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The purpose of the show is to provide a critical examination of society and culture through the intersectional lens of race, gender, and class, more specifically it seeks to provide a COUNTER-NARRATIVE. The Show encourages a reflective assessment and critique of unique standpoints and their potential contribution to popular discourse.
I need to know everything. Who in the what in the where I need everything. Trust me, I hear what you're saying, but I like it's new. What you telling me, I'm curious. George, I happen to Porsche five and a horse. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for froze to turn to a ghost. I need to know everything.
So just to give a bit of background about Dr crystal Lee, she is the owner of melanated apparel. She is a serial experimental, experimental skills gather, lifelong learner. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to parents who really taught her the value of education and financial independence and how intrapreneur entrepreneurship can be a path to both. She is an educator by training who finds fulfillment. She finds fulfillment and using her unique combinations of skills to create value. And another one of our guests, B Robinson, is the founder, creator, owner of the black genius art show. He is an educator and multi faceted media artist, born, raised and superhero in Baltimore, Maryland. He has a background in film to the animation and business marketing in 2020, Robinson opened his first art showroom. He labeled genius juice. Gigi is a hybrid gallery space that displays revolving arts spread custom collectibles, wearables and art incentive, and has art incentives for youth and young adults. Another one of our illustrious guest is Miss Rebecca du Paz, the owner operator of middle finger by bets is Rebecca is a Louisiana native. She's an educator, a photographer, entrepreneur, award winning poet whose writing, performances and contribution to the poetry community has been recognized in Philadelphia, Baltimore and beyond. Angela Hardy, who is with us today, is the owner of the simple wellness day spa and native of Baltimore. Angela has certification as a trichologist, a holistic health and lifestyle coach, holistic hair stylist. Sister locked consultant, advanced, I'm not gonna watch me mess up this word. Advanced, kinesiologists and intro say the word for me, your biologist. There we go. That that's what she that's also what she does. She serves as a leader, creator, Ambassador, and pioneer in the field of natural hair. I'm sorry, natural and holistic hair. So now that you have some of the backgrounds of our guests today, I really one of the things that I would do, want to say that I noticed about all of your bios that it had a bit of is it had a strong connection to education. I really love to hear from you guys about how that, how exactly that shows up in your work. And we could start with Angela.
Okay. Great. Good evening, everyone. So for me, education is the core of everything. My purpose is to elevate people to be able to be self sufficient in some of the things that they're doing. Whereas, as a health coach, holistic health coach, I don't want my clients to come to me for every little thing. I want you to learn how to make your own juice and smoothies. I want you to learn how to incorporate certain certain herbs and sea moss and teas and and recognize different feelings and with your hair. You know understand as a trichologist, which is the study of hair loss scalp diseases and disorders. Connect the dots. Understand that what you put inside your body has an effect outside your body. And so sometimes, when you're seeing an excessive amount of dandruff in your hair, and you're wondering, is this danger? Why is my scalp so dirty? Think about what did I eat? You know? What can I relate to this discomfort that I have going on. So for everything that I do, I incorporate education. I taught as a adjunct professor at Morgan State. I taught natural hair because we weren't always taught how to manage our hair. Cosmetology schools do not teach how to handle natural hair, they're doing better now, but at some point and in the past and more common now, they would show you how to alter the texture of the hair first and then. But something as simple as combing the hair and starting at the ends and going up to the roots, that's not something we've always was taught, and that's not something that Al mama. Did. Sometimes they started to roost, and we were like, Ow, you know? So, yes, education is at the core of everything I do, and wanting people to be beauty beautiful both inside and out, it's important to recognize how to incorporate that for yourself.
Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Robinson, one of the things that I noticed with looking at your bio connected to education is I saw a lot of things that you were doing in the schools, and I also read that earlier on, you were diet, I don't know want to say diagnosed, but you were labeled as colorblind. I'm curious about how that shows up in some of the work that you do, and also how that connects with like your entrepreneurship also connects with education. That's
funny. I was just talking about this story today about the color blind piece. I graduated from city and I wanted to go to Mike. I really, really did, but when I went there, my portfolio wasn't together. I had no clue. I didn't have parents that said, Hey, you got to have this portfolio together. I didn't have artists mentors at the time that told me how to get my art together. All I knew is I could draw, and I wanted to go to Mica. So when I went there, my sister took me, and I remember being in a room with two white people at a table, and they would explain to me, yes, this is Micah, this is this, that and that. But then when they look at my portfolio, they didn't see color. It was just black and white drawings, because I just knew I can draw. And I remember the saying, you know, he could be, he might be colorblind, you know, it's not any color. I just took it for that, and then years later, transitioned to 2000 I would say 14 is when I think I premiered my first gallery show. And the first thing they told me was, you know, we put all your pieces by the window, because it has so much color, it brought people into the gallery. So I was like, oh, okay, so it just just goes to show you how things change, and how people can say one thing that can stick to somebody, but you can change the whole narrative. And right now, I'm an educator with Baltimore City Public Schools as a prayer educator for pre K. And I started out in the special ed office, working doing IEPs for students, and I transitioned from being everything from a technology teacher to now a prayer educator for pre K. And what I've noticed with education is I draw so much inspiration from the children I work with, whether they're pre K all the way up to high school. I've worked with the ages of, I guess, four to, I guess my age, like older people who really want to get into doing things and, um, I've learned that art works hand in hand with the education piece, because you can teach so much through visuals like right now with pre K for them to learn a lot of things deal with art, like for them to learn how to write, it's a lot of art in that line work, carobs, all this. So it all works together. So now me being a grown man, I'm in the classroom wearing my shirts now, and kids are like saying, Oh, you do that art and you do this. So now my students are seeing the art on me. I'm like a canvas, and it's like, I'm inspired by them. They're inspired by me, and it all works together. And this, the building I'm in now, was so hybrid, where I jumped from managing a retail area in an art gallery to a zoom class, like, I've been offered a whole week of zoom and online digital classes with video production and visual arts. So it's like, it's not even work anymore. It's just that education piece that turned to, like a transparent like, give, take relationship with students. And it's, it's awesome. So yeah, that's where we are. Thank
you for sharing that. One of the things that stands out about that story, for me is the ways in which sometimes people can be so quick to label our children, um, and you know, it through your work, it demonstrated that that was not an issue for you at all. In fact, you know, like you said in the in the other scenario, your stuff was placed by the window because it was so so vibrant, and then that also then informed your work later. So I really love hearing about that. I really like to hear from Dr Lee and the ways in which your background in education has informed your some of your business practices and how you approach business.
