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Transcript

WES ARMSTRONG - From Foreman to Fame: Wuz Good’s Hollywood Hustle · Eating While Broke

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Bro.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Only Witt, and today we have very
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: special guest filmmaker Wesley Armstrong aka was Good in the Buildings. Sir.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I'm so excited to have you known you watched you
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: from Afar for years now years in the DMS. It's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: nice to get a response, and I believe in an
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: ultimate follow up. But watching your growth over the years,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's actually better now that I got to do the area,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: because back then it was like more in the beginning.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Right now you have all these huge milestones. And not
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: only are your filmmaker, you are also act north.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Of the ten yeah, editor, producer, every colorist, wow, social
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: media influencer.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: There's a lot. Yeah, but before we get into it,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and before we accidentally burn down the studio, tell us
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: what you're gonna have it.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: By the way, I believe it is just.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: So you guys know. He requested a George Forman grill
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: on this usually we do the cook time.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: The question was what did you used to eat in college?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: I'm like, wow, that's a loaded but unloaded question, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know what I used to do?
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Burgers On the George forman grill. That's one thing that
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I used to do.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: But how does it feel to go back to eating
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: this dish?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know what to expect because I'm not really
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: a cook like that. Butonce she cooks more so this
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: is going to be it's gonna be a group effort.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: There's a group effort, yes, because I may be like, hey, Golin,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm doing here. Does this look cooked?
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: But I think I got it.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I think yes, And now your dish. You could go
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: ahead tell the fans what it is we're cooking.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: All your ingredients are absolutely okay. So what we're doing
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: is a burger, all right, very complicated dish. Okay, this
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: is a delicate See, we're gonna be using beyond meat
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: and ketchup and mustard. We have cheese here, but I
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: wouldn't recommend that I eat the cheese. It's a lactose thing.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: If you would like cheese, I'm.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Trying to exactly how you ate it, so I'll skip
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the cheese too.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, back in the day, no, like my stomach
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: was built different. Oh yeah, it was built different, So
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I was.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the cheese. This isn't real. I heard
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: these aren't real cheese.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Not worth the risk?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Really, okay, gotcha?
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And then we also have kool aid jammers here. Now
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: this right here, this dates back to the childhood. This
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: is definitely it's hot outside, so this reminds me of
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the hot summer days coming in and the drink is
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: good when you go.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And I started thinking about, like when I was over here,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I was like, why did we go? And I figured
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: it out. It's because when we're drinking, we're holding our breath.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: We're not even breathing. We're just drinking and its good,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: but we're also breathing. Agaad, I'm excited to at the
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: end of it.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, Now I will never ever hear that sound
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: and not think about that explanation. But I like, whenever
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I drink some nice you like to be like, oh
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you know what, yeah, so go ahead, start making this dish.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: And me and Wes we read meat, so we both
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: are not so we're read me eater. So now we're
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: switching out for beyond me. So don't think back in
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the day he was all boogied out. Oh yeah, this
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: is the la version of me read meat in the
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: la version of me.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, beyond burg.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, And I don't know if there's such thing as
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: not cooking or beyond burger all the way through.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I don't either.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Don't find out. Just try to make it look like
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a burger.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, all right. So first thing I'm gonna do is
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna feel this plastic back. Oh, I have a
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: spatula here.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Purpose And the cool thing you could just dump it
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: on there.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but I'm the chef today, okay, go ahead.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And the cool thing about this is I put them.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: I feel like I should have brought you gloves nice,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: you know what.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I think I might just dump them on.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: And then just I wonder if this thing okay? Cool?
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: It opens just like that, So peel the papers off.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: You got this?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: I saw I got this. I definitely washed my hands.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: All right, there we go. Boom.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Did you tell your fiance that you were cooking today?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: She knows?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, she was like, good luck. Oh damn, it made
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the sizzle. Look at that.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: And the cool thing about it is there is a
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: burner on both sides. There's no flipping it over.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Yes, oh yeah, that's right, there is no.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: There's no flipping it over.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: That's why I put the spatial there because for some
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: stretch reason, I thought we'll probably have to flip.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I have to scoop it hot, so we still need dispatch.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: And then did you know, did you notice that they
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: don't put a drip pand on.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: The Yeah, no, they have it comes separately, the drip hand,
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: so you put it up under.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: The Oh yeah, is it like it? Does it come
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: in the box?
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Usually? Usually?
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Because mine was like a lot smaller than this. So
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: this is the advanced version of nice one. Yeah, this
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: is a nice one because I can only do one
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: on mine. Oh back in the day.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: All right, now that you got the burgers on the grill,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: got them on the grill, take me back all the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: way back before filmmaking acting the good old starting point
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of these burgers. I want to go as far back
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and I want to get you all the way up
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to where you are today.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we're going to go back to two thousand four.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I think that's when I started going to or two
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: thousand and three. That's when I started going to Amarillo College,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: and I lived in the dorms over there, and I
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: was like, I got to eat and I got the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: George Former Girl because it was popular on TV. So
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: I got one. And this would sit on my floor
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: or on my little mini fridge, and this is what
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: I would cook. I don't think I did it all
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: the time, and to be that Raman and I can't
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: remember exactly how financial aid work, but somehow I was
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: eating out as well. Sometimes I think it was like McDonald's,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: though it was it was on a budget. Now I
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: remember a girl I was dating. We're like scrounging change together,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: all right, listen. We could hit Dell Taco real quick
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: for buck. But yeah, that's where it started. And that's
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: where I was like grilling. Then I went to I
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: did an internship in Disney World where I was in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: fast food. Just crazy, didn't It wasn't my favorite thing.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Wait a minute, at the internship, you were Yeah, I
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: was in fast food. I don't understand. At Disney.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, So I worked in the parks, Okay, at this
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: place called the Land where I was in their restaurant areas.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: So I was in it was a rotating restaurant at
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the rotated upstairs, and then there was a downstairs restaurant
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that I was in as well. Just wasn't my thing.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: I went to Disney because I thought I could become
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: a part character or poweringer, that's what you wanted to be. Yeah,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: if I was and work at Disney, I was like, oh,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: this is great. I could be a poweringer because Disney
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: owns power Engers or Fox or something like that. I
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: remember my thinking was just out there. Then I was like,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: you know what, I'll be a Park character. But that
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: came with me needing to know how to dance. And
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: I remember I went to the audition. I'm like, my
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: name's going to be in lights anyway, so this is
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: going to work out. And I didn't get cast, and
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: I remember calling my mom crying because I was like,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: what am I going to do? I didn't make it
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: to be a part character.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: This is and you were crying. You were upset.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I was upset. Yeah, what were you going to college for?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Originally at Amarillo.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I was in the media department. So that's how I
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: got the Name's good because I was on the radio.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, you know what. I never said this, but
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: your voice is so beautiful. I was like, man, you
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: should be in radio. I love your voiceovers. I love them.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I love your voice. But Okay, now it's making sense. Okay.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: So I started out in radio and then I did
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: an internship at Disney and that's when I started making videos.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I got this program on Windows movie Maker. Make sure
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: this is good it.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Make sure you burn it already?
