Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Stephen A. Smith - ESPN’s “First Take,”; Mariana van Zeller – National Geographic, “Trafficked with Marianna Van Zeller,”; Robert Brace - 28 Day Fitness Challenge Program; and Ernest & Barbara Furlow-Smiles – Founders of the Customizable “Smiles Shield”

Transcript

Stephen A. Smith - ESPN’s “First Take,”; Mariana van Zeller – National Geographic, “Trafficked with Marianna Van Zeller,”; Robert Brace - 28 Day Fitness Challenge Program; and Ernest & Barbara Furlow-Smiles – Founders of the Customizable “Smiles Shield” · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: advice on many occasions. In the case you didn't notice,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm not broke, you know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: It's what he likes to share. Thank you, stephen A Smith.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: This is Rashan McDonald and I'm the host of money
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Making Conversations dot Com. I recognized that we all have
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: different definitions of success. For you, it may be the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: size of your paycheck. Mine is helping people wake up
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and live their
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: very best life. Please leave with your gifts. My guests
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: on money Making Conversation dot Com this week are stephen
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: A Smith, host of ESPN's first Take Swords Center with
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: stephen A Smith and ESPN plus stephen A's World, Marianna
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: van Zella discussing her new national geographic show Traffic with
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Marianna Vanzella. Robert Brads will be breaking down his New
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Day fitness challenge program. Earnest and Barbara Smiles, founders of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: a face shield that allows your smile to shine. Visit
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversation dot com. Right now listen to my podcast.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I am Rushan McDonald. Happy New Year. It's very special
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: guests I have on the show today. His name is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Steven A. Smith. Will start right there before we get
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: started with my interview with Steven name Smith. Let's look
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: at this early media snapshot of one as listen. Steven
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: An Smith will continue his host his popular ESPN First
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Take Money through Friday. Then Steven A. Smith will also
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: hosts a weekly Wednesday ESPN NBA show called Sports Tender
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: with steven A. Smith. It premiers January six. Stevens also
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hosts a daily half hour ESPN plus talk show, Stephen
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: AG's World. It premiers on January level and airs Monday, Tuesday,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Thursday and Friday. Because The Sports Center with steven A.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Smith airs on Wednesday. Steven N. Smith will continue his
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: recurring role as Brick on the popular ABC soap opera
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: General Hospital. It airs January twelve and thirteen. Steven N.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Smith and co producing an HBCU docuseries on the North
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Carolina Central University basketball team, which stay fallowed spokesperson the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: NBA superstar Chris Paul That premiers January fift and Steven A.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Smith Stephen A. Smith, the speller mispan his name, is
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: starting a highly anticipated family theme animated wrestling movie called Rumble.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: The release date is made fourteen. Yes, he is very busy,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: please working the money making conversation Stephen A. Smith. It's
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: going on, man, How you doing? Stephen? And I leave
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: anything out? First of all, you know, I don't even know, man,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I'm so busy. I can't even answer that question definitively
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: because things are just happening for me. And you know,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: through the grace of God and a lot of good
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: things happening to me for me and you know, my
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: inner circle, my family and my friends and my loved ones,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: which obviously includes you as well, things have been going
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: incredibly well. So I'm happy about that. And you know,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: we just move along and see how things go moving
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: into the future. Well, you know, when when I listened
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that schedule, you know you're doing first take. Let's let's
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: look at that first week of January, January four first
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: take Monday through Friday, then Wednesday, January six, is gonna
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: premieer your next show, new show Sports Teler with Steven A. Smith,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: which is the NBA centric show, and then the following
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: week the premier of steven A's World. Tell us about
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: stephen A's World. Well, stephen A's World is a new
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: show that's gonna be on ESPN Plus. And as you
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: articulated earlier, the only reason that it's not gonna be
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: five days a week is because I have to do
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: the Sports in It with Steven and a Smith show
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: on ESPN every Wednesday, not every Wednesday, but most Wednesdays.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: So because of that, is gonna be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and Fridays. And the reason why I'm so incredibly excited
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: about that is number one, Um, it's pulling it's my show.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: It's pulling me away from the big format. It's not
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that I don't enjoy it, but you know, a lot
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: of times you have to depend on others, you know,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: in terms of being on air, because again, the debate
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: involves not just you but the person that you're debating
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and beyond this is my show, this is me and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: not only am I the host of the show, but
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I'm also going to be the executive producer of the show.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And I have my own production company which is Mr.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: S a S Productions, and that's going to be co
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: producing it as well. Um and as you well know
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: because you're my right hand man. Uh, it's something that
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: is very incredibly important to me in terms of showing
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: my production chops as it pertains to content, and beyond
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: just knowing just showing showcasing what I know how to do,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: in terms of knowing how to generate and create content
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that I think that the public would be interested in seeing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: And the thing about it is that it's not just
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: in the world of sports. It's beyond. Yes, I can
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: create sports content for ESPN Plus or what have you,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: but there are things that I can do for Walt
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Disney as well, along with others. Because I've got the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: kind of contract where obviously, as an employee of ESPN
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: and Walt Disney, you know they're gonna get first looked
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: at it at anything, but in the event that they
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: decide to move in a different direction or what have you,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I have the freedom to venture beyond that, to go
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to other folks to really show that I can create
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: content for different venues and different genres and things of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that nature. So I'm incredibly excited about it. Um efty
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: three years of age. So you know, I didn't want
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to have my career complete, the continue and dependent on
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: me being in front of the camera. I wanted to
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: step behind the camera and showcase what I could do
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in that regard as well. And that's what I'm gonna
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: have the opportunity to do here. Okay, a lot of
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: information you gave me, stephen A, but I still don't
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: know what Stephen AG's world is. What steven a world
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: is a half hour talk show, Uh, it's a half
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: our talk show is essentially where you're gonna still see
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: my takes, open and common closing comments. But I want
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: to bring a bit of levity to the situation. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to show the lighthearted side of me because my
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: ultimate aspiration is to show that I could host the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: late night show. Uh, similar to what Arsenio Hall did,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the Great Johnny Corstins, Jay Lenos, David Letterman is Jimmy
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Kimmel's Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Gobel, all of these guys a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: tremendous respect and admiration for what they do. Uh is
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: something that I want to do moving ahead in the future,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: um for the foreseeable future. I don't know how soon
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that will happen, but I'm confident that I'll be able
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: to showcase what I can do in that regard and
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: that opportunities will be created moving forward into the future
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: in regards to that. So it's gonna be a half
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: hour talk show. I'm gonna give you my takes, but
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you're gonna see me bring Stephen a baby, Stephen as
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that makes you just be love doctor when I you know,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I sto from Martin Lawrence because that's one of my
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: all time favorite comedians and I religiously watched the show
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Mark and every chance I get. I've seen practically every
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: single episode all the years that he was on, and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite all time episodes was when he
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: played the Love Doctor, you know, where he gave relationship
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: advice and things of that nature. So things like that,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: just to have a lot of fun, laughter and bring
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: a bit of levity to the situation, It's something that
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: I want to do. And you know, of course I'm
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: gonna be interviews are gonna be incorporated into the show
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: as well. But I want people to come on the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: show to know that I'm bringing them there to celebrate them,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Celebrate what they wanted, what they're doing, celebrate their accomplishments,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: celebrate the visions that they have for themselves moving into
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the future and beyond. These are all the kind of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: things that I'm thinking about, and that's what I'm excited
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: about looking forward to when it comes to my own show,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: because I think that even though people have seen that
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: side of me Rashaan, they haven't seen enough of it,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: and I'm anxious to show it. Why Why has baby
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: stephen A become a phenomenon? Uh? I give ESPN social
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: media folks all the credit in the world, because essentially,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: what they've done is they've team takes that I've been
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I've given, whether it's on Sports Center or whether it's
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: on first take, and what they've done is they've super
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: imposed the baby faced stephen A and you alter the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: voice a little bit, and all of a sudden, you
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: see this baby version of stephen A. You know, given
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the same takes that I gave on first take. So
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: it's their brilliance, their creativity. I gotta give them all
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: the credit in the world. My social media guy, Brendan Kaminski, Uh,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: he definitely spearheaded that Mike foss wooll be working on
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: my new show along with yourself. Uh, he had a
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: lot to do with that as well. I take no
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: credit in doing that. Whatso if I give them all
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the credit in the world for their brilliance and their creativity,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: they deserve a lot of credit for coming up with
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: that because it's absolutely hysterical and everybody loves it. I'm
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: laughing because of the fact that you know, they've done
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it on a lot of people, stephen A. That's why
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I gotta bring it. But it just went over the top.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: It just blew up in social media with you. Wasn't
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: because first of all, when I when I'm looking at you,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: now I can see the baby stephen A, and it
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: really does look like a smaller version of you, but animated, agitated,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: agitated like hyper so well, they didn't fake the animated part,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you know, that was definitely me. They just attached the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: baby face to it and altered the voice. But that
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that animation, that definitely was me. And that's always been me.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: A lot of times people get upset and it's not
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: even for the things that I say. It's the way
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: that I say it, but I quickly remind them in
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: people who know me well quickly remind folks he's always
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: been that way. That's the way he talks. You know.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'm mellow and I'm cool. I'm doing an interview.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Certainly by mental what have you, calls for a more
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: cerebral approach to things. But when you're talking sports, you're excited,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you're animated, you're enthused, you're emotionally invested. And so as
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a result of that, I try to bring that to
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the airwaves because that's what people expect. It More importantly,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that's who I am. I'm not faking who I am
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination, because I think that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the death now in this business is to come across
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: in authentic. So I do everything that I can to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: make sure that I'm consistently who I am right whatever
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: that makes me. And that doesn't mean I'm one dimensional,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: because there's multidimensions to me. But nevertheless, everything that you
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: see from me is a part or an element of
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: who I am, from the time I was born to
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: me being fifty three years of age right now. Now,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: now let's talk about producing. Because you're an HBCU grad
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: and you and I have been fortunate the last couple
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: of years to be you're the brand ambassador HBCU Week
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and stephen A. You've you've We've been part of registering
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: on this spot over two thousand students to attend HB.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: She used and raised over eleven million dollars in scholarships
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: for students to attend. HBC used, how do you feel
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: about that? Man? That's pretty powerful. Well, I'm incredibly proud, um,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: so you know, and I'm humbled. I'm humbled that I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: could find a way to have that kind of impact.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: But to be quite honest with you, Rashawn, I'm also humbled, uh,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: primarily by people like yourself. Um, you know, who's the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Who's the brain you know, basically you're the brain child
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: behind all of this, and I think it's important that
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: our audience, that your audience knows this. I wasn't thinking
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: about being a brand ambassador. I've always been happy to
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: give back of the promise that I made to my
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: late coach Clarence Big House Games from Whist the sale
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: of State, was that I would never forget and that
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I would always get back because that's all he ever
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: asked of me. He never asked to think of me
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: other than to never forget my alma mater and always
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: contribute to my alma mater and HBC used overall as
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: much as I possibly could. That's all he ever asked
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: me in return. And I'm it a vow to him
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: a long time ago that that's exactly what I would do.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And so for me living up to my promise to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: him is a very very big deal. Um. And obviously
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I've tried and I've strived to do that, but in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: terms of HBCU week, I never saw that coming. A
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: guy by the name of Rashad mcdonna rolled up on
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: me and said, listen, man, I think you should do this.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Here is the plan, this is what kind of impact
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I think you can have. This is what I need
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: from you in order to do this. And so I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: think one of the things that it's incredibly important for
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: folks on the come up to recognize and even those
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: who have made it, uh, in case they don't learn
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: a lesson, never refrain from giving credit to those who
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: deserve it. If you're confident enough in yourself and what
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you bring to the table, you don't have to deny
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the alkalais and the adulation and others so richly deserved.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: And so when it comes to HBCU week, yes I
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: am the brand ambassador. Yes my name has been attached
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to it. As a result of that, eleven point four
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: million scholarships and been in leve point four million and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: scholar chips have been given out. All of that is true,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: but none of that would have happened if you didn't
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: bring it to me. You were the one who brought
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: it to me. You were the one who asked me
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: to do it. You would have one to who employed
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: me that this was a good thing. And you gotta
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: remember you're also the one that is still the confidence
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to me, because I was saying me, I would have
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: that kind I mean, damn, I work, what's the big deal?
