Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / DeAndra Alex Full Interview

Transcript

DeAndra Alex Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: My next guest is a forward thinking entrepreneur has built
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Speaker 1: her brand on overcoming every obstacle on the journey of
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Speaker 1: life and in business with perseverance and will for a
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Speaker 1: and a will for a greater good. Adding a CBD
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Speaker 1: store to a portfolio, vegan makeup line, and a few
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Speaker 1: other projects upper sleeve. She's on our way to becoming
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Speaker 1: a mobile in the making. Please welcome to money Making Conversation.
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Speaker 1: DeAndre Alex. Hi, morning is it? It's a question that
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Speaker 1: I got that a statement of forward thinking entrepreneur in
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Speaker 1: your bio and I've never heard that before. What exactly
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Speaker 1: is that forward thinking entrepreneur? Being a forward thinking entrepreneur
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Speaker 1: is just another way to say visionary. Um, So yeah,
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Speaker 1: they're making up words what you do. You're just going
0:56
Speaker 1: to your own phrases over, I'm waiting on the deep
1:00
Speaker 1: A deep statement for you. Shot is really just visionary,
1:04
Speaker 1: just reworded. That's all too much words all the time,
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Speaker 1: and read the fine all the time. I love her,
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Speaker 1: I love her. It was just a visionary reworded that's all.
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Speaker 1: That's all forward thinking, that's all just just just come
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Speaker 1: off the top of the building. You don't have to jump,
1:24
Speaker 1: come on down, Come on down. It's all good. I
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Speaker 1: want to enjoy this interview already, I know it. So
1:33
Speaker 1: let's just just tell let's talk about Let's talk about
1:35
Speaker 1: hot all started for you are read a little bit
1:38
Speaker 1: about it, but your bio and the whole process. Before
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Speaker 1: we talk about the Lebron James relationship and the CBD
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Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Talk about your start. Gosh, oh man.
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Speaker 1: Um My start started when I was fifteen, I guess
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Speaker 1: I should say, Um, I wanted to be a rapper,
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Speaker 1: and I yes, yes, during my time, Yes, I was
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Speaker 1: very talented, and I ran away from home to be
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Speaker 1: this rapper. I took myself out of Christian school and
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Speaker 1: wrote myself into public school. UM ended up pregnant a
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Speaker 1: year later, however, but I graduated early. UM still continued
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Speaker 1: to do music after I graduated from high school, and
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Speaker 1: I rubbed shoulders and did music with some of the
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Speaker 1: industry's most influential people. UM. I think I even did
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Speaker 1: a cipher back with Kobe Bryant. Back in the day
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Speaker 1: when I was rapping, we used to do ciphers and
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Speaker 1: stuff after the games, and UM, I did a little
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Speaker 1: bit of you know, regular extra work. Steve Harvey Show, Moesia,
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Speaker 1: City of Angels, I did all of that kind of stuff.
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Speaker 1: So I've always been in the sports and entertainment industry.
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Speaker 1: Was just kind of my thing. And then UM I
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Speaker 1: decided to after that just moved to Atlanta with my
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Speaker 1: two year old sons. We tracked across the United States
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Speaker 1: and the dead of December, I moved to Atlanta. Wanted
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Speaker 1: to wrap UM still there because it was the mecca
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Speaker 1: of music back then. And after pursuing that for a
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Speaker 1: little while, UM worked with like Block Entertainment, which is
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Speaker 1: Candy's Um, you know, um daughter's father. I think I
3:22
Speaker 1: even had sat down with Slim from Cash Money. He
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Speaker 1: transferred my adat music over to a CD back then.
3:28
Speaker 1: But it just wasn't the industry for women now wasn't
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Speaker 1: what it was back then. So I had to kind
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Speaker 1: of like reassess and switched gears and I got involved
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Speaker 1: in one of my other passions, which was sports and entertainment. UM.
3:41
Speaker 1: I ended up trying a little stab at Corporate America
3:45
Speaker 1: with Fidelity Investments for a little while. That just wasn't
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Speaker 1: Being in a nine to work and nine to five
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Speaker 1: in office every day really wasn't my thing. So I
3:53
Speaker 1: got involved in the UM in the service industry, and
3:58
Speaker 1: I bar attended worked at six eighty the Fan, and
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Speaker 1: I pushed myself into becoming a sports and entertainment journalist.