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: No, I stuck it. Okay. So I got this program
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: in Windows movie Maker and I started making like little
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: videos while I was there at Disney, and like, my
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: first one did one hundred thousand views on YouTube, and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I'm going to do this. So
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: when I came back to Texas, I started making videos
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: with all my friends and one of the engineers at
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the radio was like, Yo, you should check out this
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: school called Full Sale, and I was like, what's that?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So I looked it up online and it's a school
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: that teaches you everything about filmmaking and they have different
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: degree programs. So you have filmmaking, you have recording arts,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: you have graphic ards and design, you have show production,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: you have entertainment business. And I was like, oh, yeah,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go there. I'm gonna be an editor
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: because I could do that. So then I get down there.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: They sent me flyers for the whole entire year and
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: I get down there, and I was like, oh, this
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: is a lot of work, like to edit. First of all,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I'm enamored by the school. The school was amazing, but
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I saw how much editing was and I was like, okay,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm not going to be doing this. So
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: then I got into one of my teachers was like,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: if you want to be a filmmaker, you need to
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: understand photography because film. A lot of people don't understand this.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: People that are outside of film don't understand that film
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: is twenty four pictures for one second. That's how you
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: make video. That's how they did it back in the day.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: It's twenty four pictures. That's why they say twenty four
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: frames a second, oh sixty frames a second for like
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: slow motions. So I started taking pictures of everything like
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: bus benches, cars, door knobs, it didn't matter what it was.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: But using I had like just a simple I think
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: it was called a Rebel XTI. It was like a
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: very basic one lens camera, very cheap, but it was
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: a cannon and I had got that and I took
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: pictures of everything and I used that to just build
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: my portfolio. So then I got my business cards and
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: I put business cards to every place, but I'd be
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: on this little slot in the TV urinals. It didn't
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: matter what it was. And then I started getting business
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: all up and down the East Coast. It's crazy. So
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: from so from photography, I went into music video, really
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: built it up from there. And yeah, I did music
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: videos for years.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And you're just shooting, no editing, No, no, I'm doing everything.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But I thought you said that, Yeah.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be an editor. I ended up becoming
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: good at one taking photos and then building a team directing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Like when I got into music videos, I started directing.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Now I could edit them, but then I would bring
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: on my friends that became better at editing with me.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: How smart, I'm.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Directing the whole entire project. So I'm building up my
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: portfolio there and I start traveling the country the videos.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Then I meet dark Child, Rodney Jerks Wow. And I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: would go to these events with my laptop and I'd
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: have my business cards on there, and I maybe had
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: two strong videos, one commercial and a music video, and
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I would just be like new visual heat and I
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: just go to people and be like, hey, if you
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: need a music video, if you need photography, these are
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: my services. And I ended up meeting him there and
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: he was like, hey, if you're ever in La, hit
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: me up. And I'm like, okay, well, I don't know
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: what that means.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: And where were you at the time.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: I'm in Orlando.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, you're in Orlando and Texas.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Came back to Orlando. I went to Orlando for Disney,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: went back to Texas. The engineer was like, hey, you
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: should check out full Sale. Went back to Orlando to
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: go to the school.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay, full sales in Orlando.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, full sales in Orlando. And so I'm out there.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: And then I'm sorry, did you end up completing full
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Sale or yeah?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I graduated?
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Oh so you but it is not an editing.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: No. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Film.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, yeah, so.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: I graduated there.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Was it worth it? Just curious?
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: That's a good question. I think it's worth it because
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: you get to work with your peers that are going
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: to be making it in the industry. So it's good
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: for networking, great for networking. Do I think you actually
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: need to go to school for filmmaking and in this day,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: not really, because you can go to YouTube University and
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: learn all the film techniques, but the networking aspect is
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: really what you get out of it. You know who
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: is going to be great at this particular your skill. Oh,
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I know an editor. Oh, I know someone that loves
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: to do sound. Well, I know someone that loves to
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: be a cinematographer. That's the network you have. Oh, this
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: guy's good at producing. As a director, you have to
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: have an eye for those people and surround yourself with
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: the people that love their position. That's how you get
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: quality products.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And I wanted to emphasize that I love that you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: use like the word love because I noticed that if
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: they're not in love with that craft, it just does.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be Yeah, it's gonna be jank.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I think these might be done.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, they look good, they look official.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: The sides don't look done.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe I could be No, I think it's done.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Things done.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Look at you flipping a burger that doesn't need to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: be flipped. Honestly, that looks done. Here, I'm gonna put
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a bun on mine.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Okay, put a bun on yours there now, okay, you
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: want cold cheese on yoursant, you're gonna put the cheese
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: on yourself. Yeah, handle the times. But am, yo, it
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: looks official.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I kind of want to use it. George Forman, Now, yeah,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: doesn't it look official?