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I mean sure, And like Stephen as telling you, just
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: listen to me, I'm telling you trust me on this,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: and so I listened to you, and that it happened
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: from that. So I'm incredibly grateful to you. I'm incredibly
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: grateful to my sister Carmen, who's an educator, my sister Linda,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: who's an educator, who also were behind the scenes encouraging
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: me to do it. You've got people like that in
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: your life that have a vision for you that you
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: don't see for yourself, but you trust them enough to
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: listen to them. Um, just because you did doesn't mean
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: that they don't deserve credit for what you ultimately receive
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: actulation for. And so I just want to thank you.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: I want to thank my two sisters, Linda and common Um,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: and I want to thank obviously everybody else Ashton Cooper
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and Earl and Ellis who are Mayor PERSICKI and Delaware
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Uh Senator Coon and others. I just can't thank everybody
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: enough for their involvement in it, because it was certainly
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a collective effort that made this successful, regardless of my
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: face being attached. And my man David Robins, that's right.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: And of course David rob Its my boss at espn UM,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: who's who's the greatest boss that I've ever had. He's
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: tyrannical about winning, make a mistake about it. That's who
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: he is. He is about winning at all courts, anything
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: he touches. Uh. He's is just ultra ultra determined for
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: it to be successful. And and he deserves credit, and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Norby Williamson deserves credit because if they did not give.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Norby Williamson is an executive VP at ESPN. Dave Roberts
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: is a senior VP at ESPN. If they did not
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: give the okay for us to do the show for
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: HBCU week Live from Delaware State, it would have never happened.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: And so it's incredibly important to remember people realize. Sometimes
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: people don't realize that I'm not the boss. You know
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: at ESPN. They are. And when I went and asked
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: them to do first take from that locale, they literally
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: said yes, in two seconds, Yes, it is the two
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: seconds and I'm telling you what the pop seconds it
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was very amazing. There's another HBCU project, Doctorseries that I
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: mentioned in your opening credits, or the NBA Superstar Chris
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: paul Uh talked us about that. It seems like a
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: natural participation being that you played basketball in Winston Salem State,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: it is an HBCU school, and you went to school
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: in the state of North Carolina. Talk about this this
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: premier on ESPN Plus. Well, I'm not at liberty to
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: get into it right now. CP three and his brother
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: want me to wait until there with me to to
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: really get into it. And what I can tell you
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: is that It's a project essentially that's going highlight of
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: particular school and a couple of athletes from no school,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and it's going to highlight a particular basketball program and
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: just basically highlighting some of the challenges UH you know
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that that HBCU programs face. UM I was called by
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: them and ESPN and asked to be an executive producer
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: on this particular project, which I was obviously incredibly honored
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: to do. UM CP three is somebody that I respect
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and admire a great deal. UM I think he does.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: He's a fabulous basketball player and somebody that I think
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: is a future Hall of Famer because he's one of
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the great quintessential point guards to have ever played the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: game of basketball. But what a lot of people don't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: realize is that as fiery as he is on the court,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he's just as as as enthusiastic and tenacious about contributing
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: UH to various communities, various African American communities throughout this
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: country and certain causes that would help elevate the profile
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of of of African Americans in this nation, particularly as
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: it pertains to HBC using beyond. So he deserves an
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: incredible amount of credit and to be the great basketball
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: player that he is, combined with being the president of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the player NBA Players Association, Uh, combined with his philanthropy
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and what have you. Uh, He's just one of the
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: true true role models. And even though I have to
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: sit up there and cover the sport of the NBA
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and call it like you know, I will um and
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: call it like I see it. Uh, it just doesn't
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: take away from the fact that this is a guy Um,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that I have incredible, incredible admiration for Um, and I'm
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: honored to be working with him on this project and
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: on it that I was asked to be an executive.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about something you can talk about, Dough.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: You're acting acting Brick on the popular ABC soap opera
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: General Hospital Premiers episodes premier January. Trust Man, you know
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: sometimes you called me man. You get so excited going
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to do your tapers of General Hospital. Man that really,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: first of all, you grew up watching soap problems. Let's
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: talk about that the biggest thing. That was the biggest
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: thing for me. You know, I don't consider myself an actor.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: They say otherwise, they think that I'm pretty damn good.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Frank Valentine, Uh, for the executive producer for General Hospital.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: They brought me on and like two thousand and sixteen
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: or seventeen, and they asked me to make an appearance
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: as a character named Brick. I did show up in
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: General Hospital in two thousand and seven. It was like
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: a ten second scene or whatever, and that was all.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: But this is years later and Frank Uh the General
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Hospital asked me to come on and play a surveillance
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: expert named Brick. And obviously I've been watching the soap
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: since I was eight years old. So the star of
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the show, which is Maurice Bernard, who has become a
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: very dear friend of mine. Um and he's he plays
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the character Sonny Corinthos in General Hospital. I'm his sibilance expert.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: He's the head of the mob. I'm his surveillance expert.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And so I did one scene with him and he
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: looked at me and said, whoa. He said, you're a natural.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Then executive producer right downstairs in the middle of the
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: scene and he said you you've never done this before.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I said no, sir. He said, would you have time
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to do this in the future, And I said why?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: He said, I want to make this a recurrent world,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: we want to create this character for you because they
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: liked it that much, and so I immediately jumped at it.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I was incredibly, incredibly honored um and ever since then
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: they've had me on. I went from having three lines
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: to the very next time I appeared, they gave me
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: forty lines, and ever since then, there's been thirty forty
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: fifty lines spanning two or three shows or what have you,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: that I've been doing. And you know, for me, I
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: always try to tell folks my number won't focus is
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: to make sure I don't forget my lines, because when
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you do that, you mess it up for everybody else
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: because if they remember their lines with the union workers
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and the time they spend doing all of this stuff,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: they've got to do it over and stuff like that.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: So you gotta make sure you're on top of your game.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: But ultimately, I have a lot of fun on. I've
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: grown to really really love it, and now I am
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: interested in acting more and more because here's the thing
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: that I've grown to appreciate about these wonderful actors that
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: I've run across. First of all, Maurice Bernard, like I
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: told you for General Hospital, of the guy that plays
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Victor Newman on Young and ar Restless. Eric Braden. He's
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: one of my dear, dear friends. He met he and
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I met years ago. Ever since then, we're in separable.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: We talk all the time. We have lunch or dinner
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: every single time I'm in Los Angeles and what have you.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And I actually introduced him and Maurice Bernard, the two
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: biggest soap opera stars. They had only met one another
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: once crossing path. They had never sat down and broke bread.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: And I actually took the two of them out to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: dinner years ago so they could meet and break bread.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And both of them are my friends. And I can't
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: say enough about them in a kind of advice that
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: they've given me about acting, knowing that I wasn't necessarily
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: trying to be an actor, but if you're gonna do it,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: damn it, try to do it right. And who's better
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to learn from than two of the best that I've
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: ever done it in soap operas. And so you know,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I remember that and the advice. You know, because Denzel
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: is a huge basketball fan, Denzel Washington, and I ran
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: across him, and I run across him a lot of
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Laker games. At one time we had the pleasure of
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: hanging out one evening and I asked him about the work.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: One time when I interviewed me, he called into my
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: radio show and he said, the final product is for
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the fans. I'm about the work, the process, the grind,
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the day in and day out, meticulous, tedious work that
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you have to put into perfect your craft. And the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: reason why that resonated with me so profoundly, Rashauna, is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: because that's what I attached to all my work. Everybody
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: right now is celebrating Stephen as World coming on ESPN Plus,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: or they're talking about my sports and it was Stephen A.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Smith the NBA Show, or they're looking forward to the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: new year, or it would first take. All I think
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: about is going day to day and making sure that
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: I do everything that I can to deliver to the
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: audience what their expectations are of me and to exceed
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: those expectations. And I let everyone else judge the final product,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: because once that's finished, I gotta work the next day.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I don't have the luxury of sitting around and celebrating
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: what I've accomplished when I got worked to do to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: make sure that I deliver the audience. What's been promoted. Now,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: we thought we would be celebrating this movie in the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: month of January, but because of COVID and eighteen they
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: released rechanged the release date to May fourteen. And this
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: is an animated movie called Rumbles and You basically playing
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: yourself or sports analysts of Sports Cast and at the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: w w E is one of the producers of this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: project along with Paramount Animation. Now that steven A you
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: know I've seen this one, I'm just tell you'all some
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: about stephen A. Stephen A is one of the most
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: talented people I've met in this business. But also he
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: tends to not understand how talent he is. And that's
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: not the insult, because he will give you a hundred percent.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And the reason I say that because just like he
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: was shocked when it came down to General Hospital, said, wow,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I always telling me it' funny. I don't believe there.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I don't believe every sewan you keep saying I'm funny.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: One of the funniest people I met, now rumble. When
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I saw the traiload on that I was blown away,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: and I should you said that that that that works
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: for you? I go man, it's outstanding. And so let's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: talk about how your character in Rumble Groom every time
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you went into a looping of the movie. Well, it's
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: voiceover work, and so what happens is is that you know,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: people usually want you to do what they see you
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: do on television. And my whole point is, you know,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: one of the things that I learned from the voiceover
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: work is that your cadence, your tenor all of those
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: different things, just like you do in television, there's a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: time and a place for everything. There's a time to
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: raise your voice, there's a time to lower it. There's
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: a time to say nothing and just use your facial expressions.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: You know, is there's a time and a place to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: utilize all of these uh things that are available to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: you and are at your disposal. And so the same
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: as applicable to when you're doing voice over work. They
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: might want you to do X, Y and Z. But
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: if you have a feel for the character, the more
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you have a feel for the character, the more you're
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: asking you the more you're asking of yourself to deliver
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: in certain different things. You know, you might be called
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: upon to be a bit more animated. Some instances may
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: call may call you the dollar back. And so you
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: have producers, executive producers and the like. They have an
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: idea what they want, but when they call you, you
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: also got to remind them that you're somewhat of the expert. Like,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: for example, if you were asking me to just be
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: the actor on on on on the General Hospital, well
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: you can. I can defer to the executive producer all
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: day every day because that's what they do. But to
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: voice over work. You asked me to come on and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to be a sports announcer US for Broadcastle, Well that's
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: what I do every day. So when you came to
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: me and asked me to give this line to that line,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm like, no, that doesn't work here. That may not
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: work here because that's not practical. This is what we do.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: And they defer to my level of expertise because I'm
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: the one that does it every day. And so you're
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: learning what they want and what they need, but you're
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: also applying your expertise to the equations. So you're giving
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: them a fear for what this role is supposed to be.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: And in order to do that, you have to go
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: on the folks trust. You have to visualize things for
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: them as well, and when you're able to do that
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: with voice over, and then you're able to do that
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: on a soap problem, all of a sudden, you go
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: back to your regularly, daily, regular daily job and you're saying, Okay,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: these are things that you can apply to whatever you're
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: doing every day because they have this vision, but you
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: have this vision as well, and you're the one doing it.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Plus you're in tune with your audience, etcetera, etcetera. That's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: what you're trying to bring to the table, and that's
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: what I've been blessed and fortunate to be able to do.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: And you're doing a fantastic and closing Um, stephen A. Smith.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: That has become a pretty famous name, Stephen, especially to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: stephen A Park. Where did that start? The stephen A
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Smith Park? I got left back UM in the third grade.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I had a first grade reading level. I had dyslexia.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Didn't know it until later on in life, believe it
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: or not, UM, but I could not comprehend what I
