Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Mary J. Blige on Tax Issues, Strength of a Woman, Divorce, Paying Alimony, Acting, Music & Business

Transcript

Mary J. Blige on Tax Issues, Strength of a Woman, Divorce, Paying Alimony, Acting, Music & Business · Earn Your Leisure

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  Speaker 1: I would have never let a person have that much
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: power over my money, my life, over anything ever again.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: So now in.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Control of my business, I'm in control of my life,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and it's mandatory that I learn more about finance, business,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you know, so I don't ever have to be robbed
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: again by you know, maybe somebody you think you can trust.
• 0:29
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  Speaker 5: Make some noise you well, thank you, Harry, it's amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Congratulations, thank you so much.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, so you guys can take your seats now
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  Speaker 5: if you can, if possible, we don't want to block
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  Speaker 5: anybody's view. I would just ask everybody one one thing. Obviously,
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  Speaker 5: this is one of the greatest entertainers, one of the
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  Speaker 5: icons of our generation, of any generation.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 5: Let's get into it, Mary, I want to talk about
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  Speaker 5: this right Strength of a Woman festival. It's not something
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  Speaker 5: that is easy to put together. When you're talking about
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  Speaker 5: selling out shows and eighteen thousand people, and you got
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  Speaker 5: business vendors and you got multiple different things. So what
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: was the thought process and putting together this festival, and
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  Speaker 5: what was the commit on the time, financial relationship that
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  Speaker 5: it took to put this together.
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  Speaker 1: What a thought process came from just performing and just
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  Speaker 1: watching the women and the audience, how they just you know,
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  Speaker 1: love and respect me and love and how my music
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  Speaker 1: has done so much for them, and just watching them
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  Speaker 1: just sometimes it just was mind blowing how they just
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  Speaker 1: people are crying and passing out, and it just touched
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  Speaker 1: my heart. And so to see us all in one
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  Speaker 1: room loving on each other because of you know, you
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  Speaker 1: know me, because of this performance, or because of all
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  Speaker 1: the trials and tribulations and things that I've come through.
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  Speaker 1: My music is a movement that has touched so many
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  Speaker 1: women and saved so many lives.
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  Speaker 2: And so the summit is about that.
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  Speaker 1: The summit is about what the music has done, you know,
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  Speaker 1: uplifting and encouraging and inspiring and bringing us all together
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  Speaker 1: to love on each other and to learn self love
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  Speaker 1: and self awareness and entrepreneurship. And you know, just so
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  Speaker 1: that was the idea. It came from the concert, and
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  Speaker 1: so here we are. It started as a meeting on
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  Speaker 1: the roof of the Waldorf. A story in La between
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  Speaker 1: me and my team, and within the next year it
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  Speaker 1: was up and running. So PEPSI and Live Nation Urban
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  Speaker 1: our partners in this, and.
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  Speaker 2: They came through.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, I really don't have too much more
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  Speaker 1: to say except for here we are right now because
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  Speaker 1: of the Mary J.
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  Speaker 2: Blige movement. This is all because of the.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty something years that I've been in the music business.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, clean, the clean, the clean.
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  Speaker 4: I mean we've sold it to you before, but being
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  Speaker 4: kids from west Chester County nine one four, I forgot
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  Speaker 4: to mention that, Yeah, I mean, watching your thirty year career,
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  Speaker 4: We've watched you as a singer, as an entertainer, as
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  Speaker 4: an actress. Now I wonder when it's switched to your
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  Speaker 4: click to you to say, you know what, I'm a
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  Speaker 4: talent in front of the camera, but I want to
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  Speaker 4: be known as a talent behind the camera. Creating your
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: own record label, having your own production. We sort of
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: preview for the movies that are coming out in a
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  Speaker 4: few weeks. When did that go off? And you know what,
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  Speaker 4: I want to do something bigger. I want to be
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  Speaker 4: more than just a talent in front. I want to
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  Speaker 4: be the one behind as well.
