Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Aaron Carolina beat a life-threatening disease to be a Hollywood Actor and Robert Foster, creator of the Shot Makers League, a virtual basketball platform.

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Aaron Carolina beat a life-threatening disease to be a Hollywood Actor and Robert Foster, creator of the Shot Makers League, a virtual basketball platform. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:04
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  Speaker 1: corker stop you from planning or living your dreams. We
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: were discussing all this overcoming the arts and everything. My
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: guests on the show today are Aeron Carolina, He'd beat
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: life threatening disease to start Hollywood Productions, Life, The Black Widow,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: The Cleaning Lady, nine one one and Tyler Perry's sisters
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and then my other guests, Robert Foster. It's time to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: meet the creator of the Shop Makers League. Everybody knows
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: March Madness. Now what perfect time to interview this brother,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: a virtual basketball skills challenged platform. Let's get it all
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: rolling with money making conversation. My guests, is Aaron Carolina,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: just like the state. He was born and raised in
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: All it in Texas, just like the state. From singing
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: singing in choirs as a child to performing on stages
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and being part of the music group Jaz Boys, overtaken
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: by his love to act, Being either on stage or
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the big screen was always the end goal. So while
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: attending a college at ut Arlington, he decided to go
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: full throttle into his acting. After beating a life threatening disease.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Not long after that, he said his sights on moving
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to Los Angeles to further his acting career and has
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: just done has done just that. Since moving, he has
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: worked on such projects as The Black Widow, The Cleaning Lady,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: nine one one, Tyler Perry Sisters, and more. Please work
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: with the money Making Conversations masterclass. Mister Aaron Carolina, how
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: are you doing, my friend, I'm blessed. I'm blessed about yourself.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: When you say you're blessed, you know I within your bio.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: It's just because life threatening disease. Are you willing to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: talk about that? Of course, of course that's my testimony.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Give us all right. So when I was about a nineteen,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: let's say before that, I was homeless for a couple
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: of years. Finally started to get back on my feet.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I was about to go to college to play seventeen
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: seventeen to nineteen was homeless. Well, yeah, about about sixteen
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to seventeen. I was homeless during high school. Family complications,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you know, we had a lot of stuff going on.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: And then I started to get my feet, get my
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: feet up under me. I was going to play college
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: basketball and the University of Texas at Arlington. I went
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: through for a year, but I shouted my risks and
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: broke my farm, so I had to set out my
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: freshman year. Came back. It was going on tour. I'm
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: doing my own thing because after I was with the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: group for a little bit and coming back from on tour,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you're sliding a lot of conversations. Now, don't get to
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: hit now. Yeah, all right, yeah, it was you're about
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to get into the interview. I'm just talking about the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: life threatening disease now, okay, my bad, So yeah, the disease. UM.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I gained sixty pounds in five days. Okay, okay, when
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: you gain sixty pounds, let's get some heights on it.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: How tall are you and how how much did you
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: wait before you gain the sixty pounds. I was one
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: seventy five. I could never get any weight up six too, okay,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: one seventy five, six two end up being two thirty
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: five to forty. You did like a good size linebacker
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: for the NFL. That's what you went to. Yeah, overnight,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: over days, overnight, and it was like the nutty professor.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: It was crazy. But yeah, yeah, I gained sixty pounds
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: or five days. I was taking twenty five pills a day.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: UM in and out of the hospitals. UM went from
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you say, playing basketball to not being able to do anything,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: completely complete halt to everything in my life. M It
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: took a lot for me to sit back and realize,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: like you, instead of thinking why me, had to start
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: thinking why not me? So basically a period of time
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: where everything was a constant state of meditation taking the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: highest dose of steroids anybody could take as far as
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I was being told. So I had to constantly train
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: my thought, my emotions not to go off on people
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: just kind of say, all right, well, how am I
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: going to get out of the situation, if I'm ever
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: going to get out of the situation, and how can
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I make the best of this situation? Now, let me
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: ask you, So, what was the disease nephrotic nephrotic syndrome.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: It's called minimal change disease. Minimal change disease. Now, lose
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of go ahead now because because you educated me. Now,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: because like, yeah, first of all, to gain weight that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: much weight within the twenty four hour period, that had
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to be scary. I know that. You know in this
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: world of listeners who are listening, and myself personally, you know,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: I get on the scale every day, I get apart,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I go downstairs, pop on the scale, and I see
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: two or three pounds adjustment. I got a problem. So
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: so you telling me that, So that had to be
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: an uncomfortable period physically for you. How did did you sleep?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: You know, did you did you go to sleep waking
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: up and did you start feeling this additional way where
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: you've bloated it. What was going on in your mind
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: when this was happening, or did you talk to friends?
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: What was going on? I didn't sleep. I was in
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: the I was in the midst of going on tour.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So I was coming back from Oklahoma. Yeah, with the
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Jazz Boys. I no longer we're doing my own thing, um,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: working with a manager. I'm just going to clubs and stuff,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: trying to do my own thing, trying to pursue my
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: own career. I didn't have time to think um eating
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: for years. I never gained any weight. I can work
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: out as much as possible, never gained anything. If I
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: was feeling exhausted, I figured I was probably tired. It
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: was okay, I'll just push through it. I'm an athlete.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I'm used to that, so I didn't feel any difference
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: until I was. It was around my birthday and my
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: homes were like, let's go to the club, man, let's
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: go dance. I'm like, all right, that cool. I went
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to the club and I could barely. I couldn't bend
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: my knees. That flew it on my knees. I was like,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: look in the world. I get home at night, I
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: take off and I have admea like my my clothes,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: there's indentions around my legs. I can leave an imprint
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and it would stay there for like five minutes, and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: it was it was just I didn't notice it until
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: everything just kind of hit me all in my face,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: like it just Salkanda came to me. At the same time,
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: when you're looking at that mirror, you're looking at that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: mirror that tells the true story. You know, you can
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: use everything, you can blow everything below my chest, everything
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was below my waist. It wasn't in my face yet,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: not until about a couple of weeks. But yeah, that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: mirror will definitely start showing. Now. With this being said,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: now I'm i gotta get a little personal because you
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: were you were self imployed, I'm assuming, so how did
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the insurance situation work itself out to lead to you
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: being able to get to recovery. I didn't have insurance
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: at the time I was. I didn't have anything I
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: was basically I didn't have any insurance I was at
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: the time I was young. It was like maybe nineteen twenty.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Also in my mother's insurance right, but she was being
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: wrongfully terminated from her job, so she didn't even have
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: she didn't have a job, so I didn't have insurance.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe a month after I found out, I got sick,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: and then from for like a two three year gap.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: It was sitting in front of um social like sitting
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: in front of like government funding programs for insurance for
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: two years, sitting in offices for days at a time,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: trying to get approved, trying to get certain bills taken
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: off my record. See if I can go here for that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I was kicked out of the hospital so many times.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: It was a lot. I didn't even I didn't have
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: anything at that time. Wow. Wow, I'm speaking to Eric
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Aaron Carolina. He's based out of if we're born from Olton, Texas. Now, yes, sir,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: singing and acting, and you went from a life threatening
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: disease to start in such incredible projects like the Black
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Widow Cleaning Lady nine one one Tyler Perry's sisters. Now,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: when you when you at this point your life, because
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: I spent thirty days in the hospital and so I know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: you know, I got I checked out three times and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I had a normal theax my long collapse, and every
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: time I checked out, it like my LNG collapsed again.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So I know the frustration of not seeking and I
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: did have medical insurance, so I understand the frustration of
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: what's wrong with you. And because at that young age,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: like you said, you was like twenty one, you know
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: you you you feel invincible, you know, because people know
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: as a youth, you know, you get a cold, you know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: you might not even take medicine at quick, you go out.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I remember, I remember myself. I used to play basketball,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: so if I got a cold, I would just go
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: out there and play basketball and kind of sweat it out.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I sweat sweat it out, and I thought, comes around,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm good, yeah, and so and so. So
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that that that's similar. Like you, you know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: you SELFI yourself, you self medicate yourself, and at this
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: point all that philosophy that you've used in the past
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: is not working, and so fear has to start creeping
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: into your brain at this point, as still why me?