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: was reading, so I got left back in the third grade.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: In June, I went to summer school. July and August
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: I completed my summer courses and as a result, I
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: was promoted back to my right grade, the fourth grade.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: By that September, I went through the fourth grade and
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I got left back again. This time I was held
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: back the whole year because I still had a first
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: grade level. And I was ridicute, because you you can
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: imagine how cruel kids can be, and I was ridicute,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: excessively laughed at. I was so embarrassed. I didn't come
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: out of my mother's house for a couple of weeks.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: It was, you know, I saw my dad in the backyard,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you know, looking at my mom and saying that, you know,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: there's not much hope for him. He doesn't have that
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: level of intellect and all of this other stuff. And
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: I remember that and I just said never again. And
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I remember my mother refusing to go along with that
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: motor thinking. He said, he just needed to work hard,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: he just needed to do his work, He just needed
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to focus, not be distracted, etcetera, etcetera. And she got
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: me a tutor. Plus I had a family friend, Plus
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I had my sister Linda, who were all collaborating with
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: my mother to teach me how to read better. And
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: it was all spearheaded by my mother's diligence and her
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: commitment and her love to me. So as a result
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: old of that, when I entered the journalism field, I
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: decided to enter the journalism field, and I had a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: byeline for the first time. I remember stephen A because
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: I used to hate my name because my mother used
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: to call me Stephen, not Stephen, and and and and
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and she used especially when she loves mad at me
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: over something. And so I hated my name at the
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: time because of how it was spelled. It wasn't spelled
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: with a V. It was spelled with a pH, and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I hated that. And so as a result of it,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: once I once I got to college and I was
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: an honorable student um, and I had my byeline for
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the first time. It was the tribute to her, stephen A. Smith,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: because that was me saying thank you, mommy, I love you,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and you were right all along. My name. Ain't that bad,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: It's okay. And it's a tribute to her. And that's
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the only reason why I had the A in the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: middle of my byeline, stephen A. Smith. It was because
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: my name is Steven Anthony Smith. And she used to
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: say Stephen or Steven or Stephen Anthony whenever she was
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: upset with me, and that's why they liked my name.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So once I finally was succeeding, and not only succeeding,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: but in the field of journalism, and I had a byeline.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: The byeline was a tribute to honor heart awesome brother, Stephen.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: And you never failed to, uh not emotionally uplift me.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: You're motivational, but in part I'm happy and part of
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: this ride. Man. All right, this is you know, this
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: is a half hours went by real fast, and uh,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: I wanna thank you for coming on money making conversation.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I'll be seeing you in a couple of weeks, not
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: even a couple a couple of weeks. Well, well, I
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: want to thank you. You've been an incredible help. I'm
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: proud to be working with you. I'm proud to have
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you as my ace. Uh. You know you're gonna be
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: executive producing my show alongside me. You're my number two
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: or you're my business manager, and you're somebody that I
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: trust and and have a profound level of respect and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: love for our set. Everything that you've done for me,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: you know, I still want you to change that laugh
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and I'd like you to get rid of that damn beard.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: It's so thick. You know what I'm saying, Shave it
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: up just a little bit. I don't know. I don't
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: know why you got on a three piece suit with
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: your jacket closed while you're talking to me while I'm
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: on vacation. But that's Michellan, that's who you are. So
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: you know, knock yourself out. There's only one you, my brother.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I understand it. I get it, and I'm cool with it.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man. We talked so with Steven. Let
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: you it's finally here, the season of celebration, and no
• 29:37
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• 29:40
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• 29:44
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• 31:32
  Speaker 1: more from Marsan McDonald and Money Making Conversations Don't touch
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: that dot Hi. I am Rashan McDonald, host of Money
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Making Conversation dot com. The Cafe Mocha Swag Award is
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: a celebration of black men making a difference in our
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: community by empowering others to reach their life goals. They
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: can be civic leaders, people in business, activists, celebrities and
• 31:50
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  Speaker 1: this weekend Kevin blood Sell Don't limit your Dreams. Kevin
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: is a two time who Do Awards winner for Best
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• 32:01
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• 32:05
  Speaker 1: from the streets of Compton, California into an international empire,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: from Libra in Hollywood to Crown Casino and mail Burne Australia.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I don't give to be blessed I'm blessed, so I give.
• 32:17
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• 32:20
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• 32:22
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• 32:26
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• 32:28
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• 32:32
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• 32:35
  Speaker 1: back to money Making Conversations. I'm your host, Sean McDonald.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: My next guest is Marianna Venzeller. She's an award winning
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: investigative journalists. She's the co founder of Muck Media and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the host of Executives executive producer of Trafficking with Marianna Vanzeller.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: She wanted to do point a War for fusion investigation
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Death by Fentonal when she tracted pharmaceutical and clandestine sources
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: of the Daily Deadly Opiard for her port Rape on
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: the Reservation, you see received the prestigious Living Stain Award
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: for Young Journalists and a documentary on prescription joke abuse
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: and peel trafficking the Oxy Cockton, Oxy Coach and Conton Express.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: We're honored to have on the show because she was
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: honored by the Peaboardy Award. She's on the show to
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: talk about the show that airs every Wednesday on National
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Geographic Traffic It with Marianna Benzella. Please welcome to money
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: making conversation. She scares me, but I respect her. Marianna
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: ben Zella, how are you doing there? Kind great or so?
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having First of all, let's
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: talk about this show that you know. Your background tells
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the story. Your your your investigative reporter. And I'm gonna
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: just tell you my little history about people who are
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: respect like they're Christianna and poor of a CNN. I'm
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a big fan of her. In fact, my daughter's name
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: comes from her. And so when I look at investigative reporters,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I look at that type of person who goes behind
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the scenes. The story is sometimes bigger than their own safety, Okay,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: and I look at it like you, how did you
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: get into that? And what mindset drives you for a
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: series like that? There's appears of National Geographic. Absolutely, I
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: can tell you how it all started, and it started
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: pretty early on when I was twelve years old. Essentially,
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: I used to watch the night news show with my
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: family growing up in Portugal and I've listened to these
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: anchors on Portuguese television talk about what was happening all
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: around the world with so much knowledge. I had no
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: idea they were reading from a teleprompter. But that was
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: when I decided, Okay, this is it. I want to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: be a journalist because I want to travel around the
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: world and gain all this knowledge about the world. And
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: so it's sort of launched me into my quest, which
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't always easy as coming to the United States and
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: doing journalism here. Now this series, Uh, you know, you
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: have a company. I mentioned it in the in the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: title Muck Media. What exactly is MUK Media? Well, Monkey
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: is a much Media is a media production company. We
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: do everything from documentaries, docuseeries and uh we've you know,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: produced a bunch of couple of award winning documentaries recently
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: which I'm really proud of. And now we have this
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: new series on National Geographic Channel which I'm not only
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: the host but also the executive producer, which cares a
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: lot of weight. I'm very familiar with the power and
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: executive producer. You know the bottom line, you know the
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: creative line, and your decision maker. But more importantly, you're
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: the talent, the lead talent. Now you mentioned that you're married,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: and I'm looking at these titles. Let's go through some
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: of the storylines. Illegal firearms that sounds dangerous, Steroids you
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: can get by with that, lottery's camps, cocaine that sounds dangerous,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: counterfeit currency that sounds dangerous, fentonel that can be dangerous,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: Tiger trade that sounds dangerous. Okay, how does he take
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: all this responsibility within himself? And that's the world that
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you live in. Did you operate out of because it
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: is dangerous though, correct it is. I've been covering black
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: market for over fifteen years, almost my entire career as
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: a journalist, and the reason why mainly is because I
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: realized very early on that we know so much about
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: the legal economy, the formal economy. You know that we
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: have television stations, magazines, organizations devoted to analyzing all the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: twists and turns and up and downs, all the ideas,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: everything that happens in the formal economy. And yet this
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: informal economy, these black and gray markets, actually make up
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: for half of the global economy, and we know so
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: very little about them. So I saw this sort of
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: opportunity to do a whole show wherein each episode we
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: explore these black markets and we see who what we
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: can learn from them and who also who are the operators?
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Who are these traffickers and smugglers. Do you can see
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: yourself courageous. I'm not comfortable with patting myself in the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: back like this, but I will tell you one thing.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I think in a battle in my head between fear
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: and curiosity, curiosity ton to win always and sometimes that's
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: not such a good thing, but mostly it's sort of
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: where it's in my favor. Well, when you say that
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: our readings of extra information about in a different commercials
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: of interviews, you say that sometimes you feel being a
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: female can be an advantage in the type of stories
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: that you're pursuing, Explain that, Yeah, absolutely, I've learned that
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: also early on in my career. I think that women
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: are seen as less threatening, especially in sort of a
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: male dominated world such as black markets around the world. Um,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I also think that in so many of the places
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: that I've been, I've been told that I've been the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: only woman who ever stepped But in those locations such
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: as undisclosed cocaine and uh, you know, meth labs, drug
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: labs around the world, So I think there's a novelty
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: aspect to that as well. That's sort of disarming for
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: the people that I'm interviewing. And I also think and
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I think perhaps this is the most important reason why
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I think women tend to be more empathetic. They turn
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and tend to sort of, uh, you know, relates to
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the world around on them with more empathy and less judgment.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: And I think that goes a long way in the
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: way that I approach my journalism and the reason to
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: why I gain access into these worlds because I make
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: it very clear from the start that even when I'm
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: talking to people that I you know, that are part
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: of these cartels or these criminal organizations, that I am
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: there to listen to their stories. And of course I
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: do not condone what they do, but ultimately my job
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: is to listen to their stories. So I'm there to
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: listen and not judge. Well, you know, you the word cartail,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: you know, drug dealers. You know a lot of people
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: don't walk away for those conversations. How do you from
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: a mindset standpoint, because you're US an actual national geographic
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: you're going under that, so that helps you maybe calm
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: them down that you're not coming in there from a
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: ded age, and but they are still suspicious. You're talking
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: about people who really want to survive and know they
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: have a short term of success. How do you rationalize
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: because because you're a different person, understand this, I'm coming
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: from a person that I would never do what you
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: can do because you're special, you're unique talent that can
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: be doing an interview in a very violent and potentially
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: dangerous situation and potential life during this situation and remain calm.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: That's very important because you can't exhibit inequalities. There's something's wrong.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: If they saw your nervous or saw you sweating, that
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: could signal that this can be something that you're not saying.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: It is gonna happen. It may go differently. How do
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: you break down those different steps? Securing the story, then
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: proceeding through the process of securing the interview, and then
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: protecting their identity because that's equally important to your survival. Absolutely,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: so so much happens before we actually hit the groat.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: You know so much. Uh, making sure that you know
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: that we are we're the safest, that we're minimizing the
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: risks at every turn. Um, you know, because ultimately no
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: story is worth the life of absolutely, but once we
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: do get there, and and then there's also so much
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that happens for it to sort of convince people to
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: allow us into their worlds and to give us access
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: into these black markets. And I think you mentioned it,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: and it is the biggest fear that almost everybody has
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: when operating in these markets is the fact that they
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: want to absolutely make sure that we're not law enforcement.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: That's always the biggest fear. So there's all these underground
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: what I call these underground first dates, which is these
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: moments where sometimes they want to meet the whole team.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just me but with no cameras, no audio, nothing, uh,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: just to meet me and to make sure that I
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: am in fact who I say I am, which is
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: a journalism I'm not law enforcement. So that takes Usually
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: there's drinks involved and there's a lot of conversation, just
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: again to make sure that we can trust each other.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: And then actually the most important thing to make sure
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: that I that myself and my team say safe is
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: that we have to be able to trust to treat
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: people with trust and respect. And if we treat people