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  Speaker 3: Well.
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  Speaker 2: For me, it's never, like always, I want to do
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  Speaker 2: something bigger.
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  Speaker 1: It's just observing, how you know, I wanted to have
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to be in production, to be a producer,
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  Speaker 1: to create more content for our culture, because we never
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  Speaker 1: get a chance to you know, control the narrative of
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  Speaker 1: how we're looked at, you know, and so that's what
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: being a producer, you know, is about. That's why I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be a producer. That's why I created Blue Butterfly.
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  Speaker 1: And so we can tell stories like the clock Sisters,
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  Speaker 1: you know, have them tell their story, have women tell
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  Speaker 1: their stories, have us as black people uplifted in a
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  Speaker 1: better light other than just being you know, drug dealers,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: and whatever the case may be. You have you know,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: these these two lifetime movies that I'm doing right now,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and these This woman is you know, Real Love that
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: is one of the movies. And she's in college, you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and she beats her boyfriend in college.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: And so I never went to college.
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  Speaker 1: So I wanted people to see that that's that's possible,
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  Speaker 1: and that's why I'm creating that. That's why I wanted
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: to be a producer, to just create more better content
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: for our culture.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: The time is come, lady and gentlemen. Invest Fest that's right,
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  Speaker 3: to investments dot com right now.
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  Speaker 5: We will have activations for on Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
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  Speaker 5: three days, musical performances, billionaires. Everything is going to be
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: a completely life changing experience. Vendor, marketplace, food, truck village,
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  Speaker 5: you know how we do.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: Don't wait, don't hesitate that over now.
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  Speaker 5: So you're obviously extremely talented on the music side, but
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  Speaker 5: when you're acting, right, anybody a fan of the Power Series?
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  Speaker 3: A few people watch it?
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  Speaker 5: I see, So how is that different for you acting
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  Speaker 5: as opposed to singing? And which one do you like
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  Speaker 5: or what's the difference is that you like about it?
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  Speaker 1: You can't compare them because singing is something I've been
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  Speaker 1: doing all my life. It's easy, that's what that's that's
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  Speaker 1: that's who I am, that's what I do. But acting
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  Speaker 1: is hard. Because you have to take something that's on
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  Speaker 1: a piece of paper that are words and turn them
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  Speaker 1: into a character. So and what's really hard about it
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  Speaker 1: for me is I have to for this character, I
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  Speaker 1: have to dig in some really dark places to go
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  Speaker 1: murder these people and you know, choke my kids and
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  Speaker 1: all that stuff.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah we saw, we saw yeah about that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, I mean it's it's a challenge. It's
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  Speaker 1: a challenge, but I love a challenge. And I want
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  Speaker 1: to perfect the craft even more because I haven't reached
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  Speaker 1: the point in my acting career where I'm like, gosh,
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  Speaker 1: I love when I did that. You know, I'm still like, gosh,
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  Speaker 1: I could have did that better. That feels funny, you know.
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  Speaker 1: So I want to perfect the craft even more, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to when I look at it Angela Bassett, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like that, like, oh, like, look like how.
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  Speaker 2: She did that? You know, I see what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, when you walk in these rooms, how is it?
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  Speaker 4: Do you want to be respected as Mary Jay the
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  Speaker 4: actor or the talent that we know, the queen of RB.
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  Speaker 3: How does that? How do you approach it?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 1: I approach it like this, you know, immediately they're like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: let's let's let's let's let us sing. No, I'm acting,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to sing. If I'm singing, I'm singing.
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  Speaker 1: If I'm acting and acting, I want people to respect
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  Speaker 1: me as an actress. You know, it's it's two different
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  Speaker 1: things you gonna you know.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, have you talked about Angela Bassett and have you
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  Speaker 5: had any mentors in Hollywood that have helped you?