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, what you're saying is
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: definitely true going into it, But I grew up kind
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: of sickly at as really bad, grew up really sickly,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and after a while, once I started really getting into basketball, allergies,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: everything just kind of went away. So for years I
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: did not get sick. If I did get sick during
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the basketball game, I'm playing it through. Next day, i
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: might be sick as a dog, I might have to
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: miss school for like a day, but other than that,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I'm playing through anything if I can. I didn't want
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to take medication at this point, I didn't. There was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: nothing I could literally do. It hit me so hard
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and so fast that I can do anything, and I
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: was so in shock that I had to thought, like, yo,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I may not even be here because the doctors told
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: me I might have AIDS cancer HIV. It's a three
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: weeks put them to figure out what was wrong with me.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And in the midst of things around what was wrong
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: with me. When I was in the hospital for I
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: think a week out of time, had staff infection in
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: one leg. Uh, and then I end up getting staff
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: infection in both my legs. So I couldn't walk for
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: a month because I had had staff infection right in
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: my kneecap. So I was in the state of shock
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: for a long time, and I was like, yo, I
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: didn't know what what to do? What could I do? So, yeah,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it was a lot of state of It was definitely
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a state of fear. And it was basically at that
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: point I had to realize that it's not in my hands.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: This is in God's hands whatever his will be done.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Now we're dreamers, and I understand that. You know, if
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I would tell people, you know, you're gonna find God
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: now somewhere along line. You know Godnay, it's gonna take over.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: And and you know, whether it's a there's always happens
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: in that moment where you can't control anymore. You know,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: when you when you can't control situations, somehoow you put
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: them hands together, somehow you get on your knees and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: find God because guess what, He's the only person's listening
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to that, because it abody else there's walking in that
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: room trying to tell you what's wrong with you, any
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: relative to tell you I got you, but they ain't listening.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: You gotta go somewhere else to find somebody who listening
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to what you got to say. And and they become
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: a self motivation. Now, all your dreams, being a singer,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: being an actor, being all this stuff, where were you
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: at mentally? Man? Where were you at from a were
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: you thinking about through the things where you because you're
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: still were young now young now but you and there's
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: impossible that the opportunities that you thought you were going
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to achieve singing, you look good. I've seen your head shot.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: You look good. I've seen you on TV. You look
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: good now, Aaron, You're good looking, dude, six foot two,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy three. Oh, I wanna suit look
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: good on you. Suiting look good on you. But ain't
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: none of that working for you right now? You six dude, bloated,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: ended out of hospitals. They tell you gotta every everything.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Everything they said was wrong with you just made you
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: more nervous. HIV cancer all loads were like and none
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of those are like. I can get over that in
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: a minute. Type now, if that's your problem, when did
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: they find out? When did they identify the problem? And
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: where are you at right now? With that disease? Um?
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: They identified it after a month of me finding um
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: after me, after a month of me coming in with symptoms,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: they were able to identify what it was. Because it's
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: predominantly white disease. Black men don't get this, and you
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: could tell that they don't because they were confused for
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: a long time. So I'm laughing though you okay, now, God, okay,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: white adolescent mills don't get it like like I got
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: it at nineteen. They were like, this is something that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: usually young young white men get your nineteen and you
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: got this. And I looked at my mom was like, well,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I thought it was all black. I'm somewhere. Oh hell, okay,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: now you tell me that I got white in me somewhere. Yeah,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I get it at this time. And it took them
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: out about a month into it. That's when they say
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: this right right, And at that point I was, yeah,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I love I didn't. I put my hands together and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I started praying. I always had a close relationship with God,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and I try to control the things that I can
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: let go the things that I can't. At this point,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I can't do nothing as far as like my dreams
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: and aspirations all on hold. I think, well, what else
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: can I do? I know I could still sing, but
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: how else will I be able to navigate this? You know?