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Speaker 1: UM never had any experience doing that. I can't even
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Speaker 1: tell you how it happened. I just know I submitted
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Speaker 1: a story to the UP magazine and then the next
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Speaker 1: time I had the recovery right after that, after me
4:22
Speaker 1: and then after that, then I went over to North
4:25
Speaker 1: Carolina and started working for an NBA team. And that's
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Speaker 1: kind of like the custom on how everything came into
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Speaker 1: fruition for me, for UM UM more than an athlete,
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Speaker 1: UM lifestyle, for the culture and everything like that. But
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Speaker 1: that's a short that's a short, short, short version. I know,
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Speaker 1: because you climbed a lot of years there. You know,
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Speaker 1: you went from running away from the home, you know,
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Speaker 1: got pregnant. You know, you said nothing of a boy
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Speaker 1: eron Harrington, you know, because he's my boy. I was
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Speaker 1: really saw his name in the bo same thing about
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Speaker 1: Mario Williams. You know, all these significant names you could
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Speaker 1: be dropping, you know, and and if you make this
5:00
Speaker 1: and a few bigger, you know, but she's gonna leave
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Speaker 1: all these important names out of this whole process. So
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Speaker 1: I see, so I was really I gotta, I gotta,
5:09
Speaker 1: I gotta hype you. That's what this that's the purpose
5:11
Speaker 1: this interview, this interview is hyping you. You know, here's
5:14
Speaker 1: a funny thing. But what did you what you said?
5:16
Speaker 1: You mentioned to Steve Harvest sitcom? You you do some
5:18
Speaker 1: things to the Steve Harvest sitcom. Yes, I was. I
5:22
Speaker 1: was one of the regular extras on this show. You
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Speaker 1: know something, you know something on the reel on the reel,
5:27
Speaker 1: on the reel, on the reel. We met because you know,
5:30
Speaker 1: because I managed Steve Steve Harder for for for two
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Speaker 1: thousand and I used to always be on the set.
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Speaker 1: I used to always be on the set. And uh
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Speaker 1: and and and we've actually we've actually had conversations. And
5:43
Speaker 1: I looked at your picture. Yeah, because she had no
5:47
Speaker 1: problem talking to you. Now, she she come out, she
5:51
Speaker 1: had no problem talking to She laid out of game
5:53
Speaker 1: player right in front of you. Just what I'm gonna do?
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Speaker 1: I went, She's kind of aggressive, but you have to be,
6:03
Speaker 1: you know, because especially with you being you know, an extra,
6:07
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you're you're you're just disconnected and people
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Speaker 1: to people just see you just out there as as
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Speaker 1: you know, you know, being extra. Sometimes it's so far
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Speaker 1: off the beating tracked it. It's really can be just
6:19
Speaker 1: so people so disrespected sometimes. And so I remember when
6:24
Speaker 1: I met with you, and I was talking to you
6:26
Speaker 1: a couple of times because because I remember one time.
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Speaker 1: You remember one time you find out who I was
6:31
Speaker 1: and you came over. Okay, you had a little extra
6:33
Speaker 1: conversation about what you wanted to do. And uh, and
6:36
Speaker 1: so you said, Steve hard because I was looking at
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Speaker 1: that picture because when they send them the yeah you reportal,
6:44
Speaker 1: they always send photos. And I was looking at photo.
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Speaker 1: I said, she looks very familiar. And we said, Steve Hardy.
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Speaker 1: But it's all good because, like I said, I meet
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Speaker 1: people in my life and I talked to them at
6:54
Speaker 1: different times, and and to see the success that you're
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Speaker 1: having now and to see that you're you're you're talking
7:00
Speaker 1: just putting our names that I like to say, I
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Speaker 1: have been important in my life. Uh, in your view
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Speaker 1: and on your in your portfolio, it's really amazing. And
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Speaker 1: it really is. The briefly, let's talk about that. You know,
7:13
Speaker 1: we talked about the life leading up to Courier. What
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Speaker 1: is a lifestyle for the culture. First, we're gonna talk
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Speaker 1: about that, and then we're gonna talk about more than
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Speaker 1: an athlete. Okay, let's talk about lifestyle for the culture.