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: It's very official. Welcome to my kitchen. Okay, all right.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: So me, I love the fact that you're also not
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: just working on your skill, but you're like, yo, I'm
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: gonna market the heck out of myself.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Like it's interesting because I truth be told, my real
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: motivation for going to film school was like, you know what,
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I want to be an actor, but I don't know how
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to get into it. So I work from behind the
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: camera to get in front. That was like the secret,
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: my own secret to myself. But I ended up finding
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a skill, a real love for being behind the camera.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I just chase that thing. And I might
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: be leaving out a few other details. You guys can
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: find it all in my book. I'm kidding out of
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: I have a book.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Yet, it's interesting.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: No. I did this thing called draw my Life, where
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: I chronicle my childhood to at least like twenty thirteen
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: mine and Instagram not I'm good, but yeah, so full
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: sale was great. I made a lot of great connects.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Some of my best friends went there and that I
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: still work with to this day, so boom, when is
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: it been happening? Okay? So while I'm there, I start
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: working with this lady named Julia Beverley. Julia Beverley had
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: this magazine called Ozone Magazine.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I remember Ozone Magazine book.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: I see her. I meet her at one of the events.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I go up to her. I don't even know what
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I say, but she was like, okay, I'll hit you up.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: One day she hits me up. She's like, hey, I
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: need you to shoot an artist in Atlanta. It's not
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: a big budget, but if you can come up there
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: and shoot him, it'll be the cover of Ozone Magazine.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: That artist was Bob and I was.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Like, oh great was he Bob At the time.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: He was becoming Vob. So I went up there, met him,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: shot the photos. It was great, and I started just
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: doing different covers for her. So I did Ace Hood,
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Pitbull Khalid. I was just doing covers for her. A
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: year later, b'b gets signed to Atlantic Records and calls
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: me and say, hey, I got signed to Atlantic. I'd
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: love for you to do the album cover. I was like, what, yes,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: I would love Were you like.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: When an artist like that calls you so I'm imagining
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that while you're on set, you're building some kind of
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: rapport where they could call your number. Or is it
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: just like he saw your artwork and was like, Yo,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: give me that photographer.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I'm always building the report. I'm always I
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: think the thing about this industry is one I always
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: look at it like the NBA of imagination. These are
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the people that I would play with at the playground
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: and kick it with, or someone I would play toys with.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: So if we're on that same level, of course we
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: want to work together.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And when we were at the shoot, we were just
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: having a good toast cool and so when he called
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: me for that, I was humbled but excited. Yeah what
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: do you want to do? And he was all about
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: anime and imagination and superheroes and I was like this
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: is my what, this is everything thing? Yeah yeah, So
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: we ended up doing it. I rented out a trampoline
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: from the Jump for any cool pose and we just
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: had a had a blast. So I did that back
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: in Orlando. I meet Ronnie Jerkinsad and my neighbor. Now
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: like at this time, I am not making a lot
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: of money.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I was about to ask no side hustles though, right.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: This is the only hustle. There's no plan B. You're
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: going after your goal, there's no plan B.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: So I was actually really broke. So I'm staying on
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: my friend's couch at the same time as all this
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: stuff has happened, and my neighbor, this is way after
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: the let me see, I think I might be confusing.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: This happens when I come back to Orlando. So before
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I did the B A B album cover I had,
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: my neighbor was like, Hey, I'm moving to LA on Monday.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Do you guys want to go? And I'm like, yeah,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I only have twenty bucks. So me and my friend
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: hop in the whip and we drive cross country.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I just love the whole premise of how this conversation
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: comes out. I'm moving to LA. You want to come
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: with me?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, That's how it was. He came up on a
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Friday's Oh, Monday, I'm moving to LA. Do you guys
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: want to go? We're like, we were trying. Me and
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: my boy, this guy named Murray Mile. We had done
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: projects together, and I remember our first music video. It
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: was for this group called Trill and when on World
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Star Hit That was the thing that was like the
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: pinnacle at a time, and we were like, it did
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a million views in a day. I said, my life
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: is over, it's changing, it's up. I remember jumping on
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: the couch that we were sleeping on. We were just
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: so excited.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: That y'all both were sleeping off.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, he was already sleeping on the couch and
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: I moved in on the other couch. I just couldn't
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: aford to pay my rent. My friend Boston let us
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: stay there. So we're there, and when it hit a
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: million views. It took us like six months to do
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: this music video by the huge special effects, helicopters, all
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: kinds of stuff, and that was it. That's when I
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: got the first real hit of success. Success on the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Internet is it's temporary. This is the age of disposable media.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Hot today, forgotten tomorrow. And that was hard to except
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: early on. But it's great training ground for me. But
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I thought, oh, my life is going to change.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: But I'm still here in what capacity, in the marketing
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: capacity or in the sense of you're going to get
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: a check because at that time, if world Star had it,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: then you weren't getting a payout, were getting a payout.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: No, in the sense of you have to keep showing up.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Like one video, it's great, that's cool, everyone's inna talk
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: about it. But in an hour another hot videos came
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: out or tomorrow something. Twenty thousand other projects are coming
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: out that have that same effect. So you're just drowned out.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: I didn't have anything else, so it was just that.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: So then we moved to LA and it was like
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: a three day trip. It's hilarious, just so he got
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: there recipes to my friend that drove us there. He
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: passed away during COVID.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Oh no, yeah, he was young too.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Huh he was young.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: And then I moved to LA and I'm sleeping on
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: another friend's couch. Friends that went to school with me.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So you called in advance? Yeah, were you all calling
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: little homies in advance?
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I was like, hey, listen, I got some meetings
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: out there. This is how delusion I am. And you
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: have to be delusional with your dream. But I was
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: so delusion. I was like, I got a meeting Ronnie Jerkins.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I'm just gonna stay at your house for a few
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: days and then we're gonna be working. They're like, all right, yeah, cool,
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: come through I get there, I call riding I'm like hey,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: or I sent them an email. I don't remember if
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I had his number or not, but I was like, yo,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: I'm here, and he was like, cool, it's gonna be excited, like, yo,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: come to the office of work. Like a few weeks later,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I went to the office.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And did you do a follow up after you said?
