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Telling the stories of startup founders and creators and their unique journey. Each episode features actionable tips, practical advice and inspirational insight.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:04
You started the studio four floors, New York City. Yeah. You were homeless. Homeless for 12 years. For 12 years. Homeless for 12 years. Walk us through that. You talk about a startup journey. Walk us through this. You go from homeless and you build lounge studios where we're sitting in New York City today. It's here, after a long, long journey.
00:00:21:07 - 00:00:43:23
But yeah, it started. It started off with me coming from Cleveland, Ohio. A native Browns fan. Anything Cleveland diehard. I actually have a tattoo of Cleveland written across my back. And I'm not joking. It's about this big. But, yeah, I came here with, like, $50, I didn't. You know, everybody comes to New York. Yeah. Aspirational is like the city where you make things happen, right?
00:00:44:01 - 00:00:59:03
And I have $50. And of course, there were a few family members trying to talk me out of it. I had just graduated from college, and, what a degree in sociology, criminology. So I was like, well, you're going to New York to do music and you have no money. You got finished paying off your college parking tickets.
00:00:59:06 - 00:01:18:15
But I did. I came here and originally I wasn't homeless. I stayed in the Bronx till 24th Street. The only place I could afford was a one room. I shared the kitchen, shared the bathroom with four other people on the floor, and I just had a little room and I had a full time. I worked at the Department of Juvenile Justice.
00:01:18:15 - 00:01:41:08
Unknown
I work with, at risk youth, that were locked up and we made less than nothing as I'm sure you can imagine. You know, that type of job I was making? I think, like 23, $24,000 a year, working about 70 hours a week. But, saved every penny during that to get a space. And it ended up being, you know, in Manhattan.
00:01:41:08 - 00:01:56:09
And when I got the space, there came a point where I couldn't afford it, even though it was cheap. I was just renting a room. There came a point where I'm trying to buy material for the space. I'm trying to get wood. I'm trying to get drywall because I've built all of these places myself by hand. Oh, absolutely.
00:01:56:09 - 00:02:16:19
No help not. Not another person help with this. Right. And these are recording studios that are used by some of the biggest names. Oh, these are the the biggest names. I'm sure when you walked in, you saw Mariah care. I saw them right up there. Yeah, yeah. Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, yeah, you name it. We've had literally everybody in the music industry through these doors and work with them and still do to this day.
00:02:17:00 - 00:02:32:03
Unknown
Yeah. But it came a point where I, I couldn't afford both, so I had to make a decision, like, can I, can I build this place? They know when it took forever. It took over a year and a half to build the first room. So you're renting it? I'm renting the place and building it as you did.
00:02:32:03 - 00:02:50:00
Did that a few pieces of wood at a time. I was making no money, so. And I couldn't afford to get the, like the wood or the drywall. Sometimes I couldn't afford to get it delivered. So sometimes I would walk from Home Depot. Sometimes it would be the Home Depot in Queens because they don't sell like wood materials.
00:02:50:01 - 00:03:08:06
One I would get on a train with like a two by four by eight. Everybody's looking at me crazy on the train. They're like, he's not going to come. And I would just sit there. Everybody would look at me too crazy and I would be sweating profusely. By the time I made it back to Manhattan. It's a 45 minute trip, and I did that.
00:03:08:06 - 00:03:25:17
Every time I got paid, I would go get a little more material and come and build a little more material. That lasted until I ended up building the space. But, you know, I had bigger dreams than just having one studio. Yeah. So it was like, do I go get a place now, or do I, like, go for my ultimate dreams?
00:03:25:17 - 00:03:47:06
Like, so really like take over the music industry and all of these things. And I, I understood that I couldn't do both, so I had to put my comfort off for a while. I never imagined 12 years. Okay. But when you say put your comfort on like, you know, because there's a lot of founders that are probably listening to this today that think, oh, I'm, I'm super uncomfortable, we might run out of money.
00:03:47:06 - 00:04:11:01
Unknown
You I'm not sure. Oh, but then again, they're not like when you say I, we put my comfort off. You actively made a choice to become homeless. Yes. You start. Yes. And in even in the beginning, I slept, sometimes in the playground in Queens, or because I had a little Isuzu 1990s rodeo. I would sleep under the bridge over there in my truck.
00:04:11:03 - 00:04:31:14
But yeah, it was a choice that I made. Like, am I serious about this? It's about priorities, right? And not. And that's one of the things we'll get to later. It's not everybody's journey. Right? Right. But sometimes, if you're strong enough to handle some things, that's your journey. And it was something that I've made a decision that I felt like I was strong enough to handle and imagine, like no privacy.
00:04:31:14 - 00:04:49:17
So no bathroom, no shower. I had to go to you remember Bally's back in the day? Yeah, yeah. Had a Bally's membership. Yeah, yeah. So I would go there. That was my shower. That was where I would go brush my teeth. That's where I would, you know, and it lasted longer than I thought. But I don't regret a moment of it.
00:04:49:19 - 00:05:11:22
You were married at some point. Oh. Girlfriend at the time? Yeah. We're ready. You go home. Oh. Oh, look at this. Oh. Where do you live? In Queens. Yeah. Sorry. I gotta make a Home Depot run. I'm just. It's gonna take me about a day and a half. Don't you dare visit me at work.