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: On my current situation, I think it was just trying
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: to get myself together then at least get my feet
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: up under me, and starting to appreciate the things that
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I did have because it was probably a moment where
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I wasn't appreciating the things that I did have. And
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I think after a while, God slowly, slowly but surely
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: started to give me a little bit more to a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: like a little bit more like, Okay, you've appreciated everything
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that I've given you so far at the bare minimum.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Now here's a little bit more. Staying consistent and humble
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: in my situations, thinking people, thinking God every day, here's
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: a little bit more. And now to end up out
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: of Texas in La doing what I love for a living.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I have another job, the interview Aaron. He's gonna he
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: gonna just self interview himself. You know what I'm saying.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: My back. All I asked his brother was to tell
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: me is he cured? Tell me? Is it all now
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: here in La? Now here in La? Oh? You like
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: this on the set? Man, director, tell you go standing
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: over there? Next thing you know you're standing to Oh
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: you like that, man, because you're gonna get fired. I'm
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: about to fire you off my show. Yeah, he's gonna
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: be like that. I know your Texas boy, because I
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: know you listen raised good. Yeah, I just I just
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: get to talking about I get to talking about what
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: God is taking me to where I am, and I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: kind of get it. I get excited talking about, well,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: now I'm messing with you. We're gonna be right back,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: We're gonna go to the break, We're gonna come right back, Aaron.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: And guess what. I wanted to really take my time
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to talk about that, because see, I've been with You've been.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I've been in the hospital, man, and I didn't know
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: why I was in there. I was just watching a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: basketball game and my lung collapsed and I went to
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the hospital just thinking it to be overnight. Next thing
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: you know, thirty days later, I'm still in the hospital,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and that I would I was one of the top
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: touring comedians at the time. I've done television shows, and
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: everybody told me I was the next next, and next
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: thing you know, I was in hospital, paralyzed from the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: standpoint of not physically, but paralyzed because my career couldn't
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: move forward because I can't get out of the hospital.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to people understand that you still in
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: those darkest moments, you don't stop dreaming, you don't stop
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: giving up, but boy, it does redirect your priorities. And
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: when we come back. We're gonna talk about that career.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Like you said earlier, he got a he got a
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: relationship with God because because well here good here, a
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: good old choir boar. I said that in there in
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: the intro choir board, choir board to singing the nightclubs.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: You know, that's how they thought. That's how they start.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: That's done singing for the next thing. You know, they're
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: singing for the women. That's how they died. You're right
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: back with more money Making Conversations master Class. When a
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: man straight out of Texas Aaron Carolina, please don't go anywhere.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations master Class.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you about the money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: hosted by Rashaan McDonald. We'll always talk about their purpose
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: or gifts. If you have a gift, lead with your
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: gifts and don't let your friends, family, or co workers
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: stop you from planning or living your dreams. The interviews
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and information on his show are for everybody. Don't let
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: change scare you. He's here to educate you because it's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: time to put your dreams into action. This show Money
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations Masterclass Interviews CEOs small business owners, influencers and celebrities.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: They share financial and career success tips what through Sean McDonald,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: which you can only hear in The Money Making Conversations
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Masterclass show. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: hosted by Rishan McDonald. Welcome back to Money Making Conversations
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Masterclass again. My guest is Aaron Carolina. I brought him
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: on because we have a lot of actors out there,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: we have a lot of singers out there, We got
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: a lot of entertainers out there. But it's the story
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: that he has had to overcome that I thought was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: really important to hear on this show because we have
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of excuses as a while we can't put
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: through our dreams, we have a lot of This is why,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: you know, God didn't give me the opportunity to be successful.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: You know, if I work hard just like him, I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: look good just like him. I dribbled just like him.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: I think probably faster than him. But it all turns
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: down to being consistent and what's your plan of action? Now?
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: What age did you were you at the time when
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: you decided to move to Los Angeles. Let's see, I've
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: been here for five years, I was twenty eight. Okay,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: twenty eight, so twenty eight you in Texas because I
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I left IBM. When I left IBM, I left IBM,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I was twenty eight years old when I left IBM.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And I'm gonna tell you I want to just share
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: my story a little bit in here too, because because
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: when you start making decisions airing like that, there are
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of people tell you use the word like man,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: you lost your mind. Man, you need that good man
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: you know you gonna be And then they start tying
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you to successful people. You think you're gonna be this
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: like he just they tied me to Eddie Murphy. They
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: tied me Richard Pryde. They taught me that every every
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: successful black person out there, but they just told me
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to be that person. Now did they
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: do the same thing to you? Oh definitely. You ain't
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Jamie Fox. You don't leave about here and you ain't
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: what you would say Jamie Fox, Jamie Fox and sing
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and act and he's from and he's from good old
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Texas too. Aft It's like what you what you what
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: you've haven't been on? You? Really you're gonna go out there?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You know? It's a big pool. You small fishing that
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you're dropping in the ocean. It was a lot of naysayers. Um,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: but I mean things have changed a lot. Oh oh oh,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: talk to me about about to change over. When they
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: start seeing your TV, that's what happens. Oh, they start
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: seeing you on TV and they're can you a man? Yeah? Yeah,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you. You've been out there. You so,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: how how can I get into this? You don't want
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: to do this. You don't want to get it. You don't,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you don't. I don't know if people know what it
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: really takes. That's why you're on the show, Aaron, because
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: your story because a lot of people see things overnight,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: A lot of people see things you know. Wow, man,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I could do that too. But it's not that you
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: can do it too. It's whether you're willing to do
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it too. And that's the part of the connections, the relationships.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: Getting the opportunity and then not thinking that one opportunity
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: it's going to be the opportunity to go to launch
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: you to success. It's called a resume. So you moved
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: out to la You're twenty eight years old. How did
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: we get all? Well, how did you get started in
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: this whole game because did you know anybody or you
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: just went out there cold. Basically I went out there cold.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: I don't have any representation out here. I still kept
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: tizing my people back in Texas, and I had to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: basically start from the ground up my networking, all friends,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: all the relationships that out built in Texas. We had
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a small community out there. I didn't add that out here.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't until over time where you know, people
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: they started network and I started going in and mingling
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: with third people. It took about I just really have
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: to being here for like three or four years, that's
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: when things really start to hit. So you're roughly twenty
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: nine by thirty years old, right, yeah, okay, still looking
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: good because you still can play those you know, late
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: teenager roles. But you still got that ten year window
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of opportunities that you can go into. And I'm just
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: explaining to everybody what happens is when you go to Hollywood.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: You know you want to It's about the youth. Hollywood
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: is all about the youth, and so as you're younger,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: you can play more opportunities. But as you get older,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: they start character acting you, they start putting you when
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you can be a police officer, you can be a teacher,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: you could be an executive, you could be working in
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the office and stuff like that. But when you're young,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: you know you can do anything. You can be high school, college,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you can be at parties, all those things. So it's
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: a lot more opportunities. So when you're thirty, you want
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: to make sure that you know you can you can
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: least go ten years beneath your real age. And that's
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: where you're sitting there right there, so you're playing a
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: nice little range. You look good, stand in shape, so
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: just setting to take before my listener continue airing U. So, yeah,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: it took me about three or four years before I
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: was able to even to start getting roles. And after
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: obviously going here, everybody out here in la is in
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the shape. Everybody is. There's gyms everywhere, there's everybody's eating healthy.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: So that's another way to help keep looking youthful. When
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: I got out of here, so I still had those opportunities,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: but what they started doing with they started character typing
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: me like, all right, you're going to play a cop
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and be military, right, you playing detected everything? And I
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: was like, yo, when did I become the guy, right
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: but going to raise them the fort worth I'm talking about,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: stop everything. When did I become the guy that would
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: be a cop? But that's just what they saw me,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: that was the type, and I was playing a cop
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: right a military experience that they would try to utilize
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a look like clean cut, cut off all the facial
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: hair and just play clean cut. So that's what I was.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: That kind of got my foot in the door. And
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of these roles, most of the roles that
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I've been booking as far as that have been pretty
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: big have been and just like that uniform roles. But
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I was blessed to get some where they started, um
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: allowing me to step outside of that and be more
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: more of a ladies man and things of that nature.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: But it took a while. They tried to characterize, characterize
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: me and put me in a in a genre right away,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: that's what they do. What was the first role? Did
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: you went? Yeah? Did you got did when you when
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: you went? Yeah? Out here in la or just in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: general and la la in la Uh? The first role
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: that I booked, really, I apologize. I apologize. Let's let
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the first role in general and then we're gonna talk
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: about the first opportunity in general, when you were yeah,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: I can do this. The first role I booked was
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: for a Marvel show called Gifted. I booked it in
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Texas and it was a security guard. I booked the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: role as a security guard and that was the first
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, they wanted me for multiple days.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: It was the first and the executive as a director,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: everybody loved it. It It was great. Um. That's when I realized,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and you get them. You get there on set, they
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: know your name, you got your wardrobe, you got your honeywagon.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: On set up, They're like, yo, what do you want
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: for breakfast? If you want lobster that I'm like, what
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: y'all got lobster in the morning? I said, what else
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: do you have? What do you want hanging on menu?
