want to give her
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: the earther part, Okay, See a bootlegger. She was a bootlegger.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: She was a bootlegger. And and and and got a
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: second CHANCEY did. And had she not gotten the second chance,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: who's to say whether I would be here right now,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: you know. But here's the thing I want to point
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: out about that now his grandmother was in the same
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: jail that Martha Stewart was in. So she got how
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: many chances as she's got, Okay, but in the same
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: facility now. And so so when I when I when
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: I read the book, and and and and and it's
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: like he said, an emotional journey because it's your story.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: But it's a relatable story because I remember when my
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: younger brother was incarcerated in California and UH Glass talking
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and uh and I was in tears and and and
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: he told me he couldn't cry. He's I reashed. I
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I can't cry. I keep they can't, he said, I can't.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: And my nicknames Ricky, Ricky. I can't cry because they
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: see me crying out here. I pay a price when
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: I go back inside. And in that book, you know, gentle,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: when you interview and he said, look, he said, thank god,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: I have a sale by myself because now I can't cry.
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: And so I love the fact that you were humanizing
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: people because we we see these we see this, we
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: see the violent size, and nobody is trying to downplay that.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: But we have made mistakes. There are people on the
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: other side of this that have to deal with the emotions.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: These are kids, and like one of them said, look, um,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: it's all right early on when you're playing cards and
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: you playing catch, but when they become teens, the conversation
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: becomes different. And that's what fatherhood is all about, which
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: leads to your whole life or being a father, being
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: connected to your dad and not being a present day father.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that, correct. You know what I think
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: that I think that you can be shaped by negative examples, Uh,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: just as much as you can be shaped by positive examples.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think in so many instances, maybe even
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: more so. So. You know, growing up, I didn't know
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: the kind of man that I wanted to be. I
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: didn't certainly know the kind of father that I wanted
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: to be. But up until a few years ago, I
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: knew I didn't want to be anything of anything like
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: my dad. Yes, uh, and and and and that was
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: what what motivated me personally and professionally, probably to a
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: certain extent now that I'm talking about it. But no,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's funny because I have to remind my
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: kids sometimes and I have a job, and and and
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: consequently I I cannot be at their back and call
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: uh day and night. Because you know, when my dad
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: was there when we were younger, it was it was big,
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: like it was a wedding or funeral or graduation or
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: that that Little League game that I write about that
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: I remember because it was so weird. Dad didn't show
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: up with stuff. In part because he worked third shift
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: at the post office, but in larger part because because
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: of the addiction issues that he had um So as
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: a result, I'm going to the other end of the spectrum.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: So if you know, I'm there for soccer games and
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: my daughter had a gymnastics recital last Sunday morning, and
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: some I'm physically present as often as and as much
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: as I can do you know, pick I do school
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: pick up and trying to do it all because you know,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: my dad didn't do any other no. No. The problem
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: that that that you create when you do that, and
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: it took me a while to pickure this out. I've
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: created expectations. So if if I'm not there to go
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: that has got to travel for work, well daddy, why
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: can't you can you take a later flight? And they
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: can you go tomorrow? And I've had to say a
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: few times, you know that it's the job that pays
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: for all of this. You don't get to go to
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: dance or you don't get to go to soccer if
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: that is not hopping on playing. So that that's the
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: that's the that's the the unfortunate part. But they're you know,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: they're starting to understand, but It's funny as you become
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: a parent, how you at some point become you become
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: the kind of for me at least the kind of
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: father that I used to mock. Yes, hate it. With
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: my dad, we talk about, you know, how much something costs?
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: You don't have money, and and when we were younger,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: we didn't like he wasn't lying, like we knew we
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of money when we had enough.
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: With my kids, you know, I've said a few times
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: and we can't afford this, and myself, as I'm missing
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the beato, say yes we can, you can, and I'm like,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: and then you then you find yourself trying to come
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: up with a new excuse like, uh, well maybe we
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: can't afford it, but that we don't need it. You
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: don't need that, right right right. It's hardy. And I
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: know we're about to wrap up, and I want to
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: bring up a very um a fun moment as a parent,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and I want to share with you because you wrote
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: about it. When your son climbed into bed and you know,
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: and then your kids when they sleep. If you if
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: you don't have kids, children off you got a very
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: young child when they climb in the bed, they forget
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: you in bed. They kids about the worst sleepers in
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: the world, espencially when they get that six to ten
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: years of age, we were a sleeping And so when
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: you said that in the book, you said, you you
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: may miss that. I remember I talked to my daughter
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: when she was like seventeen and said, hey, what you what?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: You're hopping bad and watching TV? Ship what you're talking about?
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I said, you know, can we not watching TV? Can
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: we not watch TV? Together? And then we used to go,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: I don't do that no more, Dad, No, no, we're
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: not doing that. So I would tell you this, Craig,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: that moment brought brought laughter to me. It brought back
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: memories as your book, you know, the amazingly good book
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: Pops Learning to Be a Son and the Father. Man. Uh,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: it's a great read. And like I said, it slowed me.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: And I said, the words slowed me because I was
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: becoming emotional because, like I said, my father was a
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: beer drinker. My father worked hard as a truck driver.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: My father, like I said, was he in my life?
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know, But did he shape me to be
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: the man I am today? Yes he did, because he
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: had a role in it. And that that role has
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: made me to be the man I am. I like
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: to believe. I'm a good parent to my daughter, a
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: good husband of my wife. And those are the things
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: that that the stories that you tell out of this book,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: from the incarcerated to individuals who raised you as a family,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: the community, and whether teachers who shaped you as third grade,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: teachers who shaped you as as you go through life
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: and you went to school and you didn't wanna They
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: want to shame your ancle when you didn't pledge cap outside.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: But it was all good. Man. I love your book, Craig.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: I want to appreciate you for putting it out there. Man,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for your time. I've enjoyed this conversation.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: You're very good at what you do. Thank you for
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: having Okay, we talked soon, man, I'm gonna put this
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: on I got look, I got a nice little social
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: media I'm gonna put that out there and my news letter.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: We're gonna get that out there for you, Okay, Craig,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: All right, bye bye. If you want to see or
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: hear any of my interviews and Money Making Conversation, please
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm with Sean McDonald.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: I am your host. You've been listening to Money Making
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Conversations with Rashan McDonald. Please join us next week and
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: always remember lead with your gifts. You are now tuned
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: into the Money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Rodney Scott is the barbecue pit master James Beard Award
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: winning chef and founder at Rodney Scott's Whole Hall Barbecue.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: He is operating restaurants in South Carolina and Alabama. He
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: has turned barbecue into our multi million dollar business. I
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: am trying to take over the world. I'm trying to
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: spread the love everywhere because whenever you find a barbecue,
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: you find people in a good mood, people having a party,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: people enjoying themselves. So I was like, why not spread
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: this love all over the world as far as we can.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: You know, if it if it's me, is absolutely great.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: If it's somebody else, it's it's just as good. You know,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Let's let's let's put it in as many places as
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: we can. And every time I think about should I
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: do with this state, should I try to that state?
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: And I say to myself, why not just just let's
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: do it? And my goal is to spread this love.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: This Rodney Scott Hall all love all over the world.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: If you want to hear my full interviewer Rodney Scott,
• 1:02:58
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