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Speaker 1: And we're talking to D'Angel alex So. Lifestyle for the
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Speaker 1: Culture is a lifestyle management and PR firm, and I
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Speaker 1: also do brand strategy and I created that in two
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Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen. I have done so many things for athletes.
7:46
Speaker 1: I have been a service to so many athletes. I've
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Speaker 1: been around athletes and entertainers all my life and me
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Speaker 1: just as a person, it's the second nature to me
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Speaker 1: to be of service just period. So UM with me
7:59
Speaker 1: working in the service industry, I was the go to
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Speaker 1: person in Charlotte when an athlete wanted to have a
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Speaker 1: v I P experience for they needed to know, um,
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Speaker 1: the happenings going on in Charlotte. There was a particular
8:15
Speaker 1: restaurant UM that an athlete wanted to go to. I
8:19
Speaker 1: was always the person that people would call to say,
8:22
Speaker 1: hey Be. You know, people affectionately called me be, hey Be,
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Speaker 1: where is this going on tonight? I need for you
8:28
Speaker 1: to set up this experience for me here there or whatsoever.
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Speaker 1: And so UM I was doing it off for free though,
8:37
Speaker 1: and you know, a person very close to me and said, hey, listen,
8:41
Speaker 1: you have to put a dollar amount on your work.
8:44
Speaker 1: I don't care if you even give somebody a ninety
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Speaker 1: nine point nine percent discount. You have to put a
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Speaker 1: value to your worth. And ever since then, UM I
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Speaker 1: vowed to no longer give my services away for free
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Speaker 1: because what I was providing was valuable. So created Lifestyle
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Speaker 1: for the Culture. UM landed my first client in January
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Speaker 1: two thousand and eighteen, and that was Christmas. He plays
9:09
Speaker 1: for the Cleveland Browns, and from there I have basically
9:14
Speaker 1: took his blank canvass of him just being an athlete,
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Speaker 1: took his blank canvas and took his passion and created
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Speaker 1: something that's brandable but also something that's impassable for under
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Speaker 1: served us in communities. So essentially that's what Lifestyle for
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Speaker 1: the Culture is. I manage people's lifestyles, giving them the
9:37
Speaker 1: opportunity to focus on the things that matters most while
9:40
Speaker 1: I focus on the small thing. And so as the
9:44
Speaker 1: results of that, I have him UM we do as
9:48
Speaker 1: his charity with Christmas Closet. We do a show every year.
9:52
Speaker 1: It's gonna be our second year in Chicago during All
9:54
Speaker 1: Star weekend called Stiffer Marble. And um, I'm just landed
9:59
Speaker 1: another client and Delila Mohammed, she is our uh four
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Speaker 1: hundred meter world record holder and gold medalists um back
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Speaker 1: from the two thousand and sixteen Olympics. And so I
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Speaker 1: just have those two thus far with my company. Well
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Speaker 1: pretty impressive, you asked me. So keep doing what you do.
10:23
Speaker 1: Now when people come on board, Well, what do it?
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Speaker 1: What do they what do they expect from you? Do?
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Speaker 1: Do do? Do? Are you? And I'm just not even
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Speaker 1: saying this negatively, but are you managing them? Are you
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Speaker 1: babysitting there their brand and and and and and putting
10:37
Speaker 1: it in different areas and socially in print, in in
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Speaker 1: video mediums. What exactly are you doing there? So honestly,
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Speaker 1: what I'm doing is I am taking mid level guys
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Speaker 1: who do not realize the opportunities that are afforded to them.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, So in some aspects of my business do
10:57
Speaker 1: have babies. I'm gonna call it babysitting. But I young
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Speaker 1: guys manage their lifestyles. I'm kind of like a mama.