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: It's whatever you want. That's like, oh, I can do
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: this for a living. I can do this for life. Um.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: And after that more roles came out of here. The
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: first role that kind of really had me going, uh,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: what was it? Oh? No, none, maybe not out here?
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Uh Tyler Perry's role. Uh. Getting a role for Tyler
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Perry was I was like, I can do this for
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: I could do this long term. I saw what it took.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I saw there the years of preparation and working and
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: going to classes and stuff got me to a point
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: where I can handle the pressure. And I was like,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I like, I like this. I want to keep doing this.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: The role you currently doing sisters are a previo role.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: It was Tyler Perry. It was a role that I
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: did for sisters, the role I did for sisters. It
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: was that role that kind of got me like, yo,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: I can do this, I can do this long term.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: And that's what I was that that was something else.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I was kind of reaffirming, Uh, doing this job. You
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: get so many nose When you get those yeses, it's like, okay,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I'm on the right track. Well it's like it really is. Man.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I tell people that in life you get a lot
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of those. But in Hollywood, you walk in the room,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you don't know why they what they're looking for. You know,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: they they you know. It's really the most um frustrating business,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: but it's the most exciting business once you start getting success.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And sometimes when you start getting success, you don't really
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: know why they they they you're getting it until they
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: start asking for you by name. Then you understand that
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: a certain type of person recognizes you for your time. Now,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: being a former athlete, that's competition. Now you in this
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: world as an actor, that's competition. Do you are you
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: able to marry the two existence that really get a
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: clear understanding what you're capable of doing? Oh yeah, and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: what I feel like what I'm capable of doing. The
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: sky's a limit. As an athlete, I'm competitive and I'm
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: willing to work hard no matter the circumstances, regardless of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: my condition, I'm going to work hard. And in this industry,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: there is no quit It's not the sprint, it's it's
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a marathon. It's about those who are willing to endure
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: for the longest. And if you have what it takes,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: you're going to work hard. You're coachable, and you're in there,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and you're in there for the long haul. People eventually
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: see the talent and skill that you have and then
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: they will start requesting you, but they give you bits
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and pieces. Not everybody comes in here and just start
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: hitting home runs right away. You know, you start taking
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you taking victories as you get them. And being an athlete,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I am okay with doing what needs to be done
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: in order to get those opportunities later on. You know,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: it's really interesting to appreciate you coming on money making
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: comes to his master class. I'm talking to Aaron Carolina. Uh.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: He's out of Arlington, Texas. Um started singing in choir
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: as a child, you know, add devil asthma as a
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: youth homeless, said roughly seventeen, and but that didn't stop
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: him with a life threatening disease that he didn't know.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Nobody knew, very little UH insurance in his life to
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: be able to assist him. Um basically un didn't come
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: from the ideal family, so his support system wasn't there,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: But that didn't stop him from living his dreams that
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: he's currently living now. As we as we wrap up
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: this interview, Aaron, what would you what would you say
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to people who are trying to get into this world
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that you are still growing your brand in what what
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: what setbacks that you were able to overcome that you
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: went that somebody can find relatable that can give them
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: a gem of information that they can help them bypass
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: what you did. Moving forward, start becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: take chances on yourself, don't be afraid to fail, and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: actually ask yourself, is this something that you really want
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to do? Anything that you've ever done throughout your whole life,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: any experience, any any kind, anything whatsoever. You can use
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that in this career. But you have to be willing
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to take the nose and if you find joy in
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the craft itself, eventually you will reap the benefits of
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: those who are willing to endure. Now, the benefits of
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: life is that you're able to tell us your story.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: The benefits of life is that you know faith plays
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: a major role in your life. You know, especially we
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: all know that faith with people comes and goals, and
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: it usually comes when there is not there's discomfort in
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: your life that you can't control. I know I've been there,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and I'm not saying I'm a church care but LAWD knows.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: I understand the value of motivation and self motivation is
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: tied to your faith as you as you as you.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: What's your future hold for mister Aaron Carolina? UM currently
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: right now have an independent feature film that I'm working on.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: We're in post right now. There's a couple of series
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that I haven't a works right now. UM executive producing,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: U producing and writing. UM. There's a lot of work
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: in one in twenty twenty three months. Are about to
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: be a father. So um, there's just a lot going on.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Looking about to do a father, be a father, be
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: a father. Okay, you guys live that out there, you
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: know what. I know, Father's Day coming up. There wasn't
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: much heat on that father line. It was about to
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: be a father, you know. Yeah, I'm about to be
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a father, and there's something I'm excited about. You should
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: be looking forward to, you should be. Yeah, just trying
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to stay busy, make sure that I'm able to continue
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: building a career for my family and you know, just
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: to have something where I can, you know, just continue
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: doing what I love. But there's definitely a feature film