Yeah. So I would like I said I was raised in a family of educators. My parents are both teachers. My younger sister is a teacher. I'm a teacher. And so, you know, when we were growing up, education was the our maybe our number two priority, God was the number one. So I became passionate about learning. I like to know things. I one of my mottos is everything is information. I like I like new knowledge. I like to learn new skills. I like to figure things out. And this is something that my parents really cultivated in us as kids, and that's a that's been a real blessing in my life, especially as it relates to my business and entrepreneurship, because the truth is that a lot of the things that I do to a lot of the skills that I have that I use to make additional income come as a result of these various skills that I've learned. So as you know, Rasheem, I used to I learned to sew. Uhm a little bit when I was a child, and I did not appreciate it back then, but as an adult, you know, when I started figuring out how to use my creativity, I bought my first sewing machine. I learned to sew. I started making skirts and selling skirts, because that was the easiest thing for me to learn how to make. I learned how to upholster furniture because I had a chair that was that was toward and I wanted to fix anyone have to buy a new chair, so I learned how to fix it. And then there's folks asking me, Can you fix my chair? Or can you make my ottoman? Or, you know, I design and create T shirts now with my sisters, using my Cricut maker and my little Cricut press and so on. So all these different skills that I have picked up over the years have come in handy for me in terms of being able to supplement my income. And I think that for me, you know, being curious, cultivating a curious, you know, a curiosity about life, being curious about how things work, and what are other people doing to achieve their goals, and so on. All of that, that attitude has, has really led to me being where I am today in terms of my entrepreneurship.
Yeah, I could definitely see how that curiosity feeds into it. And also, I feel like there's also a speaks aspects of like necessity combined with curiosity, like I need this. Let me try to see if I can figure out how to, like, make this thing or make it happen. Thank you for sharing that. And of course, we have Dr Rebecca do pass, poet extraordinary and all of the things. How does your background show up in your work? Your like education background? How has it informed your business practices and approach to business?
I really feel like I'm a teacher everywhere all day, right? I can't really escape from it, and I think about poetry, especially as like expanding my classroom, even though I left the traditional classroom space in 2012 I'm now teaching at a museum, but I used to call it my first life, my second life and my third life, referring to poetry, like how I would sort of compartmentalize the way in which I was showing up in the world. But for the longest time, poetry was my way, not only of expanding my understanding of the world, but hopefully sharing perspectives with people and maybe influencing the way that they understood the world. So even when I'm writing a poem about a relationship that didn't work, or who my grandmother is, I always approach art as a platform that I have to be responsible with, because there's the potential that I might influence someone, and hopefully it's going to be in a positive way. So I don't think I know how to turn that off. So I know it's embedded in all that I do, especially with my art. And I think that for the jewelry making, which just started in the fall, it was actually my escape from that. So that's the interesting thing for me. I just finished my PhD program, and I was so tired of thinking critically, I was so tired of research that I needed an outlet, and I hadn't been writing, I hadn't been finding that creative voice, and I just decided to pick up something and be creative in a way that had nothing to do with writing and nothing to do with imagery. And then I found myself random, randomly creating jewelry.
I love it. I definitely could appreciate the aspects of a desire to activate different sides of your brain and engage with a different type of intelligence, you know, and then out of that, something beautiful came, you know, I have, like, eight of your rings. So, Angela, I want to pose this question to you first about and ask the question around, what was some of your first experiences, understandings or relationship with money? How did, how did and what is it? How is it now? What has changed? What has remained the same? Wow.
