Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Full Episode: Gospel artist Todd Dulaney, actress Christina Milian, designer Tyra Myricks & Aqua Equity Water's Ryan Morgan

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Full Episode: Gospel artist Todd Dulaney, actress Christina Milian, designer Tyra Myricks & Aqua Equity Water's Ryan Morgan · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to money Making Conversation. I'm your host. Ras Sean
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  Speaker 1: McDonald say this every week. It's time to stop reading
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  Speaker 1: other people's success stories to start writing your own. And
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  Speaker 1: your dreams. My interviews include celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs, and people
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  Speaker 1: I like to call decision makers. My next guest is
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  Speaker 1: Christina Million. She's a budding as they say, budding multi
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  Speaker 1: media talent and enterprises and music, fashion, food. You know.
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  Speaker 1: She just opened the ben A Box and restaurant in
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  Speaker 1: April in Los Angeles, Studio City. I'm very familiar with
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. She's a star in television and film. She
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  Speaker 1: was recently seeing the two other film projects on Netflix,
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  Speaker 1: the hit romantic comedy movie Falling in Love and the
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  Speaker 1: musical drama series Soundtrack. In the new movie Results to Love,
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  Speaker 1: Christina Million plays an inspiring and singer Erica on the
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  Speaker 1: journey to find herself in Paradise. The movie is produces
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  Speaker 1: fifteen tag fifteen time Grammy Award winning singer and songwriter
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  Speaker 1: Alicia Keys. Christina and I have worked many times together
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  Speaker 1: on sitcoms like The w B Sister Sister Steve Harvey
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  Speaker 1: Show and Christina the first leading role in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: three with Steve Harvey. Love cost the thing. I was there,
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  Speaker 1: I saw, So let's catch up as we discussed a
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  Speaker 1: new Netflix film, Result to Low and discuss an enterprising
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  Speaker 1: career because he's mostly fascinated, please work with the money
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  Speaker 1: making conversation for the very first time, Christina MILLI young,
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  Speaker 1: how you doing that was the best intro. I was
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  Speaker 1: having a good time listening. My goodness. Well, first of all,
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  Speaker 1: I'm awesome. How are you. I'm doing great? Uh, first
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  Speaker 1: of all, you look fantastic. And when my wife and
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  Speaker 1: I we saw the movie last night, we get that
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  Speaker 1: out the box straight off, you know, because uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: romantic comedies and they really to me jumped off during
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  Speaker 1: the pandemic because we was sitting at home and gotta
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  Speaker 1: gotta had a lot of good time. But you seem
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  Speaker 1: to have found a niche. But when you find these
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  Speaker 1: niches in romantic comedies, you always had some beautiful location.
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  Speaker 1: And I think your last one is in New Zealand, right, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: my last one was New Zealand. This time, this time around,
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  Speaker 1: I was this beautiful island called Mauritius and it's a
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it's the south of Africa. It's an island south of Africa,
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  Speaker 1: and it's one of the most gorgeous, most beautiful places
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  Speaker 1: I've ever been to. Its paradise, well, it came across
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  Speaker 1: its paradise and it really it really impacted what I
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  Speaker 1: felt was your brand. At the very top of the movie,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to give away the movie because but
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  Speaker 1: where your career took that backslide was so funny and
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  Speaker 1: but what I what I've learned and watching your growth
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  Speaker 1: as an actress, you know, it's been that. Um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: you have to do do things in here. You had
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  Speaker 1: to show your skill as a singer, and you did
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  Speaker 1: an amazing job. And then you have to show different
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  Speaker 1: levels as an actress. You had to show, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 1: a sensitive side, and you have to show a side
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  Speaker 1: of I can do better. I believe I can do better.
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  Speaker 1: I want to do better. And then when you had
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  Speaker 1: to make a turn or make decision about yourself emotionally,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: I think where a lot of people getting these relationships.
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  Speaker 1: I've been into these relationships myself, Christina where I want
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  Speaker 1: to move on, but I can't move on, and and
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  Speaker 1: let's talk to us about that character. And you get
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  Speaker 1: in this grip realizing these levels that you have to
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  Speaker 1: deal with. In the Netflix movie Results of Love, yes, absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: I mean there's definitely the different conflicts that she personally
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  Speaker 1: has to deal with. Um, It's one of the main
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  Speaker 1: things is like a lot of this is all rooted
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  Speaker 1: and it comes from the heart. And I feel like, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, with my character Erica, you know, one of
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  Speaker 1: the basis is of her characters that she loves music.
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  Speaker 1: She has this passion for music, and it's been her
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  Speaker 1: first love since she was a child. She's willing to
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice anything, including her love life, to pursue this music
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  Speaker 1: career with the hopes that it would be successful. I understand.
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  Speaker 1: I've been in her shoes before, and I still understand
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  Speaker 1: to this day. Um, you know, and it's and it
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  Speaker 1: really takes like the right person honestly to actually alter
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  Speaker 1: the direction or how that how that plan and how
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  Speaker 1: that idea actually um plays out. Um one thing like
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  Speaker 1: obviously see I get to sing in the movie. I
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  Speaker 1: love that. But I felt like she was a real
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  Speaker 1: person and a real person in a situation that is
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  Speaker 1: so awkward and so unusual. Not unusual. I feel like
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  Speaker 1: these days we have so many coincidences that happened in
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: our lives. One because we have social media, we have computers.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like the six degrees of separation have now
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  Speaker 1: become two degrees of separation these days. So it is
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  Speaker 1: possible that you can bump into a whole x from
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  Speaker 1: like twenty years ago that was you know, back then
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  Speaker 1: you thought was the love of your life all the
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  Speaker 1: way in some island or just someplace else and you're
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  Speaker 1: just like, have this this striking feeling of something different
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  Speaker 1: of the motion that you might not even expect. Things
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  Speaker 1: like that do happen these days. So UM, I love
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  Speaker 1: that she was a real girl who's face with the conflict. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And she doesn't she doesn't out the gate say like
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna face this conflict that I'm gonna go for
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  Speaker 1: it and I'm gonna change this. Like she just actually
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  Speaker 1: uses her optimism and a little bit of hope to
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  Speaker 1: say like, all right, well, I gotta do something different
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  Speaker 1: than I gotta I gotta change something in my life
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  Speaker 1: so I can make it better. Um, so you know,
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  Speaker 1: or maybe just like don't have to think about it.
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  Speaker 1: And then she's been run up with probably the hardest
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  Speaker 1: thing that you know, she has, that that she that
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  Speaker 1: she hasn't dealt with yet. So UM, I love all
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  Speaker 1: the conflict and I love that, you know, she's able
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  Speaker 1: to overcome through the storyline, um, as well as the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: other characters in the in the movie as well. Well
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: you know, and there are some other fun characters in
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  Speaker 1: this in this movie because it is a comedy, let's
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  Speaker 1: put it in forefront. And I want to drive back
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  Speaker 1: to when I first met you own sister sister, and
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  Speaker 1: you know Steve Harvey. I was managing Steve Harvey at
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  Speaker 1: the time, and and when we did you know, Love
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  Speaker 1: Don't Cost the thing was, uh, you know, you had
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  Speaker 1: a lot of questions, you know, because he was really entering.
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  Speaker 1: He was very young, and you still look fantastic now.
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  Speaker 1: You look fantastic now. We still look very young, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, and so and so thank you and making
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  Speaker 1: that growth as an actress, because that's what we're talking
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: about now, because I saw such a natural looking individual
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  Speaker 1: on my screen watching you. When what what point that
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  Speaker 1: it became okay, I can do this, you know, because
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  Speaker 1: you want to do it. That's when when you were
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  Speaker 1: doing the sitcom you wanted to do it. At what
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  Speaker 1: point you say I can do this, and then what
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  Speaker 1: point you say I can make it as a career.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what shows so fantastic on the Netflix movie
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  Speaker 1: Ready Result to Love Well. I think when I knew
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  Speaker 1: I could do this is when the opportunity started to
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  Speaker 1: become more relevant for actresses and for women like myself,
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  Speaker 1: especially when most roles and movies were like leading male roles.
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  Speaker 1: Um when the opportunity came for Love Don't Cost the Thing.
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  Speaker 1: That was my first lead role I ever had the
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to even have or to become a part of.
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  Speaker 1: It was my first offer for a film I never
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  Speaker 1: it didn't even have to audition for it, which was
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  Speaker 1: a shock for me. I never experienced an offer on
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  Speaker 1: a movie or green lighting a movie as well for
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  Speaker 1: a network like Warner Brothers. Prior to that, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: my career was based off of just hustling so hard
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  Speaker 1: and working and auditioning just to be girl number one
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: or girl number two and sister sister or uh you
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: know that, you know, girl number four in the Steve
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Harvey Show. You know. But I knew at some point this,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: some way, you know, I was gonna make it. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: just had to work really hard because us as the people, um,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you know, the opportunities were few and far apart, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I knew it was possible and I believed in myself.
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  Speaker 1: So um then when I really knew I could do
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: this and that I could be a lead actress, was
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: loved across the thing. When they gave me that opportunity
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: without even questioning that was like I was really in
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: shock and awe with the fact that they gave me
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: this type of opportunity and the fact that Warner Brothers said, yes,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: we were greenlighting this film based off of her persona
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and who she is and off of the script. No audition,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: no this, no that. But we know she's got a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: good history, she she's got a good reputation. We know
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: she got followers as far as like a fan base
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and uh and you know, put put it together with
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a great director, then you know she'll be all good.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And so when I did that movie and I worked
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: together with Nick Cannon, and that movie came out and
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: people saw the movie and they felt how natural my
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: my acting was for my character and Paris Morgan, and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I actually got to see it on film. You know,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: it's one of those things you get nervous, you do it,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and then you're like, when I see this, what am
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: I going to think? And I was really proud of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: my work when I saw it for the first time,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Like I really had a real whole acting role. It
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: was cool, it was more than just two lines. So
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: it went from that to the whole movie. Well, the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: beauty of this conversation that I'm having with Christina is
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: about a career. A career there is a that is
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: an amazing journey because I've been able to watch it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: We've all been able to watch and then and we
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: all know the ups and downs, like you know, your
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: singing career, you like like in the movie you lost
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  Speaker 1: your deal? Yes, just like in the movie is in
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: the movie. Of course the movie was hysterical. How that
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: that that singing opportunity went away? But in the in
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the process of playing the inspiring singer, you really got
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to sing in this movie? Oh yeah, I did? I did?
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  Speaker 1: I did? You know? With Alicia Keys being a producer,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you know, implementing you know, those elements of music, There's
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  Speaker 1: like six different songs I sing in the movie. Um was.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: It was something that was exciting for me because I
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: got to get in the studio again, and um I
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: had to show what Erica like has been you know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: working her butt off for and what what what she
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: what she does for a living. And so I was
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: really happy to play her character and play her role
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: because technically I was fulfilling this void of like I
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: miss being in the studio and I missing not music
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and people hearing my songs. So now I get to
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: marry the two my acting and my singing together in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: this movie, and of course you add some parts of
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: romance and some comedy and it just all feels good.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, that made me happy. I have to
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: sing in this. Well, you know the fun part about
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the movie results to law. It's this on Netflix to
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: be on Netflix this morning, and it stars a Christine Million,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: very talented singer, entrepreneur, actress, who are who you know?