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: coming in the project, coming in the works. So that's
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: that's what I got and plenty of other stuff that
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: I'm working on. Congratulations. As we wrapped up this interview,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: tell everybody how we can reach out to you, stay
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: in touch with you. You can reach me on Instagram
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: at Aaron Carolina Underscore. That's a a Ron Carolina like
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: the State Underscore, Um Facebook, Aaron Carolina Twitter is also
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Aaron Carolina Underscore as well. Appreciate you, my brother appreciate
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: you coming on Money Making Conversations master Class. Appreciate you
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: sharing your story is a motivational story. Stoybright uplift the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Storebright Hey Man, overcoming the arts. That's all this ship
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't bout. Talk to you soon in good love Aaron Carolina. Yeah, sir,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: you two God blessed. Appreciate Don't go anywhere. We'll be
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: right back with more Money Making Conversations master Class. Money
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations master Class continues online at Making Conversations dot
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: com and follow Money Making Conversations Masterclass on Facebook, Twitter,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: and Instagram. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time you stop reading
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: other people's success stories and start writing your own. Welcome
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: back to Money Making Conversation Masterclass. This is my man.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: He's on the call today, Robert Foster. He's the father
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of three daughters and a basketball enthusiast. Growing up, he
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: wouldness many black men around him start successful businesses. That's
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: called mentors. People who you see. It is important because
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna share story about growing up who I saw
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and how they impacted infected me, affected me, and I
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't even tied to trying to be anything but just
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: a growing up, black kid, But who you see can't
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: impact what you can be. You know. He learned that
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: you can achieve your goal through patients and steady work,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: which he went to. He also struggled with depression in
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: high school and dealt with rebellious personality that he had,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about that now. He's self employed
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: business owners. In two thousand and eight, he created the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Shopmaker's Leads. We all know March madness out there, So
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna launch something, this is the time of
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the year to launcher a virtual basketball video competition platform.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: They offer a fun and skill based experience for players,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: fans and brands to create, participate in host competition. Please
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: walk with the money Making Conversations masterclass father an entrepreneur
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: and basketball enthusiast Robert Foster. How are you doing, Robert?
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I'm doing great, man, Thanks for having me and Robert.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I tell everybody I can play. But you know,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: it's like a fish story. It's like a fish story, Robert.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: You know, you know I could have fish a foot, law,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: but it was three feet by the time I got home.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, he was battling
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: with me. He was battling. He took the pole down.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I brought it up. He took the pole down out
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: of reaching the wall, and pull him up. Now I
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: say all this because you know you went from being
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: a street baller to a tech baller. All right, and
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: so now well you were you on the court. Now, well,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: well did you have skills there? Rob? Yeah? I think
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I did. You said, I think you see right there? Right?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: So now this is this this, this is what it is.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Right Like I played with some with some pretty high
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: level guys. Should give them, give them high level. See
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: what you can't do it like that? Rob? See, we
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: don't know you, you know, he said. You know, Michael
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Jordan would never say I think I can play basketball,
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Lebron James would never say I think and the late
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: great Kobe Bryant would never say I think I can
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: play basketball. Yeah, well you know so, so I hold on.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: I got to come back with you as a man,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: as a man, as a man, think of as a man,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: think of right, uh huh, as a man, think of
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: so should he be? And like I said, I think
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: I can play basketball pretty good. I'm not I'm not
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a bragging, doocious type of person. Like, there's some people
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: out there that can vouch, that can vouch for me,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say him be
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: like I was the greatest. But I will tell you this.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: When I played ball, you know, in my era, things
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: were very different, and I used to shoot. I could
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: easily shoot from half court like no no, no, no
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: pushing or throwing. I could just I could just let
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: it fly. Only person I saw who did that in
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: high school was Dame Lillard Dan Yeah see see but
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: see Dame damn younger. So it's a couple of cats. Man.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: We was doing that in Georgia, like that was a
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: thing like in Georgia. But before Dame, before Steph Man,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: that was Lou Williams. He was somebody that was doing
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: it too. We all come from that same He was
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Team Georgia. I played with Teams Georgia. I play. Now
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: we're getting just said Robert, you know saying you mentioned
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the name we know sweet okay, sweet see, but even
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Sweet Lou, Sweet Lou was was was younger than us.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: But he he he was in that same vein like
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in Georgia, you know, pulling from deep that was a
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: thing like before Steph Curry made it popular, like being
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: able to pull from half court, you know, being able
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: to you know, stretch the defense like that, Like that
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: was something we did in george Like that was a
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: part of Georgia basketball. We were some flat out shooters
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: and not just shooters, like we'll we'll pull it on
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: you from deep and then we'll also take it to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the basket too. Okay. See see, I'm just letting you know.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: We're getting into a good conversation here because we're about
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: to get to the shop makers league. See. See, what
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: you can't have them is a guy who can't make shots.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Didn't call his his his platform shot makers. See already
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: he's telling me I can make the shots with shot
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, let's go to the physicality. What's what's your measurement?