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  Speaker 3: And if so, what are some people? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: I mean I have friends that are super amazing actresses, Taraji,
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  Speaker 1: Queen Latifa, Angela Bassett, Tasha Smith. They they are so
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  Speaker 1: confident in what they do. They call. When I called them,
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  Speaker 1: I said, yo, I need help. They give me all
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  Speaker 1: the tools. I learned so much from Taraji. I learned
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  Speaker 1: so much from Queen Latifa and Angela Bassett. Tasha Smith
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  Speaker 1: was my acting coach for It, still is and one
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  Speaker 1: of my really good friends. So yeah, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: have even even on Viola. You know, when I see her,
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  Speaker 1: she's like, keep going, You're doing great, you know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you talk about mentorship in acting, but I mean
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  Speaker 4: the last time we spoke, you were telling us about
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  Speaker 4: mentorship in business, and so a lot of times you
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  Speaker 4: get invited to rooms, and if you don't know the person,
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  Speaker 4: I got to figure out who these people are, because
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  Speaker 4: there's a reason they're in the room and the reason
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: there's a reason I'm in the room. So let's talk
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: about the spirits industry, right, because you have some goddess
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: and you have sister love jewelry. Where did that spark
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: and the interest in the spirits world come from?
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  Speaker 2: What a spark came from? I was on tour with Maxwell.
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  Speaker 1: Maxwell was a really good friend of mine and Maxwell
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  Speaker 1: was about to put his own line out and he
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  Speaker 1: took me to dinner with him and some Italian people.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they they we call him they And.
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  Speaker 1: I was guzzling Santa Marguerita Pina Gricio like you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and they were like, Maddy wants you to know, do
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: your own wine. And I didn't blink it in study,
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  Speaker 1: I said absolutely, one hundred percent. And right after that,
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  Speaker 1: maybe like three weeks later, while I was on tour
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  Speaker 1: with Maxwell, I found myself on a plane too freely
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Italy to meet Marco Fantineo and we touched down to
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  Speaker 1: his place and his whole place was the winery and
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the rest is history.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: We put the wine out during the first quarantine of
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: COVID when everybody was drinking, and we.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: They remember then, remember it very well.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: We sold it.
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  Speaker 1: We sold it on wine dot com and it was
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  Speaker 1: sold out. Every single it was just sold out, you know,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and so we knew. You know what, my people, what
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I love about them. They're honest and if it's whack
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: is whack. If it's nasty, it's nasty. They took they
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: were going crazy over it. So they gave me, you know,
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  Speaker 1: people that bought the wine gave me the correct the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: confidence to keep going. And it just keeps growing and
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: growing and growing and growing. So yeah, that's that's where
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  Speaker 1: that came from.
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  Speaker 3: We actually tasted the wine.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: Our friend and your good friend, Angie Martinez, Yeah, invite
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: us to forty forty and we had to sample it,
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: of course, and it's actually extremely good. I'm not even
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: a wine connoisseur. I don't like wine, but thank you,
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: I stamp your wine.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Well, now we have a we have a prosecco, we
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: have a Prosecco Rose, we have them are Low and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: we have a Solvet Young Blanc and of course you
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: know the Pinagregient over model.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Rose the wine actual wine. So it's just growing and
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: growing and growing. It in the middle. We're gonna have
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  Speaker 2: it in little bottles with little straws.
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  Speaker 3: In the free sunset. So so let me ask you this.
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  Speaker 5: For people in the audience that are in entertainment or entrepreneurs,
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: the hardest thing to do is to know when it's
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  Speaker 5: time to do something else, right, because you don't want
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: to just run into things. So how do you know
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: when it's time to start a new business in a
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  Speaker 5: new industry.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think you never really know when it's time
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: because ideas something could come right now, you know, and
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  Speaker 1: I do one thing at a time, and then as
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  Speaker 1: I keep going, every you know, it grows. So I
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: don't think, well, for me, it's not like, oh, it's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: time to do something. When it comes, it comes, you know,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: it's never.