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Like I'm number one mister persistent, like I will
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: hit people up. I used to tweet so much I
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: had to go to Twitter jail because I'd be like
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: new Visual Heat and I have one video New Visual
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Heat your soldier boy, hey bowe wow, Like I'm hitting
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: everybody at thinking this is I'm gonna get the job.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: So the thing is such as Twitter jail.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, you tweet so much within an hour you
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: can't tweet for a certain amount of time.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: That's hilarious. I love that for you, though, Okay, it's
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: so crazy on the internewy hard to get to where
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: you're at.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And I'm still like going, what.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Was that follow up though, looking like with the okay,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: cool response, Hey, I'm leaving in three days, you'd better
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: see if we can link.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: No, it was just like I'm here, I was like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: he was like, let me know when you're here. So
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: then I was telling all my friends, Hey, we're gonna
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: be working Rodney Jerks. He's got this reality show, he's
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: got music videos, got artists. I'm telling all my friends
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the dream and the idea that we're gonna do. And
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: the reality was like, that's not how Hollywood works. So
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I'm out here and I'm like, cool, that's not going
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: to stop me. I'm still going to figure out how
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: to get on. So I would go to the coffee
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: shop on Sunset and it's right across from the CNN building,
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the coffee being our coffee shop that's right there in
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the corner. I'd be up inside there shooting emails all day, Emails, MySpace,
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Twitter all day, and then walk up and down Sunset,
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: knocking on Nickelooneon's door, trying to get a meeting at
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: this studio. I didn't know how it worked, but I'm
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: just I'm trying. This is my every day. And then
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: finally Rodney hit me okay and he's yo, come through
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: to the studio. So I got some artists. I want
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: you to work with those artists. Victoria Monet, little play
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: like this is before they are who they are to
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: TV hits, and then I started working with them and
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: doing music videos for them, and it's cool. Then I
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: get a call to head back to Florida to work
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: on projects for flow Rider.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And e Class and from Ozone.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: Or not even from Ozone, from No from another friend
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: of mine. He wanted to manage me, so he called
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: me up. I'm like, you know what, like videos aren't
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: really popping over here like that. I'm going back and forth.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: I was like, you know what, let me just stay
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: out here in Orlando for another year and see what's
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: going on. So you went back to I went back
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: to Orlando, got an apartment, started working again, and I
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: still wanted to get out to LA but like, I
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: had more work out here. That's when I did Bob
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: and flow Writer and all these other artists. And then
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: I get a call from Susanna Pass. She found Michael Jackson,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: all these other artists in Susanna Pass and Alex Thomas.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: That's who called me, Hey, we want to do a
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: reality show for Alex. I'm like, cool, fly back out.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: They get my ticket one way and I'm staying at
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Tommy Brown's house.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: TV Hits big producer.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've been trying to get him shout outs to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: never ever locking him in.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so Tommy's like one of my good friends.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: You can stay at my house. I'm like cool.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: And he lives in a big ass house. Was he producing? No,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: this is before he was big Okay.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Blankershim in a one bedroom apartment before. Yeah, we're talking
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: like two thousand and nine, twenty Tenkay, it was Struggle City.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: So it's me and him.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: It's crazy to see where you guys are at now.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, so it's me and him and him
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: and actually him and Victoria actually dating at this time,
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and so he's like, I'm gonna stay at I'm gonna
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: stay at her house, and he stays at her house
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: across the street and Danny Lay ends up moving into there.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: So it's all them, Danny Lay's family, and I'm over
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: in Tommy's apartment. So I get a job at this place.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: So I do Alex Thomas's job with them, and they
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: sell that to Style, which is great, like a year
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: so later, but I'm still like.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I'm just curious. Now when you go into the negotiations,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: we gotta try the food before it gets caught because actually,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: let's take a little bite.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Break break there.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: We gonna take the nice sip of the kool aid.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Yep, I'm gonna get my kool aid jammer ready. Oh
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it is good with the cheese. That's the George former
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: girl burger right there.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you something, tell me something. I'm having
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to do this again. This is good.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Chef West in the building.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know why I don't make burgers anymore.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I haven't either, but I'll try to make one for Brandy. Well,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: she says.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: With the kool aid. Whoa, it's a good meal. I'm
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: gonna take one more bite before I get into my
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: next question, which is gonna be how are you running
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the prices? How are you negotiating your prices at this summer?
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Are you just taking what they're offering and you're being
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: really cool? Are you doing some pushback?
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Great question. So, when I was younger and we're talking
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: at the same time, my mom would tell me, know
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: your worth, you have a valuable product. Know your worth.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: I took that very literally, so I did not get it.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I would there was a heavy amount of people acquiring
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: with me, and I was out pricing myself so much
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: photo shoot five K. I gotta know my value photo
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: shoot because sometimes people would pay that. So I'm like, oh,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: this is the the price if you need X, Y
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: and Z, and I'm yeah. I didn't have really any
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: negotiating skills. I was like, this is what it is, man,
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: I got three K. Sorry, man, can't do it. I
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: was sleeping on a couch for that specific reason. I
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: lost a lot of jobs because I didn't understand negotiating it.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: I didn't understand what it meant to know your value,
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: I thought, or know your worth. Because I thought know
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: your worth was like, hey, up here, I know the
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: skill set I have, but I'm still building a resume
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: off of a few projects. So I didn't understand that,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: and so that's what led me to be on a
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: couch for two to three years.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: They're also turning down gigs.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I was turning down so many gigs.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: And nobody was having a couple Jesus moment with me.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: My friends listen. I was extremely hard headed. It's like
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: the most hearted. I was the guy who would argue
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: in meetings the difference between invisible and invincible, explain an idea.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, he turns invisible or invincible. He turns
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: invincible and they're like, you mean invisible. I'm like, no,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: he turns invincible. Man, what are you talking about? And
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: I and one day I went on Google. I was like,
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: why does everyone keep arguing me about this? And I
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: looked and I was like wow, And I just had
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: a flash of all the meetings I had, of people's
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: frustration and hard headedness. I me arguing them to the ground,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: just like my ideas, because I always had like elaborate ideas. Yeah,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: like all my friends Marcus, Doug, Jamie, like all of
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: them would just be like, Wes, what what are you
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: talking about? This is great, They're going to give us
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: ten grand I'm like, no, it needs to be twenty
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: five for this video.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: What was the come to Jesus moment where you were like,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: all right, sleeping on the couch, Like sleeping on the couch.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Three years of sleeping on the couch you epiphany?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: No, No, I had to get I had I hadn't
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: end up getting a manager. He was like, what are
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: you doing? We have you can do these videos? You
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: could do it at this price. So it took a
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: lot of that. I remember when I moved back to Florida.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: My last job in Florida. My friend approached me. He
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: was like, listen, man, I really want to help you
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: take your stuff to the next level. I like to
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: manage you. So I was like, you know what, I
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: definitely need a change. Yes, So we did an agreement,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: and when I got back to LA to like wrap
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: up whatever I was doing out there, I got a
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: call from b the managers. Hey, I want to take
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: you on the world tour with Bob. Like his album
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: is taking off, his music is taking off, and this
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: was a really pivotal moment. And I told him I
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: couldn't do it because I just signed with another manager.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: So that didn't even happen.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Wait, I don't understand why management affected that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. It
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: didn't I could have went there. But actually I think
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: he wanted to manage me. I think he wanted to
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: manage me. But he was also offering me to go
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: on tour, and I was like, I'm sorry, I just
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: signed it another deal.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: And they're trying to manage you as a filmmaker.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they come out on tour with him as a
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: filmmaker and shoot the stuff. So anyways, boom.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: It's also on a testament looking from the sidelines. It's
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: a testament to how great your skill set was and
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: your work ethic was when people are like, yo, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: want to manage it, because management is technically like commission based.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: It's like you what you kill right A percentage?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah percentage? Yeah that that didn't have happening, But I
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: still maintained a great relationship with all them. So I'm
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: in Florida doing those videos and yeah, now we're back
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: to when I'm here in La working. I start working
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: at this place called Hollywood Video. It's right behind Saddle Ranch.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: It's not there anymore, but they did like paparazzi videos.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: They would go out film paparazzis and they I only
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: had to work like three days a week for nine
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: hundred dollars. I was like, this is great money. I'm
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: sleeping on Tommy's couch for free and I'm working in
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: this place. But I'm not gonna lie. This is. I
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: gotta lie a little bit, but this is I wasn't
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: taking the job too serious, so I was spelling stuff wrong.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Oh like actor versus actress Renee Zelwiger and I'm writing
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: renew renee Zebra. I don't know I'm writing something wrong,
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: and I'm getting fired. The same day I get fired,
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Tom's like, hey, I got to move back into this apartment,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: so you got to find your own spot. And I'm like, okay, cool.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: But like that day, I had put my last two
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars down on an apartment. Now I'm like, I
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: got no money here. I am in the same situation.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: I'm fired from this job. I've moved out of timing spot.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: I'm in this new apartment I put last month and
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: that month's rent down. I'm at zero, you know, something
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: like zero zero, Yeah, maybe one hundred and fifty bucks.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what am I gonna do? And so again
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: this I tapped back into just kind of like that
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: hustle mentality, like how to get work, how to get
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: a job. I end up getting a job at Buna
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Murray and Buna Murray they do Kardashians in real world.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Who I's like, oh yeah, yeah, I get a job
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: over there in the digital department. So this is when
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: YouTube's on that rise. So YouTube's on that rise, and
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: I'm inviting different YouTubers in to be on the show,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: and within that time, I meet day Storm. So I
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: meet day Storm and he comes on the show and
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: I'm like shooting. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna start
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: shooting short films on YouTube. And I did a Spider
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: Man short film that he cameoed in. I met him
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: at his party at his house and we became cool.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: And my video that I did went viral and this
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: kid named King BATCHI suck and he hit me up.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: He's like, oh, I saw the Spider Man video and
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, dude, I've just seen your videos on
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: the internet. I think you're funny too. So then we
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: connect and he's all want to start doing music videos.