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Speaker 1: So with my guy Chris He's like, Deeed, you always
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Speaker 1: act like you my mom. You always act like you
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Speaker 1: my mom, and and and it's one of those things
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Speaker 1: to where like I just know what is out here,
11:17
Speaker 1: and I'm very protective, and I tend to kind of
11:22
Speaker 1: make their lives easier as I educate them and I
11:28
Speaker 1: am them. Sometimes it's really funny, I am him. Yeah,
11:32
Speaker 1: we're gonna continue this conversation because youre hitting some marriors
11:35
Speaker 1: for me that I want to expound on. We're talking
11:36
Speaker 1: to DeAndre Alex. Her brand is amazing. She's a visionary.
11:43
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pull it back to what it really is.
11:44
Speaker 1: She's a visionary entrepreneur and she's going to be talking
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Speaker 1: about lifestyle for the culture more than an athlete and
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Speaker 1: a CBD business with a retail store. We're right back
11:54
Speaker 1: with more money making conversations. Hi, this is Roe Sean McDonald,
12:00
Speaker 1: and you're listening to money making conversations. Of course, being
12:03
Speaker 1: in the RuSHA McDonald that means I'm the host. That
12:05
Speaker 1: means I do most of the talking on the show
12:07
Speaker 1: after I set up a brilliant courtion to my guests,
12:10
Speaker 1: and then they get to expound, you know, pontificate as
12:14
Speaker 1: they say indeed, I'm trying to use words it means,
12:17
Speaker 1: it means, I means articulating at a high level of
12:20
Speaker 1: the day team. You know, it's Alex. You talked about
12:26
Speaker 1: Brandy and I you know, I'm that's that's my specialty.
12:30
Speaker 1: And it's really funny when you when you you are
12:33
Speaker 1: kind of like a mom or you're kind of like
12:35
Speaker 1: a dad, because you know, I've had clients tell me,
12:40
Speaker 1: you know, nobody cares more about their brand than meet Yeah,
12:47
Speaker 1: I hear, yeah, but don't do this. Okay, I believe,
12:54
Speaker 1: I really do believe. But don't do that. Okay, don't
12:59
Speaker 1: do that. And that's where the that's what you're saying
13:02
Speaker 1: is that you have to step up. You have to
13:05
Speaker 1: always be ahead of the thought process because we're dealing
13:08
Speaker 1: with brands, you know, and you have somebody shaping your brain.
13:12
Speaker 1: You you gotta give up control. And so because of
13:15
Speaker 1: now with social media, and let me tell you, some
13:18
Speaker 1: incorporations have always done that. You know. There they go
13:21
Speaker 1: to an ad agency and they say, shape my brain
13:24
Speaker 1: or give me a new campaign or give me a
13:26
Speaker 1: new Uh, we're gonna need up setting the home deeper meetings.
13:30
Speaker 1: I've said in four meetings they have, they have, they have,
13:33
Speaker 1: they have a seasonal four campaigns they want from your
13:37
Speaker 1: year when they sit down in front of you, spring fall,
13:40
Speaker 1: some one, winter, Okay, that's what they want. Now because
13:44
Speaker 1: of social media, we're tied to individuals. They don't have
13:48
Speaker 1: that corporate mentality. So when you when you sit down
13:51
Speaker 1: with them, you talk about, uh no, you can't do that.