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Is I taller year? Could you leap six six two
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: sixty three on a good day? Yeah? I had see
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: my thing with hops like I had. I had hops
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: like they would come and go. I could never just
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: maintain them like I could always dump. I could always
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: catch catch the alley you but like that, I have
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: like periods of times where I could go between the eggs,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: but then three months later I couldn't keep it going
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: because it just wasn't That wasn't my my that wasn't
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: my game. My game was predicated on on really on
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: shot making, like that was my thing. Like I could
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: shoot it from anywhere with anybody, anybody on me or
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: in any space. I could get it off and make it.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I wasn't like the fastest guy. I wasn't
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: the wasn't the I had a quick first step, but
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: you catched me after that first step. I've been there,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I'm older than you. And in college,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I went to the University of Houston and
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: I graduated with Keim elij One okay, and Clyde Drexel.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: He went to the pros the year before because they
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: were because they lost the championship in eighty three. Clyde
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: with pro and then next year I Keema lije one.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: He went pro for you know, first pick in the
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: draft of Houston Rocket. And so so I was one
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: of those guys. I wasn't you, but bore. I had
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: the mouth of you though you know what I'm saying.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I had to I could tell you I was Jordan,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: but I played like the last gaut on the bench.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, I deserve to be on
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: the team, But now what mean I should be taking
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that shot? You feel me? Yeah? And so I'm having
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: fun with you, Robert because of the fact that when
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: I've talked to entrepreneurs, I'd like for people to know
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: what that type of personality, because because when you have
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: a dream and you start building that dream out, it's
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: tied to a certain level of enthusiasm but also could
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: lead to a lot of frustration. You know, so talk
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: about you know your your street baller got a game,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: how if from a tech standpoint, did you start making
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: that transformation? Did this idea can be have a value
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: in the virtual world? Well, so this is what happened,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Uh in twenty nineteen, you know what, I guess, Well,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: you know something may talk about my journey, but like
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, I wanted to do street Ball, right,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: So and one was huge and street Ball and you
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: know they kind of disappeared. You know that that documentary
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: is just came out kind of let everybody know there
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: was an incredible documentary. If you have not document any
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: one an incredible documentary. But see that's that gap. There
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: was a huge gap and I noticed that there was
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: a gap there, right, There wasn't. There wasn't like you
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: still you had online things, you had you know, badless
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: life like they're doing their thing. You had over time
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: they're doing their things, and you had all these different
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: media pages. But there was this the space that was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: kind of still missing. And with Steph Curry with Dame,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: you know, shooting has now become the new dunking right
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: where everybody wanted to be Michael Jordan and Lebron and
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, even Kobe to an extent with the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Duncan Vince Carter, you know, shooting Dame and and and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Steph made it. They let they let it. They made
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: the They made the common man feel like they could
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: play on that level, right because if you could shoot it,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it down. I can't believe you're gonna
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: leave one of the greatest dunkers you from a Georgie right,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Georgie right? Oh yeah, and I know who you're gonna say,
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Are you gonna leave him out? Huh? It wasn't. It
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: wasn't intentional. It wasn't intentional. Actually, man, that's a whole
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: other side story. But man, I used to work for
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola. And I used to work my store, my
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: route Dominique Wilkins. That was that was his Kroger that
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: he shot. That was the store that our service for
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Coca Cola. And he I see him all the time
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: in them, man. I's talked to him a lot. And
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: you gonna You're gonna mention Lebron, who is never participated
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: in a dark contest, by the way, everybody now, but
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: he was known for them in game dumps back you know,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: back in that in that time, in that space he was.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: He was known for putting one on your head. But
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: I would taste the problem. You're keeping up though, man,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: I mean I'm I'm hitting you low, You're standing straight up.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I try to cross you your block my shot. You're
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: pretty good, Robert, You're pretty good now. You're pretty good now? Yeah, yeah,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm just having fun, man, just having fun.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: We're talking my language now, we're talking basketball. What everybody
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: need to know. And then so so when you when
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: you have to when in eighteen you had this idea
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: and like m one had dropped off the map, and
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: now there's a there's a market out there, there's a
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: need out there, there's a need for something that's out out,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: outsourced beyond just basic basketball. What idea come from? So?
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: So what happened? You know, I again shooting, that's my thing,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: right and shooting had become you know, a premium around
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: around basketball period. UM, So I reached out. I made
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: a cold call to hoop it up three on three,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: which was you know a tour tour base three on
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: three tournament that had grew in the US, like I
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: played in it when I was a kid. Um. They
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: used to come to the Fort and County Stadium, you
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: know the old Turner Field. They used to come there
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and take over and fill it with courts and it'd
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: be sponsored by Slim Jim gatorade m We won one year.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I think I was like fifteen or sixteen UM the
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: three on three tournament. But I made a cold call,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: looked them up, made a cold call, ended up getting
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: in touch with the CEO, Dan Dan. I said, look at,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: I want to learn your business model. I want to
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: do what you did with the three on three, but
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I want to do it with a shooting competition. I
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: don't want to do a three point shootout, but I
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: want to do this. I want to travel city to
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: city and find the best shooters in every state and
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: then at the end, I want to bring them all
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: together and do like a finale and crown like the
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: number one shooter in the country and you know, regardless
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: of age. And he was like he loved it. He
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: was like, hey man, yeah, you know again twenty nineteen.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Rolling into twenty twenty, he's like, hey man, yeah, we're
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: gonna kick our tour off, and may you know you
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: welcome to come. I'm gonna senior to tour dates. You
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: welcome to come. He's like, come to the first five dates.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: He was like, after the first five dates, He's like,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: is this way? Says He's gonna give me a court.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: He said, I'm gonna give you a court at each
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: of our first five tour stops. He was like, um,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: you can. You can run your competition, you know, test
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: it out. He's like, you know, I'll help you out
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: some things, show you how we how we run things operationally,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. He was like, you know,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: you just got to bring yourself there. If you can
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: get yourself there, I'll give you what you need while
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: we're there, giving you a court, giving you, you know,
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: grailing and maybe even get you know, give me some
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: staff members to help you out. He's like, that's no problem.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: But he was like he was like, no, I'm more
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: than willing to help. So during the time, he was
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: going through an acquisition, so Kevin Garnett's company, the Big
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: Ticket they ended up buying who put up three on three,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: So they were they were at like the last stage
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: of an acquisition. So Dan was still on board running
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: the company, but he was about to be out. Ye
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: about he talking to you, but he really not talking
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: long term to you? Well, yeah, no, he talked. No,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: he told me everything he talked, he put it. He
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: put it all up front. He was like, he's like,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: this is what's going on. He's like, you know, I
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: can show you the business model. He was like he
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: thinks what I'm doing. He's like, you know, it sounds
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: like it's Bible. He was like, but the best way
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: to test it is to get out there and do
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: it right. So again this was like maybe this was
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: in the twenty nineteen. The first time we talked was
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: maybe in December. We talked again in February when he
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: sent me to tour dates because the tour dates started
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: started and were talking about twenty February. Right now, it's
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty February. So I'm back in Atlanta. I'm going
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: to come back to Atlanta and make Atlanta my home base.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: The name of the company at the time was called
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: the Do or Die Tournament. Uh. And during that time,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm I'm getting ready. I'm hyped. So I'm
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: trying to think of all these different ideas that I
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: can that once I, once I get out there, how
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: can I capitalize from the traction. And then COVID happens.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: You know, COVID happens, and I had had this idea
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: of a video submission shot. Let's talk about what happening though,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: because it's all you know, you you gather momentum, you
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: got friends, you tell everybody's going to happen. Yeah, and
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: then COVID hit. Where were you at emotionally? And you know,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: because we didn't all know it would last that long?