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  Speaker 1: Singing and then this is this is a little physical
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: comedy in this as well, okay, and then also just
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: traditional comedy, and it's also a romantic theme and it's
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: kind of the two romantic things that are happening. I'm
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: not giving the way of the movie, but there too.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: But she plays it all the way to the threw
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: me off because I didn't know where she was gonna go.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I would just let you know that was some good
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: acting because I didn't know she saw my wife and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: I saw because we saw what she supposed that when.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: But she was playing us with a good actor. So
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: so when you get these parallel emotions that you have
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to play out, then you have to be this really
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: good singer. And I'm gonna just tell everybody because she
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: does the singing so well. It wasn't a denial of
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: her ability that she was in the location and she
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: was just like down on her luck and she shouldn't
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: be there because she was so good at what she
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: did when she song in the movie. So talk about
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that physical comedy, talk about that parallel emotions, emotional, the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: run that you have in there, and dealing with pulling
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: all this together for a great movie that you're doing
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: on Netflix. Uh, you know, I say, overall, I think
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: it's you know, I love to entertain the people, the physically,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the physical element of comedy. I love watching others do
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the physical element of comedy. A lot of male actors
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: do that. A lot of classic UM like uh Saturday
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Night Live actresses do that from like the early beginnings
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to like you know, there's there's there's typical rom com
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and you could just play it safe and you could
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: just tell a story or you could have fun doing it.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: And I love to laugh my butt off. I want
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to cry, laugh, laughter, tears. I want to cry sometimes.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: I want to experience it all and if um if
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: it's sometimes the means going out of the box and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: not being afraid to like alter who you are in
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: your own persona UM I think it's important as an
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: actor to do that. Um you wanna you want to
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: bring the highs and the lows? Um being on? Uh yeah,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: absolutely so. The physical element of comedy I really enjoy doing.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: And I learned a lot of that even from my
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: last director, Roger trumble On Falling in Love, because he
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: was a really fun director and he really like he
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: showed me. He showed me a couple of moments by
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: other great comedians to like implement into my last movie.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: He was like, check this out, and he's like, do
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: your own thing to it, but this should inspire you.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: And since then I've just been just unafraid and fearless
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: about just being out of my shell and having fun.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And if they like, if they do, if they don't,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: then cut it out, cut it out and I'll do
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: something else. It's fun. But at least I tried. That's
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: what That was the thing I wanted to do. Um
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And then, um, what was the other questions? Caring dual
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: emotions throughout the movie, they're kind of like, who you're
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: boy here? Because I thought you missed the right person.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, it was one moment my wife's screaming at
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the TV when you thought you was about to do
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: something with your ex fiance. She said, no, so really
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: did a great job. So talk about that whole run there,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: because that's I'm telling something, talking about and just trying
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: to throw some shine on you because it's a good interview.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: I'll just let you know, Wow, girl, you got it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: And it's a blessing to see from two thousand and
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: three and just to sit down in my home and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: see you on the screen again leading a movie. You
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: all the start of this movie, and that cares a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: lot of weight. And to see you carry these lines
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and bring credibility to it and then throw a mislead
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: on your boy is a testament to where you are
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: in your life. That's that's what I wanted to find out.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: How were you able to do that? I want? I
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: love that it's unpredictable, and I think that's important because
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: we can watch a lot of romany comedies and know
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: exactly I watched them sometimes and I'm like, I know
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: it's gonna happen, This's gonna happen, and that's gonna happen next,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: blah blah blah. This is a story. Maybe because I've
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: done him so many times with me because I've watched
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: him so many times. But I like the the factor
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: of being unpredictable. And in this case, you know you've
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: got two brothers, you've also got another woman. There's a
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: like a quadruple kind of love triangle that's happening here. Wait,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: not a quiete quadruple. It's not even a triangle. I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: love quadruple. It DA know, something like that that's happening
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: between four people that that sounds really kind of crazy,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but most important between her and the two guys. That
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: she's like, she can either go backwards or she can
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: move forward, but she's still at the end of the day,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: needs closure, and I think it's important that she's trying
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: to figure out what that closure is. Um. Of course
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: hope hoping not to break a happy home. But maybe
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: her happy home is with her ex fiance. We don't know, um,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: but it's it's that's where she needs to explore and
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to find out. And sometimes we don't have those answers.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: We have to figure it out ourselves. So you just
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: always hope that if you don't break too many hearts
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: in the process, and you I'm proud that you was
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: able to. Like I said, we'd see these movies, you
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: track them out. You know what's gonna happen. But again,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the overall cast was fantastic, good looking people by the way,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: you know, except Walls and and so let's talk about
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: this shift gears a little bit because it is money
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: making conversations. And you know, you are an entrepreneur. And
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the pandemic came out last year. It's still going on
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: right now. I shouldn't say it came out because we're
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: still dealing with the issues now of COVID nineteen. And
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: you open a restaurant this year Benja Box, now Benja's
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: if you don't know what Benja's. I'm from Houston, Texas,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: so very familiar with the Benya's. And then your business
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: partner has Louisiana roots. So talk about going into the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: restaurant business and why did you go in business with
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: this particular partner. Give was some history. Um, So, my
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: best friend and I we used to live together, were roommates,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and she and I both have just very entrepreneurial kind
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: of attitude. And just like we love something, we're very
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: passionate about it. We did we we study it, we
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: know the details of it, We strategize everything before we
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: actually pursue it and um, and then after that, it's
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: about the pursuit of making it succeed. So we watched
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: each other pursue our own little businesses and things throughout
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the years. And when we were roommating, we said, you know, Sunday,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: we gotta do something together. We need to create a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: business the two women. This is. It's gonna be based
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: on where we live. We live in Studio City, California.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: We know friends here, people we we have to do something,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: but we know our friends will become a part of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and help us to help it grow. So we were like,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: let's do bakery, Let's do this, let's do that. And
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: one day she had a foundation in Louisiana where we
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: would rebuild homes from Hurricane Katrina, and we were out there.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: We would go get Bignet's and it was us with
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: all our girlfriends and we're eating bignets, were going back
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: from more beignets, and then we're like, hold on, we
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: need to bring Benyar's to l A. What are we doing.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: We're tripping And so we started to really not only
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: because we love beignets, we started to figure out what
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the business of it, what you know what the price,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you know what it costs this that. You know what
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: what it costs to actually start up the business. How
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: much you would make in the end, how much you
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: know all the money that goes out. What what helped?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Do we want to be a brand or do we
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: just want to be one you know, one location. You know.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: The idea is to overall become a a large brand.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: We want to be um, we want to be posted everywhere,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to be honest with you, And we started it over
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: two years ago. Um. We started with you know, we
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: got our trademark done, we figured out our recipe. We
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: launched in l s U Stadium. We had just a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: big old friar uh, you know, big old pop the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: oil in it and the you know the gas, you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the little gas thing on the side, and my friends
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: family was serving it. Two people there and then we
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: decided to do a food truck. So we did a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: food truck to about a year and a half ago,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: two years ago, and since then now we've opened the
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: store in the Studio City. We have a Kiosk in Glenn.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: We have another truck that's also in Louisiana. And that's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: all happened in two years. So we feel very fortunate.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Um sooner or later we'll be franchising. But right now
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: we're really just making sure quality control, that we have
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the best um, you know, quality, and that we're giving
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: our very best before we actually uh franchise out now
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: now you're just doing big or you're doing sandwiches, you're
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: doing other pastries. We stick to one thing that we're
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: good at. Its powdered Benya's powdered sugar. Benyon like coffee.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's best to stick to one thing and
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: be great at it rather than uh than you know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: having your hands and everything. Well that I love that.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I love the whole concept. But the fact that you
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: like you said, you did like you said a budget,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you got your trademark, you did quality control, and so
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: that's the business side of you. Is that virtually going
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: to become a dominant side of your career or the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: love of music, the love of acting, and you just
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: balancing it out of course being a family your mall, Yeah,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you know all that. That's a huge balance for you
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: all across the board. So where do we stand now
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: moving forward? In from from going forward, it's pretty much
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: gonna stay about the same, I need to me, it's
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: an equal balance. I think my career also helps, um
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: helps highlight my entrepreneurial side as well as it goes
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the other way around. UM, So it's more about like
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: what else is going to happen from that, you know,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: even on the film and the entertainment side. I mean,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: who knows, I might direct more, I might produce more
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: and not might. I know that's the plan and that's
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: what I will do eventually. But right now my focus
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: is my to entertain and also do to really grow
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: this brand, and um, it's going very well, and I think, uh,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I know, I don't know myself to stop doing one
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: thing over the other for sure, especially when it comes
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to entertainment. I think I'll always be doing it for
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: my whole life. With Steve Harvey to result to love
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: on Netflix, She's a star, She's a beast in a
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: good way. As a positive statement, I appreciate you coming
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversation, Christina will y'all, of course, thanks
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: for having me appreciated to appreciate. We will be right
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: back with more money Making Conversations with your host Roshan McDonald.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It's finally here, the season of celebration, and no matter
• 22:31
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• 22:38
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• 23:22
  Speaker 1: dot Com. Adoption of teams from foster Care is a
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• 23:46
  Speaker 1: presented by adopt Us Kids, brought to you by the U. S.
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  Speaker 1: Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families,
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  Speaker 1: and the ad Council. And we're live here outside the
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  Speaker 1: Perez family home, just waiting for them. And there they go,
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  Speaker 1: almost done time. This morning. Mom is coming off the
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: front door, strong with a double arm kid carry. Looks
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like Dad has the bags. Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: but the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: But Mom has just nailed the perfect car seat buckle
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: for the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who looks
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: to be about nine or ten, has secured herself in
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: the booster seat. Dad SIPs the bag clothes and they're off,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: But looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee cup is
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: still on the roof of the car. And there it goes. Oh,
• 24:35
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• 24:43
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  Speaker 1: s A dot gov slash the Right Seat visits n
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• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to you by Mizza and the Ad Council. You are
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: now tuned into the money making conversations. Minute of Inspiration
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: with Sean McDonald. This is what I sat down with
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: the co host up to today's show, Craig Melvin. In
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: his new book, he talks about the difficulties of growing
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: up with his father and how the father figures in
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: his life have shaped his understanding of his role as
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the proud dad he is today. Here's what he had
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: to say. I think that you can be shaped by
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: negative examples, uh, just as much as you can be
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: shaped by positive examples. In fact, I think in some
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: instance it's maybe even more so. So. You know, growing up,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I didn't know the kind of man that I wanted
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to be. I didn't certainly know the kind of problem
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to be. But up until a few
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: years ago, I knew I didn't want to be anything
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of anything like my dad. Yes, um and and and
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and that was what was motivated me personally and professionally,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: probably to a certain extent now that I'm talking about it.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: If you want to listen to this full interview with
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Craig Melbourne, it's available on Money Making Conversations dot com.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Money Making Conversations with your host Rashan McDonald.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: My next guy is Todd Delaney. He is a Grammy
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: nominator Stella Award. When he recording artists, songwriter, producer, and
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: worship leader and former baseball player that is really key
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: in his interview. He was focused on pursuing a baseball
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: career and at the age of eighteen, he was drafted
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: by the New York Mets. While pursuing baseball, he realized
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: there was a higher calling upon his life, and to
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the surprise of many, he left the sports world behind
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to pursue a career as a gospel recording artist. Todd
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Delaney has delivered some of the biggest worship anthems of
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: the past decade, with number one singles You're Doing It,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: You're Doing It All Again, Your Great Name psaw eighteen,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: number one gospel albums such as Your Great Name and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: The Worship's Heart. He's revered as one of the influences
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of the next generation of gospel music. Please work with
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the money making conversation, Todd Delaney, Hey doing, sir, oh man,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I'm doing a wonderful man. Thanks for having me. First
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of all, I had a lot to say about you,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you know, your success. You know you're out there there
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: running around that diamond as they call the baseball field.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: You got that camp looking like a young King Griffith Jr.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Because I have to believe that was your dream at first, right, absolutely, man,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, the thing was the goal was to get
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: to a bunch of millions of dollars. Man, that was
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: that was the goal. When I was a kid growing
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: up in the hood, I said, if I could just
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: get to the bag, um, that's all that matters. But
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: I realized that I had a little bit more to
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: offer than just going after the bag, and I think
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I wanted to take that route so I can try
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to impact the world in a more positive way than
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: you just come into a stadium and watching me play. Well,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: you know, it's really when you make these decisions, especially
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: at a young age. You know I was, you know,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: because you really determine your future. I always tell people
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the decisions you make between eighteen and twenty four are
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: really the career decisions that how are you gonna make
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: your money when you and sixty and so you made
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a decision that because obviously to be drafted by the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: match there's a considerable scouting that goes into that, and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: they don't just draft people just for fun. They drafted
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: they feel it could nurture their talents and build upon that.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Talk about the experience of being drafted at that point,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: and then we're gonna go through the whole process of
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: maturing to the point that you made a decision that
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that wasn't the direction for you. Yeah, so so bro.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: The biggest thing about the whole draft process is that
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you gotta think about everybody in your family that puts
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: so much into you your development. Like my mom and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: dad spent so much money on me playing and traveling
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: in the world, So for them, this was the biggest
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: thing that could possibly ever happen, and for me too,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean, like when I start seeing the
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: scouts were coming to the game and they were talking
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: to my parents, they would pull my parents to the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: side and say, man, we think your son can play
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: at the next level. My parents would in turn take
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: me home and tell me we talked to the Pittsburgh
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Pirates today. We talked to the Cubs today. We talked
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and so at that point I I was, hey, I'm
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: all in. I said, okay, I mean I can go
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: get the bag. No more school. You mean, what like,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: what what does my future look like? And so um
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: at that point when they started talking like that, my
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: mind started changing because I started seeing my future in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: a different way. Um. And then, UM, I never imagined
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: stepping away to do nothing else, especially singing gospel music
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: at that because in gospel music, that's not really a lucrative,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: lucrative business. That's that's more of a you know, commitment
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: as far as your your faith in what you believe
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: and how you're motivating move people. Now the whole process. Now,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: what position did you play? I want to make sure
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: that everybody hears the Jose tu V all the great
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: second base was out there, Ryan Seinberg, all that that
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: throwing that devil play, you know, make that spinning. So
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: I stopped throwing it down. So what was your best?