13:54
Speaker 1: I know it feels good. I know you want to
13:56
Speaker 1: do it like that. You want to you want to
13:58
Speaker 1: rock them likes, but you can't poke right, that's sorry, No, you,
14:07
Speaker 1: miss Alice, you can continue. We we're just talking for
14:11
Speaker 1: for me. What I what I've noticed is that I
14:16
Speaker 1: had to find my niche. And there's plenty of publicists,
14:21
Speaker 1: there's plenty of brand strategies. You know. I never wanted
14:24
Speaker 1: the major, top level, high level guy. I wanted to
14:29
Speaker 1: really work with athletes that needed me. So I just
14:35
Speaker 1: won't take everybody either. Like, I have to sit down
14:38
Speaker 1: and get to know my clients. I have to know
14:40
Speaker 1: what they like but they don't like. I have to
14:43
Speaker 1: find out if there is a synergy in between us,
14:45
Speaker 1: because if there is an energy between us and we
14:47
Speaker 1: don't really think alike, I really can't represent you. I
14:50
Speaker 1: have to be passionate about you and what you and
14:54
Speaker 1: and what you're doing or what your goals are outside
14:57
Speaker 1: of the sport. Like if I can't figure out what
14:59
Speaker 1: you want to do outside of the sport, I really
15:02
Speaker 1: can't work with you. And that and that's something that's
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Speaker 1: passionate for me, is about being more than an athlete,
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Speaker 1: and that is my thing. Any Way that I can
15:12
Speaker 1: help any athletes realize their opportunities outside of the sport,
15:18
Speaker 1: then I'm passionate about that, and I can do amazing
15:22
Speaker 1: work about that. I take their passions and their goals
15:25
Speaker 1: and then I turned it into something that's impactful for
15:27
Speaker 1: their future. And that's important because and that's why I
15:31
Speaker 1: brought up the conversation about corporations and individuals. See, social
15:36
Speaker 1: media have turned individuals into entrepreneurs and small businesses, and
15:41
Speaker 1: so with that mentality, once you understand that, then you
15:44
Speaker 1: have to understand that they have power that wasn't available
15:47
Speaker 1: to them ten years ago. And social media is really
15:51
Speaker 1: as a as a daily press conference. That's why you
15:54
Speaker 1: don't see anybody call the press conferences anymore. Yeah, but
15:57
Speaker 1: we will call a press conference. No. They just posted
15:59
Speaker 1: right there. Don't talk those every we can. You don't
16:01
Speaker 1: call press every Saturday. He starts posting Saturday and Sunday.
16:06
Speaker 1: You just post sixty million followers post because the game
16:10
Speaker 1: has changed so much. But in doing so, that's when
16:14
Speaker 1: finding people like you it is important to have in
16:17
Speaker 1: your life because you you understand the slip ups, because
16:21
Speaker 1: once it gets out there and we can talk about
16:23
Speaker 1: certain people out there who just go flip flops, like
16:25
Speaker 1: Antonio Brown, he flip flops one one time, I never
16:29
Speaker 1: play an n NFL. Next time, I want to play
16:32
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Next time. I hate the NFL. Next
16:34
Speaker 1: time I want to play in the NFL next time.
16:36
Speaker 1: Oh please. That type of thing is what she's saying
16:39
Speaker 1: in the sense that and then what I'm saying, not her,
16:42
Speaker 1: when I'm saying, is that you have to have somebody there.
16:46
Speaker 1: What you're saying that you can trust it. Look, Antonio, Chill,
16:50
Speaker 1: It's it's right. It's about truck. Absolutely, it's about truck.
16:56
Speaker 1: Trust is a huge, huge deal for me. Trust and
16:59
Speaker 1: integrity are the two biggest things for me. And that's
17:02
Speaker 1: the one thing that I can say about you know,
17:04
Speaker 1: my first client, he absolutely trusts every decision that I make.
17:09
Speaker 1: I didn't go into this thing. I know everything that
17:11
Speaker 1: I'm doing. I I'm still learning as I'm on this road.
17:16
Speaker 1: Every day I learned something new. Every day I find
17:18
Speaker 1: a mentor or find another person in my industry who
17:22
Speaker 1: teaches me new things every single day and he trusts
17:27
Speaker 1: me enough to take this journey with me. And so
17:29
Speaker 1: far I've been able to um, I've been able to
17:33
Speaker 1: deliver so far, so far, so far above reproach and
17:37
Speaker 1: not above reproach at all, and you're not. And that's
17:40
Speaker 1: why I'm really enjoying this conversation because I rarely get
17:42
Speaker 1: to talk to individuals like you, because being the fact
17:46
Speaker 1: that I truly understand branding and a lot of people
17:48
Speaker 1: don't really get it, you know, because of the fact
17:50
Speaker 1: that they were just being thrown out there so much
17:54
Speaker 1: and facts being abused if you ask me, because it
17:57
Speaker 1: really is a very it's it's it's it's very hoarding
18:00
Speaker 1: that individuals understand the value of branding and also finding
18:04
Speaker 1: exactly it just designed. Look at social media. Social media
18:07
Speaker 1: to me is like you might have a million followers, okay,
18:10
Speaker 1: but all of them not following you for the same reason. Otherwise,
18:13
Speaker 1: if you post something you get a million likes, Okay,
18:17
Speaker 1: so it means that, it means that it means that
18:20
Speaker 1: you have to find out who is the majority of
18:22
Speaker 1: your followers to your brand. So in other words, you
18:28
Speaker 1: cannot It's like it's like a radio station. You have
18:30
Speaker 1: your country hip hop all that you just suddenly can't
18:33
Speaker 1: play a country in western song on a hip hop station.