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: We thought it Oh no, no, that I was like
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I knew it was like I thought it was gonna
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: be a week right right, Yeah, And so I don't
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: want to miss that moment from you right there, because
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: at least to frustration as a not for new it
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: can we talk about to being an entrepreneur right because
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: you put your time in you know, you probably blocked
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: off some dates you saw you're traveling set up, and
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this is getting in the way
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: of your dream. Tell us about that emotional moment and
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: that and that big pump in the break moment for
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: you and your brain. Um, So once I once, I
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: you know, like everybody else, once you grab a hole
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: to what COVID it actually is and how how it's
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: affecting everything and how it's changing things. Um, I'm a
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: very I'm very resilient man. I don't know, I don't
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know where I get it from. I do
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: know I've been through a lot of different things in
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: my life, but I have a real I'm like a
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: basketball man. You throw me up and I land, I'm
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: gonna bounce right back. Okay, cool thought that thought. I
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: won't go to break when I come back from the break.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I want to make sure that we don't want to
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: interrupt the story of talking to Robert Foster. You know,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: shop Makers, that's a virtual game, a visit basketball game,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: and that's why we're having fun talking about his basketball
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: skills because he's taking his basketball skills and from a
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: game he love, and and he's become an entrepren and
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: launching something during March Madness. A virtual video game is
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: being done by a black man. Were right back, Robert Foster.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: Don't you go nowhere? Money Making Conversations Masterclass will return.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. HBCUs represent Black excellence. If you
• 45:20
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• 45:27
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• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Rashaan McDonald. Welcome back to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. This
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: is rus Sean McDonald. I am the host, and everything
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, shut down and all the all,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: and especially like towart like maybe month three, and it
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: was really real. It was like, oh, you know what,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: the world is really shut down. It's like this probably
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: isn't gonna change for a while. Um My, my psyche
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: instantly was like, you know, okay, well let's prepare as
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: much as we can, right, Let's let's get as prepared
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: as we possibly can because when the world does come
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: back to normal, you need to be ready to go.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Like you can't just you can't just let this go.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: I'm a firm believer in and if I failed, I'd
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: rather fail. I need to know for myself that I failed,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna let somebody else or let some
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: circumstance tell me that I failed, Like I have to
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: actually had to actually put together the competition, put together
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: the tour, or put together the platform, and then it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: flopped for me to know that I failed. But other
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: than that, I wasn't just gonna stop because COVID, So
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: I tried to figure out what ways I could. So
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: then the virtual stuff started kicking off, right. You had
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: soon you had more people engaging on social media, you
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: had people you know, doing all types of you know,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: so the virtual was a blessing for what you were
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: talking about in a way, Yeah, it was. It was.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: It was because it made me put more of a
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: focus into tech. Like the tech aspect for me in
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the beginning was just it was just an idea. It
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: was just a just a just an idea that I
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: knew could could be something, but I didn't have the
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: time to focus on it. So I just kind of
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: I literally on my first website it was the Doordot Tournament,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: and then under the Doordot Tournament I had coming soon
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Shotmakers League. It was just like a just something extra
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: extra caveat we were gonna do at some point. And
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: so you know, again getting out that I'm that I'm
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: switching my mind to tech. So there's another piece that
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: happened right before COVID. I had just gotten into the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: gathering spot and the gap at the gathering spot or
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. When I learned about the gathering spot, I
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: had also learned about this place called the Atlanta Tech Village,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: and I had briefly told this lady. She saw one
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: of my shirts I used to have. I like to
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: test shirts out, so like even the Shotmaker's League shirt,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: it's just a test run. I'm kind of testing the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: idea out on a shirt. See see how I feel
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: about it, How does it look? How do I like it?
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: I had a shirt that said put your money where
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: your mouth, put your money where your shot is. And
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: so the lady saw the shirt and we ended up
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: I ended up making her shoot into a cup, and
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: then I bought her a shot at the bar and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: she was like no, seriously, like what is this? And
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I told her, you know what my plan was, And
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: she told me about the Atlanta Tech Village, and she
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: told me about why Combinator in the gathering spot, and
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: so why Combinator was out of my range at that point,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: or at least I felt like it was. Please explain
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: exactly what they did is why Combinator. What is that? Okay,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: So Why Combinator is the world's largest tech accelerator program.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: So companies like door Dash came out of Y Combinator.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: Airbnb is a Y Combinator company, and so what why
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: Combinator does. It'll you submit an application with your idea,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: your pitch, your team, and essentially they'll give you half
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: a million dollars in funding to get you going, and
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: they accelerate the process of your company. So with tech companies,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: it's usually all about acceleration, building fast, you know, iterating
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: fast and scaling and growing as quickly as possible. Like, look,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: how fast Airbnb just kind of took off right Well,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: that acceleration is in part due in a large part
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: due to Y Combinator, because once you get into that network,
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: that tech network, and the media coverage of it, it
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: just it just takes off really quickly because it's software,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: you know, it's something that can that can instantly be shared.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: It's quick, it can go viral, you know, overnight, and
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: that's what that's what happens to a lot of those
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: companies that come out of Y Combinator. And so she
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: was just kind of you know, schooling me on on
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: this this idea that I had. She's like, you know, look,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: I think you got something there looking at these places
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: and see what kind of resources they have. I still
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: was focused on the tour based thing. But I but
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm one of those people. I don't think
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: you have conversations or meetings for for no reason. I
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: don't believe in coincidence. So I did look into y Combinator.
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I looked up the tech Village though it was really cool,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: put in the application, and I put in the application
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: at the gathering spot. I got accepted into the gathering
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: spot at the Tech Village. I was told that my
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: tech rolemap, which I didn't even know what the tech
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: rolemap was, that my tech rolemap wasn't wasn't quite there,
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: and that I needed to build what they called a
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: proof of concept again, things that I at first I
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: kind of just let go over my head. But during
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: COVID I had a lot of time to think, so
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: so I really took a hard look at proof of concept.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: So I started, you know, I got into YouTube University, man.