It's interesting that that question was asked to me, and I'll share why towards the end. But growing up looking at my parents, I was able to recognize that money was both a tool as well as a divider. It could get you to be able to give and purchase and show your love, but it could also cause some drama when you're not on the same accord with people that you share money with or with your own finances or, you know, whether it be just poor budgeting habits, my my way of looking at money. Now, I still see it that way, but I choose to see money as the tool and not the divider. So I think for me, it can. Still be used that way. We have the power to use it the way we want to use it. So it's definitely a tool. It's definitely something that I think I'm not one of those people to say, Oh, you don't need money. You You know, you're good. And just it just be, I think money is very beneficial. I have been able to take my daughter on many of trips because of being able to have the means to do it. But I've also gotten myself in the position of feeling torn. I've watched my dad spend money like I work hard. I'm gonna look like I work hard on I look, you know, I'm gonna look good. I'm gonna look the part because I work like it. And then I've watched my mom, who was I'm a save for a rainy day. And so it was, it was extreme. And for me, I was in the middle, and I had this battle in my head, because it was sometimes I felt like I should look fly, you know, then other times I gotta keep everything here. And so I was in a constant battle. And it wasn't until just recently, with the whole COVID, 19 Coronavirus situation, that I had a moment of anger, because when things happened and I didn't feel like I was in the position of where I wanted to be, and I'm gonna be very transparent. That's just who I am. So y'all about to learn some business. But when I wasn't in a position that I wanted to be during this whole pandemic, it angered me. I was pissed because I said I worked too hard. I've been in this game too long to let the governor come on the TV and say, We shutting down. And where I was last month. It's not how I look this month. Now, granted, I'm still in my house. I'm still eating. Everything is fine. I'm blessed, but I did not have the position of how I wanted to be. I was not in the position that I wanted to be in when the situation happened. So I got angry in March. I decided I'm going to manifest, believe and create the impossible miracle, and I don't know the how. And what I had decided was, on the other side of Coronavirus, I will be debt free. That's what I said. I planted the seed, and garden in the universe did the watering, and I can say, with the exception of my house, I have a plan for my house to be paid off, but with the exception of my house, I am now debt free. And so that happened, and it's not because I looked at money as I needed. I looked at money as the tool for me to be a generous giver. I looked at money as the opportunity for me not to have a lot of stress. I looked at money as, you know, the opportunity for me to help other people understand how to budget and how to plan better. And so, yes, you know, money can pretty much be very beneficial to you, but in it's not what it's about to say. It's the, you know, the love of money. You have to love people enough to know that, you know money is just that. It's just a way of showing your love and use it in different ways.
That is amazing. Debt free and about to have your house paid off. Listen, I will take the class. Yes, I will sign up for it. But I love how you say that, like just balancing that in between, like I've worked hard, I want to look fly. I also have to be responsible. Like all of those things exist and all of those things are real and true. I want to take a moment to say hello and thank you for joining us. For the 15 people, eyeballs that I see on Facebook that are joining us live, feel free to write your comments. And I want to go to you be Robinson and ask you basically the same thing around your relationship to money. What is your relate? What was your original first learning of, yeah, what is it now, what's what's the same and what's different? Yeah, at
a young age, I was exposed to, I guess, the money used as a tool to my parents. So I had older parents, so I was always bored. I really, really would, but I can clearly remember if this was middle class. Now, looking back now, this was middle class. I'm pretty sure my parents were like, right here somewhere. But I didn't know it when I was young, because I had the things that I needed, like if I needed a bike, my father, he worked in construction, so he brought home all these bikes from houses that he got out. He paid for him No, but he got them. He provided. So all I knew was the things I needed. I had it my mother, she kind of managed the money. I clearly remember my father would come home with his paychecks and give it to my mother. So it's like she dictated where the money was going. She was a cook. He was a construction worker, and the two, they work together as far as finance. But one thing I did notice to the young age is. So they probably wasn't saving the most, as far as, like, yeah, if you go to college, you're going to have this money aside. It was like, for the time being, you're taken care of, you have the clothes you need. Our bills are paid. It was, it was like that, and that's how I saw money. It wasn't until I took a a business class at Morgan, I came home and I do a questionnaire, like, so what, what do you guys think about money, and the things they said, it blew my mind. My father was like, well, it's money. You can't die with it. You gotta spend it. Like, oh, that's how you feel about and my mother was like, Yeah, you know, you gotta save it, you know, for the whole rainy day thing, you know. So my mother had a whole file cabinet full of all, like, birth certificates, pay stuff. She had everything organized. So she was obviously the planner here in this situation, my father was like, I'm going to spend it. I'm about without one. I gotta pay the bills, and I'm gonna give to her, and I have a little bit for myself. So that's all I knew. I didn't I didn't learn that lesson to like I was in my 20s. I didn't know what they thought about money. And now looking at it, I see the power that it has, as far as saving and and managing it. Because as an artist, we're all over the place. Sometimes just spending stuff. I want to do this, and we just invest we're just investing in random things, but not looking at the bigger picture. As a child, I knew I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't know the business aspect of it, like I didn't know I should save and buy this and do but now, looking at this, like two years from now, I didn't have a lot in my savings account, so now I learned how to save money. And with the whole COVID 19, and it's it really didn't impact everyone in some form. And I look at it now, it's like, I'm actually doing better now than I did last year, because now I have a savings now. So I know once that money comes in, I need to put something to the side and invest in my business, but also have some store here. So I'm coming in here, even though the foot traffic is not coming in. I've managed my money a little better now, because I wasn't looking for the time being, just to say, Oh, I got it, I'm working, and then it's gone. Now I'm looking at it, whereas, oh, I have money to decide. But I'm just in here nurturing my gift. I'm in here just, you know, because God is supplying. In the midst of this, he's still supplying. So I just stand still sometimes and just watch things happen, and I'm excited about how I'm learning how to budget my money now as an artist, and I think a lot of us artists and creatives don't practice that enough, and I'm glad I'm to the point now I'm learning. I'm still learning how to but I'm also seeing the advantage of knowing how money can work for our future and for the time being.
Yeah, love that. Love that. It's nice to have balance of examples. I feel like you and Angela have that as a similar experience. Another thing that I feel like you and Angela have as a similar experience is both of y'all businesses, for the most part, are brick and mortar, and both of you also touched on it a little a little bit, if either one of you or both could expound a little bit and talk about more how your business was impacted by COVID, in terms of what pivot did you need to make, structurally from having a foot traffic brick and mortar business, what was that pivot like for you?