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: trust and respect, usually they treat us with trust and respect.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: That so if I were to show up and if
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: I was of this and suspicious, and if I showed
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: up with you know, a big group of bodyguards and
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: security with with guns or whatnot, or with even with
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: a body flat jack, any of that, I'm essentially giving
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: them the message that I don't trust them and I
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: don't feel comfortable with them, so with them. So, I
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: think one of the most important things, and really the
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: key is to show them that, after all this time
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: that we spent talking before we even bring our cameras,
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: that I am here to listen to your stories and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I trust you and I respect you, and and that
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: goes such a long way. Okay, here's something interesting here.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I got the fact that you want to get the story.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Why do they want to tell you their story? Yeah,
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: it's a great question. I think it's a combination of factors.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: I think ego places along role in it. You know,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: these are people that are some of the best in
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the business. Is what they do. You know, the best
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: cocaine chemists, the best person at making fake US dollars,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the best um sentinel rapper, whatever it is. And sometimes
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: many times they at least don't even know what they do.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: So we give them an opportunity by this guy disguising
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: their faces, changing their identities, even changing their voices at times,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: to be able to talk to us and tell us
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: what they love to do and what they're so passionate
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: about or what they're so good at doing. Secondly, I
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: think it's impunity, you know, and a lot of these
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: parts of the world, they've been able to operate for
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: so long with complete impunity. They don't really see you
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: down silent speaking to National Geographic And then I think lastly,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: it's this very human quality that we all want to
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: be understood. They know full well that as traffickers, as criminals,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: are as outlaws, they are considered to be the bad
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: guys in our society, and a lot of times they
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: go into those businesses because of a lack of opportunity,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: and we give them a chance to tell us their
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: stories and to perhaps be even for just a little
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: bit to be understood. Well, you know, when I look
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: at it, when I look at some of the storylines
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: on the subject title illegal firearms, I understand that impact
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: a lottery stamps, you know, people mislay cocaine, uh the
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: counterfeit currency. That scares to me the most because that
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: can that can bring down um an economy. You know,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: you don't know this money just being flown out to Fenton.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: All steroids. Now, steroids seems to be a drug that
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: somebody wants to take it, unlike cocaine. How does that
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: How does that impact people in general steroid use? Yeah,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: it's incredible, you know, it was of all of those,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: I think it's the one that I knew on one
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: of the ones that I knew the least amount about it.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: And what I hadn't realized and we came to discover it,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: it's reporting in this episode was that it's truly all
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: around us. And I used to think that people doing
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: steroids where either you know, athletes are doing it eagerly,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: or it was being done in gyms but sort of
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: in the seeing secret locations or bodybuilding competitions. But what
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize is that we spoke to suburban moms
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: we're taking steroids, teenagers still in high school who are
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: taking steroids. It is a it's become sort of a
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: phenomen I know that is happening all around us. We
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: filmed with a steroids dealer who was going from Jim
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: to jim selling steroids inside locker rooms in the gym.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: We filmed him also as he went to a parking
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: lot to meet a dad whose kids go to the
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: same school as his kids, and we saw a steroid
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: deal happening right out in the open um. You know,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: they weren't even trying to hide it. So it's it
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: was a lot more widespread than I initially knew it.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Wass I measue this because you're saying that, So if
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: somebody is dealing in steroids, will they get the same
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: uh police attention as somebody dealing in crack or cocaine
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: they do? You know, it's complicated. Um, it's sort of
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a gray market about how much
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: you can't sell. You're not supposed to sell it without prescription. Uh,
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to require it without prescription. Um. But
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: it's a lot more of a gray market than it
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: is let's say, fens and though you know which is
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: well stay this drug in America. So there is a
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: little bit of a grain market. And in fact, one
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: of the main car characters in our film is a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: guy called Tony Huge who not only has sort of
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: a hidden underground lab where he's making a lot of
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: these performance enhancing drugs. He's also administering it on himself
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: out in the open. We didn't have to disguise his
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: identity at all. He was very much having the open.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: We also saw him and minister some of the drugs
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: he makes to another to a kid who was entering
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: a bodybuilding competition. And so it's a little bit of
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: a grave market. But but you know, there are have
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: been criminal cases and there are law enforcement agents. He's
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: all around the country looking into these uh you know,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: steroid illegal stele of steroid networks. Now that the one
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: one of the subject matter that jumped out because during Netflix,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: UH came to the docu sus Tiger King. You know,
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: just I guess walked us down a line of like
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: disbelief and uh soap opera mockery. But amongst all that
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: was a heavy dose of reality that tigers UH be
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: used of being trained and being sold and being killed
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: when they felt there was no need to keep them
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: a lab because they were more costly. It would be
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: much cheaper to kill him than to keep them alive.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Talk about the tiger trade, UH format that you get
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: why how did they come about. Yeah, So we started
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: filming exactly year, the last November October actually of last year,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: so it was before Tiger King came out. And I
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: was happy to see when Tiger King came out because
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: although I do think it's focused made me on the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: wild characters in this you know, tiger world here in
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: the United States, um our documentary is more about the
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: plight of the tigers worldwide. I do think it's somehow
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: shun a light on this very important topic, which is
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the plight of tigers around the world. So what we
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: came to realize when with our documentary, and one of
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: the biggest reasons why we wanted to do this documentary
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: to start with, is that there are so actually more
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: tigers in captivity in the United States than they are
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: in the wild in the entire world. So when we
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: read that, we realized immediately, Okay, this is it. We
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: have to do. Make that statement. When you make that statement,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: how do they know how that's a number? There's crazy
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: to mean somebody is more captivity than is in the Wow,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: that seems like that's a trackable number. Are they just
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: assuming that No, it's a sort of somewhat trackable. The
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: problem is that there is not a lot of enough
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: rules and regulations in the United States and enough oversight
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: tigers in the United States. But it is estimated that
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: there are around ten thousand, if not more tigers in
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: the US, usually in sort of you know, roadside zoos
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: and people's family homes, um, people who own them for
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: whatever reason because they want to own a wild tiger, wildcats.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: But in the wild there's only thirty five hundred to
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: four thousand tigers left, and it is there's a very
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: high chance and we spoke to several experts to tild
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: us that within our lifetimes we will not be able
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: to see there will not be any more tigers left
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: in the wild. And partly we have part of a
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: responsibility as to why this is happening, we as Americans. Wow.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: So with that being said, when you go through these
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: different process I've mentioned several different subject matters that you're
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: pursuing for this series. That's own National Girl and Draft
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Geographic Unit. There's everyone is they called traffic It hosted
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: by you, an executive deduced by you, um, which one
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: of them popped off and went, like you said, steroids
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: kind of caught you off guard because, like me, I'm
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: just thinking somebody out there popping up. And then you
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: mentioned and I know when my daughter had knee surgery,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: they gave us steriarts, you know, so it is it
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: is that minister for different use you know, and things
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: like that when you're recovering. Okay, but when you see
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the illegal firearms, I get that. But the things that
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: jumped out to me was the lottery scams and the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: counterfeit currency scared me because that's money that's flowing around
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: it sppoped be valid money, but obviously they figured out
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a system and they can get away with us. So
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: long would eventually make a call, they may not get called.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: So Talk walked me through the lottery scam subject matter
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and then also the counterfeit currency subject matter. Yeah, a
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: lot of Scam was one of the first episodes we filmed,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: and to me, it was a really important one to
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: make and still one of my favorite ones. And I
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: think probably because we have all sort of received those
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: phone calls where somebody says that you've won have you
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: shopped at Walmart recently, Well, you won a big prize,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and to you want of Mercedes Benz for example, and
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: all you have to do in order to receive that
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Mercedes Benz is you have to pay two thousand dollars
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: in taxes or five dollars for the transportation fee, and
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: or they'll call you and say that you owe money
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: to view electric company and they're coming and switching off
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: your electricity if you don't pay what you oh, and
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a lot of people fall for this um. I had
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: a friend here in Los Angeles who recently fell for
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: this and paid a lot of money to be supposed
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: of the electricity company that was fake. And so I
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: really wanted to find out who is it, who are
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: the people on the other side of these phone calls.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: So we travel to Jamaica, which has sort of become
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: the front lines, ground zero of scamming around the world
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: for these what are called lottery scams. And it was
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: fascinating to meet the people on the other side of
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: the land the line and figure out why they do
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: what they do, how much money they're making, how easy
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: it is or difficult it is for them to scam,
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: and how they get their money. Their hands on these
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: lead lists with all the names of Americans and phone numbers,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: So that was a fascinating uh journey and one of
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: my favorites for sure. And then on the other side,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: when it comes to counterfeit money, it is actually the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: second oldest profession in the world. It's uh making faith
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: us dollar or fake dollars, fake money in general. And
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: it turns out that over sixty of the fake dollars
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: that are in circulation all around the world are made
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: in Beru. So when we read that and we realized
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: this is such a good and important story for us
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: to do, to head over to Peru to Lima and
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: meet with They're only a handful of families mostly. It's
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: a family network, family bus that operate in these very
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: having the open sometimes in these printing shops essentially printing
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: thak u s dollars and then finishing each single one
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: by hand to make them look exactly like the real deal. Wow,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you know I would go. Let me go back to
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: the Lodder's gam. I I know, I got a call
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: and uh and I'm I'm spoke to the guys. Been
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: through that done, but been that done? That about our
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: own money to the U. S government, And I mean
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: shook me up. And the only thing really helped me.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: I called my accountant and said hey, call this person.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: This person is saying that owe money. Otherwise I could
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: have been a victim if I didn't have those resources.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Because I'm just on this interview. I just gotta let
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, to be why was somebody to
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: do that? Well, if you get that call, they can
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: sound very authentic. And nobody wants to go to jail,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: want no, especially nobody wants to owe the government. And
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: sometimes you don't know if you don't owe the government.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: So if somebody tell me you can remit a problem,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: if you don't do it, you can go away if
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: you take care of it right now. You take care
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: of it right now. And so what might be five
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: hunt all, make five hunt all? They may have done
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: a hundred times, so you know that's how they make
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: their money. You know, it might not be a It
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: might have got just five hundred or thousand. Imagine if
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: they got a thousand times. And that's that's what they're
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: working on. That rotation number there, that that allows you
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: to get up there, to be able to build momentum
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: to scam people. And so I just want to thank you.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: I want, I wanted you one of my favorite people.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: I've been waiting all day to interview, because I you know,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: you're courageous, your hero. And then, like I said, a
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: lot of people can't do what you do and you
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: accept that, you know and accept that you're you're a
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: special person. From that standpoint, I'm just telling you from fact.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: You know, I've been in this business a long time
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: and to see your story. I am a fan. You know.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: I love the work you've done. We talked more, which
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: was fantastic. When I saw that, I fell in love
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: with you even or because I mean, you can you
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: can tell a story from compassion, You can tell a
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: story from from dangerous situations that even life threatening to you.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: But throughout all your calm and that's what you're doing
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: is and if you calm your fluent and don't stop,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: and I hope for hope, you know, in the future
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: I can bring you on my show and talk about
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: other future projects. But every Wednesday on National Geographic is
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: your show? Anything else? Before you wrap up? Oh no,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you so much for
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: all those kind words, and I love to be If
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: if this is how are you going to talk about me?