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  Speaker 2: Really a plan. It's just organic.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: And then when it comes, then you start planning and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you start strategizing.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: So it's always creative for me.
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  Speaker 1: When it flows, it flows, when it comes, it comes,
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  Speaker 1: and then I bring it, you know, to the team,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and then you know, like that, I mean for me,
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  Speaker 1: that's that's how it goes. For me.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: It's interesting because as you get more creative and more
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: business opportunities come to you. And it's something that we've
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: kind of experienced, is a lot of business opportunities would come,
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  Speaker 4: but we just don't have the bandwidth ourselves to do it.
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  Speaker 4: And so do you look at each opportunity as a
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: way to now build another team and employ more people?
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: How do you look at the opportunities from this landscape
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  Speaker 4: hop that's going to help.
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  Speaker 1: Should build more team, definitely, to employ employ more people,
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  Speaker 1: to keep people employed, and to just keep make it
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  Speaker 1: where you know, I have revenue stream while I'm sleeping,
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  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, And the money is not
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: just not working work and working so hard, and you know,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: one day I'll just be you know, sleeping, a billion
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: dollar check would come, you know, because I have businesses
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: out there they're going. So everything is a plan for
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: the future, the plans to just not have to work
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: so hard.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I hope I answered the question.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So let me ask you this you've talked
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: about in the past where you had to go on
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: tour to pay alimony, yeah, to your ex husband. I
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: don't know if the numbers correct at Google. I saw
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: it was like thirty thousand a month or something like that.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, correct us if we're wrong.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: So, looking back on it in hindsight, what would you
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: have done differently when you first got married in terms
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: of shielding your assets.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I would have never let a person have that much
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: power over my money, my life, over anything ever again,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So I would.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I would.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Now I'm learning, I'm in control of my business, I'm
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: in control of my life, and it's mandatory that I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: learned more about finance business, you know, so I don't
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: ever have to be robbed again by you know, maybe
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: somebody you think you and trust, you know.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: What I mean.
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: So do you think that it was more so just
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: a lack of education somebody playing on you not knowing
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: things and then purposely.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, it was a lack of education, And it also
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: was just trusting people to help you when you don't know,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and you hope that they're going to help you and
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: not steal from you and lie to you, and and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: and and and.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Just trying to take control over your life.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, you hope that people would help you
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: when you don't know, and a lot of times what
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: happened to me, they.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Rob you, you know.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: So it's best to get education so you don't have
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to depend on anybody to control your money or to
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: help you, you know, you know, to to help you
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: keep your money in a safe place.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, Yeah.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Keeping you.
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: I mean, we spoke about this a little bit earlier
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: before you came on. It's important to money, but it's
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: more important to keep the money.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: And so we've had plenty of conversations and people in
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: entertainment and the one thing that they always talk about.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: In fact, Joe spoke about it, Steve Harvey spoken candly
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: It's paying taxes.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, So so shut it down. Speaking of taxes. I
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: owe so much money. I never thought I was ever
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: going to get out of debt. I'm out of debt now,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: but I mean I owed millions, millions, like hundreds of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars in taxes, and I think, right, you know,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I lost my train of thought.
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: Go back to so I was trying, we were gonna
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: get to that.