Well, like the young the doctor that spoke right before me, I'm sorry I don't have her name, Rebecca de
pass or can you
know, black shirt. Oh, Crystal. Okay, my apologies. But like crystal, um, I have a lot of I always say I'm too creative and have too many skills to ever be without. And so for me, it it just made me transition to where I was going sooner. I've always had in mind to get the virtual pieces up and running more, and so my virtual side picked up more. My creative side had to pick up more. Like crystal, I have a cricket and a heat press making sure I have the ability to help people in coaching, but not just face to face, so helping them on Zoom, but also while they're in their kitchen, and I'm in my kitchen, I'm showing them how to cook, how to shop at the grocery store. So with all the technology we have now, what it did was actually kind of fast forward me to where I already saw myself going. Anyone knows me, they know that I love to travel. And so I would say I started back probably about five years ago. I had a seven year plan of how, when my daughter went to college, which is now she's going to 11th grade, of how I was going to do so much more traveling. And so I had in my mind different ways that I was going to be able to be in St Lucia somewhere, be in Costa Rica somewhere, but still serving, still being a instrumental part to the community, still being able to actually profit in some way, somehow on the beach or wherever, right? And so those things, those ideas. Ideas were already there. Those ideas were already there, but they just kept being put on a back burner because there were so many other things in front of me, and so as Corona did what it did, I was able to push it forward. I was able to focus on those things more. And no disrespect to you know, the challenges that it has created, for many to the lives that were lost, but it really served a lot of good, and I see a lot of blessings that came out of it. It was, it was a movement for me to just go with what I already had. And it wasn't a feeling of panic, it was a feeling of, it's time, and now is the time, and now is the push that you needed, and so I just pretty much pulled out my resources, my resources of what I already knew, what I already had, where I saw a need, and it just all came together. And it's still all coming together.
Beautiful pivot. I really love how you started that I have too much talent, too much skills to ever be without. Because that's to me, says someone who knows the value of like, what they have within them that you know, no one can take from you, you know. So I really appreciate that. Um, Brian, did you want to speak to the to the pivot around brick and mortar, what that shift like was like, for you, or
I'll speak, on a brick and mortar pivot. Um, it was a time. It was weird, because I had just moved into this building and, well, January, so February 22 was the opening. Everyone came through. Oh yeah, come on. Oh, wow. I'm gonna do two events every month. It's gonna be awesome. It's gonna be fantastic. My business was built on community. Like a lot of my art was first. It started with me introducing it through social media. So I post pictures. Oh, I didn't know you do paint. I thought you just did film. No, I like to draw. So that'd be created. This whole surge of I got to put images out. Then I jumped on Instagram, put more images out. Then I said, Oh, I have a body of work. Oh, I have a bigger body of work. Oh, my God, I have shirts. I have all this stuff. So I hit the community. So I let this art out, these four walls, which for years I couldn't I didn't know how to do it, so I did it. I was trying to do every community event, from the small ones and why not, lot to in some in someone's house, to artscapes, everything, like I was going around riding to coordinators of events, like, hey, with a car full of stuff, like, Hey, I'm here. And wow, I don't know where this might go to, but some of these events, I wasn't paying anything. I was just being transparent and just riding up telling them what I do and I'm ready to set up. And I was doing it, and I was loving it, and that and that energy from the community just kept my art going. That's like my inspiration. So I'm feeding off of them and out just selling, smiling at people, enjoying the weather, and it's not even like a work. I'm just sharing my art. And that was keeping me going for a long time, to the point where my art was growing. I was being inspired faster. And I need to. I need a spot like my place had too many paintings. It had too much going on. I was knocking holes in paintings. I had too much going on. So I was introduced to an opportunity to come into a building with a mentor mind. And we came into this building, black people came into this building, and we set up. We set up shopping. Like I said, 20 February, 22 I set up open house. I was in here, loving it, and then the corona hit. It's like, I'm not wearing no mask. I ain't wearing no gloves. It's cool. It's cool. School is closed. We're still getting paid, though I'm in a union, we're still getting paid. Then the after school program stopped. Hold on, wait, that's the art part that's stopping me and kids, we're working on these film projects that's awesome. One film called phase one about a outbreak in the school. Wow. We had to stop doing that. And a lot of my evening classes stopped. So now I'm like, Oh, well, guess what, I could still run to the studio and work there. That was a sign. That was a sign he'd be in the studio doing my art anyway. So I'm in here. Okay, people stop coming. Oh, the news. Just, you know, everyone's going crazy. We heard the news. Now, all of a sudden, I'm wearing masks, I'm wearing gloves. I'm using extra hands to the people that's coming to him, like, Um, hey, shake so, you know, all that weird stuff is happening and and for a while, you don't get the same foot traffic. If you got this these walls, people are not going to come because they're watching the news and they're trying to be safe, which they should be safe. And, um, I was left in here just thinking I needed that time. So it gave me a time to think. It gave me a time for myself where I wasn't that business person. I was that person that was like, in a sense, starting over and turning that will and trying to recreate new ways to get your love out there. So I'm in here like, this is my farm now. I got to keep feeding my animals, you know? I got to keep nurturing my art. So I'm in here just setting up stuff, moving stuff around, rearranging things, because I'm preparing for what's to come and and I was staying busy like I was. I was coming out of house almost every day. I was I should have been a better hero, but I was definitely coming out. And I was coming to this because this became my sanctuary. This became I had to keep feeling. I couldn't stop. So. With that, I was able to do other things, focus on my animation, learn more about accountability, like being in a location from 12 to seven. Like artists don't know how to do that sometimes, because we like, Nope. I'm bored. Let me go home. So now I have to stay here and really be in the environment. And somebody said, I came to your shop, you're not there. I have to learn these things. So it helped, it helped me to press the pause button revamp a lot of things, and now that things are kind of slowing up, I'm happy, like I'm content. And when people come, I have things set up like I'm prepared, like my palette is ready for you to indulge upon. So, um, that's what it did to me. It stopped a lot of my classes, but now my classes are picking back up. Dude, this camera how we all here right now. So things are changing for us, but because we are creative, because we can adapt, because we are strong people, we can still get through and that's what's happening right now. And I'm excited for for the for the the new, the newness that we have going on now, and I pray that everyone else can can take advantage of what's to come as
well. That's beautiful. I think one of the things that that, that all of you have, is there's there's not just the action or the the steps of entrepreneur. There's entrepreneurial mindset that takes place, that allows you to be able to pivot. It allows a person to say, I'm going to put my stuff in my car. I'm going to ride around to these events. I'm going to show them my stuff. And you know they either gonna say yes or no, or even to say, okay, how can I pivot? How can I pick this up? How can I change? Another thing about all of you is, I feel like you all do so many things. Rebecca, I feel like you are really good example of you wear so many hats. Could you talk a bit about the balancing of the hats and really talk about the difference that you would identify between between being an entrepreneur and having a job?