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna call on this show all the time. Happen
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: so I really appreciate Now you're fantastic to show it
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: fantastic and again I'll do my best to promoting on
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: all different levels of my social media and digital platforms.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: But more importantly, you know is the year of the
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: female and you are leading away my friend. Okay, so
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: sweet to Sean. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: We talked to whatever business here in growth isn't just
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: about getting bigger. At ADP, we believe it's about getting stronger.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: By turning data into insights so you can build teams
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: that work as teams, by using our AI technology to
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: help catch payroll errors before their errors, and by keeping
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: ahead of thousands of changing regulations so you can keep
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: ahead of everything else. ADP helps businesses like yours grow
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: stronger every day a dp HR, talent, time and payroll.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: If I could be you and you could be me
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: for just what hour? If you could find a way
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: to get inside each other's mind, walk a mile in
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: my shoes, wacome mile in my shoes, walcome shoes. We've
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: all felt left out, and for some that feeling lasts
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: more than a moment. We can change that. Learn how
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: it belonging begins with us dot org brought to you
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: by the AD Council. Welcome out in the shoes. What
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: grows in the forest trees? Sure you know what else
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: grows in the forest. Our imagination as sense of wonder
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and our family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect
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• 55:11
  Speaker 1: The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot org,
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: brought to you by the United States Forest Service and
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: the AD Council. My next guest is Robert Brace. He
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: is a celebrity fitness trainer, ordained minister, former ballet dancer
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Something I could Never do, wellness expert, motivational speaker, founder
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: and owner Braced Life Studios, and founder of the Day
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Challenge weldness program. He's known in the Finnish community as
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: the Mind, Body, Soul connector. He's been seeing on Good
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Morning in America, The View, The Food Network, Shape Magazine,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: Self Magazine, New York Daily News, Bloomberg Business and b
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: et dot com. But he's walking the money making conversation again.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: My man, is that time of the year, y'all, First
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: of the year, New Year, Get that weight off Robert Braces.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: But you know I had your last year. I had
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: to bring you back for that day talent and talk
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: to us. Oh, thank you so much for having me
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: back on especially at the beginning of the year when
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: we know so many people are thinking about their wellness,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: thinking about you know, how to elevate their mind, body
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: and soul. So this is the perfect time. So it's
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: good to be back. Well, I missed you. I was
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: in New York last the first quarter last year. Came
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: by this shop over Maulberry Street, right about their clamhouse
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: up there. How has COVID affected the fitness game man,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: because we all were shocked. You know, we were shut
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: down for two weeks, but you had to come out
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: of that. How did it a New Yorker steel that's
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: what you're based in New York City? And so how
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: each state has different rules for COVID eighteen. So how
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: has that affected your business? Well, Listen, it was devastating
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: for us in the beginning because we had spent the
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: probably six months getting ready for a big launch in March,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: and right when we were ready to kind of relaudnch
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: our brand um in the new studio, we got asked
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: to shut down. So we were shut down for six months,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: and that has affected a lot of the fitness businesses
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: in New York, especially the small operators UM and so
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: it's decimated a lot of businesses, you know. UM. But
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: at the same time, one of my phrases that I
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: use a lot is looked plans change, but purposes permanents. Right,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: So even though plans change, the your purpose, the deep
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: soul level, passionate purpose that you live by, that's permanent.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: And so my purpose is always to encourage uplift others,
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: help them make that mind, body and soul connection. And
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: so we found new ways to do that. We've created
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: a new app, the Brace Life, and uh that's going
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: to be free to everybody in January, right, free to everybody.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: You get your motivated, it should need, get your workouts,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: you get your talent. Helps us really and help me specifically,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: really focus in on what my true purpose is. And look,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: we're still here, our gym is still survived, and so
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: people are still coming, people want to work out, people
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: are seeking us out. So you know we've been we've
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: been blessed well day. That's the key people seeking you
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: out because you can promote. It's like you're having a
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: great hamburger, nobody is there to buy it. Okay, there's
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: no cases a great workout program. Talk about this the app,
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna go back to the twenty day program.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: But let's tell us about the app. So when I
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: get the word app is free? Is downloadable? Is their
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: name for the app. The app is called the Brace Life.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: All they need to do is go to the brace
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: life dot com the brace life dot com and listen.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: This is the first daily lifestyle wellness app with personalized
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: data tracking to empower your mind, body and soul lifestyle practice. Right.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: So a lot of people talk about, you know, fitness
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: sometimes usually one or two dimensional. You got your workouts,
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: you've got nutrition, You've got your workouts, maybe you have
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: your your meditation. But what we're trying to do, especially
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: during this time, Look, one thing covid n Things taught
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: us is that we can't wait to start living our
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: best lives. Right. We need to do it today in
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: every interaction, in every word spoken, and every action and reaction.
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: And so this app is designed to really help people
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: make that mind, body and soul connection right. The mind
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: being the intelligent problem solving part of you the body obviously,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: the physical aspect of who you are and your soul
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: where you feel joy, peace, love, gratitude, right, and so
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: with through workouts, meditations, and there's a lot of motivational
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: inspiration that people are going to get in this app
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: and it's going to help them really launch their year
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: in a healthy, positive way. So we're giving you everything
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: including life workouts with my team, live workouts with me
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: and so honestly, you know, what's happened this year for
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: me personally has really helped me focus and decide what
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: do I really have to give and what is this
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Mormon asking me to give? And how can I deliver that?
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: And that's how the Brace life app came about. So
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: you know, just joined go to the Brace life dot com.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: I've got you covered for your whole January and it's different.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: It's not just a regular workout mapp. You really will
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: connect your mind, your body, and your soul. Days why
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: twenty eight days? Okay, twenty eight days a signature program
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: that can't put us on the map, so to refresh people.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: This is the program that a comedian came and asked
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: me if I could get him in shape in in
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: thirty days and get six pack abbs in thirty days.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: And I just said, yes, comedian, you see a comedian. Yeah,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: he was a comedian. Mark Marco, he's a filmmaker and
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: he does these different projects, right, these insane projects. He
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: went to all Starbucks in Manhattan Island in a day.
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: And so his next insane project was, look, these fitness
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: magazines say that you can get six back adds in
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: thirty days. Can that really be done? And so he
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: came to me and I said, sure, we can do
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: it in thirty days, and we ended up doing it.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: And this was back in two thousand eleven, and that
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: video he posted it on an obscure platform and that platform,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: it got a million views, right, sorry, two thousand got
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: a million views, And so people started seeking me out
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: and since then, the Challenges has become a signature program
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: where we transform people's bodies in twenty eight days UM
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: and so uh, it's it's an intense program that that
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: is the most intense program that we offer. But it
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: comes with a meal plan. It comes with UM specific
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: cardio protocols designed to really strip down body, flat flat
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: and mold your body within a short period of time.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about it's talk about that first program.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: Let's let's slow you back down, you know, because you
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: know thirty days and you have a person who says
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: he wants it done, but really doing it for arterior motives.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: She's doing it for radio project or a doctorseries. So
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: what were the frustrations in the process and what were
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: the uplifting moments for you in that process? Are working
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: with a person there's the first time you did this
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: type of program, which is because a signature part of
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: your program. So now you know what the bumps in
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: the road are in this particular program where people will
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: push back, what the pushback was in the initial program
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: with him. I think the pushback. The one thing that
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: I remember working with market and and has shown itself
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: in subsequent clients and projects, is that people think it's
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: um People try to oversimplify it. There is a lot
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: of science and there is a lot of dedication that
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: you have to put in to make this work right.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: And so it's not just a matter of well, I'm
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: going to cut a few meals here and there getting
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: people to see the look. You can have what you want,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: it's right here, right, but you have to go through
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: steps A, B, C, and D in this order to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: get there right. And so I think initially, Mike, where
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: I had to grow is learning to communicate that in
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: a way that is encouraging and uplifting and inspiring and
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: so um in terms. So that was one of the challenges. Right,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: everybody wants what does it? Everybody wants to go to heaven,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: but nobody wants to die, right. Everybody wants to abs
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: but nobody wants to do the work right. So so
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: it's getting people through that process and helping people to
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: connect and visualize their goals and how they see themselves
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: with the work that they're putting in every single day.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: And once you make that connection, then that's like rocket fuel. Right,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: They're like, Oh, I want to be here. I can
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: see myself there, and in order to get there, all
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: I gotta do is these steps every single day and
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: stay focused on what's right in front of me. That's
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: where it becomes inspiring. And you know, Mark went on
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: and yet an incredible transformation. It's one of the most
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: dramatic transformations we've better had. And so you know, he's
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: just been one of those people who's always supported our
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: program and that we ended up one of the highlights. Uh.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: The program ended up being turned into an infomercial, and
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: so we were flown out to l A. We're on
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a sound stage, uh build for the twenty eight day challenge,
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: and Mark, who was there at the beginning, was there
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: one of those you know, big moments were graduations because
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: you know it's great. One thing I liked about that
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: whole stories when I talk about people who come on
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: my show, and I talked about the purpose of money
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: making conversation being ready and not shine away from a challenge.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: Like you said, there was something you've never done before,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: but it was presented to you. You felt that you
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: could pull it off without proper planning, but you knew
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: that you knew your brain and you knew what your
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: brain is based upon, and so a lot of people
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: shy away from That's what I always tell people. Let's
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: walking out in the dark without a flashlight, but your
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: flashlight was that your brand was on sound footing and
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: you knew how to accomplish the test. Talk about when
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: people are presenting you with ideas and how people shouldn't
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: shot away from that, and how he was able to
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: overcome that doubt when this project was presented. Uh, I
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: think that you know, everything that you do in life
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: is preparation. And when opportunities or challenges like that are
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: presented for me, you know, part of my background is
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: I'm spiritual. I was a minister for many years. For me,
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: it's um, you know, God saying to me, it's time
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: for you to be scrapped. It's time for you to
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: be uncomfortable. And that's where the blessings really come from.
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: And look, you might not be successful in every single one,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: right Listen, if you haven't failed enough, it means you
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: haven't been trying hard enough, right, But you're gonna fail
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: us some things that you're gonna learn through those failures.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, when those opportunities are presented,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: it's it's just like an opening a door to the gateway.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: You don't know what's going to come from that. You
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: don't know what's behind that door. And so so long
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: as you can stay true to your core beliefs, true
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: to your integrity, true to the trajectory that you see
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: yourself on. Right, when these opportunities present themselves, um, it's
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: it's time for me. It's always represented as an open door,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: a time to step up and discover something new. And
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: if I had not stepped up, really a huge part
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: of what has helped my personal brand and my gym
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: be successful, I would never have I would never have
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: been introduced to And that's really important. And now, now,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: when I came by your studio when I was in
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: New York, and I would look at the one let
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: you notice right now, Robert, I'd be in New York
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: two weeks a month starting you January eight. So you
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: definitely need to take this old body and kind of like,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: let's talk about my old body, because that's a lot
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: of This is the first of the year and we
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: all want to get in shape immediately, you know, But
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: there's a process, Like I've learned that. Like I'm moving
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: into a new building and I found myself going up
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: and down steps and my knees started talking to me.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: That means that my knees will say, okay, you you
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: look like you're in shape or show, but your knees
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: are not prepared for going up and down these steps.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about doing the process right with your program
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: in general, and not trying to overextend the physical capability
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: that your body is not prepared to undertake. Yes, you,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: this is really important, and I'm glad you asked this
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: question because sometimes when people like me come on a show,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: it can seem like and I've just talked about a
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: twenty eight day program, right, so it can seem like
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: you're just gonna go hard and you're gonna smash your body.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: That's definitely not where we come from. Right. My background,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: as you know, it was a professional dancers that was
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: in school. I was an athlete, and so one of
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the main things that we focus on is doing things
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: with the right form and the right technique. Right, Because
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: if you do things with the right form and you
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: may take a little more longer on the beginning end, right,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: your body is going to adapt to proper form and
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: it's going to accelerate your results. Whereas if you just
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: bang away at your body and you're not listening to
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: your body, it can exacerbate any injuries. Um and it
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: can and it can ultimately take you longer to get
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: to where you want to be. So you talk about
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: your old body, right, there's no old bodies. Your body
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: has a lot of wisdom in it. Your body has
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: been through a lot of things. I know that you
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: work out. You can set at me on that well,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: on my knees. Well, listen, your knees be talking to you,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: because they've got something to say some places, right. So
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: so since in some places there's a wisdom of the right.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: So what do I mean by that is that your
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: your body has a muscle memory, right, and so the
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: more that you train it in the right way, the
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: more that is going to adapt and respond. Right. And
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: so it's just a matter of doing things in the
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: right way over time and your body will change and respond.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: What I say to my clients is gentle uh uh,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: gentle pressure applied relentlessly, right, little general pressure applied relentlessly,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: and your body is going to change and physically, but
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: again too scientifical technical. There's this thing called specific adaptation
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: to imposed demand. If you um impose a demand on
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: your body specifically and over time, your body will specifically
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: adapt to meet that demand. And that is how it
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: will change and mold to be the body that you
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: want it to be. And that's when your serotonin goes up,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: your dolphins go up, you get the jo or you