18:36
Speaker 1: Look at it gonna turn off your station. And that
18:38
Speaker 1: tends to happen to social media. And so because if
18:41
Speaker 1: you've got to know who you are through your brand,
18:44
Speaker 1: and that's what brand strategists do, and that's why it's
18:46
Speaker 1: more that's why it's really important to have a person
18:50
Speaker 1: with your visionary. I'm gonna stick with that, and you
18:53
Speaker 1: can do with that other word if you want to.
18:54
Speaker 1: You are a visionary Dandrum okay, and I and I
18:58
Speaker 1: respect you for that. Now, before we get out of here,
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Speaker 1: I want to talk about more than an athlete. Uh,
19:03
Speaker 1: your your your company that was purchased by the incredible
19:06
Speaker 1: Lebron James talked to us about that. Yeah, so more
19:10
Speaker 1: than an athlete I created in two thousand and twelve, um,
19:15
Speaker 1: more than an athlete derived based off of my journey
19:20
Speaker 1: in the sports and entertainment industry. Um. I remember guys
19:24
Speaker 1: like plastical Birds, he made a mistake, ridiculed in the media.
19:28
Speaker 1: You know, Michael Vick made the mistakes that he made,
19:32
Speaker 1: was ridiculed, lost his livelihood um in the media. And
19:37
Speaker 1: going through those scenarios and going through those time periods,
19:41
Speaker 1: you know, I always was like, gosh, Like, they're human beings.
19:45
Speaker 1: People make mistakes. The reason why they're so ridiculed and
19:49
Speaker 1: and and so condemned so much is because they're on
19:51
Speaker 1: this higher platform. They're visible to the public eye. They
19:54
Speaker 1: all play our favorite sports. And it just touched the
19:57
Speaker 1: place in my heart to say, gosh, you or human.
20:00
Speaker 1: You know, they're more than just athletes. You know, they
20:04
Speaker 1: they shouldn't be defined by the talent that they play.
20:06
Speaker 1: They have purpose, you know, they have a right to
20:09
Speaker 1: who who who make mistakes that as any any one
20:13
Speaker 1: of us. And so you know, as I was getting
20:17
Speaker 1: involved in my journalism um um business, Michael Vick was
20:21
Speaker 1: actually the very first person who gave me an interview
20:24
Speaker 1: for By magazine. It was something a small piece on
20:27
Speaker 1: how to throw a hail Mary path. In my here
20:30
Speaker 1: in the business, I had been around practical births, and
20:33
Speaker 1: you know, these were very nice guys. I was always
20:36
Speaker 1: respected in the company that I was keeping when I
20:40
Speaker 1: was in this in when I you know, when I
20:41
Speaker 1: was in this industry early on, and so it became
20:45
Speaker 1: a thing for me when I was a rounder and
20:48
Speaker 1: athletes like, Wow, you know, these guys are actually cool.
20:51
Speaker 1: I'm actually getting a first I v U to who
20:54
Speaker 1: these guys are outside the scope of the sports as
20:56
Speaker 1: they play. And then as I went on and my
20:59
Speaker 1: son are to playing basketball competing at high level, you know,
21:03
Speaker 1: it was ball is life. Ball is life. And these
21:06
Speaker 1: kids were reclassifying and they weren't eligible to go to
21:10
Speaker 1: be properly recruited, or they were having to go to
21:13
Speaker 1: other schools to do an additional year. They were switching teams.
21:16
Speaker 1: Like the business of of of high level sports and
21:20
Speaker 1: a U programs is a whole another story. So as
21:23
Speaker 1: I went through to my son's tournament, I talked to
21:26
Speaker 1: kids about, you know, what are you gonna do if
21:29
Speaker 1: you can't play basketball? Oh, there is nothing. I'm playing basketball.
21:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to the league. I'm going to the league.