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, I do these music videos
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: right here.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: You already have this popin ass resume going yeah.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Else he's yeah, I want to do music video. So
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I'm like cool. So we get a budget together and
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: we do music videos. But he needs people in his videos.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: He doesn't know anybody. So I'm like, I met him.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: He wasn't originally from La or something.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: No, batches from like Canada or something.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Oh okay, okay, so he's new new He's and this
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: is before he connects with Storm. Or do you meet
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: him through Storm or you connected them? Get the freak out? Okay,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: so you meet him fresh off the boat.
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so like he's no, he's doing like amazing videos
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: on his own, and I'm like, these are super funny.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So I helped start. I start shooting his YouTube videos
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that, and so he needs to do
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: this video and I invite all the cool YouTubers that
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: I know, day Storm, JK Films, like all really dope YouTubers,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: and they're all on in his video.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: So him and day Storm and are you still working
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: for Bernie at this time?
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Being and Murray, Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm so worriy sorry,
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: I'm still working on that. And so yeah, they link
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: up and then they start doing videos like crazy.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so you like literally created a whole dominie.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: You you the reason why these guys are like okay.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: So boom, So they connect, they start doing their videos.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: I'm doing YouTube and then this app called Vining comes
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: out and my friend Ken Michael like batchuses like cameo
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: on all the music videos I do from esther Dean
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: I did want for Lil Wayne and Trey songs and
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: he would CAMEO on it or be my pa. Damn yeah,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I would bring him along on all these shoots. I
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: remember what did I do Batch? Oh? I started? So Tommy,
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: he's doing stuff at the studio. I'm meeting different artist
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: in studio. Travis Scott came through before he was Travis
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: Scott and me and him were talking about videos we
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: were going to do together. And I met Neo's manager son,
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and then so I ended up meeting Neo. This is so,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: this is like between twenty eleven twenty thirteen. All this
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: stuff is happening, and I go out there to shoot
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: a video. They're like, hey, we want to shoot a
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: video with Neo working out with his trainer Boss. So
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: I meet Boss and I meet Neo. Boss. Oh shit,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: you dope. And I was like, oh, you dope too.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: So I do the video Boom, keep it moving. He's hey, listen,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: they love the video. We want to do it better
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: and put a real budget in your hands. And the
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: budget was like five hundred to five ks. I'm like, cool,
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: I could put this together, make something. We did that.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: Me and Boss built it an incredible relationship from there,
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: and there was a basketball game for Kevin Hart. This is.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: We knew about Vine, but we weren't actually active on
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: it just yet. So we do this big basketball game
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: between Kevin Hart and Neo's camp, and that's when Boston
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Neo met Our, Boston Kevin met, their relationship took off.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: So then Ryne comes out and I'm.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Boston Kevin met in their relationship. Are Neo and keV
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: met in the relationship.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Neo and keV aready knew each other. Boston Kevin met
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: at this event, and then they take off our.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I remember just yeah, just the relationship connected.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: I didn't connect them yea, yeah, I get it.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I get okay boom.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: So he was like, yo, I do this. I'm a trainer.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: I got Neo shape. He was like, kep, yeah, I
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: definitely want to tap it with you. And then they've
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: built an incredible like business. So then so then Vine
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: comes out and I'm going over there just to film
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: people's vines. And I'm filming it and they're like, wells
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: you shouldoot vines? Who you funny? I'm like, nah, I
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: got I'm trying to do movies and television, so I'm
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: filming batch. He's got first month thousand followers. Two weeks later,
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: thirty thousand followers at the end of the month, a
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: million followers. Like literally, it was like that, and I
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: would come in sporadically and after they and the month
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: after they got a million followers, I was like, I'm
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: about to start shooting these type of videos because like
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I thought, I was.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Just yeah, I'm trying to do and you're just shooting
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: and not editing. No, I'm just are they editing at
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: this point?
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: No, we have to edit within the app, so it's
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: six seconds, so it's like record, stop cutting. Then we
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: figured out how to hack the app and get on
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: the back and download the footage to be able to
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: cut it in different ways. So it was like a
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: whole thing. So it was Vine was probably one of
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: the most stressful things ever because I don't even think
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: I said I grew up in Japan, but yo, we
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: started at the beginning. We started at the beginning. Agree,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: But yes, I moved to Japan in third grade stayed
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: to my senior year of high school. So my comedy
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: and my outlook.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Is that where the anime comes from. Yeah, ok, I
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: got it.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: So my outlook on comedy and just urban black comedy
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: in general, it's just different so my videos they always
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: looked good because they came from traditional background, but day
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Swarm would call them well edited deletes. It's not funny, but.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: It looks he's so cold. Yes, can you say that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: quote again.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: Welled deletes? Yes, he's not. That's a delete, that's what
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: it would be like, that's a delete. West videos look good,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: but they always well edited deletes. It was just the thing.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what lit the fire under me, Melvin.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Gregg, Melvin, Melvin shout outs to him. I'm been trying
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: to get him forever. No, I have never booked him.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: I'll tell him. Okay, Melvin was the one person that
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: was able to get under my skin so much that
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to prove everyone wrong.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: What did he say to get you?