It's a good question. It reminds me if I can flash back to a couple of years ago, when there was this debate on Facebook about, you know, poets with real jobs and and those who did poetry for a living, like whether or not one should be more respected than than another. And I remember feeling, I guess, unsure where to to fall in that debate. I kept my mouth shut because I have a nine to five yet. For the longest time, I was kind of running around, doing everything I could possibly do, poetry wise. And I think from the outside looking in, you know, some people were commenting that I was doing too much, that I was I needed to slow down, you know, but art doesn't seem to be a job for me. And so that's why the question is so interesting. I can, I've never considered it a job. You know what I mean? Like I teach. I've taught in the classroom. Now I teach at a museum. And poetry for me has always been a passion, even though I found a way to monetize it. You know what I mean, I was, I was selling books, I was selling CDs. In terms of a balance, though, I tend to go, you know, with my spirit, sometimes I have to sit down and and remind myself that I owe it to myself and I owe it to my art to balance out my day more so that I'm still writing and I'm still memorizing and I'm still working on my craft as an author, as a poet, that I am making rings. You know that I'm that I'm that I'm working on this novel, that I'm doing all of these things, and I don't really, I don't have a formula for it. And so when people ask me, like, how do you do it, I honestly say I don't know, because I think that if I sat down to think about it, I wouldn't have so much joy. Like, if there was a calendar that I kept where I set an hour aside for poetry and a day aside for baking rings, and I started forcing myself into those creative spaces. I think that my art would suffer. And so for me, it's like I have this this day job and during Coronavirus, and I love it. I don't mean to minimize it by calling it a day job, but from nine to five, I have an obligation as an educator, right? And during COVID 19 especially, we are zoom monsters like from nine to five. We are Google Hangouts, zoom your project, my project. What? What do you need from me? And I feel sometimes a bit stifled by that, because I want to get back to something that brings me joy, and that's my poetry, and, you know, it's my art. So when the evening comes, I've never set aside the evening to be all poetry, but I allow my spirit to take me somewhere. And people might call that balance, but for me, it's really just, it's sort of following my gut. And making sure that I'm not ignoring all of the talents that God gave me. I was really smiling when Dr Hardy said that, basically, I have too much talent to be broke because my grandfather always made up scripture. So I don't know if I'm about to paraphrase one or make one up, but the whole idea that your talents will make room for you, certainly I feel that way on a financial level. To go back to the earlier conversation, it's always been a supplement. For me. It's been a little bit extra in my pocket, and I think that the first time I took it seriously is when I was able to set aside enough to take my family to Disney World. Like for some people, that's a thing that might be regular, but the way my pockets are set up, if we buy plane tickets and tickets into a park like, that's a big deal, you know what I mean. But outside of that, when I think too much about structuring it around, how much am I making like I feel like that's something. That's the area where I need to learn. I really need to learn that it's not that I'm suffering from it, but I'm not maximizing my potential in that area, because I've come into it from a poetry makes me feel good. I love being on stage. People, they're listening to me. You know what I mean? Someone said that I said but they've always been thinking, that's where my mindset has been. And for the sake of not being repetitive, I'm just sort of following that, that feeling, if that makes sense,
no, that makes total sense. It also makes sense around what you say around it, not necessarily like feeling like a job. And I really also love what you said about your talents making room for you. I feel like Dr Lee is similar in that she wears many hats. I think in addition to where melanated, there's the sewing, there's like, like, tell us about the the differences between the the original question around the difference between having being an entrepreneur, having a job and or maybe it might be conceptualized as having a side hustle, you know.