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: You know? I never man, Look I did first of all,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I did my research on your too, So you know,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: in terms of amations. You're just telling me so let
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: the general public know about your skills. And because because
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: when people make these decisions like my my degrees in mathematics,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: you know, when you work for IBM. And then it
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: came point in my life IBM within the journey I
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: wanted and I wanted to be a stand up comic,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: you know. And I know when I was making that decision, Todd,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: it was difficult for me because I knew, just like
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: you said, a lot of people have invested energy and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: was excited and working. I come from the inner city
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: and and being at way, I've worked for a fortune
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: five company IBM, and and so that that's what that's
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: what you said. Next day step for that was just
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: to getting married, has with kids. That's that's the true
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And so when when I
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: made that decision, and I always tell people, I made
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: it a year in advance, when I you know, and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: I when I when I was sitting at home and
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I was in tears because I knew it was such
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: a difficult decision for me because I know the decisions
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: that I make also impacts others, and so I know
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: it wasn't an easy decision. That's why I wanted to
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: bring my experience into your experience. So you know that
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I share a point of view and the emotion. And
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: I wasn't tried. I wasn't thinking about millions of dollars. Oh.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I saw Eddie Murphy out there. I saw Richard Pryor
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: out there. I saw all those guys out there, but
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: I didn't I just saw an opportunity to say, this
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: is what I wanted to do. But you know, the
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: beauty of it is that there's no game plan. As
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: in baseball, there's a game plan. You start here, you
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: go to this next level, you get to this next level,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you make the major leagues. But to be a gospel artists,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: there's no plan. So talk about that. So you know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the crazy thing is, I think I went in blind,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: like I would. I didn't know what the future held.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: I didn't you know, I wasn't smart enough. I don't
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: think to really have gather all of my thoughts. I
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: just knew I was following my heart. Because if I
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: could do it all over again, now that I actually
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: have a greater insight into business and everything, I don't
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: think I would have jumped the way I did, and
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I'm kind of, you know, I'm grateful that I wouldn't just,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I guess smart, because I would have held
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: on to what I knew was sure and was sure
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: at that time, was that you could make a lot
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: of money playing baseball. And so that transition for me, Um,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I jumped blind because I was so excited about the
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: fact that I could make impact sharing this new faith,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: this new thing that I had because I didn't, you know,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't grow up churchy. I grew up straight like
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: let's get it, let's get out to the clubs, let's
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: fight a little bit, let's do all of that. I
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: grew up like that. So when I came into this
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the Bible and the relationship with God, that
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: was really the thing that kind of grabbed me because
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: I said, Dad, there's a whole another way I can think,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: live and do my life. And that was the thing
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that kind of made me make the transition that my
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: parents they were Bible people too, when they were like,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: hold on, hold on this, this might not be God
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: like what you you you need to go back and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: play baseball that that you know, keep doing what you're doing.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: And I said, no, Ma, I didn't found something that
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: that I believe. It's just the world. And thankfully I
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: held to my gods. Well, you know, it's really interesting
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that that's what I said in the beginning. I always
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: leave with your gifts. Don't at your age free family
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and co workers stop you from planning or living your dream.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: And that's where you were at that point. How old
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: we get that, Todd? And he was at twenty three?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And like I said, uh, I made the decision based
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty three and I left. I left IBM,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell you some man. Uh I had
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: an idea of what I knew. First of all, I
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: had the talent. You know that you had the talent,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: so we we couldn't walk away from that. So when
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: people when you start making that decision, Todd, nobody could say, well,
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: you know he's about to jump out Kitty's Kitty kit
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: he see, can't he? Benfolle right, Well, nobody question of that.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: But they were so directional about what you should be doing.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Who had the biggest pushback on that? What was it?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Your friends? With your family? Because I know Mom, Tason Man,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I told my friends, they go, really you're leaving? I
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: VM to tell Joe, and then they went and then
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: they went there. This is when they went on me,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: how you gonna make money? And I'm gonna tell you
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: this right here, Tom, I could not tell them how
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I was gonna make money. And I had a house.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: I just bought a house. Like you said, maybe said
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: jump out there with bad decisions. If I didn't do
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: it all again, I probably was the state that I
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: be because I just bought a house. I bought a call,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: and I said me, I gotta get out of this.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't it was more on faith. It was
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: more I had a plan, but the plan wasn't met.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I believe in me. So let's talk about that process,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: because I really want to slow people down because a
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: lot of people listening to the show, they're sitting around debating.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: They leaving their their husbands stopped them, and they letting
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the relationship stop them. Someone even letting their kids stop them,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: and so, but you can only stop yourself and you
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: can only start yourself. Talk to us, sir, that's right. Yeah,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: it was my My old man gave me the most pushback.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: My father, my father, because I mean he was so
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: we were so close to they thought it was the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: greatest thing that I could ever do. And and um,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the craziest thing about how much we put so much
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: emphasis on, you know, sports in America, Like if you
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: make it to the top of the sports, they think
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: that's the greatest thing. But for me, impact, impact was
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: the was the greatest thing. I said, Man, how can
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I impact the world? Now? Now now that I'm in
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: this thing all the way over here, Um, I'm in
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: my mind, I'm thinking I'll make more money on this
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: side than I ever could have imagined. Because I never
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: did it for the money, you know what I'm saying.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: I did it because I knew that I wanted to
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: be an impact or of of the world in a
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: positive direction. And so, um, you know, I mean I
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: say that just to say the people that are watching it,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: don't ever chase the dollar, you know what I'm saying.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: It's not that it's not the dollar, chase the impact.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: How can you make an impact on other people's lives
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and the money will chase you. And so I'm in
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: a really, really, really beautiful place right now. But but
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: to to kind of backtrack a little bit, my old man,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: because my old man knew that he could put the
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: fear of God on me for a long time. That
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: was the big thing that he told me. Man, you're
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: pretty much gonna get your tail back there. That was
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: the first time that I really, I think I stood
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: up to my father and was like, hey, I know,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: I know you can probably steal with me, but I'm
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: not gonna do this. I'm going my own direction. He
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: eventually backed off and really gave me his support. But
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I had here a guy for a little while. Well,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: you know, it really is uh you know, because he
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: saw he was you living his dream and I cannot
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: fault him for that. He was caught up, and I
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: guess that's the proper term. He was caught up. He
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: was caught up my boy, because he can explain that
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: to his other boys. You know what I'm saying, My
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: boy to New York and my boy all star, my
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: boy hit a home run, my boss stole a base,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: My boy singing gospel. That's a different care that's a
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: different car to stream conversation. That's difficult stream conversation time.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So I know where he's coming from, Okay. But the
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: beauty of it is that what I'm trying to tell
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: everybody in this interview of doing with Just and Brollier
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: gramming down today this della war when it recording artist, songwriter,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: producer worshiple because you leave me worship right here on
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: my show right now, because the worship is tied to inspiration,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: and inspiration is tied to overcome. And what I feel
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: is doubt. And you said something very important, and people
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: always ask me. I would tell people I don't chase money.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I chase opportunity. I chance relationships. I changed because if
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I have the right relationship, I'm gonna get paid. But
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: if you go into a situation, and let's clear this up, team,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: when we talk like this, in order to start up,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: if your entrepreneur, if you out there, you better have
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: a budget. You better. I understand how we're talking about
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: individuals who walk away from a job and have a
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: God given talent. And that's what I had at a
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: guard given to heal as a stand up comedian. You
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: had a guard given talent as a gospel singer, arranger
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: of music leader. And that's a different conversation. You don't
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: have a budget tied to that, you know what I'm saying.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: You don't have a budget tied to that. Now, if
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: you try to open up your next dunkin, doone us
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: or next uh I t store. You better have a
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: budget and a plan and hope have some money in
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the bank. But I always tell people I can stand
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: on the corner, Todd and tell jokes and make money. Okay,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: just like you. If you really, if you got ugly
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: out there, brother, you can hit the car to start
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: praising the law and it's gonna be all good, am
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: I Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we did a couple of
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: dollars on the corner. Man, Come on, come on, and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: now now now we now were turned in the corner. Man.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: You you you made the commitment. I'm getting out of here,
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: but there's still no plan in place. How do you
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: start sowing the seeds of the opportunity to pursue your dream,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: your dream after leaving baseball? So after leaving baseball, I
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: think the greatest connection that I made was with a
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: guy Grammy Award winners names Pastor Smoky northorl that's my boy.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: I did thirteen. I produced thirteen Celebration of Gospel BT,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: So I know snarky, all right, yeah, smoking He took
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: me under his wing man, and that was the relationship
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: that kind of gave me a real visual of the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: fact that, man, I see a guy that Swaggy, got
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a family, got kids, he's singing in the gospel. I
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: can relate. And I said, I would like to live
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: a life like his, one that is dedicated to his faith.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: But it still looks cool. He made it look good,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: you know, sit on the piano, sing the song, and
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I said, I can do this, like I could really
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: do it. And he taught me the business, taught me
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: the game, taught me, taught me how to study the Bible,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: taught me how to write songs on the level where
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it's like, hey, I was listening to somebody. It was
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: almost equivalent to talking to a Major League baseball player
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: that was an All Star. Hey, this is how you
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: put in work to get to where you want to be.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: This is how you write songs that will be nominated
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: for Grammars. And he gave me the blueprint, and um,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: that was when the corner began to turn then, because
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I started to see I said, hey, if he can
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: do it, then I can do it. And he would
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: tell me things like, bro, you're gonna be You're gonna
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: go farther than me, and I used to be like, dude,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: you're you're a beast. How am I gonna go farther
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: than you? Man? He was like, no, He's like, it
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: only makes sense to go farther to me because I'm
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: actually teaching you the game before I ever knew it
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and so um and he's sure enough, he's still my
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: mentor to this day and that. But that was the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: that was the pivotal move in my life. Well, you
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: know when Steve Harvey, because Steve was a hosting that
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: I was producing, uh and writing their monologues and everything
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: for celebration the gospel for thirteen years we did it
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and uh, that allowed me to you know, entry way
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: into a lot of incredible people like Smokey Um Uh,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: like Kurt Franklin, that's my boy at him just just
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: you know, just to go down to the duds, go
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: down Mary and marry everybody. Yeah, And that process I
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: learned that there was a shift in the gospel, you know,
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: especially with Steve Harvey hosting. That was comedian who did
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: death comedy jam. You know, because gospel has always been
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: sometimes too churchy, you know, you can't it's not Gospel
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: could sometimes be uninviting, even though even though it's God.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: So it could be like you you you come talk
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: to God the way I want you to come talk
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: to God. Now, if you don't talk to God the way, ah,
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: we don't want to hear you. We an't hear it.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: And when I'm saying that time, yes, yes, right, talk
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: to us about that minute because you got you got
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: that swag, I'm telling some man I look at it
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: bringing smile. I talked to Molly Music. That's my boy Green,
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: that's my boy. So so I'm not I'm not a
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: person who's who's who's just stepping into a interview with
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: you because you're popular and you're successful now and you're
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: now you're in the family, not you know, you're the
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: money may come, says family because all of them come
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: on my show. And when we come on the show,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: we talked like this because it's about your inspiration, it's
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: your journey, and more importantly, sometimes people will restrict your
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: journey even though you're trying to accomplish the same goal.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: And then that's where I run into trouble when when
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: we come into gospel, because we're all trying to uplive,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: we all trying to make people feel good. But some
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: people want you to do it a certain way. How
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: has that motivate you? And how has that disappointed you? Attacks?