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: get the stress relief. In addition to your body changing,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: that's what makes it a whole mind, body, and soul experience. Okay,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: that that give away the whole program. But what are
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: some of the major steps, Like, you know, I do
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: a little light workout, I do walking, I do some cardio,
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: I do so you know, do the core. What are
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: the dynamics of the twenty day program? You did say
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: there's a meal plan associated because like you said, you
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: can't go out there w b tees Burgers and try
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: to do a twenty day program at the same time.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Let's go and get that right. So right, so how
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: does this start and how does it end in that
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: twenty day period? Okay, so there are for instance, if
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: you go once somewhere at there are four signature workouts, right,
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: and they're designed to be done one after the other.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: So we start you off with a dynamic warm up.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: We teach you the principles in the in the course
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: before you even start, we show you the principles of
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: how to move your body as a principal I called
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: fierce form. So how to move your body in the
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: right posture in the right way so that you accelerate
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: your results and get everything that we've talked about. And
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: also how to engage your core engaging your core in
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the right way means that over time you're going to
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: be able to do more explosive movements faster. So we
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: progress the movements and the workorkouts in a certain way.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: And so there's the four basic ones. But then as
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: we go we'll be doing live workouts as well, so
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: people will be able to join in for free, especially
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: in January. The live workouts that are going to add
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: to those four. They see workouts and you'll see we
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: build up your core, we build up your form, then
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: we build up your power, then we build up your durance,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: then we build up your own athletic ability, and it
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: just slowly, slowly rises like this. And so within either
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: twenty eight calendar days or twenty eight actual workouts, those
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: are the two versions, you get a whole body transformation.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: And what we've added it Listen, But I want people
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: to understand is the challenge we've done all day, every day,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: and we've get We've gotten results many, many, many times,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: especially in this year. We want people to connect their
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: mind to what they're doing. And this is the reason
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: why people are coming off COVID nineteen. There's a lot
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: of anxiety, there's a lot of depressing a lot of
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: people going through many different things. Everybody has a different
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: life story. When you move your body, the thing to
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: understand is that it produces something called serotonin, which is
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: which increases your joy, increases endolphins, which takes the edge
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: off of the physical markers of stress. And especially for
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of people in black communities, you know, the
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: markers of stress are affecting us in terms of arthritis,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: um in terms of inflammation in our jointing, in our
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: arteries which can lead to heart problems, which can lead
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: to diabetes, affecting our aggestive issues. Right, And so when
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: you move, you get more serotonin tone which gives you
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: more joy, You get more endolphins, which takes the edge
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: of your stress. There's even a hormone called endo cannabinoids,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: and it increases your bliss, It helps you think more clearly,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: increases the executive functioning of your brain. So in addition
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: to a changed body, you're getting a changed mind. And
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: in addition to a changed mind, you're getting feelings of
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: of of joy, of peace. It actually increases the love hormones,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: so your ability to bond with other people. So those
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: those feelings of joy and peace, love, those are spiritual
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: soul level qualities. So you change your body, you elevate
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: your mind, and you refresh your soul. So I want
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: people to get the body change. Everybody wants to be snatched.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be looking good with their shirt off
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: or in a swimsuit. Right, we got you no problem
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: all day, every day. And in addition to that, we
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: want to give you that elevated experience. You know, rob
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: we all got the bathroom pose. You know what I'm saying.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: We look at that mirror. You're trying to get the
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: bathroom pose out of the bathroom. Right, You're trying to
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: get let me know, you know that look I'm talking about, Robert.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: We can turn left, turn right, that's right, this is
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: look right here, this is to look right there. It's
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: like that good for about five minutes. They walk out
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: of there, and the bathroom pools stays in the bathroom.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: You're trying to get the bathroom post into the general
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: public with this day program and doing such a way
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: that you don't have to scooping. That's the bathroom post.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: Come on. Now, I'm a proponent of it. I'm an
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: advocate of it. I've been doing it all my life.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: But this is one your brace life studio. I'm with
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: the mind body, so connector Robert, Brace Robert. It's the
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: first of the year. The first quarter is always that
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna save money, I'm gonna I'm gonna want to
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: live a better life. I'm gonna I'm actually keep to
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: my resolutions. A fine up. That's why we want to
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: always want to bring you on the first of the year.
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: This is this is gonna becoming like our annual our relationship,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: you know every year. Man, get a roll in twenty
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: eight days. You start in January and February Black History money.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: If you are African America, you can be motivated to
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: say I prepared to celebrate you Black History Month as
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: a celebration because you've achieved your first major goal of
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: the year, the twenty eight day talent. Now, how do
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: you sustain that desire? Robert? How do you sustain that
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: you In your last comment, just Um explained something that
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: people need to know about sustaining it right. Listen again,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: don't want to get too technical, but you've got to
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: connect your long term goals to something bigger than yourself
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: or to your bigger life goal. Right, and what I mean,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: is you just talked about Black History months right doing
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: something that we're all going to be celebrating, and that
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: is bigger than us right as it is. And look,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: there is still more work to be done in this arena.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: We've got for me in my house, and I've got
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: my daughters I've got to raise and I've got to
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: help them be more focused. I've got to I've got
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: to help them see the love in themselves and love
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: themselves so who they are too, beautiful black girls. And
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: so I need to be strong and available. And so
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: because I need to be strong and available, I need
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: physically to be where I need to be so that
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: I can give them the attention that they need, with
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: the energy that they need, so that I can be
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: there for my wife, be there for my kids. And
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: that is that's that's a belief right in the center
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: of my being. And so I make that the reason
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: why I work on my body. And we have got
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: to connect to the higher goals in our lives. Yes,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: it's been shown that when people go for just merely
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: short goals, after you reach the goal, there's a little
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: bit of a depression to go and then it's like,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: what's next, and many many programs say, Okay, you've got
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: to go onto maintenance. But maintenance maintenance is who wants
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: to just maintain? Right? People want to excel, people, people
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: want to grow, people want to elevate. I don't want
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: to spend my life maintaining, right, and so what we're
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: going to do is connect with a higher goal. Right.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: So I want to be there for my kids to
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: do this work that I do, which I consider an
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: extent ministry, right, So I need to be strong for that.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: So everybody's going to figure out what is your big why?
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: What is the big why? Um that you need to
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: take care of your body to make sure that you're strong,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: to make sure that your mental strength is where it
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: needs to be, and you're at peace in your soul. Right,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: So that's how you keep it going long term. And
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: then if you want to do a twenty eight day,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: you smash it for twenty eight days. Then you go
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: back to your lifestyle, a lifestyle regiment. And then as
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: you want to move from a lifestyle regiment to look
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: for an adventure, maybe you want to go on a hike,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: maybe you want to climb it. Then then you do that.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: But your prime goal your prime purpose is always connected
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: to why you're moving your body and why you're exercising.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: It's going to be elevated and that's one of the
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: things we talked about. We can know at the beginning
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: of the end of you. I talked about your studio
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: on one one thirty two Mallberry Street down a little
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: place I visited and peep through little door, so I
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: saw I saw a studio. It's not a big studio,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: so a studio that how many people can get in
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: your studio? And with people coming out of COVID, you know,
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: with the vaccine coming out, look, I expect people at
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: the end of the first quarter to start start coming
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: into studios starting to be reminded that they can interact,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: talk about your studio size and the location and what
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: benefits of coming to your studio. Will half of people
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: who attend? Okay, So yeah, we've got I mean, for
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: a Boutich studio, it's a decent size. We've got square
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: feet and you know what what in typical times we
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: can have a capacity of fifty people, but during COVID
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: we've produced that to sixty. Right, Well, the building has
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: the rum as a capacity fifty people, right but during
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: COVID the maximum occupancy is sixteen. But we've gone further one.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: We are we've passed our health inspection and we've gotten
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: a grade in terms of our COVID cleanliness. And so
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: we're trying to limit the amount of people in the
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: studio to just three to five clients will for the trainer, right, um,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: so that there's enough space between everybody. Everybody feels safe. Um.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: And look, we can have sixteen people in the studio,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: but we just want to go Look, if if we're
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: talking about helping people be well, then we need to
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: go above and beyond that when people are in our
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: environment that they are well and so, um and so
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: and so. Yeah, people are coming back already. We've even
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: at the end part of this year. People are in
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: the studio working out, maintaining the distance, wearing the masks,
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: getting in shape, and we're going to continue. They need
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: to do that. And we've been one of the luckiest
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Gusts of especially she has a black owned business. Take
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: that as a badge of one of for my team,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: for our clients and for everybody who's um, you know,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: come through the studio. Well, I'm talking to Robert Braids
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: you know he's gonna see me this year. Okay, Robert,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: you see me. J You know, like I said, j
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: W eight, I be up there because when I get
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: off studio. Hey, man, ain't too many things you can
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: do now with COVID. So one of the things that
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: I know I have to do is come see you. Now.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: Now with me coming up there, what type of schedule
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: would you put me on? You know, how would you
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: introduce me to your studio at one mall Berry Street.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: One of the first things is we're gonna take you
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: through the whole process, right, Um, you come in, you
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: and again it's all mine, buddy. So so you're you're introduced,
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: You get a juice shop which is designed to make
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: you more a lout, but also at the same time
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: open your heart and lungs so that your oxygen is
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: moving through your body better. Then we'll test you. I
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: will make sure that the movements that we're going to
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: do are specific to you, right, and then we'll build
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: your program, building your core, building your legs. After that
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: the focused meditation that will help you connect with your
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: goals and everything that we talked about. So we we
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: put on these noise canceling headphones, so you cancel out
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: all the noise around you. You go through this meditation
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: and you connect mm hmm with those goals that we
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. And then at the end you
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: get another juice shut again to um alive in your
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: sense and make your focus for the day. And then
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: we give you spinach extract, which is a natural way
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: for you to control your appetite. It's one of the
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: most natural things that you can do to help you
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: gain control of your appetite, especially for sugars and carbs. Okay,
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: And so you're going to get the whole treatment, right,
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: So let's go get real about this. Okay, I'm coming
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: up there. January eight. Okay, Robert, Okay, so I would
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: believe as you about in the studio January nine. Okay,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: you open on Saturdays, right, okay, Okay, cool, and so
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: can make that make that happen for you? Yeah, okay, cool,
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: because it's gonna be serious. You know, Like I said,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm a guinea pig, but you know
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a guinea pig for myself because I
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: need to. You know, I'll tell you something. You know,
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: when I was like in the eighties. You know, I
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: taught aerobics, you know, and I taught it, and so
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: so I know the the whole motivational with the first
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: of the year. I always know that people joined the
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: class at the top of the month, and as you
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: go through the month, they started dropping off, and then
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: you started zero again almost you know, because you start
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: with thirty with ten. That's usually I happened at the
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: top of the month, the first of the year. I mean,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: you can't even you don't have enough spaces. People who
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: sign up there. Everybody want to get motivated, and so
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: I noticed I know that process, and so so when
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: me going up there and talking to you, this was
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: a perfect interview for me because I know I'm going
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: up there. I know that I might have free time,
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: and so so January eight is when I'm gonna come
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: up there. So January night, let's schedule my first session
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: with you, and and let's get on the phone with
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: a couple of times, because I want to tell everybody
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: this is a real commitment to to Brace life studios.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: And we started to January nine, and I'll do with
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: some post we do we probably do some photos online
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: and saying I'm at the studio started my first day
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: of the twenty eight day challenge. Now here's my whole thing. Like, see,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: I'll be in New York January eight through the twenty second. Okay,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: then I'll go down and I'll be back into my
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: office location in Atlanta. Can I still do the twenty
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: eight day challenge even though I'm not with you? Yeah? Absolutely,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: And this is this is why we created this app.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: And I think what you're proposing is awesome, especially in January,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: because I think we're gonna do a lot of good
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: with this because while you're in Atlanta, we've got the apps,
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: the workouts on the app prerecorded, and they're gonna be
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: able to do live workouts as well, some with me,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: some with my team. Right, So if they go on
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: to the brace life dot com and just get their
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: name on that list, they're gonna and we start posting
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: together and they see your progress. Um, Yeah, they can
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: do it whether and you can do it whether you're
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: in the studio with me or whether you're in another
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: city somewhere else. And we can also do remote sessions
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: too if we want to give you know, if we
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: want to share, um, what we're going through with people
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: because we do train a lot of our clients, especially
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: during COVID remotely. Well, this is awesome. Like I said, Robert,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the show again, the Brace
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: Life Studios. I'm making a commitment to you because I
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: believe in you. And it's not so much about it's
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: being twenty eight days. I just believe in your program.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: I believe in your authenticity. I believe in the fact
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: that you are a man, committed African American entrepreneur and
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: that survived COVID and survived COVID and we know how
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: for six center those small businesses in America I be
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: shut down due to COVID and then and then and
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: travesties is called to our economic flow, especially in the
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: restaurant and the fielding live entertainment business. But you're in
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: that business of being able to health and wellness, personalized fitness,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: and I need it. I've never had anybody trained me
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: in my life. So at the age of sixty two,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: I'm allowing myself to put into your hands, my friend
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: and uh and and I do that with a smile
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: on my face. And I'm excited to get into this program.