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: So the lack of education around that, right as you're
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: getting this large sum of money and you accumulating, give,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: how are we even getting educated? Who are we surrounding
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: ourselves to protect ourselves, to make sure that we are
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: paying tax is it a financially somebody in our.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Team, a great business management team, and you have to
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: have Now I have the wisdom. Now I look at
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: my payroll. That's not my money. My taxes are not
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: my money, My times are not my money. So I'm like,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: pay my pay pay my business, pay my payroll, pay
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: my taxes, pay my times, anything. All of that money,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: I don't even want to see it because it doesn't
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: belong to me.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: And that's how I was moving period.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I was moving like that period, but nobody listened to me.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: When I was married. I was like, pay my taxes,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: pay my times.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Do everything.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And then you know, they didn't listen to me, so,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: you know, but he was in control of everything, so
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna you know, we don't want to do
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: all of that, but you know, that's that's how I do.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Those things are important to me. Payroll, taxes, times, anything that.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: You know, if anyone's doing a service, you have to
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: pay them for it, you know, and you have to
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: call people back. You know, sometimes people just want to
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you know what, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: get back to you. It's not always so much about
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: you know people vendors beating your door down because they
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: you know, they're just being aggravated. They just want to
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: know that you are. You are acknowledging them if you
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: owe them money. You understand what I'm saying. So if
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: you don't call people back, you know, it creates a
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: bad image for you, It creates, you know, chatter that
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: you don't handle do business properly. You understand what I'm saying. So, yeah,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: those things are important to me now. So this is
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: strength of a woman's festival.
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: And a lot of times when we think about pre numps,
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: it's always from a man's perspective, Like a man wants
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: his wife to sign a pre nump before they get
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: married because he has more money. But there's not always
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: the case. Sometimes in your situation, the woman could be
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: the breadwinner or the woman can have more money. So
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: what are your thoughts on pre numps and how would
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: you approach you or what advice would you give as
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: far as for a woman that may be wealthy, well
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: off and they're looking to get married, get a pre nump.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Because I didn't have one, and that's why I was.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: I ended up having to just give everything away because
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: it's so let me just speak.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: It's so whack right.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Now that men you know, can come ask you and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: get and you know, and get alimony. So when I
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: was getting a divorce, I was like, you mean to
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: tell me I got to pay him? And he cheated
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: and he lied and he stolen, you know, not to
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: get all petty, but you know what I'm saying.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: You mean, I gotta.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Pay him for cheating a line or to me and
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: ruining my life. So yeah, and and the law is
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: you have to you know, So I say, get a
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: freeing up, cover yourself up.
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm telling you, man, it's crazy.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: Mary.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: My wife is here, so baby, I love you. But
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: so you said, you're debt free. And we see the
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: success of strength of a woman. We talk about the
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: spirits industry, but something monumental is happening in your music career.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: You're now an independent artist. So let's talk congratulations. I mean,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: let's talk about that. Let's talk about the feeling, the prompt,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: the you know, how you feeling about this.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: I feel like like I'm flying sometimes because I was
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: so low. I felt like I had anchors and you know,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I just was low and I felt like I owed
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: everybody everything. And now I don't owe a label nothing.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I can just put music out. I could just do
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: whatever I want. It's liberating.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: Hey, DJ, you're supposed to drop just fine. When I
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: asked how some feeling.
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: So as far as a lot of artists these days
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: are selling their catalogs, that's like very popular, right, how
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: do you feel about that?
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: And would you sell your catalog?
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not, No, it's too valuable.
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: So when you say it's too valuable, too valuable from
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: just you personally, or too valuable as far as there's
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: not money this, you got to come with billions of
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: dollars for your catalog.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I don't think the catalog. Once you sell it, you're
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: going to spend that billion dollars. You'll never be able
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: to get those babies back. Like those are my babies.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: They literally came out of my womb. I'm not gonna
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, maybe later when I get older,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, But you know right now
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't do that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: No.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: So I see there's a lot of brands that are here,
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: PEPSI being one of them. We talked about a lot
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: of nation urban When you're looking for a strategic business partner.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: What are you looking for in a brand that is
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: it qualifies them to work with somebody of your caliber.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: The first thing is do you know me? Because you
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: can't help me sell me if you don't know me.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: You can't sell anything from my brand if you don't
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: know me. So the first thing is do you know
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Mary J.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Blige?
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: What is she about?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Because then you're gonna you're gonna be full, You're gonna
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: be all the way in with me, and you're gonna
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: go hard with me to get get things sold, you know,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: or to market me the right way, or to market
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: whatever we're marketing for.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Mary J.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Blisgerberg. So the first thing is.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Do you You gotta know you gotta you gotta have history.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: You gotta know the history of me so we can
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: do the business.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: So we was with the good Brother Swiss couple of
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: weeks ago and we had a conversation about you.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: Versus would you do it? Versus? No? Why not? Why
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: would you not want to do that?