21:34
Speaker 1: And I'm like, but you have to be more than
21:36
Speaker 1: an athlete, Like, what are you gonna do if that
21:38
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, Oh, there is no there, There isn't anything else.
21:42
Speaker 1: And that struck a chord with me. Um. As a result,
21:46
Speaker 1: more than the athlete was you know, spoken to my
21:49
Speaker 1: spirit and I created it. Knew that it was going
21:52
Speaker 1: to be something that was very powerful and impactful. And
21:56
Speaker 1: any kind of person creates a business night even n
22:01
Speaker 1: nine percent of the time, you create a business either
22:03
Speaker 1: with an exit strategy or a hope that some bigger
22:07
Speaker 1: company will come in and and buy your company. Right. However,
22:11
Speaker 1: it wasn't for me. It wasn't necessarily a decision. It
22:15
Speaker 1: was just the steps that were ordered in my path,
22:19
Speaker 1: and it just so happened that our missions were aligned.
22:22
Speaker 1: Now I'll have to tell you, you know, I have
22:24
Speaker 1: to say this though, in all transparency, it wasn't a
22:29
Speaker 1: normal journey for more than an athlete Deandra Alex creator
22:35
Speaker 1: and more than an athlete uninterrupted, It wasn't it wasn't
22:39
Speaker 1: a traditional Um marriage. Um. When I first saw that
22:45
Speaker 1: Lebron had associated himself with more than an athletes from
22:51
Speaker 1: his perspective, you know, I was excited. I was like, oh,
22:55
Speaker 1: I probably can't because I was like, oh, shoot, you know,
22:58
Speaker 1: this is like, that's what you said, Alex shoot shot
23:07
Speaker 1: that we that, but I need to get the reality
23:10
Speaker 1: where I know when the old shoot no, I was
23:13
Speaker 1: like oh yeah. I was like oh, but so many
23:15
Speaker 1: people d ms me and and tagged me in his post.
23:19
Speaker 1: I was excited, like hey, yes, because I was in
23:21
Speaker 1: the process of creating my performance wearline and I'm like, yes,
23:24
Speaker 1: let's get Lebron James a shirt. You know, everybody was
23:27
Speaker 1: tagging him and so on and so forth, but nothing
23:29
Speaker 1: ever happened as a result of that, you know. And
23:31
Speaker 1: fast forward, you know, I somebody sends me a video
23:35
Speaker 1: on one of my ambassadors, um he used to play
23:37
Speaker 1: for the Panthers. He sent me a video he said,
23:40
Speaker 1: d look, and it was that video that went viral
23:45
Speaker 1: of Lebron dancing. I think it was maybe a kickball
23:47
Speaker 1: charity game and he had the shirt on more than
23:50
Speaker 1: an athlete. And I burst into tears. Absolutely, I burst
23:55
Speaker 1: into tears because I'm like, this is and it was
24:00
Speaker 1: and a burst in the tears of happiness. It was
24:02
Speaker 1: another burst in the tears of ocean. You know what
24:05
Speaker 1: I mean That I'm seeing my brand something that I've
24:10
Speaker 1: worked on since two thousand and twelve, that sent me
24:12
Speaker 1: and my son, that supported me and my son, you know,
24:15
Speaker 1: on this on this humongous one of the best athletes
24:19
Speaker 1: in the world. I was confused on whether or not,
24:22
Speaker 1: like should I be happy about it? Should I be mad?
24:24
Speaker 1: So UM it went from that. Then they went on
24:28
Speaker 1: this world tour more than an athlete last summer. I
24:31
Speaker 1: was like, I was devastated, you know what I mean.