Yeah. So for me, the way I look at the, you know, kind of conceptualize the difference between a job and my entrepreneurship is my job kind of takes care of what I have to do now, so I go to work every day and I do my job so I can collect my paycheck and pay my mortgage and go to the grocery store and all this stuff. And for me, being an entrepreneur is about maximizing my ability to create value for myself and my family, which leads to building long term wealth. So that's how I conceptualize the difference between the two. And I've, you know, had conversations where folks feel differently about it, and that's fine, but for me, that's how I kind of look at the difference between the two. And I do do a lot, and part of that is a personal with what you might call a character flow or personality trait. I don't know it's I get bored. I always want to be tracked to be doing something that. Okay, I've I figured out how to do this. It's time for me to figure out how to do something else. I'll put this stuff aside most recent. And sometimes that works, and sometimes it's a waste of money. So I have to, I have had to have some serious conversations with myself about what that looks like. You know, some of these things make me money and some of them lose me money. I recently took up leather crafting because I just knew, you know, I had never seen a black leather crafter like, I'm gonna be a black leather craft. I'm gonna make some stuff for some black folks, and it's gonna be great, and I'm gonna have the fist and everything. And, I mean, it took me. It took me trying it every day for a couple of weeks throughout this Coronavirus season. And after I like, Yeah, this is I don't really, I don't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would. And that was hard, because I bought, like, rolls of entire hides of leather that are still rolled up in my in my house, you know it's, I have to be I, you have to be, I have to be responsible with the resources that I have been allowed to be A steward over and sometimes, you know, in the it comes from a good place of wanting to put myself, the wanting to set myself up for success, and so I'm wanting to learn more things and try more things, and so on. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and I think that's one of the lessons that I learned from entrepreneurship that I have. Nobody told me that that's one of these things that you pick up and you learn from experience. And my hope is that, you know, everybody doesn't have to learn every lesson from their own experience. I'm hopeful that somebody can take away somebody who's listening, can take away a lesson from what we're all saying, so that we can just continue to build upon each other's experiences to create the lives that we want to create for ourselves. And for some people, that includes entrepreneurship, and for some people, it doesn't, and that's fine. I
love it. I feel like you know so much of what everyone is saying to me is still connected to a mindset, even if, even in the way in which you all seem to follow your bliss, right? There's a way in which Rebecca is following her bliss. There's a way in which Brian is following her bliss. There's a way in which crystal is as a way in which all of you, Angela, all of you, are following your bliss, and you're also solving a problem. One of the things that you said that really spoke to me, and I think it's important, in terms of like people who are listening now is, what is something? Angela, I'm going to put this question to you, what is something that you know now as an entrepreneur, that you wish you had known when you first started?
Hmm, well, I think for me, it's more in not just an entrepreneurship, just as a person, you have to have enough power to let power go. There is a thin line between making it happen and allowing it to happen. And I think, as an entrepreneur and as a to be quite honest, as a African American like we have this mindset that success only comes when we dag on, near kill ourselves, only comes when you burn a midnight oil 360 days of the year and you get five days vacation, or that, you know you have to have a hustle mentality all the time. And I don't know if it's the My birthday is in 10 days. I don't know if this is 43 sitting in I don't know if this is just being self employed, since without any corporate back or anything since 2008 I don't quite know what the pivot was with this, but at some point I said the level of success that I want, that I desire, that I envision for myself. It's no way it's going to come just from all me. It's going to have to be something bigger than me, it's going to have to be a force outside of me. It's going to have to be a divine order that's going to step in and help out. Right? And so I started to take a step back. I still work hard, like my first client was at 6am today. I'm not saying that. I sit home and say, Oh, this is cool. No, I still work hard, but there's a different mentality between hustling and doing what you have to do and holding yourself accountable. There's also a different mindset that I have now that I didn't before. I remember meditating and I was so frustrated and so overwhelmed, and I said, I'm just going to sit here and meditate, and when I came up now, I can't say I made this up. I don't know if I did. I don't know where it came from, but I came when I came out of meditation, it was, you're never going to be completely finished. It's never going to be all done. So stop making that your focus and just remember to have fun. And that statement, poem, whatever, came to me, and I've been saying it forever and ever for I would say it's probably been about six years now, and so when I go to bed and something's not completely done, or when I have emails still on the email thing, I'm okay, because if I look back at what I did today, I've served a lot. I've done a lot. I have a long checklist. And for the most part, when I after I do what I do in the morning, time for my peace and, you know, my peace of mind and my quiet time, I go from working until the end of the day, whether it's, you know, taking a break to be that Mom, I need to breathe. But for the most part, when I lay my head down, I have put in the work, then it's never going to be completely finished. And I will beat myself up if I rate my level of success on completion, if I rate my level of success on Oh, my goodness, I can't get a good, nice rest because I have this, this to do. No, that's you know. So, yeah, if I was sitting down speaking to the 20 year old Angela, 20 year old entrepreneur Angela, I would just say, you know, and this is something you have to learn. So she probably wouldn't listen. I would just tell her, you know, it's okay allow things to happen. You know, yes, there are some times where you got to get in there and make it happen, but more times, nine times out of 10, you can do things in a manner and in a fashion of believing and knowing and having a calmness and a stillness about you. So I'm a lot more calm and still than how I was when I started.
I. Like to put that same question. To be Robinson, what is something that you know now as an entrepreneur that you wish you would have known when you started?