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Oh man, look you lead me. You lead me to
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: a place where I'm probably gonna say too much, but
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: I I don't care, because, um I heard I heard
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: it say it like this your cat and told me
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: one time, he said the goal is to break into
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: the gospel music industry and then to break out. And
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I couldn't understand it, you know what I mean, because
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: I said, well, why would you want to break out?
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: You know? He said no, he said, he says, because
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: when you break in, people will try to keep you
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: bound on the end. They'll try to make you do
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: everything like they want you to do it, and then
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: have to break out of that and become your own
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: man and god man. And I'm at that place right now.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Like I've enjoyed what I've been able to accomplish here,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: but I don't want to be owned by anybody. I
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: don't want to, I don't wanna. I don't want to
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: do or be dictated to do anything by anybody's systems
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: or standards. Man, I'm trying to make my own mark
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: in this world. Um, I'm trying to create my own
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: system in this world so that um, nobody can put
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: a cap on how much money I can make, how
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: many souls I can win, what kind of music I produced, Like,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: that's what That's just. I've always been like that. I've
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: always been a little bit of a rebel um. Even
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: when when people were saying, man, you're stupid for walking
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: away from baseball, I didn't care. I knew I could
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: do it because I knew what was on the inside
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: of me. And so you're talking my language like this,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: This right here is probably what's on the forefront of
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: my mind every day when I wake up in the morning.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: It's like, how do I create a system that will
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: allow me to dominate? Aside from what everybody else is
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: telling me that it is the norm and that I
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: have to do in order for me to dominate in
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: this world. I just don't believe it. I don't believe
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: it's anything that I have to do. I believe I
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: can do it however I want to. I can create
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: my own recipe. And so that's what we're doing right now.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: We're gonna talk. When we're sitting up there talking and
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: I see the full name, because you need to be
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: recognized for your success. There's a lot of times out there,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: but on one tid de lane and and when you
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: when you you know, you're a grinder. I can tell
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: you right the ground. And sometimes grinders are like me,
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: you don't you move, you move on to the next project.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: And sometimes you gotta be reminded how special you are.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: And your number one gospel album, your great name, you
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: know when you know when this started moving, when it
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: started impact and we just started streaming sales and views,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and tell me about that, man, tell meybody, tell me,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: tell me about that. First of all you, and then
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the family and then you the big smile man. So
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: so that that that whole moment in time, that momentum
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: that took off right there with your Great name. Um,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: it was global for one. So it was like we
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: we spent a lot of time in the Motherland, time
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: in South South America, we spent time. I went to India,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: so it was it was just always going. But the
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: greatest thing about it was to see the way people
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: were influenced by you, man like, and I'm talking about
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: on another side of the world. It's one thing man
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: to to to talk like talk English, to people and
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: see your own people being impacted by your music. But
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: to go to another side of the world where people
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: who hardly even speak the same language you and they say,
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: we listen to your music, we watch your videos on YouTube,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: we're encouraged by you. That thing will leave tears in
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: your like. So my wife and I in the band,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: we traveled the world and now your great name moment.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: We were just touring the world and crying, bro like
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: we were. We couldn't believe that the world was singing
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: these songs and that the world was impacted like we
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: did a concert in Uganda, Seventy five thousand people showed
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: up three nights in a row. Like I was like,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I'm like at this point, like God, what else are
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: you gonna show me? Like, because I'm just a little
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: all I could think was I was just a young
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: guy from the West side of Chicago. I didn't know
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know people over there on the other
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: side of the world or even listening. So that's the turn.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: The concert out there and the lightening up flashlights and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. All those people, I think, can't you
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: see the back of the road, You can't even see
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: the numb and That's that's the beauty of you. Now
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: know the new album Anthems and Glory, you know, to
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: jamb out this body music. You know, you're leading listeners
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: literally back to the scriptures for hope, conference, answers, instructure,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: because I need instructures and I need hope, and I
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: need I need prayer. I need all those things. Sometimes
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: I may be a denial about it, I'm gonna tell
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: you right now, but that doesn't mean I don't need it.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: So how do you how do you make sure that
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: those layers and seven tracks on this album? Yeah? Why
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: did you do it? And why is it impacting a
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: person like me? Man I? I okay, Well, I remember
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: this thing. There was there was something done a few
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: years back by all the celebrities, a lot of them,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: um called the Bible Stories. They did a CD where
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: they were all using their voices and they were, you know,
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: replaying the Bible. And at that moment I kind of
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: got the idea then that there's one book in the
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Bible that will never stop selling to the people, and
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that's the Bible. The Bible is always probably the number
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: one selling book every year. And so um, I figured,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I said, you can't go wrong when you give people
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: the Bible, the word of God, and then it kind
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: of takes you out of the way because there's so
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: much disagreement about what the scriptures say this that another.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: I know that I can take my own emotion and
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: opinion out of the way when I just give people
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: the words, sing them the word and so they can
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: turn to it. Rather it's like, hey, you know what, um,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: He's taken kind of his own influence out of the
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: music and he's given us just straight Bible for people
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: that don't like to read too much. I got you faded.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: We we put it in music so you could just
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: turn it on and let it hit your spirit. Now.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: You know, the thing about it is that one thing
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I was typical ever since I was eighteen years old,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: I've always been uplifting. When I look back at my life,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: look that I've been the same guy when I was
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: a t you know, I remember students who were struggling
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in college. I I found out why they were struggling
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: and trying to help them move forward. You know, you can,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: but then you can only help people so much. But again,
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: there you are there to uplift the same thing with you,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: you know, you're not only delivering great music and great
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: content with your albums and your your success story, but
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: also you're having to emerge in the artists and trying
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: to get their songs out there, get their songs produced
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: with your production company. Talk to us about that and
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: why is that important to you? Man, we're saying this,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: this probably the best idea that God ever ever gave
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: me before. Man M a subscription based production company. I
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: know the production Sometimes people pay UM or they try to.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: They pay so much money to record UM albums, you know,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: not like you could get up to in gospel mus
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: You can get up to fifty to a hundred thousand
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: dollars depending on how what kind of budget you're working with. UM.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: So what my team and I we came up with
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: was a subscription model where people just hey, a flat
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: for your fifteen hundred dollars a month to up to
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: four songs and production, and then they walk away owning
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: the masters. And so UM we we have seen I
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: mean what what I thought was gonna be like a
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: little small company launch um we we right away started
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: with over five hundred subscribers that UM that immediately said hey,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: we want help producing our music and so um, now
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: we got producers all over the world to sit at
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: home and wait for us to give them the green
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: light to start producing on a ton of projects. And
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: like I said, it just gives people a chance to
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: kind of even the playing field, because sometimes, like you say,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: whether it's gospel music or any music in the entertainment industry,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: it kind of can feel like a fraternity that people
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: cannot get into. And so I wanted to open the
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: door for everybody so they can try to get in.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: At least you'll have a chance to have some product. Well,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: you know, his new album is Anthems and Glory seventeen
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: songs is live. I love live. I love it. It's
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: not because you know it live. You play with a
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: song a little bit more, okay, you know. So you know,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: my all time grade and live album was Franky Beverly
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Amazed in New Orleans. So come on that and uh
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: and and uh Marvin Gate Live in London my all
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: time favorite. Come on old school, old school, But I
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: got some new school y'all a something songs. Baby, he
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: got my girl Tabler man on that, my boy smoking
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Doorville here sheer, oh man. These people have been on
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: my show they've talked to me, I've hugged him that
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: I've been blessed by them. More important, I'm being blessed
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: by you with this great interview. Man, you you're your friend,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: young brother. In fact, you're you're a little brother. Welcome
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: to my world. Okay, yes, indeed, thank you, my brother.
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: And we're gonna keep promoting you. Man. Put you on
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: social media and my newsletter and do what I do
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: my part, do my part time. I'm gonna do my part. Okay, man,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. Cool. I want to thank you
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: for coming on Money Making Conversations. Okay, got it. We
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: will be right back with more money Making Conversations with
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: your host, ras Sean McDonald. Look to your children's eyes
• 50:58
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  Speaker 1: Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our family bonds
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• 51:47
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  Speaker 1: start exploring. I discover the forest dot org brought to
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• 52:23
  Speaker 1: out in machines. You are now tuned into the money
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: making conversations. Minute of Inspiration with Rushan McDonald. I sat
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: down with former NFL player turned entrepreneur Herm and more.
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  Speaker 1: He's changing the game with his hair, beard, and skincare
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  Speaker 1: company that provides high quality, all natural products designed specifically
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  Speaker 1: for black young and adult man. He makes it his
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  Speaker 1: fission to help black men look and feel their best
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  Speaker 1: because he believes when you look good, you feel good,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: so you do good. Here's what he had to say.