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: And I'm not doing it just to do a documentary
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: on on a good living. I'm doing it because I
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: want to feel good about myself and that's what your program,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: I feel would do for me. And uh any closing
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: remarks on where they need to go to find out
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: about your app and put that website out for the
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: last time, Robert, Yeah, sure, Well, thank you for this
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: and thank you for trusting me. I look forward to
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: the night. If you want to join, go to the
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: Brace be our a c life dot com sign up.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: It's free for January, right, So everything that we talked
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: about here, you're gonna get the workouts, to meditations, the motivation,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: the daily journal, you know, everything that we've talked about here.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: So the Brace Life dunt come and I'll see you
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: that well, I see you on January nine, because we've
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: talked prior to that because I really want to change
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: my life and I feel the day challenge will change
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: my life in the right direction for one and onwards.
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: And I'm I'm dedicating putting you in my hands. Brace
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: Life Stales'll take care of you, man, We will take
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: care of you for sure. I'm looking forward to that. Man.
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be exciting because of the fact that I
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: like you. I like you, I like your personality, man,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: And like I said, this is the second year in
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: a row that we've talked about your program. You know,
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: I was in Earnest because I came by your place
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: and so you know something. So I've been inspired by
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: your conversation, been inspired by your brand, and so this
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: time I will get in and sit down, we're talking.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: I just want to go through an earnest program at
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: my age to be able to understand my body a
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: little bit more. I feel like I understand it, but
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: I've never understood it through a workout program. And this
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: workout program I think, I feel would benefit me and
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: also for my staff and my family and the and
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: the goals I have set for myself in one I
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: need to be a I need to set a standard,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: and I think and I feel, the challenge would do
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: the transformation for me both mind, body and spirit. Which
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: is so that you do. And you are the connector,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: my man, So you keep connecting, You're gonna connect me, right,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. Well, I look thoughts said that.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's been great start the year,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm excited. Okay, cool, we'll talk to you We'll
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: be right back with more from Rochelle McDonald and money
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  Speaker 1: by the U. S Department of Health and Human Services,
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  Speaker 1: Administration for Children and Families and the Council Hi. I
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: am Ra Sean McDonald hosts of Money Making Conversation dot com.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: The Cafe Moocha Swagg Award is a celebration of black
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: men making a difference in our community by empowering others
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 1: to reach their life goals. They can be civic leaders,
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: people in business, activists, celebrities, and everyday dance. The Cafe
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: Mocha Swagg Award honor read this week is Maul and Evans.
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: He is more than a farmer athlete, a farmer Stafford
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: University football and track star in twent team. Marla was
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: named CEO of Next qu This investor creates and accelerates
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: frontier tech companies. Emphasizing the digital, health and financial tech,
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: including the HBCU Founders Program, is what makes for successful entrepreneurs.
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: And we just want to flip that light and say, look,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: you can do this as well. You've you've proven you
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: have that desire and that will. Now just make sure
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 1: get the resources that can help that girl. And that's
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: what we're due to the HBC Founders Program. The Captain
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: Morka Square Award represents men who have strength, whose wisdom
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: is assertive, and who is genuine in their spirit. Welcome
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: back to money making Conversations. I'm your host, Sean McDonald.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: My next guest is Barbara Furlow Smiles and Earnest Smiles.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: She is the lead Strategist, Global head of Employment, Research
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: Group and Diversity Engagement at Facebook. Now. Outside of her
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: role in Facebook and operating Smiles Chill, Barbara's found a
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: BT consultant, LLC and co found of a nonprofit globu
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: Smiles Health, which is focused on sustainable health and providing
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: people with the basic needs of living around the globe,
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: one community and smile at a time. Now. Smiles Shields
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: is a family owned and operating company founded about Barbara
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: and her husband muscle bound Earnest smiles. The smiles seals
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: of major ardor for the categories of children luxury, be dazzled,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: and name customization. Please work into the money making to
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: please work with the money making. Laughing, so please working
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: the money making a conversation Ernest and Barbara Furlow smiles.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: How y'all doing. We're doing an amazing rush. Thank you
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: so much for having us. Like I said, man, I've
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: been looking forward to this interview. I've been counting down
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: the clock toll to this time. So I'm happy to
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: be here. My wife and I. Well, first of all,
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to thank everybody who are who
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: are challenging themselves. When I look at what you guys
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: are doing, you challenge yourself to understand that we're in
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: the pandemic. When you see the stock market is flying
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: off the charts. You don't have to be the person
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: that's been laid off. Other person who's in the line
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: saying waiting for somebody to hand out. And I'm not
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: saying that negatively, but we have to be smart about
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: it because somehow in this pandemic, when we see unemployment
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: we see food lines. Somebody's making money and somebody's out
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: there going to Costco. Amazon stock is on fire because
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: old line. Just on the Cyber Monday it was twelve
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: point seven billion dollars and sales on Black Friday there
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 1: was over nine billion dollars in sales. So there has
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: to be a sense that there is economic positivity in
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: play right now. So the whole concept of what you
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: guys are doing with the shields are right in line
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: with what we're dealing with with the pandemic. Now, tell
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: us about how the concept came about. And I know
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: it's the first time coming on money making conversations. Please,
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: we are this about everything you've done. I'm not here
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: to do blasting your thing. I just want you to
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: tell your story is a power couple because Earnest you
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: have your shield on, and Barbara you got your shield on.
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: And the reason I love it I can see your smiles.
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: And then here's the thing about YouTube, y'all y'all tied
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: it to your last names. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. So
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: so I'm gonna Earnest talk. That's my man, Benless he might,
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: he might, got I got you cover. Rush well be honest,
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: this product, just if I must span it was actually
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: shot down in an NBA Graham. I go to Syracuse
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: University finishing up my last two classes, and it was
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: developed during the last semester, and I actually brought it
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: to an NBA group and say, I have this great
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: idea about these customized shields, and they were like, well,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: that's not gonna work because we have to wear masks.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: I said, you don't understand what I'm saying. I have
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: this great idea about designing customized shields for customers to have,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: and it was declined. But I said, you know what,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: I'm still gonna make these shields, and I'm gonna prove
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: to you that you don't have to listen to what
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: any other group says. If you believe in it and
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: you know there's a market, just push yourself through right now,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: because I I love that. Then, Barbara, I don't you
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: want to comment on that, because that's somebody told him, no,
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, and quite frankly, I don't
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: think he hears that word right. So, so tell us
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: about the whole process of you know, because it's trademark
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: and we know and and all that stuff. And so
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: talk about of the process of developing a product. Yes,
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: so Ernest came home like he normally does, with a
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: brilliant idea. That's what we do. We support each other.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: And the first initial shield was a Dodger shield. So
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: you see this, you see the makeup in the in
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: the flyingness, right. So I was like, we gotta take
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: it to another level. So one of the things we
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 1: initially thought of was creating different collections. So you see
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: here laying around the shield, um dazzled, we have luxury, um,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: et cetera. Now this is right, I means I can
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: contact you and it's made to order. Correct. Yeah, so
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: we have a website. Okay, okay, now I'm gonna I'm
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: gonna help some people because, like something, some of this
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: place back on podcast too, so it's all the only
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 1: of course, it plays off on video and on YouTube.
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: Now there are two things she has to shield and
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: on the outside of the shield it's a smile and
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: then inside there's a band that holds the seal the place.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: They strategically allowed you to put the logo branding on
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: that as well. Who came up with that idea the
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: double brand logo that double branding. Yeah that was yep.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: Can you hear me, Rush, I can hear that? Okay, Cool? Now,
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: who came up with the idea of the double pect
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: the double branding of the logos? Oh? I did? Um.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: What I thought about was and when even when I
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: saw the first Dodger one, I said, I'm gonna take
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: this back to Detroit, Michigan. And I'm explaining I'm from Detroit.
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: We used to wear a name but belt buckles. And
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: I said, I said, man, I bet people would love
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: to have a Fay shield just like the buckle. If
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: you look at the black band, it's nothing but a
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: belt when with your what's your what's your name on it?
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: And I do stinking back to back to that time,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: and I said, we were we went crazy for these, right,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: I said, I know this will work on a face shield.
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: And this is what you see with both what we
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: both have on at the present moment. Okay, Cool, Let
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: me ask you this the process of making a customize
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: what is is it? A number of hours? Is a
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: number of days? So let me just take for attention
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: to the shield that you have for I'm looking at
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: two different shields because on your sheild Barbera. You have
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: bedazzle around the trimp. You have a big dazzle trimp. Okay, now,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: earnest on your shield. It's clean. It's a very clear screen.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: You can see their eyes, their nose, beautiful smiles and
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: which I missed with masks. I missed that because I
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: like to encourage people with a smile that guess what,
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: we're into this together. We're gonna get through this together.
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: When you wear a mask, you can't do that, okay,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: but the sill allows you to smile at the person's
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: saying hello. You know, look up, beat when you're going
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: in the grocery store, look up when you come out
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: of home depot. Life is not that bad, you know,
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not mad at white people. White people
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be mad at me. You know, this is important
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: when the in the in the in the world that
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: we live in now, when you see so much anger,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: so much hay, so much doubt, people afraid of so
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 1: much bad media that's put in social media, that's putting
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: the digital world. So with that said, the numb bidazzo,
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: how long does it take trim and how does it
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: take them do the bidazzo trip Barbara. Yeah, so it
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: takes pretty much for hours. Well, let's let's make sure
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: we get that fully correct. That's her like orders of
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: twenty and thirty. We can make one of one or
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: more of the shields and approximately. Honestly, if I call
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: right now said make me a money making conversations, I
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 1: get you one of thirty minutes with my staff. See,
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: that's what I gotta do. I gotta give me a
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: money making conversation. So I could I need to have
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: that wait till I make that ship because you know,
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna put it on social media. You know, I'm
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: let all my million, my million followers know about this
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: because first of all, first of all, the entrepreneurs, now, okay,
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 1: on the ernest, what do you do with your your
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: your forty hour week or your entrepreneurs side other than
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: the shields? And also, I'm gonna ask you that because
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: I want to let everybody to know that I watch
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: your people. If you want to be successful, take that
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours as you could every day, learn to
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: take advantage of every hour. It seems that you guys
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: follow that motto. Well, let me say first rush that
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: there is no forty hour week for us yes, there
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: really is. Our Our week runs congrueing, meaning they all
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: blame all the days blending together. We we work off
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: for goals, meaning you know, the days just are there
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: to set our goals. And what we do is we
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: live off of what is the goal for the week.
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: Meaning if my goal is something that requires me to
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: work another twelve hours, I'm working the whole twelve hours, right,
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: So there's no such thing gas at the eight hour mark.
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: I'm shutting it down at four o'clock. I wake up
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: at three in the morning and say I still got
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: some emails and saying I'm sending my emails. So I'm based.
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: I based my week off a task, not not off
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: of off of the day. So when you understand that
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: the entrepreneur, there should never be an eight to four
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: set clock because then that would mean you just limited yourself.
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: And if Rush call for money making conversations and want
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: you to come on the show, you say, Rush, I
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: can't make it because I'm off at four o'clock. Right,
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: So he Rush called me rushing here two in the
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: morning on the show. I'm getting on the show. That's
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: what I like about you, sir, Thank you very But
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 1: now Barbara I I know I got hercules over that
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: to you right, no hercules over you know you know
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: he got what you know something there is a deal
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: because when you came on before she was in the job,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: you know he was up. I'm gready for this interview.