Sorry, I was just to try and balance the noise. Whoo. Me younger. I was all over the place, like I was everywhere. I was everywhere. I was cutting out business cards, trying to make websites. I was trying to do everything. So I think looking back now, I would have told myself to network and help other people do things I could not do, because I think I wasted a lot of time trying to do everything and not really knowing exactly what I wanted to I just knew I wanted to be creating, creating, creative another thing I would do if I can actually email myself when I was younger, I would not have read the email because I did not follow up with emails. I didn't follow up with phone calls. I was just going with the flow, and I think I missed a lot of opportunities because I didn't follow up. I wasn't building those relationships, because those same relationships you had 10 years ago, can come back and help you now, because I'm the example of that. So that's one lesson that I've learned now, is to have that, um, to build relationships and let other people really, um, take that expertise and mix it with yours, and you can grow your business faster. And if you pick the right people with your discernment, um, it will help your business, I think, be a little bit more successful. I've also learned to not really compare my gifts to other people's gifts, like what's going to happen? What's going to happen when their time will happen in their time? And I think that's what put me on. I stopped doing art for a lot of years because I was doing film and stuff, and you start seeing other artists do the similar things, and you feel like your success is what's not moving as fast as what they define their success was, I just stopped. And that's what I'm saying. That's when the painting came in, because that was in 2013 when the art really helped me take another pivot and say, You know what, let me focus on me, and let me focus on my art, my art and what I love to do. And once I did that, I was able to not rush, you know, take my time and just do what I love and and with that, my motto to create every day was developed, and that's what I do, whether it's complete, whether it's a masterpiece or not, each day I put something else out in the atmosphere to operate in my craft, whether it's a quick sketch, whether it's a edit, or if I'm writing a little piece of poetry or something, I just draw and ball up really fast. I'm still practicing that gift and um, and I didn't, I wasn't doing that years ago, and I think now I'm better at that with communication, following up and um, yeah, just sticking to what I love and not really trying to compare it to what he she doing.
I love it. I definitely see trends. And you guys are all doing different work. So Rebecca, were you hard headed when you were younger, too? What advice would you be giving yourself that you wouldn't be listening to
wish that I would have affirmed my spirit much earlier? Um, I think that I needed to tell myself that I was talented and deserving, and that I was good enough to create a space for me. If it were not for a friend in high school, I would have never shared my poetry on stage. If it wasn't for my mama after that, if it wasn't for my mentor in college, I would have never gotten to an open mic and never been on stage. And so I have to really spend time thinking about the ways in which people have pushed me and acknowledging the ways that I didn't push myself earlier in life. And so I remember the first time I shared a poem The host at the time, I'm indebted to him in so many ways. Bass man out of Baltimore. He stood with me, and he and he held on to me tight so I could stop shaking and I could read my poem from the paper. And now, when people see me, they can't imagine that my I'm a ball of nerves on the inside. They don't hear it in my throat the way that I do, right? But now I'm in a position where I'm telling people, you know if you have something to say, know that it's worth it. Know that somebody can heal from it, even if it's you healing from hearing yourself saying it to somebody else. And so in my in my mid to late 30s, now in my 30s, I'm encouraging people the way that people encourage me, because I know what it feels like to sit on your talent and to not believe, and I know that things happen as they're, as they should, but I just wonder how my life would be different if I if I had more faith in myself earlier, like there was a period of time when I was braiding hair there, I always feel like I can do something. You know, it's, I think it's why, from the outside looking in. I do so many different things, because if I'm a starter and I'm a figure it out, much like what somebody else said on the panel, but I just wonder if I had the faith and the confidence that the peace that I have now, I just imagine how much further I would be with me. Art with my writing, with my jewelry.
I think that's huge. I think that that's definitely a huge piece. And I feel like it's probably something a lot of people and even still, you know, sometimes I think about, what would I tell my past self? And then I think about, what do I need to tell my future self right now, yeah, what is my we'll need to hear it. Yeah, yeah, um, I want to go to the chat really quick. We have five more minutes before we're going to wrap up the show. Ty Coleman just say hi, crystal with a whole bunch of heart eyeballs. Bronwyn said, Hell yes. I'm not sure at what point they said that, and Megan Lewis said that she's a huge admirer of Brian's work. The question that I want to roll to Angela at this time is, what for you, have you heard, or like around some of the biggest misconceptions about what it is to be an entrepreneur? I know one of the things that I hear all the time is I'm gonna be, I'm, you know, just like day one, I'm gonna be balling. I'm gonna be a boss. All of these things. What are some of the best, biggest misconceptions that you've heard about that?
Um, I have actually a few that comes to mind, and I'll kind of tie them all together. One of the quotes that fits this topic is a entrepreneur will stop working eight hours for someone else so they can work 22 hours for themselves. It takes the ability and the desire to be able to put those 22 hours in. And so one of the biggest myths is that everyone should be an entrepreneur, and in a perfect world, that sounds great, but we all have gifts and talents and bring something to the table, and entrepreneurs need to be able to hire someone, right? And so, if we're all entrepreneurs, sometimes you have to know yourself well enough to know that I don't want to be bothered after five o'clock. I want to go and do my nine to five and put my time in. And I don't want to give extra time, or I don't want people to have to, you know, reach out to me after hours. So that's one thing. Know yourself well enough to know that it's entrepreneurship for you, and if it's not as okay, it's like someone saying it's college for everyone. You have to know yourself well enough to know if that works for you, and if it does, what type of entrepreneurship should you be looking to do? Do you have a heart to serve? Understand that, yes, you may have the freedom, but you slightly still have a boss, because who you're serving is has to be considered your boss, in a way. Now that word may be, you know, a little too strong for some people to swallow that, but if I didn't consider my clients, my customers, if I didn't consider them someone that I need to be accountable to, if I didn't consider them that