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  Speaker 1: Grooming is something that I think we all need to
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  Speaker 1: we know that when you you feel good and you
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  Speaker 1: look good, you do good. I mean that's just that's
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  Speaker 1: just a fact. And I think if we provide those
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  Speaker 1: products and we're not just products, but high quality products
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: and affordable price, that allows us to be able to
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: make an impact there. If you want to listen to
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: this full interview with Herman Moore, it's available on money
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot com. Welcome back to Money Making Conversations
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: with your host, Rashwan McDonald. My next guest is Tyra
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: my Rex. She is a Brooklyn native. I love Brooklyn,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: New York for five years Manhattan, so I never lived
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, but I know Bob Brooklyn. She's a Brooklyn
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: Navy who's a design director of Design and Merchandizing and
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: Development and OVO and an entrepreneur craft in her own
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: lane as the only dollar of hip hop legend jam
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Master jo Run DMC. She quickly understood her aptitudes and
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the impact that she created within this world. A lot
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: of people will do that. That's why I wanted Gonna
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: on the show to talk about that. Amongst her many endeavors,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Tyer was working alongside Tiana Wallace, daughter of rapper Biggie Smalls,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: to create Juicy Pizza. Now you got me at the
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: pizza park, right. Juicy just made me want to last
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: stand in line. The eight is cameate as a Camara,
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: the biggest smallst to bring back the embodiment of Brooklyn
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: to l A. Do you know what I'm saying, y'all.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: They're bringing the East Coast to the West coast. We're
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: plans to get back to the local homeless community. Juicy
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: pizzas the schedule to open your twenty twenty one We'll
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: talking about that. Tyra Marrix is a serial entrepreneur, which
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: means that she got her hand in her hand, our hand,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: and a lot of things. At the age of twenty one,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: she sought out her first venture of Wealth. It's called Wealth,
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: a streetwear peril brand with a simple sentiment of being
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: Happy originally on this flight New York Flight NYC. Of
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Flight New York City NYC is the logo that was
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: on their flight in NYC. Soon to be international brand
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: gain more than two point three million dollars in sales
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: within the first three years of business. You know who
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: you're talking to. Please welcome to money making conversations, Tyra
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: my Rex how I well, you know, if people are
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: listening to the show, they can't see this amazing view
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: in your back because you're based in Los Angeles, California.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: You know, I know your New York City born, but
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: you can't get that view. Can't get that view I'm
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: watching behind you in New York City. No, no, you can't.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: So tell me about yourself. You you're you're still relatively
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: young as an uh an entrepreneurship in the in the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: I guess the millennial space has really taken control. It's
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: a technology that has allowed young people to dive into
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial role so quickly. Or just a different desire,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: a different time that we live in right now with
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: internet and video phones. And I grew up with the
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: rotary with don telephone. It's the ear as I grew
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: up with Tyra. I lived through the rotory without telephone.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Then I would live through the text, then I lived
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: through the giant cell phones, and now in the in
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: the nanties, I got a little small motor role of telephone,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: which at the town when I purchased it with twelve
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: dollars at the time. And then now we're living in
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: an age where you know, you basically tap your phone
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: and see somebody across the world and visually. So talk
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: about how technology plays a role in your life and
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: it's made you so motivated to win. I think that
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: technology and the advancement of social media is definitely playing
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: a huge role in um the amount of entrepreneurs we
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: have today. I feel like the generation that I grew
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: up in specifically, like we saw the crossover from you know,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: not being able to be on the house phone and
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the internet at the same time, from dial upe to
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: wireless um from three G two four G two five
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: g um and now you know, the technology is is
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: getting even more advanced, and I feel like social media
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: has a huge influence where you know, before when you
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: had to set out a press release or anything like that,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: it was something that was a fact or you know,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: a jeul or anything like that. Now we can share
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: information with just the touchable button and influence the masses. Um.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: You don't have to subscribe to magazines, you don't have
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: to subscribe to anything that is a subscribtion, subscription cost um.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: So these gems and these tools that may not have
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: been as relevant and resourceful um ten years ago or
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: at the tip of our fingers, which is pretty much
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: influencing the human mind and entirety. So I feel like
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: it does play a huge role in the amount of
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs that we have today. And it's it's a beautiful thing.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: So basically, uh, and I have a clear understanding this.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I ask questions not because I don't know, it's
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: because I want to make sure that people who are
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: listening or watching have a clear understanding of your gifts,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: your ability to take advantage of was made available because
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of people don't do that. A lot of
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: people are still working on traditional ways of trying to
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: purchase media on radio or trying to pull up a
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: billboard or still end up size and barbershops and beauty saloons,
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: which still work, by the way, but because of social media,
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: it effects and creates engagement sometimes with thousands and sometimes
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: with millions. When did you realize social media could be
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: used for you effectively tyra and put together your dreams
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: and also building your brand. So luckily for me, I
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: was on Twitter before everybody was verified. Um, Like I
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: was like on Twitter, like one of the first people. Well,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say the first people were. Like I was
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: on Twitter before the wave um. And then Instagram. I
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: actually stumbled upon Instagram thinking was an app to just
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: like edit pictures. Um. And that was before the algorithm.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: So Instagram used to the way my brand actually like
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: got out there is Instagram. Now, if you masked follow
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: people on Instagram, you would for sure get blocked. But um,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: when Instagram first started, we would just sit there all
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: day and like follow a bunch of people. Um, and
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: that just translated into sales um. And eventually Instagram, I
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: think we were like maybe following like six hundred thousand
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: people were like two hundred and people following back. But um.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: Instagram eventually shut that flight NYC page down, but it
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: grew that audience that stuck with us, um and allowed
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: us to just reach out to celebrities before you know,
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: an algorithm happened or you know they could. They were
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: getting paid to be brand ambassadors and just hone and
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: create those relationships. Um. So like d ming a celebrity
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and twelve was very accessible. It wasn't
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: oh I don't want to talk to you, Oh here's
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: my rates. It's you're doing those things, everybody is following you.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: You know, that's back when the popular page was a
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: thing on Instagram. Now we have to explore before it's
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: like the popular page. If you've got a certain amount
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: of likes in a certain amount of time, you're on
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: a popular page. So we understood that algorithm and um
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: just like back during people who followers like celebrities and
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: learning your market, Like if we want to sell close
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: that we're from Brooklyn, We're going to everybody who follows
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: fab and follows everybody that they that are that's following
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Fab because we have that network. So it was pretty
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: much just being young but understanding that this in tech
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: is going to go to the next level and abusing
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: what they had to offer before they knew the potential
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: or had that that range to be able to be
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: a platform that blocks you for this and blocks you
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: for that. Because if Instagram came out the gate with that,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: nobody would have Instagram, it wouldn't be where it is today.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: So um, just taking advantage and learning, learning the market
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: and how to use tools before you know, we can't
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: use them anymore. Because I'm gonna tell you right off
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: the bat, I know I was still managing Steve Harve
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: at the time. We had like about a million fan
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: club members, and I would I would look out TV
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: and I see the little Twitter logo and next to
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: the seeing an anchors or sports anchors, and I was like,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: and I was resistant to change. And that's why I like,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk to you about it, because when
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: you were resistant to change, other people in the process
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: of participating and you're kind of like getting behind the line,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: the lane is getting longer in front of you, and
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: so and so I was resistant. Eventually came over, of course,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: but it probably about a year took me to realize
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: that I should start investing my time and start growing
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: and participating with social media and so so many people
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: are resisted to change, and your business change is it's
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: kind of like the norm. Why is that? And how
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: did you stay ahead of the curve? Tyra I think
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: that at first, I was pretty much reluctant to change. Um,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: I'm still a person that had had trouble with change.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: But the only thing in life that is constant is changed, um,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: and we have to constantly move and adapt to that change.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: If I would have been a person that's just like
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay on Facebook and you know, not go
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: over to Twitter in two thousand nine, I probably wouldn't
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: have had that jump ahead of the curve um that
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: I have today. And um, I think that a lot
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: of that success can be credited to just you know,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: jumping onto things. Um. There was an app that you
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: could go live. I think it was like you streaming
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: something like that, where like celebrities will go live and
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: engage with their fans and and stuff like that. And
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: I was like on those apps, and you know, before
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Instagram had a live you know, so it was like
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: before you could just tweet Twitter pictures out, you know,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: we had to store them and butt locker and stuff
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: like that. Like I was always looking and anything that
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: was being used by someone influenial, I'm like, okay, well
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: let me make my account, you know, because you don't
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: know what's gonna take off. Um, And if you get
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: on it before it takes off. You know, you have
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: that that inclination of you know where it's about to go,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: and you're able to gauge that actually just by following
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: trends and um algorithms and and numbers and data and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Well that's important because I want to
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: talk to go back to OVO where you create designs
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: and for all the stories located in North America, Canada, England,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: Japan to match each demographic. I wanna stop right there
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: because right there, my mind about to explode because right
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: there you said each demographic. So I'm looking at a
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: very calm individual. You know, you don't feel like you're
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: drawing as we talk. You know, you feel like, you know,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: I just slow it down, you know how to shift
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: gives I let me repeat what I just said. She
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: creates creates, creates designs for all stories located in North America, Canada,
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: England and Japan to match eat demographic. And the head
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of two merchandise or artists like Drake Party next door Wow,
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: talk to me. You know how this is about time management. Now,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: this is about the ability to be able to stop
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the clock, know where you're at, and also to show
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: superior leadership, and also people have to trust your decisions
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: that you make. Let's kind of like navigate slowly because
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: I don't want to brush over this because I brought
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: that up for a reason, because you're a superior talent
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: and I'm a big personal bragging about my time management.
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: But you kind of like putting me in a I
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: should go back in my love corner and just just
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: just curl up when I talk to you, how do
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: you do it? How do you pull it off? Um?
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: I would say my main thing that I had to
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: learn to adapt to it is not being afraid to
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: ask for help. Um. When I first started out, I
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: was a person who thought that, you know, not having
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: eight hours of sleep means you have eight figures or
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: you know, just like the little cliche things that we
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: take and we learned and adapt from watching different successful people. UM.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: And I was very stubborn in the in the thought
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: process of thinking that no one will get it done
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: the way I get it done. And sometimes I still
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: think that. But it's okay to have a team, and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: it's okay to ask for help, and it's okay to
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: admit your weaknesses and flaws, and it's okay to say, look,
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: I need a break, can you cover for me? Um
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: And the most important thing because when we think that
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: we constantly have it, we're literally moving, moving, moving, moving,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: moving until we crashed into a brick wall. And when
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: we crashed into that big ball, the recovery is harder
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: than just stopping along the way and say hey, I
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: need it come out. Wow. You know when I I
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: think about when I look at my life, when I
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: try to share all my interviews, is that not that
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: my life is so important I've done so many different things,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: but also I I try to learn from an interview
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: an interview like I always brag about how little sleep
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: I get. And then and that's my badge of courage,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: my badge of or choice that I promote that you
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: gotta work hard in order to achieve your dreams. You're
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: also saying in your my interview what you used to
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: reach out. That's true, but you should also apply to
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: who you are because everybody's of course to success, it's
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: not tied to how they did it, but how you
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: can apply to your life so you can do it
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: equally successful without burning yourself out. Because I don't see
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: you as a person who's going to burn herself out?
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: Why is that? Um? I feel like quite often we
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: just get caught up in like this person is successful,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: so Opra successful, she's a millionaire, Let me mimic her lifestyle.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: But there's a lot of successful people, and you know
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: Oprah's path is for Oprah, and it works for Oprah
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: because that's the way that God ordered her steps. Um,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: it's not gonna work for you. So you have to
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: pull different pieces of different people's story and figure out
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: figure out what adapts. You don't change who you are,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: but become a better person. Don't like, I feel like
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: life is too short to just like mimic other people
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, become a robot. You know, you gotta
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: figure out what works for you, um, because you know,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: we have one life and it's it's pretty short. UM,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: So you don't want to spend it. You know, you
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: want to spend it making as a few mistakes as possible.
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: Mistakes are inevitable, of course, but we want to make it.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: Spend it making as few mistakes as possible. So it's
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: just like you know, figuring out what works for you
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: quickly and always being able to know that that may
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: not work in in a year from now. So you
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to figure out how you're gonna change
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: and quickly. And if you need a break for even
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: if it's six months to a year, don't be afraid
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: to take that break, because what's for you is going
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: to be for you. Well, that's that's really important. Now,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: when I mentioned earlier that she's a serial entrepreneur, doing
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: the pandemic, doing the pandemic, now, she opened a gym
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: called Method, uh Method Gym down and down, first black owned,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: by the way in downtown l A. Which is what
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: you know. I'm going like, okay, really really, So first
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: of all doing the pandemic, you're gonna open the business, Okay,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: let's talk about that decision. And then being the first
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: black owned gym in downtown l A, which is which
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: is revitalized, by the way. If you go down there,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: I remember we're back in with Steve already. Now I
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: did a broadcast outside of Staples. It was like parking
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: lots and cars. Now you go down there, l A live,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: it doesn't even look the same anymore. It's like crazy
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: beautiful down there. So when when you talk about you
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: a visionary, and I got to put the word vision
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: they attached it to your name, Tyer because of the
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: fact that you are making a decision not based on
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: what the situation is currently about what it will be
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: in the future. That's what visionaries are. So to open
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: the gym, why you wanted to open the gym? And
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: why did you choose downtown l a Um. So I
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: kind of came in on the project when the location
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: was already chosen, so I didn't really have too much
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: saying that. But I thought downtown LA was a good
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: area because it's pretty much where everyone who come to
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: l a um they moved to, like Downtown LA and
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: Koreatown all in that area. Um. I too when I
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: first came to l a lived in that area, so
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: I know, like john Town of is is coming up, um,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: you know, the buildings, the luxury buildings and things like that,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: And that's pretty much. If I had to pick an
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: area to have that mix, that melting pot of you know,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: a market, it would be downtown l a So that's
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: why the location. Once um you know they told me
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: where it would be. I was like, yeah, absolutely, I
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: think it's genius. Now what classifies what what what's the
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: gym what's it, Like I said, is it waits, is
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: it exercise classes? Is a cycling classes? What qualifies Method
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: Gym as a gym and what attracts people to either
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: membership or weekly pay as you go. What is the
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: process of generating revenue and Method Gym. So at the
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: Method we have this one class which is a class
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: where you use a versus climber, which it's pretty much
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: stimulates climbing a mountain. So this is also a machine
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: that Lebron James uses for an hour a day at
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: every day UM. And the met Con class pretty much
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: is a mix of lifting weights, then uh cardio a
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: bike and the versa climba which allows you to burn
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: anywhere from six hundred nine hundred calories in a thirty
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: minute interval while working all three metabotic systems at the
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: body at the same time. So you're pretty much getting
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: a very extensive workout in thirty minutes. So that's our
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: like main thing that we're pushing and it gets people in.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: But then on the other side of that, we also
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: have a boxing gym UM which you know people love boxing.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: And then on the outside we have an outside turf
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: that allows you to link cables and stuff like that,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: so you can have circuits UM and then we have
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: a recovery room and asana, so we pretty much cover
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: all bases UM to be able to you know, apply
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: to an appeal to anyone who wants it. So all
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: of our classes ending CON. So we have met con, avcom,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: booty con like anything that you can think of, an
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: ad class, a class just for your glue to a
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: clap just for boxing. If you want to do a circuit,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: we have it. And then of course you know met Con.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: So it's pretty much you know, to find your niche
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: and where you fit in. And then every Wednesday, for
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: like females who may not be into working out but
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: they want to be empowered and be around other females,
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: we have a Woman Crush Wednesday work out UM where
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: just females get together at ten thirty and come together
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: and we throw a free workout for them to be
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: able to feel confident in working out and make that
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: leap of faith. Well, let's talk about my favorite part
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: of this interview. We're gonna continue, but did you see pizza?