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I just let me just say this that I love Swiss.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: That I mean, I love Swiss. That's my friend, that's
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: my brother, that's up my people. I just don't care
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: about my verses. I don't want to be up there
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: who got And it's no disrespect. I just don't care,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Like I don't need to say I had to know.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I have some of the hottest records. I know, I
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: got a crazy catalog. I don't need to be like
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: your record my record sension.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: Well, let me ask you.
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: Let me ask you this just from an admiration standpoint,
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: if you ever had to dance with somebody, who do
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: you have? Anybody that you would say this is a
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: counterpart that I really appreciate their music, and I would
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: love to have some level of.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: So many people that have great music out there. I
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: mean there's so many women that have just catalogs, you know.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: So I mean I don't have to I don't like
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the putting everybody up against each other the right like,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I don't like it. I mean I could just put
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: my shirt on and just walk away. I could put
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: take that.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: I could put the ons four on one album on
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: and just walk away.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: Oh, I'm gonna be honest with you, and thank you
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: for protecting me because I mentioned somebody he protected me.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Thank you for shall But we had.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: Old with us and he was like, I haven't really
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: seen Mary perform I said, listen, you gotta go to
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: a show and let I'm going down. Come on and
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: just look around and watch what happens to the audience.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: Y'all know it's crazy. We saw a little bit of
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: it last night. So shout out to the four on one,
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: shout to share, my shout to all the.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Albums number one, thank you, but you brought the four.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: One and it made me think about this guy who
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: was integral in that process. Puff and outside of the music,
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: he's been a major figure in life, especially in the
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: world of business. Can you talk about some of the
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: mentorship he's given you outside of music.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, let me just start from the beginning.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: When I met Puff, he was ambitious, a go get
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: it and I was just a little girl from Slovan
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: that was scared of success.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: But this man wasn't scared of no success.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: He wasn't scared to be fly, he wasn't scared to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: be seen, and he was the opposite of everything that
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: I was. So just watching him was encouraging to me
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: and taught me a lot. And he was always about
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: He wanted the success more than we wanted it. He
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: wanted our success for us more than we wanted it. So,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, he just gave me a lot of confidence.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And you know, and and and at that time, you know,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: he gave me a lot of confidence in my music.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: And you know, he was like a, Yo, you're gonna
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: get out there and bust a ass.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: You're gonna get out there. Yo, you wanna do that.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: And it was just like okay, okay, okay, okay okay.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: So he made me my personality was very like like this.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: But he really helped me a lot. He really, you know,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: picked a lot of the right, you know, samples together.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: We did a lot. I mean, it wasn't no you know,
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: just organic.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: And he was just puff daddy, like the same puff
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: daddy you see today.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: He's the same puff daddy he was then.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: And he was so he wanted it for Mary, for
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Joe to see, for all of us, more than we
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: even wanted it. So man, you know, that's that's you know.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: He Yeah, he helped me sustain.
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: So your music has become the soundtrack to millions of
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: people's lives, millions of women's lives from the downs that
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: from ninety two to twenty twenty three, when you go
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: to all around the world, how does that feel when
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: they connect with you on a different level. It's like
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: a spiritual level, like you've helped guide them through, you know,
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: heartbreak and breakups and divorce.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: How does that feel for you to play that role?