someone that you know I had to be respectful to, as far as my time or or had to answer to in a way right then I would not be where I am today. I would not be in the position to say that, hey, I've been, I've been rolling like this and improving since, you know, 2008 like I've been self employed since 2008 a lot of businesses don't last that long. Mm hmm, not in our community, not in my in my industry, not in our field. And so, you know, in a slight way, I look at the people that I serve as my bosses, as people I have to be accountable to. Now that does not mean that I don't have the freedom to schedule how I want. That does not mean that I don't have the ability to say, Look, I need a break to cut it off. But there is a mindset that goes with being an entrepreneur. There is a mindset that goes with serving the community and being in a service industry. And so I think the biggest myth is one everyone should do it know yourself well enough to be honest and just say it's not for me, or that's not the life I want. I have a best friend who, for the most part, understands that, hey, I'm happy where I'm at, and I don't, I don't have to do it like this, like I see the beauty in what I'm doing. And everyone's not meant to be just, you know, entrepreneur. So know yourself, and also know that even if you decide to go that route, that you still have to answer to someone you know. And so there's, there is a sense of freedom, but there's also accountability that should be there,
right? So as you heard my computer fuss at me and say it is seven of. O'clock, I want to thank you. There's so much more that I want to say, and I hope, and I imagine that a lot of people got plenty from everything that everyone said, so much around the entrepreneur mindset. You know, you all are in different backgrounds and still like that, for lack of better word, because this word sounds more aggressive than I mean it to be, but that grind, that that push or pull towards something to be, to like to be and do more. Thank you for sharing that. I'm going to go to the chat really quick. Grandma said hell yes to debt free. So that was for you. Angela and Shonda Burnett said, that's real. Some of us should feel the value of supporting friends who are entrepreneurs. So I think that, I think that that's also a big thing, and I love that you use that as an example. You know, it may not necessarily be for you, and that's okay, is I want to give everyone opportunity. If you can drop your either drop your links in the Facebook group for people who under the video, for people who want to check it out later, or if you want to drop it in the chat for me and I will drop it in there. Or if you just also want to say, like, what is your handle, where can people find you socially. So I will start with Brian. Where can people find you socially? What's your handles on all of the media's I
was so about the rant about being an entrepreneur. I was so gonna rant and talk about how I don't I don't like being molded. I don't like signing sheets that says I'm here 745 I will leave a 245
I don't like that. What is your handle? Where can people find you socially?
So I will start with, I ran out of time. Rebecca, we're still here, so I was gonna go all in about that. And that's cool. That's
cool. Listen, come back again. Come back. I will
the black genius art show, the black genius art show at Facebook, Instagram and the website. It's all the same
black genius art show. I like to say also, I am a big fan the black genius art show. I love everything that you do, Brian, all of like, I love how you're able to just merchandise. I love that the characters are so authentically black. I love that it's just like when I see something that's yours, I know that it's yours. Like, I love that it has that it has that feel to it, like everything from the videos, I think I saw a children's book. I saw a purse. I saw a pillow. Yeah, incredible, just absolutely incredible. All right, Rebecca, where your handles at and not just the poetry, but those rings. I wish I had one of those rings next to me. Rebecca makes some of the beaut, most beautiful rings, and her business is called middle finger by BEX. I'm gonna let you talk about it.
First of all, I want to apologize to Brian, because I was attempting to put my handle under the chat and then it started to play. So forgive I should have just waited. I was trying to follow instructions, and it was too much. So my handle, for the most part, people can can connect with me at Rebecca Dupas, which is my name, D, u, p, A, S for the last name for my poetry. It's a dose of DuPont, a friend in the poetry world, gave me that name a long time ago. But whether or not you use a dose of do pass or Rebecca do pass as a website, it's going to take you to the same place to find my poetry, my books and my CDs, and I did put on a ring. Of course, this is this awesome. I don't know if you can see it too well, but it's this amazing lion. Typically, with the rings, I am repurposing them. I'm taking brooches and earrings and pendants and creating these statement pieces. And it was all because I've always wanted these large pieces and I couldn't find them anywhere, so I decided to make one for myself, and within a week, people were responding in an amazing way, and I just kept going. But like already stated, I decided to name my ring line middle finger by Becks, simply because they're made from my middle finger. You can put them anywhere, but they're so large that I think that they're they're best there So Rebecca Dupas everywhere, middle finger by Becks for the jewelry and Rebecca Dupas or a dose of DuPont for the poetry. Thank you.
Thank you. And Dr Lee, where melanated, I definitely have some gear from where melanated. I have a melanated like a mug, mug. I think I have the future is melanated shirt.
So you can find us at where. Where the where dash melanated.com or at where melanated? That's W, E, A, R melanated on Instagram and Facebook. And I also have a blog about financial literacy. It's called the constant saver.com because that's one of the things that I do, is save and learn very early on to pay myself first encourage others to do the same. So check me out. Thank you.
And Angela simple wellness, who does my hair, but right now I have Corona hair, but is soon, come soon come to you. Yeah, but yeah, and does more than here, also, actually, where can people find you?
Simple, wellness, health.com. Is our website. We also have additional website, simple, well or SW travel. We are planning to go to Ghana March 30 of next year, so hopefully everything will be back on schedule for that simple wellness day spa on Facebook and simple wellness days. Simple wellness underscore in between each word day spa on Instagram, so that's simple, underscore wellness, underscore day, underscore spa on Instagram.
Awesome. All
right, thank you all so much for taking the time to share your time, your talent, your wisdom. I would love to have each and every one of you back at some point soon. If you are up to something, inbox me. Let me know. I'm going to find a way for us to have a conversation about it, because I find you all intriguing and I could have talked for longer. So have a good night.
Thank you.
I need to know everything, who in the what in the where? I need everything. Trust me. I hear what you're saying, but allegiance. Know what you're telling me. I'm Curious George, I happen to pause for five and a horse. I'm ready for war. I'm coming for throws to turning with ghosts. I need to know everything you.