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: I looked at a lot of videos from the Atlanta
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Tech Village from y Combinator. The gathering spot had some
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: virtual resources that I tapped into to learn about how
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: to turn my idea into a tech company. And fast
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: forward to twenty twenty one. I had, through using up work,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: through using Fiber, I had found different vetted and found
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: different freelance developers. Put together this rough proof of concept
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: and ran ten weeks of virtual competitions, and I ran
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: it like a TV show from my Instagram page and
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: ended up getting some attention from all his life. Had
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: a couple of NBA players that reached out, Um, gave
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: me some guidance, some early guidance. Uh, Derek Anderson with Anderson.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Derry Anderson used to play for Kentucky. He's in Memphis, right, Uh,
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: he's he's he's in Kentucky. Yeah. Yeah, he's a businessman.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: He's a good bit yeah yeah, big, big, big businessman.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: And and and you know, and so think about Derek again.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: I'm you know, other parts of my background of of
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: of of sales and and and marketing and stuff like that,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not shot with cold calling people. So I looked
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: up Derek you know, his primary page. You know, he
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: has a lot of a lot of followers, all that
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Then I saw that he had you know,
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: some other small businesses. And so I went to those
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: pages and you you they have phone numbers on them,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: and so, um, I ended up reaching out through one
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: of his like training pages, and I'm thinking, I'm probably
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: gonna just get you know, one of his assistants or
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: somebody like that. Man it was him. He picked up
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: the phone right right, and I ended up talking to him,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: told him what I was doing, and uh, yeah, man,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: he like probably for about I say, about two months
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: and even to this day, like I still have his
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: phone number. I've talked to him a couple of times,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: um as I progressed and what I've done, um, just
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: to kind of get feedback from him. You know, he's
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: not a he's not an easy person to sell. So
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: he gonna so the feedback he's gonna give you, it's
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: gonna be it's gonna be crucial. You know, it's gonna
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: be something that you can actually taken and grow from.
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: It's not He's not a yes yes man type of person.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: CO called him. He gave me, gave me some good
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: it gave me some good stuff. Um, a basketball community
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: all brought together on this one idea shot. Yeah. So
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: right now, if you go to Shotmakers League dot com.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: You can fill out a profile. We'll be launching. We're
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: gonna launch during March, March maddens. We're gonna start doing
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: our first competitions. The platform has grown so before we
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: used to control all the competitions, but now you yourself
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: can create your own competition. You can create a challenge
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: just for a friend that you can text to them,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: or you can post it for the community for somebody
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: else to take your challenge. And so in a lot
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: of ways, we're like a lot like a roadblox, you
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: know how the kids they get on there create these
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: different games for each other to play and engage with
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and build community. We're doing the same thing, but within
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: the basketball gait. Let me ask you this, let me
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: this is interesting now, you know, not saying that one't
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: interested ear, but now your money making master class conversation.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Now let's go, because you know is that my number
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: one thought would be, you know, I'm just gonna build
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: this up. Okay, I'm gonna build this up, and then
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: each one of these teams I have in the league
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: have a value, Okay, whether it's a million dollars or whatever. Okay,
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: So but you're saying that we've show on people can
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: create the own leagues of this platform. I'm saying, why
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: can't you just hold these team and just let the value,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: you know, just keep going up, and every time somebody
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: sell their team, you get ten percent of the team.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Well that's that's that's a possibility within it. But if
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: you look at platforms like, let's take a rope. Like again,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: let's take a Roadblocks right right, the thing that makes
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Roadblocks the most valuable is because where you can have one,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: let's say Roadblocks wanted to be the only developer, right typically,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: so just like a league a developer, right, a league,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Let's let's put league in developer in the same space, right, Well,
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Roadblocks is a community of developers. So now you have
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: thousands of video games housed in one place. And so
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: that makes Roadblocks worth twenty two billion dollars, where if
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: they were just one video game, maybe they're worth one billion.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: But because it's so much going on, it's so many
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: other they become the platform the place for so many
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: other developers or leagues to be able to sustain themselves.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: So that's what I'm doing here. I've created a platform
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: where leagues themselves can be housed and they can operate
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: in a virtual world on Shotmakers League. Like then they
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: can they can run their leagues and so instead of
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: it just being one Shotmakers League, it can be thousands
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: of other leagues sitting with on the Shotmakers League platform. Congratulations,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: I gotta say that again. You know an idea like
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: so many of us, you know, we just love the
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: game of basketball played in the streets. And now you've
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: taken this using tech technology now to being afraid to
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: call somebody and pitch your idea, now to being afraid
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: of the word no, being consistent and educate yourself into
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: building something that I feel it's going to be a
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: franchise that's going to be a huge money maker for you.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: And I just want to say congratulations, man, I appreciate it.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Man to work work, still still still working at it
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: right now, still working, still working, but now I definitely
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. The hard part is the idea is real,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: and so the Shotmakers League, founded by Robert Foster, is,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: like I said, the virtual platform, virtual basketball video competition
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: platform that can expand again, tell everybody how they can
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: find this platform and uh and how they can contact you?
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, right, now you can go to ww dot
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Shotmakers League dot com, create a profile, and again you
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: can you can start. You can create your own league
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: right now and you can start charging people to enter
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: into your competitions. We're going to be fully launching very
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: soon within I want to say maybe a week or two,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: but definitely before the March Manness Tournament is over with
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: UH and then you'll be able to again create your
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: own profile and start your own league within the Shotmakers League.
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: If you want to reach me directly though, I also
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: am on LinkedIn at Robert Foster Um. I love to connect.
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: I also am a podcast podcast host. I have a
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: show called The No Cap Table where I teach people
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: and teach people about starting to startup, how to be
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: a non technical startup founder. We have a lot of
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: a lot of other non technical founders and technical founders
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: that come on our show and tell their stories. We're
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: associated with Fooboo Radio Cool. I appreciate you, Robert for
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: coming to my show. Appreciate this story. Man. I know
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: we started out having fun, but man, in the end, brother,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: you brought the You brought the heat with the information
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and inspired a lot of people with your story because
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: your story is one of them. I'm just an everyday
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: guy man. I'm grinding just like everybody and gets what
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: I'm turning that grind into reality. Thank you for coming
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: on Money Making Conversations Master Class, Robert Foster, all right,
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: thank you for having me appreciate again. If you want
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: to listen to any of our stories, you can go
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: to Moneymaking Conversation dot com. But more importantly, I'll be
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: back Tuesday with another show with two more incredible guests
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: that will be telling you how you can change your
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: life because their life changed when they started believing in
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: them sales. We'll see you next Tuesday, and thank you
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: a gameing forward listening to Money Making Conversations Master Class.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I'm the host, Rushan McDonald. Let me tell you about
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: the host of Money Making Conversations, Rushan McDonald. He's a
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: social media influencer. Eighty percent of his one million plus
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: social media followers are female. Rushawn's a two time Emmy
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: Award winner, three time in double acp Immage Award winner,
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: sitcom writer, stand up comic, and former IBM executive, and
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: he has a degree in mathematics. More importantly, Rushawn McDonald
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: will interview his business and celebrity relationships to empower you
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: with tips to succeed in your career that you can
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: only hear in the money Making Conversations. Masterclass Show