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: He was like, maybe making videos like the Saint for you?
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Oh shit? Oh.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: And I remember just being inside that group chat hot
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: and I was like, I was so determined, Like I was,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: I was. I have never been so determined in my life.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I've always been determined, but like that one right there,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: I was like, I was angry, but.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Even with your whole body of works.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Melvin, do you know what he was doing
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: or something. No, he was just like that back then,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: he was just like that. And yeah, So for the
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: first two years, I would say, or first year and
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: a half, my vite videos were not like taking off,
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: like there was no Vines were a big thing, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: community was a big thing, and how people connected and
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: networks was a big thing. And here I am just scrounging,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Hey can you revive my video? Or hey, let's shoot
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: a video. Was what I would do is I would
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: say something and day sort of like that's my vine.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: That's how quick an idea can go. Oh man, it'd
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: be funny if this or you just have a conversation,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: like someone would be able to snatch a vine out
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: the air, like that's my idea. And we'd get in
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: these big groups me they storm leand Clarity Splack, Melvin,
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: all of us. We would do vine meetups and you.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Guy would shooting. I remember it would be like days,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: like it'd be like Saturday, Sundy would be a shoot.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Day, right, No, like every day would be a shoot.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: And like if you didn't get in those first six
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: to seven videos, because it's so high energy for someone's
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: video to get someone's attention and shoot the idea. By
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: the time it's your turn for your video, everyone's editing
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: and everyone's giving you like low ass energy, and I'd
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: always be in the low ass energy category. I'd shoot
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: everyone's stuff like cool, all right, my idea, Okay, I
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: got my idea now, or I'd come there not prepared
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: with an idea because it's just it was a lot
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: of pressure you're dealing with, like personalities that are just
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: like yours or bigger than yours. And in those situations
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: like I think I have a big personality, but like
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: when I get around bigger ones, yeah, just be like
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: all right, I'm not trying to like out talk some.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: Whenever I see you'd always be quiet, Like anytime I
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: was around that group, you would always be extremely quiet.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: It almost seemed like you were unapproachable.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: No, it was never that. It was just like I'd
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: be in deep thought or like trying to think of
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: like how can I do it? So I would default
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: into my skill set. I'll just film the video. And
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: this is before people were tagging people in videos, because
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: I was like, man, this I should get tagged in
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: it because I shot it. I would do like unique
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: camera movements and stuff like that.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Anyways, when do you end up on the other side
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: of the camera. That's where in front.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, then when I started shooting videos. When I started
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: shooting videos, that's when I was like, in front.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: You saw bat like numbers go.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: Everyone's numbers went like, everyone's numbers went so crazy. It
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: didn't take It took about a year and a half
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: for my things start catching on, and that's when Vine
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: ended up going away. So everything was getting Anything I
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: posted woul get a million views. So I went to
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: Facebook would remix my ideas and then in four months
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: I got a million followers.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: So you guys signing to see payouts?
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember my first brand day was like seventy
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: five dollars and I was like, I'm getting paid to
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: do something I would do for free anyway. Also be
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: to Murray that had ended. So here I am again
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: like Brokeville. Yeah, Brokeville, so like twenty fourteen, twenty twenty fifteen,
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, it is Brokeville. Twenty fifteen is when I
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: met Brandy, and I remember specifically ripping eviction notices off
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: my door. I'd be like, wait, let me run upstairs
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: real quick, and I.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Go, oh, you're talking about your fiance. Yeah, that's hilarious. Yea,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: so will you'd be coming home from a date, let
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: me go upstairs.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: Oh man. I remember she was like, what do you
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: guys do? I was like, we make videos. I met
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: her at Lamorren's house and you guys don't have jobs.
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: And I would make videos. And I had started making
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: money doing videos by that time. It wasn't a lot,
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: but I was making some. So I was still doing
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: music videos. I think in twenty sixteen is when I
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: did my last official music video for flow Rider. Yeah,
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: videos were taken off. I start working with Fortune fifty
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: and five hundred companies doing branded content for this so
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: like now I'm getting because of these videos, I'm getting
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: published in Bloomberg magazine for oh, so, like those different
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: things are happening.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Can you share with us with what the published what
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: you were being published in Bloomberg magazine?
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: For all those in Bloomberg Magazine, I was interviewed for
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: bridging the gap between traditional and digital media. And then
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: because of the commercial spots I was doing, they were
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: going viral and like a sketch at first, but it'd
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: be a branded content piece. So by the end you're like, oh, Damn,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: that was a brand new So yeah, that's what it was.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: They named me game changing influencer in twenty seventeen or
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: twenty eighteen for bridging that gap between traditional.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Day and you guys sort did you definitely played a
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: pivotal role in that, because now nothing looks the same.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, it's crazy. It's so crazy how this
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: has changed. But that the influencer game. I always looked
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: at it as a stepping stone because I was like, Okay,
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: I wanted to because in the industry, to work from
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: behind to it in front. But I ended up having
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: an extremely good skill set. Being behind social media allowed
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: me to be in front. I can, I could be
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: whoever I want to be on there. So that's how
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: that personality built up. That's how I was casting in
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: movies like director saw me at a party goofing off
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: with my friends. I'm gonna put you in a movie
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: like yeah, no, he was dead serious, he was dead serious,
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: and boom, I got in a movie from there. I
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: got another movie from Rominy Malcom because of the Internet. Stuffy,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: I want it, I want you to be in my film.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: And this is a film with Regina King and all
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: these other actors. But he taught me that and he
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: just said it briefly. He was like, because I went
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: in doing vine stuff big. He was like, listen, for
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: the big screen, you have to be small. For the
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: small screen, you have to be big. And I was like, okay,
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: And so that's just in terms of like action on
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: the smaller screen on the phone, looked to the door. Yeah,
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: on a big screen, looked at the doors like that.
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: It's subtle. It's so much is subtlety there. So that's
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: how I got my first movie, my second movie, and
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: then my last one that I did was with Cedric
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: the Entertainer. Again, they saw real of stuff I put
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: together and they're like, Yo, can you fly out tomorrow
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: be in this film?
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: And how are they seeing the reel?