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: Because I am a foodie. We might not know that
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: about I am a foodie. So let's talk about the
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: whole concept of doing the pizza, which is, you know,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: there's a difference because I've lived in New York, I've
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, I'm born to rage in Houston.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not based in the Lab, so I know there
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: are different pizzas a different part of the country. I
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: love the thin pepperoni pizza New York, I love the
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: deep dish of Chicago, and l A gives you a
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: mixture of both. And then Houston kind of like steals
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: from everybody, but they throw a little text next on
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of the pizza, so you can get a
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: little bit of everything. They do a great great I think,
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: then pizza I like to believe in the state of Texas,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: especially Houston. So what brand are we bringing to Juicy
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: Pizza in Los Angeles and where do we start? Uh?
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: With the menu? Absolutely so Juicy Pizza is basically a
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: New York experience. So we are bringing straight New York
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: pizza to l A. Um from everything including the water. Uh,
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: so you know it's it's straight New York slices New
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: York pies. And then to add a little twist, uh,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: you know, New York is like a melting pie. Um,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: so you can go here and you know you're gonna
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: get great food. You're gonna get great Jamaican food, You're
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: gonna get great Indian food, You're gonna get great Chinese food.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: So all of the favorite things that were my go
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: to Um. You know growing up, we made toppings on
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: the pizza. So you know, New York is known for
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: Chinese food being great. So you know I love to
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: be from broccoli going up. So we have a bee
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: from broccoli pizza. Um, there's a fried lobster pizza. There's
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: a oxtail pizza. And then you know you have your
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: your your jerk chicken pizza, and then you have your
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: standard you know, pepperoni and cheese potes as well. Girl,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: I'm just staring at you nowail pizza. Come on, jerk chickens,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: Come on now? Who thought of all this fantastic craziness?
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: And does it come as small medium, a lodge and
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: a twelve inch or on a supersize size pizza? What
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: do we have in So we have the standard New
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: York eighteen inch pizza. Um, that's we only sell one side.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: Just so you know, Mickey, keep the s op going
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: and the standards because the amount of traffic that we're
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: gonna have, we have to be able to keep quality
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: control at the same time. So we're only offering twelve
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: inch pive I mean sorry, eighteen inch fives as well
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: as slices. Now, slices are a great So you do
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: you won't You won't get into any strombolis and all
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: that stuff. We have a side salad and New York
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: there's a infamous Delhi sandwich called the chop Cheese, So
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: we have chopped cheese, eggros and a side salad in
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: addition to those eighteen inch fives. I'm talking to a
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: Vision version. The Vision are a serial entrepreneur Tyra MYRICKX.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: You know, there's always a passion in everybody. I think
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: when you when you see so many things done a
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: certain way, it's always a desire to give back. And uh,
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: that's part of your aguesst d Nah. I know you
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: you you know you're tied to your your father's foundation.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: But talk about the whole process of giving back and
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: what's the goal of giving back? I feel like just
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: it should be our second nature, you know. Um, the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: goal of giving back there really isn't a goal. It's
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: it's pretty much just my intuition to try and change
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: and help as many people as I can. There's things
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: that I do that I don't. I don't vocalize or
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: or a acts for accolades um from. I just feel
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: like when we are when we have so much, you know,
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: put in a position where we have so many blessings,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: it means nothing if you don't share them with other people.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: You know, like you can be used as a catalyst
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: to change, and you know, you may be put in
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: this position just to change the lives of those around you,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: Like how many lives can you change? How many people
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: can you touch? It's really not about the money, because
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: the money can be made and be spent and be
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: made and made over again. If you have somebody and
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: you come across the life, it may be your your
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: duty and your calling to just you know, change that
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: life or or or be a piece of the change
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: in that person's life. Um So I think that you know,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: just inspire, ring and helping and and moving through you know,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: my trials and tribulations, Like I didn't just get on
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: this road and it's been smooth sailing. So even in
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: the in the aspect of just sharing my story and
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: helping other people not go or hit the same bumps
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: in the road that I hit. Um. You know, that's
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: all a part of giving back and and trying to
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: you know, be a catalyst for change. You know, when
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: I when I when I'm interviewing you, tire the interesting
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: thing that pops up because there's so many young people
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: who want to be you, especially when you hear the
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: words celebrities, uh like Drake and party next door. You're
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: doing the merchandise for them. Explain the process of that,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: because I know the merchandise and the people immediately just
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: think T shirts. But that is a multibillion dollar business
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: for artists, not just musical artists but athletes but also
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: entertainers of so many different elks talk about being the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: head of merchandise for their tours and how exactly does
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: that work? So um much you you know have to
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: first in comes First is knowing the artists and knowing
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: the market, the artist's market. Um, because I've bummed a
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: lot of collections, you know, just going with my design background,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: like oh this is genius, and you know it doesn't
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: really appeal to uh, the artist's markets. So just knowing
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: your artists and knowing their market and what they like,
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: and then change, you know, putting a little bit of
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: you know, artistics, artistic background or just you know, things
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: of that people would normally think of, just thinking outside
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: the box and infusing it all together and creating a collection. UM.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: Tour merchandise is essentially, I would probably say the easiest
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: because it's you don't change. So we can be on
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: tour for three months, clip take a month's break, and
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: go back on tour for three months and we're still
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: selling the same merch UM. As far as like day
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: to day operations with ov OH, every Friday or every
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: other Friday, we're rolling out a new colle auction, and
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: that new collection has got to be based off of
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: the numbers of the last collection and what sold more
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: and what regions sold more UM. And then you also
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: have different regions where like you know, in the UK
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: and Germany and things like that they actually like are
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: still wearing the jeans with the rhyme stones on it.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: So you gotta really know every market and how you
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: know the best way to get an r o I UM,
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: and not even just get R o I, but get
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: R o I and make it influential. Make it cool.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: We don't want to just put out stuff because look
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: this it is selling. It's just like, look this is
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: the market. We can switch this that, we can change
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: it and be that game changer. Um and and make
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: this different. She's in the pech she's in the physical fitness,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: she's into clothing, she's into giving back. Uh, you know
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: what have I missed anything? Giving back? Your into clothing,
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: your the pizza, your the physical fitness. Whatever I missed? Um,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: I think that's totty much it. And you're cool and
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: you're laid back, and you know how to manage your time.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: You want to lose your want you wanna go crazy
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: trying to do all these things. The blessing of this
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: interview is that, first of all, I always tell people
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: that being young allows you to change things and allows
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: you also recover from mistakes. And I'm not saying she's
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: made mistakes, but what she's doing is she's living a
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: life based on what she feels that she can do,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: based on her efforts, based on her She's not. You know,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: when when you look at people who's I'm sure you've
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: heard this, Tyra girl, you doing too much? You need
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: to sit out what do you say to people who
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: tell you that, Um, I think that's crazy because my
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: grandmother used to tell me that all the time. Like
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: anytime I say I was getting into a new business mention,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: she's like not having it. Like my grandmother was pretty
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: much that from that generation where and and it's understanding.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: But I have to tell my friends all that that's
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: all the time when they say, you know, my mother
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: is not supportive, this, this, that in the third and
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you have to realize, we come from a
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: generation that's not the same as their generation. And their
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: generation it was you go to school, you become something,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: or you know, you take a city test and you
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: make your salary and you know how you're gonna provide
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: for your family. So it's very unheard of. UM. So
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: I would just say because personally, like I had to
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: hear it every day, um, growing up with my grandmother. UM,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: And I decided to make this venture. Like my mother,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: she was pretty supportive, just you know, do it. I'm
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: gonna support you. I how can I help you? Know
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial spirit I got from my parents, but my
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: grandparents didn't quite understand it, and so I started paying
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: their bills and it's like okay, you know, and then
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, my grandmother's bragging about me. You know,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: like you gotta prove yourself just like you would in
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: any industry, um, anywhere you go. If you had a
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: job in a hospital, if you want to work your
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: way up in that hospital, whether it be from a
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: nurse to like the head nurse, you have to prove yourself.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: And it's no different in the industry or the being
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: an entrepreneur. You know, the more accolades you get on
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: your belt, the more no is that you get the
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: word that you're able to prove yourself and show yourself
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: and and let people know that you know what you're
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: doing and you know what you're talking about. People are
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: gonna gravitate in a tract to like this person knows
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: what they're doing. UM. So, don't ever, ever, ever get
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: insecure caught up in somebody else's thoughts of you, because
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: only you know your true potential. Well, it's really important
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: that you said about your grandmother. I know my father
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: when I quit my job to be a stand up comedian,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: in his mind, he couldn't even wrap his head around
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: that because you know, he couldn't figure out hourly wage.
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: He couldn't father or for the hour week, how you
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: bore how you're gonna get paid. All I know is
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: that that is what I wanted to do with my life.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: I put a plan in place to be successful, or
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: at least I thought that was the right plan, and
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: many years later, it's not something I've regretted. I'm on,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for coming on money Making Conversation and sharing
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  Speaker 1: making conversations minute of inspiration with Rashan McDonald's I sat
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: down with my man Food Network star chef Gernard Well
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  Speaker 1: during the pandemic. He decided that it was time to
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• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations dot com. Welcome back to Money Making
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: Conversations with your host, Rashaan McDonald. My next guest, I
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: would like to believe it's an industry decision maker. He
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: makes change. His name is Ryan Morgan. While being a
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: wrestled on that on the bank floor. And I've been
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: to those banks in l A. L is one of
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: the biggest bank. They call l A Bank, rob Capital Bank,
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: robberty camp boats, Ryan promised himself while he was laying there.