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: It feels good, and it's a responsibility because I'm not
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: doing anything special.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I'm just falling and getting back up. That's it.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I'm just falling. I'm getting back up, and am I
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: getting backed up? Sometimes I'm laying down longer than what
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to, But I get up and I come
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: out on the other side. And so that's really all
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: I've done, you know. So I say, when people like
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you saved my life, I'd be like, well, you really
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: need to give that credit to God for giving me
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the strength to get back up.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: So we talked about the spirits, We talked about the production,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: we talked about the acting. Obviously, the talent in the
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: field of singing.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: I'm looking that down.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Food to your right, and I'm thinking to myself, if
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: don in the room, there's more business to come.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: And so I'm wondering one.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: Hundred all right, we know, So what else is on
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: the vision board for the Mary J. Blige Empire? What
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: else is on the vision board, Like, what else do
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: you see, Like that's something I want to tackle that
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: I want to get involved in that business, or that's
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: something that I can see I can add to the portfolio.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Well, the Boots are coming.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Everybody's like, what's up with the Hey, Hey, that's the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: next thing, said the boots.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Yes about the book line.
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: The dancing is so separately though, I said that dancing
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: is so separately.
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: Everybody can't dance like you in the boots.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: We got talking about the dancing. We talking about the
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: bootline right now, Arders, what's going on? Listen?
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: Eylu is relaunching, revamping, retooling. That's why we're creating a
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: new educational experience that's more expansive.
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: Tell what we got, Yes, twenty twenty three, we got
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: a lot in store, a lot playing for you guys.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: So you know that eyou already includes.
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: Monthly financial planning calls with Me, book club calls with Troy,
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: real estate calls with MG the mortgage got access to
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: the Home Buying Blueprint Volume one and Volume two. Part
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: of the revamp will include twenty seven local chapters from
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: across the United States, live interactive teaching, hands on not
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: just pre recorded videos, plus fifteen brand new curriculums.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: The biggest just got bigger.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I just want to get that going because everybody you
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: don't really want it.
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: So what are some of the biggest lessons in business
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: and just in general that you've learned over your thirty
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: year career.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Take care of yourself?
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Do I mean, go behind everybody, check in on your business,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: check in on yourself. Just make sure you are in
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: on every single thing. And if they don't know you,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: then they can't identify you. If they can't if they
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: don't have no history on you and what you're doing,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: they can't help you.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: So that's really it. Just take care of you.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I'm sure there's plenty of women in here,
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: and we saw a lot of artists at the show
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: last night. Now that you have a label, are you
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: currently looking for talent to put on the label?
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: How does would somebody go about that? Well?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Right, So let me give you the backstory on why
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just getting the label. I tried to do it
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: a long time ago, and what I don't like doing
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: is promising people things, and I don't have the money
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: to back it up. So this is my first one
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: more is my first artists that I've signed because now
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I have the money to make their dreams come true.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: So I don't want to have people come and be
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: on my label and I'm selling you a dream because
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I don't want nobody to sell me a dream. So
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: right now, I'm just on one more. I'm on one
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: more right now, and that's it. If you have talent,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: you know, if you got some patience, you know, I'll
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: you know, I'll sign you. But you got to have
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: patience because you know, the stuff don't happen over It
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: took me so long to get my advance when I
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: was on you know, signed to Uptown Records.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: But you got to have patience.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: And I don't like making people wait and selling people dreams,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and people have bills and lives and stuff like that.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I want to be able to help you pay your bills,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: you know. So that's why I only have one one
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: artist right now.
• 31:44
  Speaker 5: Before we leave, this is just the second year of
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: your festival. What is your vision for this festival in
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: ten years? Like, what do you like to see this
• 31:52
  Speaker 5: grow into?
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Man that we we go to We have seventy thousand
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: people and the arena, it's like it just gets.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Bigger and bigger. But I just wanted to get bigger
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: and bigger.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: And I want women to walk away and having their
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: own businesses when they walk away from this, having more ideas,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: just and learning how to love ourselves and self awareness
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: and just all.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Kind of beautiful. I just want everybody.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: I just want to be.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Bigger and bigger in all those things.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: Ladies and gentlemen, we need everybody standing on your feet.
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: Please, yeah, please.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: My graduates from my school being forced
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: Back drop bag drop my drop, back drop drop