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: I always have a real put together so I have
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: acting reel, of voice over reel, a directing reel.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: They say, like on a website or something, Okay.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: Stay ready, so you ain't got to get ready, Okay.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I like you. I like the way you move business wise.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Oh you're like marketing business sales. You're not just because
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: a lot of people can just creative, can lock in
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: solely on creative, but you from jump or like business
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: card right here?
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so like marketing has always I don't know, I
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: just I just got I was never afraid to put
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: myself out there, and social media just put a different
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: battery pack on my back because those numbers showed you
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: had value or there were people that were invested into you.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: So I worked with so many different brands from T
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: Mobile to Toyota, to Walmart to Xbox too, you name it.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: And what ended up happening is I started building a
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: strong relationship with the movie studios. Now, the movie studios
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: are like, hey, Wes, we want you to host this
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: screening and we want you to bring big influencers there.
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: I'm like, great, can I show a short film of mind?
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: Because what I really want to do is direct movies.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: I feel like absolutely, Oh, instead of asking for a check,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: you were asking.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: For No, I still get a check. I would still
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: get a check, But what would be great is I'd
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: be able to showcase a short film of mind in
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: front of us audience.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone would have thought to ask that though,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: but they would have been like, thank you for the check.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: But yeah, maybe not. I don't know, No, I don't
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: know anybody else that was doing it. But I felt
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: like creators and influencers, they were doing it because they
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: were all out here not to be on social media,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: but to be in Hollywood. Not knowing we were building
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: the new Hollywood.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Wow, that's a big statement.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah we did not. We did know Dave Swarm new
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: because Dave Swarm was like, he was like, we should
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: keep shooting these videos, like checks are going to start
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: coming in, and we're like, you serious. He's I'll call
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: him the Godfather. Yeah, I believe that for sure.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: It's funny though he was, he played a significant role mentoring.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: He still mentors a lot of people around him, and
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: I don't think he discriminates on any level with that.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: But to see everyone hit their different peaks at different times.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: It starts with him. Guy would I will give credit
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: today's storm power because he's guided all of us, so
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: many of us and giving us advice and just like
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: he never lies, never lies, keeps it real and always
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: give credit to him for that.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: But you said he saw the calm, he saw the
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: big screen. Can you get into that what you took
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: from that the big screen without pay before he saw
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: you were If we backtracked just a couple of seconds,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: you were like saying, he saw that there was an
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: option for the big screen, or for Hollywood, or for
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: the transition from Hollywood.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: To Yeah, he was just like he was like, Yo,
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: we're gonna start getting paid from doing these videos. Keep
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: staying on it because we're like, how do we how
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: do we make money? Like, we're not making any money?
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: What are we doing in this situation? Hey, they want
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: to pay means that's how you handle this, you know
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: you should. There's a power in saying no, yo, this
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: is how you negotiate, like all those different things, And
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: so I would take each of those things and apply
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: it to everything I was doing. So when it came
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: to when it came to brands, one of the tactics
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: and things that I would use is like, all right,
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: a brand's going to hit you up and they're gonna say, hey,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: we want to post on your page. How much do
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: you cost? Now you could say a number and they
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: could easily be like, say, I say fifteen thousand dollars.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: They're like, sorry, we can't, We're not going to do that.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Deal's gone. But this is money you're not thinking about
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: in the first place. So that's number one so when
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: they say how much does it cost? What are you
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: looking to pay? Whoever says the first number, first loser? Boom,
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: And so I'm like, okay. So that's how I started
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: approaching it at all, Like, this is money I'm not
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: thinking about in the first place. So whether I get
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: it or not, I don't care. Lock that in. What
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: are you guys looking to spend? Oh they're looking to
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: spend fifteen K? Great, I didn't have that thought yesterday
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: or anything like that. This is what you want to
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: pay me? Great? Hey, can we do twenty five K
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: for this? And this? We can't do that, but we
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: could do twenty k. Boom, locked it and done. Now
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: I've won. And so it's that and building upon that
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: every single time. So the deals went from two K
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: to ten K to fifteen y And.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: How are you managing your money when you're getting these checks?
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: Are you blowing? Oh? You had an account in the whole time.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: I had to get an accountant because I was like,
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know to do it all this. So I
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: had to get an accountant to get the business straight,
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: like taxes and everything like that.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: How do you know how to do that? Did someone
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: whisper in your hair. Hey, by the way, or.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Like all of us talked, Oh you need an accountant
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: to help you manage this money. You don't want to
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: blow it all. So that's I like that.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a very safe place. One's trying to
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: foster everyone's growth. No hater aid all right, now I'm
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: going to fast track you.
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: The fast track is all the way to some of
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the highlights of what you're doing. Now, I want to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: before we get into the masterclass and some of the
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: bigger things that you're working on, I want to talk
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: about your first commercial commercial for TV. Tell me about
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: that experience. What was it like, the call, the whole line.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: The call was someone that had worked with on brandals
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: before they went to an agency called Tool of North America.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: They were looking to build a creator arm and I
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: was the first call. So we talked. And when you
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: do brand deals online, it's literally like a paragraph, what
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: do you want to do or what's your idea? I
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: do the paragraph. They're like, okay, cool, here's fifty k boom.
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: I just do it.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: So oh you they ask you what you want to do?
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: This this creator? This is how to be a creator
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: and how brand deals work. You write a paragraph. This
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: is my idea, that's what I want to do. They're like, okay, cool,
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: here's the money. We're looking for the product. Now. On
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: the traditional side, it's hey, we're looking for a director.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: We need to see the concept of what you're trying
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: to do. At first, I tried to send a paragraph
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: and they were like, what the hell is this? This
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: is All State. We can't this is not how we work.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Like what's the theme, what's the tone, what kind of
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: cameras you're gonna use, what's the lighting? Look like. I'm like,
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: wait what? But I have to do all of that.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: They're like, that's the job of the director. So that
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: was a quick crash course. If I want to do this, boom.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: So I get awarded the job. This is like a
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: month process vetting process because they're going against other directors.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: I get the job. It's three All State commercials in
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: a single day, and I'm like, all right, Cools. They
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: bring on another director that's more experienced to come in
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: and have my back. But when he got there, he
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: was like, Oh, I think you got it. I'm just
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: going to chill in the back. Boom knock those out.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: They signed me after doing those commercials and now I'm
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: on the road to doing like national commercial spalls and
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: this is like big Hollywood.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: How much money are you talking like where you're like,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: oh my goodness, Like was it like Nanni that was
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: noticeable or was it just.