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: And I see you know you you're married to Bunny. Okay,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: you can't. You can't come home and not be happy
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: to see each other. And that's important because you know,
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: God has blessed y'all with a clear understanding that why
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: I produce a sad day with a happy day is better? Okay?
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: And so now now the pidazzle one, that pidazzle trim
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: that you put up on, what is that trim made
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: of or what is what is creating that pidazzle? No? Yeah,
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: so it's called when you go on our website, you
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: can add this to any shield. It's blinged around the shield. Um,
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: it's really what it is from. He said, he's from Detroit.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: Where are you from? I'm from Los Angeles. So they
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: called me Hollywood. So you see that's Hollywood together. I
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: got the Motor City. I got Hollywood. No, no, no, no,
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: no see see he no, I've been in Detroit many times.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: Me and Steve Barber used to go up there and
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: do comedy shows and all that stuff up at the Fox. Then,
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: so I know about dressing. So when you start talking
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: about Detroit, I know exactly what you're talking about. I
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 1: lived in l A for fifteen years, so I knew
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about, Blake. So I got a
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: strong mix of both of your conversation. Now, when we
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: started introducing the brand, okay, of course, like you said,
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: the NBA thought this wasn't a good idea. How did
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: you start introducing it on social media? Did you shoot videos?
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: How did you guys start introducing the brand? Yeah, I'll
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: take that. I actually work at Facebook and Instagram, the
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: number one social media company, and what we see in
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: particular COVID nineteen talk about the pivot, So we give
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: it it to purely social media e commerce UM, and
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: we utilize our social media platform. We have amazing photographer
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: and designers where we took some shots of people in
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: the shield UM and we created organically the following on
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: Instagram what we also did. I'm also getting my NBA,
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: you see, lay I wanted to shout that out, so
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: he's not the only NBA in the house, UM, And
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: what we did was we bypass all the traditional ways
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: and go to market, right, so you have your market
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: analysis that takes years, UM, and we said, why don't
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: we try the social media out and so we had
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: the direct to consumer interaction with our customers that let
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: us know that we were onto something. UM and Rush.
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: I wanted to also mention you talked about being trademark.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: So one of the early signs that this was going
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: to be successful. When we were in the process of
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: getting trademark, there were over ten thousand applications from Mask
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: and Shields. But when you talked about other people making money,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: you know, many people saw this as an opportunity and
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: many people that don't look like us. And I agree,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: and I go to you know, that's what I'm happy
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: about it because I have some friends, you know, they've
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: been very successful with masks okay, and I've helped them
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: in drop the information in my newsletter and dropped it
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: on my social media. Because that's that's why I created
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: money making conversations. And so when I when I look
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: at African American's clearly understanding the pivot, clearly understanding that,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: and this is this is why I'm excited about it.
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 1: And that's just because of the fact that there's a
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: vaccine coming out and black people don't want to take it.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: They don't trust the system, you know what I'm saying,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: And so I think it's time that in order force
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: to create trust, we gotta move you guys face to
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: the front of the line. You know what I'm saying
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: is that's more than just me taking a photo with
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: myself on it. I want to take a photo with
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: YouTube to post on social media talking about as a
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: black couple that have invented you know, these shields and
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: you can buy from them online. So that's way more
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: important than anything because that because that's gonna encourage black participation.
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: Blacks and say, I supported blacks may even take the
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: vaccine because we understand that we don't want to begin pigs.
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: But you know, also we want to be able to
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: participate in the support system of profitability. And that's what
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: you guys are doing with the shield. Look, it's a health,
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: it's your health. It's for safety. COVID nineteen. Safety largely
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: to create social distance. To me, it creates a various
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: social experience to me. I think that in the end
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be honest. You can still eat, you can
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: still you can still do uh a straw, you can
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: do a lot of things where this shield here. And
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: that's what your kid. So all that was taken in consideration, Earnest,
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: when you really started thinking about this whole process. Oh yeah, absolutely.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 1: We we thought about, like you said, the social experience
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: and that, like you said, we're gonna be going through
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: COVID in and out for the next couple of years. Yes,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: so we we recognize that. And our goal as entrepreneurs
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: was to embrace it, not to act as if it
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: didn't exist, or to go into shale of fear. And
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: and that's and and I'm gonna be honest, My wife
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: and I we we did go to an initial phase
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: of fear. And I want the audience to know that
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: fear is okay in the beginning. But you got a
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: short time. I I have a window of fear, and
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: that's probably two weeks to figure out how scared I'm
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: gonna be. And after that, I gotta come up. I
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: gotta come out of there with some with a plan,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: you know. And my wife developed and Garrett Webster from
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: South Africa, the four Epps. You wanta tell them about
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: the four elms. Yeah, so we talked about the silent
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: fear where Ernest was talking about for the other four
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: fps that we talked about is focused focus. Once you
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: get out of fear, focus on how do you lean
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: in and answer the call and where you're in right,
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: how do you lean into and meet the moment where
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: it is. And then the faith, the faith whatever anybody practices,
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: there's some faith that you have to know that you're
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: gonna get through this. There's some faith you know that
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: you will have the answers um and that you can
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 1: prosper We have a win in per mentality of prosperity
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: and abundance, and so we were speaking out we were
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: a money magnet where an opportunity magnet. A lot of
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: people were like f We did not speak, never sat
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: because we knew that twenty was gonna be prosperous for
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: us UM. And then we talked about family. So we're
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: family owned business. We knew that we had to stick
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: together during this tumultuous time and why not use this
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: opportunity to build something beautiful together and the last piece
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: of future, what's our future outlook of this? So to
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: be quite honest with you. We've only been in business
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: with small shops for four months and we've seen the
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: uber growth and so when you talk about the future
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: of it, we started to attract like minded individuals and
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: do partnerships. So for partnering with Sydney Jackson, who has
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: a pageant beauty line, we're also partnering us. She's Miss
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: teen DC USA, Sydney Jackson, we are past Computing Life.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: We're also partnering with Samawives from Atlanta Housewives. He's gonna
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: come out with a mask and shield combination, which is exciting.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: And then in Instagram and fluencer Toy Hardy, who's also
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: coming out with a shield and mask. So we were
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: in the beginning. We saw this opportunity and there are
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of people that are now understanding that we're
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: gonna be in this for some time. Well, that's why
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: I wanted to help promote YouTube. You know what I'm saying,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I because I can easily put that shield
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: over my face money making conversation and I want that,
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. But also like last week, a
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago, I had the a couple of
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: HBCU grad They created a clowns clause and uh and
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 1: I posted the picture of them too, and their two
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: children blew up. You know they created clowns clause. And
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: so I know the value of support. Where African Americans
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: know that they are creating this product that they could
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 1: support it is not somebody modeling the prob and that's
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 1: what I would be. I'll be modeling the product that
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: they wouldn't know where it was who created it. And
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: so I want you guys to take a real nice
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: photo and probably already got it. I was just trying
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: to be professial. I just try to be professive, you know, right,
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: you know, get it to Samantha. And so let's let's
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: get it up. Let's listen, let's let's build y'all brand
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: Let's build his branding. And and my I've created money
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: making conversations. It ain't about me making money. It's about
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 1: be sharing your stories, about giving your platform that's free
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: that I've been blessed with to be able to have
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: interviews you guys been trusted me to tell your story,
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: to share your story to my fan base. And in
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: the end, the titling my show is money making conversation.
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: So if you come on my show and make a
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: little money. Then guess where the conversation is real good
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: and that's what we like. We love the partnership well
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: just like this, not even a partnership, but their partnership
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: is you came on the show, You've done your job.
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: Our relationship is about me just showing you some tricks
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: and marketing and branding using the tentacles did I put
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: out there and I've created you know also, but I
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: want to market you too, okay, on my on my
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: platform with a link to click to buy your problem.
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: And that's what I want to do. I do it
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: on my Facebook page. I gotta do the eight hundred
• 1:49:23
  Speaker 1: thousand followers on my Facebook page. I want to put
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: you guys on Monday, on a Monday post before Christmas.
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: So we want to turn this around real quick. Okay,
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: you know my man uhdel, he's my program director. Samantha
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: is my uh excuse me, is my executive producer money
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: making conversations. So we're gonna get this together. But more importantly,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: it's not so much what you do outside your brand,
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: because again, Earnest, you explain, Look your entrepreneurs, Okay, you're
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: not eight to five, Your dreamers with a goal and
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: the purpose. And I just noticed, you know, underneath that
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: here you got a little cold turn that going there.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: I just noticed he gotta turtle boy. I'm so mad
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: at you. You know, I'm to take this going brand
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: of term Necker is that man. I'll be saying, this
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: is Hugo boss man, this is this is one of
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: my go to man, Hugo Boss kind of guy. Man.
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: I just didn't put the jacket. I didn't want to
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: what we do, but I got the Hugo Boys jacket.
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: And on top of this, you know it's right here
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: because you know I love turtlenext man. I love that's
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: one of my favorites because because the mask. See that's
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: what he has to mask, so I can look through
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: the man, I can look at the man that does
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: he have a turn nick? Yeah, you know that's the
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: cool thing. But he modeling. He just certain I didn't
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: tell that to the game man. I'll take showtime like
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: right now, because he just showed me he could flip
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: the face up to a lot of people do that.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: They have to take the entire shield off their faith
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: and lift this up right here. See that's all we
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: we we you know we we can set them up
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: there for a minute, have a conversation or sip or
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: have a little food and everything would be great. And
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 1: then emergency dropping back down. Somebody come by coffee looking crazy. Yeah,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 1: back down with that shield. Back up, baby, get back. Absolutely,
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: So tell everybody to get barber. You know they can
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: reach you guys through social through your website. So we
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: got this. And again, like I said, we're gonna get
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: everything else time. Don't to my social media and let
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: the let your blackness shine on my social media. Okay,
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that our I G is Smiles, So s
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: M I E L S shield S h I E
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: L d um that's O I G. And then our
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: website is Smiles shield dot com. Where you go in,
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: you customize, you be dazzle. We have some pre made
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: um easy fast shipping. Customers are super happy. Well I'm happy,
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: you know, the happiness your perfect couple for what your
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: brand is selling. And uh, I'm just I'm just fortunate
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: that I was at the end of the day, y'all
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: put smile on my face. Yeah, we love that. We
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: We got a gift box coming for you to rush.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: Make sure you know I'm making you a special rush
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations gift box. Okay, cool, well, I appreciate that.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that making that happen. And uh again, thank
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: you for coming on Money Making Conversations and again get
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: those photos before Christmas. You can go to my Facebook
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: page like Actshaw mcdal like I got like seven hundred
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: and a thousand followers or something like that. Every Monday
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 1: I put in the PM, I put a entrepreneur or
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: somebody on my show, and that just there's a motivational
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: quote tied to them. Okay, and I want to do
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: the same for you too, and your smile shields and
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: brand your entrepreneur skills that uh you know, this is
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: a black lives matter from an entrepreneurial standpoint, and we're
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: gonna make it happen. Okay, thank you, thank you so much,
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for having us. I want to say,
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 1: you've got one of the best podcast studios I ever seen.
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: It's just I'm feeling like I'm in the studio right now.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: This ain't the complete version, like I said, my team, No,
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring you all back in one it should
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 1: be ready like before Christmas. I'm gonna bring you out
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: back so we can talk about first of the year
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: when they get those vaccines out there, because like I said,
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna, I'm really gonna, we're gonna do some stuff
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: because if I get some contracts with the with the
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: with the military, you know we're gonna come back. You
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: know we're gonna come back with y'all. We we gotta cover.
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: We got some back in on that to rush. I'll
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: talk to think about that later. We're gonna win. Y'all.
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: Be careful not love you both. Okay, you so much. Okay,
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: we talk soon. Alright, alright. If you want to hear
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: more money Making conversations, please go to Money Making Conversation
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: dot com. I'm Sean McDonald, I'm your host. Thank you.
• 1:53:55
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