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: This was not the end of his story. When he
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: got out of the prison and his mid twenties, Ryan
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: had a plane. He attended Laney College in Oakland, then
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: went on to play football at the prestigious University of
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: San Diego under my man who is now the Michigan
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: head coach, Jim Harballo, before receiving his NBA from Concordia University.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: Since then, Ryan has spent the last twelve years in
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: the alcohol beverage industry while working for two of the
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: largest suppliers on the globe, where is mostly recently for
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: net sales. Himself, Ryan Morgan thirty four million dollars he
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: invested at least temperacy his profits to the Watts community,
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: to his nonprofit and partners. Please working with the money
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: making conversations for the first time. We're definitely gonna reconnect
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: when I go out in l a Ryan Morgan, how
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: are you doing, Ryan, I'm fantastic man. Pleasure to be here, Sean,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Well. First of all, you know,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: there's always a journey, you know, I come from the
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: inner City, and I always uh tell people that you know,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: mistakes are left and right decisions. You know, you go left,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: this is a decision, you go right. Nobody just can
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: stand in the middle and just you live your life.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: You gotta make a decision. And sometimes a decision we
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: make can come with consequences, good and bad, you know,
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: And I know that. Uh. I look back in my
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: college life and I did some silly things that if
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: they're if they're the right people would have caught me out.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Probably would ever had a different record. But the right
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: people didn't catch me, and I was fortunate and blessed
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: in your situation. You participated in the bank robbery which
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: led to you being arrested. Tell us about that during it.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Because so many of our African American youth getting these
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: bad situations and unfortunately can't come out of it. They
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: don't have mentors who help them get out of that
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: or right them along the way. And that is part
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: of your story. But let's go back to the beginning.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: Uh that led to that point where you were arrested
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: for robbing the bank attempting to robbing a bank. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: we're sean. I just want to say, like, to your point,
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: there's a saying in the neighborhood that if you knew better,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: you would do better. Yes, and that speaks to us.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of talented black men and women,
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: black and brown men and women coming from inner cities. Uh,
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: just a lack of opportunity and lack of nohaw know how,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: a lack of the right channels for success. So you
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: knew better, you would do better. So I think my
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: story reflects that. Yes, this nineteen um, two weeks after
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: my nineteenth birthday, Uh, in that summer, just one year
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: out of high school, and kind of this uh inner city.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: Uh started out inner city, typical story, kind of one
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: ft uh in the neighborhood. UM, one ft in sports. Uh.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: So by the time that I graduated high school, you know,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: I was knee deep and gang banging and selling drugs
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: and whatever way to hustle to make money. And so
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: I find myself, you know, two weeks before I turned
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: nineteen on the floor of a bank we attempted to
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: rob and right then and there, you know, with the
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: guns to my head and the police, I just kind
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: of solve. My life kind of flashed before my eyes.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: Um and it's had this kind of sick feeling like
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: this can't be it. Like I knew it was more
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: in me and I wanted more for myself. I knew,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: you know, my family wanted more for me. And so
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: I promised myself that I was gonna make this story.
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: I was gonna make this you know, limits turned into lemonade,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: and this wasn't gonna be the end of my legacy.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: But but in the part of making that decision, you know,
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: your decision that you made on that being on the
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: floor came with consequences so that you couldn't control, okay,
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: and also at unknown because you're about to go into environment,
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: it's pretty intimidating. So two things I gotta ask you,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: being that you were tied to sports, there was an
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: avenue or positivity, but then the gang banking, because I
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: want to underto the clear understanding, because I've never participating
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: in the gang, what attracted you to the gang participation
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: and what held you in that position, to be in
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: a position where you were robbing a bank. Yeah. So um,
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: and my story kind of weaves into why I'm in
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: the Watch community now. It's it's a story of generational
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: kind of cycling passing down. So, UM, I grew up
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: in San Berdino, which is uh inner city, much like
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: Watts or Oakland, a lot of projects, a lot of poverty,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: and therefore a lot of the gangs, and so my
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: uncle's were involved in it, and you know, I'm looking
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: up to them and it's just in that inner city
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: environment back then. It's getting better now, but we still
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: have work to do. A lot of the male role
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: models where individuals involved in gangs or drugs or some
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: type of criminal activity. And as a young boy, you're
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: looking up and seeing that as an example of what
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: manhood is. Is a mis education and so you're falling
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: those steps and you have a work mentality thinking that Okay,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: to be a real man, I gotta do X, Y
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: and Z following the example of these basically criminals. And
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: so it's it's it was really easy to to get
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: pulled into. Um. You you you feel like you're in
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the inner city and it's a it's a misconception, and
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: this is what we're trying to expose, that bring truth
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: in life. But you feel like you have limited options
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: to where either to make money, I gotta play sports,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: but where I gotta do some illegal hustle because I
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: don't have another realistic avenue for me to help get
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: out of this poverty uh and its hardship in its
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: inner city. And so I bit into that lie and
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: and so that's why I had won foot in sports,
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: which is was typical for a lot of males in
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: the inner city. And then you got that pool. You're
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: in your environment, you surrounded, and so I'm getting pulled
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: by my environment to do that. And so that was
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: that duality where I found myself, you know, on that
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: on that bank floor. And it wasn't the first time,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we had done something you legal, So it
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: was like a build up a beak and say, my life,
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: I re reason, I'm not Ryan, you know, you know,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: I'm not putting you on front Street. Were just telling
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: the story about that moment because like I said, we
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: all have a journey to get to that that compromising
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: moment where you understand that this is not the direction
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: I can continue to live my life. But I also
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: one of the people know that you can recover, you
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: can't make change, because so many people when they make mistakes,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: they let their mistake overwhelmed them. They make that mistake
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: prevent their dreams from happening because they feel that I
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: can't recover. And one of the reason I wanted to
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: bring Ryan on the show A show that he's one
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: of the many examples of people who have been roadblocked,
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: who have been positioned in a high state of negativity,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: but they were they were they were able to come
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: out of it by setting a plan in place, because
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: you just can't dream your way out of it. You
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: have to have a plan. And that plan when you
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: got into prison because you were in prison, how did
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: that start leaning into the direction of getting back into
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: athletics and how did you stay in shape? Because when
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: you came out, you attended Laney College in Oakland. Yeah. Uh,
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: for me, education was big and I believe that to
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: this Death's part of our three pillars UM with AU equity, community, environment,
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: and education. And that doesn't mean you have to get
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: education from college. That's the route I went, but UM
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: knowledge and education is going to help open up a
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: lot of opportunities and avenues open up your mind and
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: help you make better choices and help you understand why
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: you where you're at and why. Uh So. Uh Fortunately,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: in the federal prison system that I was in, they
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: offered college courses, uh continuing adult courses, adult education courses,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: So I took advantage. Um I wanted to. I've always
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: been a curious mind, and uh it just I'm thankful
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: that it kind of clicked early. Um when I was
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: in prison that education was gonna help me turn my
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: life around. So I took every college course, every adult
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: continued education course available. They had, UH courses in finance,
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: the Spanish, heating, denilation, air condition. I took whatever I
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: can get my hands on. End up leaving federal prison
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: with probably like nine college credits to actually applied towards
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: my degree. Wow. Now, but the note the next conversation
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: of transitioning because there was God gave you a natural
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: talent that was sports, and I'd say natural talent because
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: you was able to build on that which led to
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: you playing college football at the University of San Diego.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to miss any steps of this
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: conversation because we all know in a journey. It's never overnight.
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: I always tell people, you go to Hollywood, you see
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: a person on TV or see him in the movie,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: believing they just didn't walk in Hollywood and get cast.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of rejection, there's a lot
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: of frustration. Talk about that rejection. To talk about that
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: frustration and talk about people holding your past against you
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: and preventing you from living the positive future. Yeah, Uh,
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: well I had when I was in prison. I went
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: there right after high school, and I was a talented
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: football player in high school. Uh, I could in a
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: scholarship if I wouldn't have went the criminal route. But
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: so I had these dreams about playing football while I
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: was in prison all the time, like handy, and I
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: knew if I didn't go out there and play after
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: I got out at twenty five, that it was gonna
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: bother me for the rest of my life. And it
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: was tied into my educational journey. So um actually was
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: going to junior college for about a year, uh doing
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: uh fitness training and you know, had the physique. So
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: I got recruited just walking on campus, you know, to
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: my classes, and uh, thank god I did. So I
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: played for for Laney College. Uh, coach being They just
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: did a Netflix special on Laney College coach being. So
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: it was the first year there and I caught the
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: attention with coach Hardball and it was his second year
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: University of San Diego, and it's one of the best
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: decisions of my life. Thankfully. I was focused on my
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: studies at a three point six six. It's a prestigious university,
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: so you've gotta have great grades to get there. Uh,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: they accepted me, and um, I got my degree in
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: marketing and it really just set my path straight. I
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: mean the connections I made, um, you know, what I
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: earned there and then um, just the opportunities that it
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: opened up for me were incredible. You know, you was
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: there with was quite a quarterback, Josh Johnson. Was you
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: there when he was there? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah, my boy, Yeah,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: we'st open absolutely Mahawn Cousin. Oh, you know. My whole
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: thing is that when I look at the opportunities that
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: that come me away, and I'm excited about you, the
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: dreams and then the fact that I like you because
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 1: you're good looking guy and and so you know, and
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: to be a good looking guy, I'll take that. Oh yeah,
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: you know, good looking, come down. You know, like you said,
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: you walked through campus. They knew you was, they knew
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: you were physically fit. I won't go campus. They said,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: what class, sir, what class? They ask you what it's
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: interesting with? Shall you say that because you know your
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: firstally saying yego, you might not notice. I mean it's
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: it's it's not a diverse campus. Most of the black
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: and brown people that go there are playing sports. You know,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just being real. So when I got there, you know,
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: I'm yoked up big I was when I got to
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: University of San Diego. So I was always looked at
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: like this. There was a story and uh like you
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: know about me and uh mystique. So I think the
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: world got out like we got this guy on campus
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: who did a bid in prison and you know from
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: the hood. So I was kind of like they called
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: me o G triple o G around campus kind of
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: knew me before new then just you know, it was
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: rare for somebody to be on that campus for my
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: background for sure. That that's what we always talk about background, Ryan,
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: You know, we talked about the future. Now you know,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: aqua equity, equity, you know water, you know, we know California,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: so you know it's a it's a heat wave going on.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this first of all, when you
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: when you see the heat wave, does that me revenue
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: in your mind? You know people gonna be drinking water?
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: How do you treat weather in your in your line
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: of business? How do you treat weather in your life?
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: I need a transition because I see heat wave, I
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: think my air conditioning bills gonna be stot. I need
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: to transition. But you're right, UH with the heat. So
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: we have a unique route to market and kind of
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: customer based U being a we launched our product in March,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: right at the height of the pandemic. We had to
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: pivot on how we were going to get a route
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: to market and our points distribution. UH, So we changed
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: from going to traditional retail route to focus on corporate customers. UM.
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: Just by you know, being in Watson and UH contributing
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: to the community outreach programs. We UH caught the attentions
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: in the word of mouth, got out to several producers
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: UM directors UM in the Hollywood industry. Molina Matsukus being
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: one of the first, and she's awesome. She got us
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: into Warner Media Studios. UM, so we're official vendor and
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: there great customer, but we're picking up corporate customers like Kaiser, Permanente, GM, Cadillac,
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: and we're able to sell them larger quantities UM and
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: have them as a longer, long term customer as opposed
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: to a retail customer. They support our mission and TV
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: outreach we do, so you won't see us in a
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: traditional retail store as much. UM. We sell mostly UH
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 1: online to to to our customers um A residential customers,
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: but our main focuses are corporate customers because they got
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: the money to help support these these projects in the
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: mission that we have our core equity. You know, it's water,
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: That's what you know. It always amazes me that you
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: know you have all you going to store. You see
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: all these different bottle brands of water. Were just talking
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: about water in general. One what the French rates water
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: from just tap water? Well, what educate us on their
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: own water process for us? Right right? No, A great question.