24:34
Speaker 1: And as a result of that and just walking in
24:38
Speaker 1: my journey UM, the connection came. The president for Uninterrupted
24:44
Speaker 1: flew to UM North Carolina, sat down with me and
24:49
Speaker 1: we talked about it. And as a result of that
24:53
Speaker 1: meeting with him, I felt very empowered and felt like
24:57
Speaker 1: our missions were aligned and I would be able to
25:01
Speaker 1: continue working with my brand, but it being produced by
25:07
Speaker 1: a higher platform because at this time, more than an
25:09
Speaker 1: athlete was Lebron James. Like, there was nothing I can do,
25:13
Speaker 1: you know, two, there was nothing that I can do
25:18
Speaker 1: to disassociate his name with more than an athlete, And
25:22
Speaker 1: I didn't even know necessarily if I wanted to, because
25:25
Speaker 1: it was powerful for me like that this major athlete
25:30
Speaker 1: was a voice for more than an athlete, if that
25:32
Speaker 1: makes any sense. Absolutely absolutely. You know, it's like you know,
25:36
Speaker 1: it's some things that there's some things you wish for,
25:38
Speaker 1: and when it happens, you realize, oh, I didn't know
25:40
Speaker 1: it's gonna be like this, right, I've spoken into fruition,
25:44
Speaker 1: not even knowing that. I was like, Okay, Nike, he's
25:46
Speaker 1: gonna buy this one day, added, some big company is
25:49
Speaker 1: gonna come and buy this one day, not really realizing
25:52
Speaker 1: that for the visionary um, not really realizing that you
25:57
Speaker 1: want to keep your horns in it and that that's
25:58
Speaker 1: really important because this is you nurture, this is something
26:02
Speaker 1: you created. Is it started and you know, just a
26:04
Speaker 1: dream and people looked at you and questioned you? And
26:08
Speaker 1: what does that mean? More than an athlete? You have
26:09
Speaker 1: to explain people, is more than this morning? He explained, explained,
26:13
Speaker 1: explain you get try to explain it. I think that
26:16
Speaker 1: I think the title means explains what is more than
26:19
Speaker 1: an athlete? More than an athlete? And then and then
26:23
Speaker 1: the then the the most influential athlete modern athlete and
26:27
Speaker 1: Lebron James And that's influmential from from financial from an entrepreneur,
26:31
Speaker 1: from entertainment, from a political standpoint, says, Hey, I want
26:35
Speaker 1: to be a part of that, because that represents what
26:38
Speaker 1: I've been saying all my life since I was playing
26:41
Speaker 1: high school. When I got my boars, Maverick and Rich
26:43
Speaker 1: Paul and all of us got together and we said,
26:45
Speaker 1: this is what we want to do. We want I
26:47
Speaker 1: want my brand when I walk away from this. The
26:50
Speaker 1: representation of being more than an athlete is what Magic
26:52
Speaker 1: Johnson says. All these people who go out there and
26:55
Speaker 1: who are very powerful individuals who have learned that athleticism
26:59
Speaker 1: has allowed them to open the door, they want to
27:03
Speaker 1: stay there after they stopped driveling the basketball, stop throwing
27:06
Speaker 1: a football, stop tackling somebody, to stop hitting the home run.
27:10
Speaker 1: And that's really you have a powerful mantra that you created.
27:13
Speaker 1: And I'm just glad you took time to share your
27:15
Speaker 1: story and and know that you can always come back
27:18
Speaker 1: on my show and communicate and you know, be real
27:20
Speaker 1: about it. You know, mis visionary all that for your visionary. Okay,
27:28
Speaker 1: So thank you for having me. I truly appreciate it. Uh.
27:32
Speaker 1: I could definitely say it was a little bit nervous,
27:35
Speaker 1: but you definitely have gave me a warm welcome and
27:39
Speaker 1: I absolutely had a wonderful time it's great. You're special.
27:42
Speaker 1: And like I said that, it's great. They all right,
27:43
Speaker 1: all right. If you wouldn't have said Steve Harvey's show,
27:46
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I would have walked away going, oh, she
27:49
Speaker 1: looked familiar to me. But then when you when you
27:51
Speaker 1: connected the dot, that's great that I bet your way
27:54
Speaker 1: back then in the casual setting and to see the
27:56
Speaker 1: success and how I work that you're following your passion.
27:58
Speaker 1: And really it wasn't sitting over there wrapping. It was
28:01
Speaker 1: not setting over to trying to act what you're doing
28:03
Speaker 1: right now. You're change your lives and you change your
28:05
Speaker 1: lives at such high levels. And uh, and you've been,
28:08
Speaker 1: by the way, a great parent too. Okay, and keep
28:10
Speaker 1: winning all right, December, Yes we did it from college
28:18
Speaker 1: also also great talk, Su