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: So it all depends on what your water source. Obviously,
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: certain parts of the country you're gonna have better UH
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: act to water sources, whether that's a spring on the
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: ground water table, UM So what we have is too offerings.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: We have a pure mount of spring water out of
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: Tiger Georgia. UM. They have some of the best smooth
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: of taste of spring water California. A lot of people
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: are apprehensive about spring water, so we were very careful
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: and picking the right one. And then we have an
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: electrolyte and enhanced water. What that means is the water
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: is purified through reverse osmosis and then we add calcium,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: magnesium and potassium for the electrolytes to keep you hydrated
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: UM or rehydrated faster. So those are two main offerings
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: UM and I mean it's very simple. You know, rais
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: up a great point. You know, you can get water
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: from a tap. But so what we say is that
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: we're not really selling water. We're selling the good works
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: in the mission uh that we do and bringing people,
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: bringing our customers in that can't physically be there to
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: be a part of it. Well, that's important. I'm talking
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: to you. Aqua Equity is his on of business, you know.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: But his company operates on three pillars, and we want
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: to talk about those three pillars. One his community, one
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: his environment, and want his education. Now, it's always important
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: to have a direction and you're motivated by your past
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: to have a brighter future. And I want to go
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: immediately down to one we and to continue that conversation
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: because I think education has changed my life. You know,
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: if I didn't have an education, then I wouldn't have
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: direction in life. So I always tell people if you
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: just go to college, just go to college for the experience,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: because I like high school. You have options in college.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to take a course, it's
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: just because that's part of the curriculum for you being
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: a junior, senior, a freshman in college in high school.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: So college have impacted you educationally. Talk about that and
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: then talk about why it is one of the pillars
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: with your watch community core. Yeah, absolutely, thank you. So
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: you know, college is one of the best experiences of
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: my life, not only because of the knowledge and education,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: but the connections and two of my co founders UM
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: I met in college. We played football together in for
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: San Diego UM and part of that was that bonding
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: experience creative in college. So yeah, I do recommend individuals
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: to seek out of college UM that that's accessible and
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: and you know that you don't have to go into
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: debt for get that education, you have a great experience. UM.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: So you know our three pillars community, UM, Environment, education,
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: Education pieces huge because UM, I realize how it can
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: change your life in a lot of people in the
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: inner city that we deal with, they still don't know UM.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: And so we want to open up opportunities which education
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: can do UM and sparked the next generation of innovators
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: and entrepreneurs coming out of the wast community. And you know,
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: we have an entrepreneur training program to do that that
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: we work with our nonprofit partner uh SO. It's actually
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: great foundation. UM. They are connected to the l A
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: City Mayor's office uh so grid Foundation that operate in
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: thirty two locations. And then they have a a STEM
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: lab in the Nickerson Garden Housing development, which is the
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: largest housing development west of the Mississippi, largest in the state.
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: And so at that STEM lab, we have an entrepreneur
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: training program that is essentially a college course where you're
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: gonna get the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. UM, you're gonna build
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: out a pitch deck for your business idea. You're gonna
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: get that practice of elevator pitching, pitching in front of
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: a panel. And then we we have basically a grant
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: award for the top three students to help them get
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: started on their entrepreneur journey. Three thousand for first place,
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: two thousand for second, and a thousand for for third place.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: We bring in guests entrepreneurs every class to to share
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: their experience and their best practices so that our students
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: can get different perspectives and they can take from each
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur and weave that to their own business plan. In
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: mundset Um, I actually just like I've seen that the
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: the entrepreneur training program. It's in Watch. It's at the
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: Nickerson Garden Stem Lab Saturdays only on Saturdays. I know
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: you have Zoom and do you have Saturdays? Because I
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: love the I love the you know, talk for you
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: or be one of your mentors, or be one of
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: the people you like to invite in and talk because
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: that's part of my my mantra, as part of my gearback.
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: You know, it's time. You know, God he has given
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: me the ability to live a long life. I have
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: to give back these gifts and share it with somebody,
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: so you can you can puncil me in or ink
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: me in as a richt holding your to it. And
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, hold you to that for sure, okay, because
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: I definitely want to do that, you know, because like
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: I said, uh, I know that l A was important
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: in my life. I lived there from nineteen ninety to
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: two thousand five. I know the impact is Steve Harvey
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: and I had on radio in the community. You know,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: when I hear when I see Nickers and gardens man
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: brings back so many memories because those are legendary. Uh locations,
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: how is the locations in this country? You know I'm
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: talking about you, Nickinson Guard and you go wow, you know,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: but I have to ask this question here because of
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: the fact that this is what happens when you stay
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood so too long. Now it's a core
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: group of people that you gang bang with. You know,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: someone probably got arrested with you use on the floor
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: that bank way back in the day when he was
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: an eighteen years old. Any relationship Now do you know
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: where they at or as like all lives that live
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: that life, it's been cut short, you know. I mean, well,
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: what you know one of was my family members. So
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: he did time too. He got caught up later on
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: in the state and did some time. And you know,
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: he's out and successful in his own right, so he's
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: got his own story to tell. But um, so yeah,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: we keep tabs. And then another one, uh went off
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: later on into prison and stay prisoned for something else
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: and got out and you know he's got a family
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: and kids. So you know he's got a great life too.
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: So there's some some kind of beauty um for those
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: as right there. Yeah, because I do want to bring
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: out I don't I said, I do want to bring
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: that up because that's a journey and you share those
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: journeys with individuals and just you know that what I'm
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: just trying to get out of your story, right And
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 1: of course you know the aqua equity is that your
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: your story has told so many different ways by so
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: many different people who don't look like you but share
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: the same path. You know, I can tell my innerguty path.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: But again, when you when you hit negativity, there's some
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: positivity to come out of it. Now. I want to
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: explain to people that you know, we just was just
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: we didn't have the mentors, we didn't have the tools,
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: we didn't have the environment. But wow, if we'd have
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: had that same opportunity that other people are being blessed
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: with Guess who we could have been. You know, we
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: could have been we could have been Barack Obama. You know,
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: we could have been the Reginald lewis Is of the world.
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: You know, we could have been all these great people
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: and you are still great people, absolutely, And so that
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: that's why it's important this interview. When I do interviews,
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: when the visual like that, it's your inspiration to me
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: because I know I know who I am, I know
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: what I am capable of doing. I know I'm capable
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: of doing. Because people stop me ryan they stop me
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: to reach out. I don't do that. They were mad
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: at me when I when I when I didn't follow
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: the path of greatness that they saw in me, which
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: is off the frustration frustrating because that path that they
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: want you to travel, it's kind of hard. It's kind
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: of hard, and it takes a little discipline. They're involved
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: in that. And that's why I want to go back
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: into the environment conversation, because the environment really is how
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: you package your water, because that's a path you gotta
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: follow rules, and a lot of times when you follow rules,
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: it can lead to frustration, especially when you're trying to
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: build your business. Model, and one of the second pillows
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: in there, we talked about education is environment, and then
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: we're gonna roll it up and talk about the community,
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: how you're giving back. But I thought it was really
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: important to tell your story, man, not only the journey,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: but what you're doing now and how through just structure
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: thought process, you turn around not knowing your life but
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: the community of Watch. Let's talk about environment. Yeah, I mean,
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: so the environment piece. I talked about it two ways,
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: you know. First with our packaging, UH, so you kind
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: of see the bottle behind me, aluminum bottle UM. We
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: especially in California, the single use plastic is a big issue,
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: and so we didn't want to contribute to a problem.
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: We we wanted to help alleviate the problem. And there's
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: not a lot of bottle waters uh packaged in reusable aluminum,
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: recyclable aluminum. So we went that way to kind of
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: start a trend and and be first movers in this category.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: But we felt it was really important to us that
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: our packaging being aligned with UH, you know, where our
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: heart is is to take care of the community, the environment.
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: So and then the other piece of the environment is
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: um me showing up to the Watch environment to other
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: communities in that environment. UM, and telling my story so
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: that other kids or even adults that made mistake realize
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: that it's not over. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday.
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: Pick yourself up, be determined to to to keep grinding,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: to keep working towards your goals. Um, and you'll get there.
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: People will help will help you. UM. But a lot
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: of it is a mindset shift, and that's what we're
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: trying to spark, is uh, that mindset shift and open
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: up there kind of thought process. Uh. Two different opportunities
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: instead of the traditional current environmental opportunities that are a
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: cycled to prison or death. Right now, the last one
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: is community, you know, because we know it's really how
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: you've overcome a lot of things in life, dream dreams
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: sometimes because the pandemic could have been a dream killer
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: because you started this whole concept and march of a
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 1: and then in cried. Several corporate customers such as Wanta Media,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: kinds of permanented General Motors Corporation, and these are like
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: these are what we'd like to call Fortune five hundred companies. Okay,
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: every time that logo appears on the website that you
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: have it brings more credibility, but it's the bottom line
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: is the community made you, it raised you. Now you're
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: giving back to it. Talk to us. Yeah, I mean,
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: I mean absolutely. And you know, I love Sanbordino. I
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: love Watson and Oakland and Flint and these other black
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: and brown cities industries that I I ain't even been there.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: And I can say that because there's so many parallels.
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: When I was in federal prison, I got to be
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: locked up around brothers, and you know, black and brown
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: brothers were all over the country, and I realized that,
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: you know, we pretty much going through the same struggle.
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: Um and ghettos were designed right, So it's not a
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: surprise now to learn that there's some of the same
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: struggles going on in Watts that are in Oakland, that
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 1: are in Cleveland, that are in Detroit, that are in Atlanta.
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: So anyways, UM community. I love the resilience of the
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: people in those communities. Um uh, their mindset, you know,
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: how they find joy and happiness with you know, very
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: very little resources compared to you know, what they're aware
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: of around them. So I love that residence and that
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: that fighting at people. So I'm there with them to
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: encourage them to to help them and to to show
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: them away. Um, there's other leaders in there. I need
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: to give a shout out to. You know, I'm the
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: one here on this interview, but people in the community.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: I've been there for ten twenty thirty years. Individuals like
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: Donnie joe Bert, Brandon, Silen Bailey Sticks. Um, he just
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: got the key to the city in l A. But
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: they've been doing you know, major positive good works in
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: the Watch community long before I got there. And me
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: connecting in the opequity, my co founders, I got Brandon
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: that speech, J T. Rogan, Crystal Jackson, I couldn't do
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: it without a team. So us connecting with individuals like Donnie,
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: joe Bert and Brandis Lying Bailey Sticks that are already
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: UM in the community doing their works. It made it
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: possible for us to basically be the fuel, you know,
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: or the turbo to to to their engine. So that's
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: a big part of the community is finding a team
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: and people are like minded with the synergy to work
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: together to solve problems. Well. ACA Equity says April twenty
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: have donated with twenty dollars and cases of water, two
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: food drives, and various nonprofits you're making the difference, Ryan Morgan,
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 1: I gotta see you soon, man, And again I want
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: to step up my part. I want to be there
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: speaking to the students, but these young people, these young adults,
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: to let them know that, hey man, I'm not special. Uh.
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: What I did was I followed the rules of life,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: which means you have to work hard, playing hard, and
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: have a dream based on the reality. And you live
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 1: so many different dreams, sir, and and you've been so
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: successful with so many different dreams that have come your way.
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: I wish you continue to sex sex ass and I
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: will be seeing you because I promise you when my
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: man Stephen A. Smith come to l A, you will
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: be meeting him. Okay, I wash. I look forward to
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: me your person man, and have you out there with
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: these good works. But come on, man, don't wear that
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: suit though. I don't want to see you sweat that
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: suit out. Don't worry about that. If it'll we just
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: didn't suit there, okay, don't know, like I got that
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: one suit sleeve. I appreciate your ry man, stay strong, man,
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you for coming on money
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: making conversations. Okay, if you want to see any of
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: my interviews are here. In my interviews on money Making Conversations,
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: please go to money Making Conversation dot com. I'm Rashan McDonald.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: I am your host. You are now tuned into the
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: money Making Conversations Minute of Inspiration with Rashan McDonald. I
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: sat down with my friend Ryan Lee, he's an entrepreneur
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 1: and Arthur laying out the framework you need to change
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: failure successfully, which means living in life what you are,
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: pursuing your dreams, living in your purpose, and experiencing ultimate fulfillment.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: Here's what he had to say. I'm still going to
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: do it because I don't have anything else and I'm
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: chasing failure. And so what's the worst that can actually happen?
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: A they don't respond at all, be they say no
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: or see they say yes. Those are the options and
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: you won't know which of those options you're gonna get
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: if you do nothing right. And so I think so
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: many people are afraid of the word no, but it's
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: just a two letter word. If you want to listen
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: to this. Full interview with Ryan Lee is available in
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: my Making Conversations dot com. In this season of Giving,
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: Cools has gifts for all your loved ones for those
• 1:52:47
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