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: Because it just it works differently like you're dealing with
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: like corporate. So now I'm not an employee, I'm a contractor,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: whereas as an influencer, I am a contractor. But it's
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: like I set the rule of my page. I am
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: the television network. So where it's let me give you
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: an example. If it's like a three hundred thousand dollars commercial,
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: a director will get like two to three percent of that,
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: sometimes up to ten percent. Like that's it. So you
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: have your different departments sectioned off, you have your it's
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: three hundred thousand, but you're paying for gripp and electric,
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: you're shutting down streets, you're renting houses, Like I don't
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: get all that budget. So that was a wake up call.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: It's like you have to build up that resume to
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: get that check like that. But this is great. This
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: is a great resume builder, and this kind of solidifies
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: me as like an official director Now that I'm doing
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: these type of commercials, so boom, I start doing those.
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: That's building my resume. Now I have another feather in
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: the cap to go in and approach people with. I
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: don't have an agent as a manager, and it's just
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: me like it's me and it's built off of my
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: hustle and people within the agency hustling for me. So
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: that's kind of like how those commercials work. But it's
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: still like amazing, Oh wow, I'm doing like a real commercial,
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: like for real.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: So you sign on to do more.
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Your resume is like popping.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: It's popping.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: It's popping, and you're learning the difference between talking corporate
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: and talking the influencer or in the different types of
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: entrepreneur like versus I own my own network, plug it
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: into someone else's nuse. Now can you fast forward me
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: to masterclass with Kevin Hart?
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: So does that come about?
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: It goes back to relationships with bos. What I've learned
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: in this industry is you plant seeds that are gonna
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: blossom over the next three to five years. I met
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: Boss back in twenty twelve. He meets Kevin twenty thirteen.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: They build up their thing. There's a point, like I
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: think in twenty seventeen where they flew as all out
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: to Hawaii to shoot stuff for keV, and like, I
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: already had that relationship with Boss and that's a there's
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: a bigger story with inside of there. But me, they
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: storm Clarity, all of us. We all went to Hawaii
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: to shoot stuff for keV and it was crazy and
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: we helped promote his film What Now. All the videos
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: went millions and millions of views online and keV was
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: already becoming a global super sopid. He was like what
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: now came out? He was like out of here. Yeah,
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: his life has been changing since I want to say,
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: like twenty ten. He just became popular like boom. So
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: it's always great to be a part of that. Masterclass
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: came about Brandy and I. We got hired by Heartbeat
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: to host Heartbeat Weekend. We have been building rapport with him.
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: I had been doing stuff with Heartbeat already and I
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: had signed LOL back in twenty eighteen when keV first
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: launched it, signed as an influencer, so they had when
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: he launched it, he signed a bunch of influencers, myself,
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: Woody John, a few different influencers to create content and
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: we were plugged in with him. His team noticed me
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: moving more in the director area and Brian Smiley hit
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: me up and he was like, hey, pieces CEO at
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: the time or COO at the time. He's like, hey,
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: would you be interested in doing a masterclass for keV? What? Yeah?
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: And after I hung up, I was like, I looked
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: at Brandy and I was like, I have no idea
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: what a masterclass is, but I'm just like, yes, Yeah,
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: that's how that came about. And around that time, I
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: had just shot my first official, like large short film, Vigilante,
• 51:34
  Speaker 2: and so I had to take a break from it.
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: This is a five month project for Kevin's masterclass, So
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: go into.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: His house five months.
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it took five months to get it done. Jesus Yeah,
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: because it was his schedule. Kevin's schedule is insane, So
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: trying to find time to sit with him, trying to
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: work out with him, go to his house, ride different
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: places with him, just to see how did you build
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: this empire? Was this an accident? Did you mean to
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: do it? What I need to learn? How do I become?
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: That's what I need to know in this because you've
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: done it in such an incredible way, and you're still
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: able to have fun doing the thing you do. And
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: how his team works there so like just like Sharp,
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: from Boss to Harry to Joey, they moved very strategically,
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: and then he has Heartbeat that moves strategically as well
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: some time. So when it came to shooting, I had
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: two four hour days with him to shoot it, but
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: everything else I had to build around. So I'm looking
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: through tons and hours of footage of him from his
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: early days. How am I going to construct this thing?
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: So it was like a whole thing, and so you
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: actually had to do nine oh so much. And then
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: I brought out with my friend who I went to
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: school with film school, Alan, He was working on the
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: Marvel films, so he came in and edited it with
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: me and we knocked the whole thing out.
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: I love that you do the behind the scenes of
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the whole experience. I absolutely I think there's like a
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: connection to be built so like people can grow with you,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: fall in love with you, you'd be excited with you.
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: Oh this is so amazing, and I love that he
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: expressed it. I love that part about your whole journey
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: that you're like that you take the time to do
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the behind the scenes and talk.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: I think it's important you get to show people what
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: it's like behind the curtain because I always want I
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: was the kid that would put my face against a
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: TV screen and try to see her on the corner,
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: what is back there? And the Internet allowed me just
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: to show like, hey, this is what I'm going through.
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: Nobody knows what the fuck they're doing, to be completely honest,
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: and I don't know what I'm doing, but this is
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: how I'm figuring it out. If I'm going to leave anything.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: I always said, like when I got the answers, because
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: I was always trying to get the answers, but there's gatekeepers.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Nobody wants to give you the answers. So I was
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: just like, when I get the answers, I'm just going
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: to give them away. Do with it what you will.
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: This is what I learned. Hopefully you could takes something
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: away use it for yourself.
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm glad I got one hour.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: Is that an hour?
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: An hour? Okay? And it's been an exciting journey. I
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: don't think I got to cover everything because it's sounds
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: like there was so many good details and juicy stories
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: that I probably missed out on. But what can people
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: look forward to next in regards to projects.
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: Right now, you can check out my film Vigilante on
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: American Airlines that just dropped about a month ago, and
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: my brother wrote it. It took us about it took
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: us a year to get done. But I went to
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: festivals all last year in New York, Florida, Atlanta, DC, Texas, California,
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: like it went all over and it finally landed on
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: American Airlines, so it's technically a global release.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: It is yeah, yeah flies And then what was it
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: like in in that deal?
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: Surreal? I when it comes to being a feature film director,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want to just be any director. I want
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: to be the best. I want to be a blockbuster, global,
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: superstar director. I don't need to be a superstar director,
• 54:51
  Speaker 2: but I want to create films that people never look
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: away from. And I envisioned that for myself. At the
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: end of the last year, I assigned to the Director's Guild
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: of America, which is huge, huge milestone. And now those
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: huge directors are now my peers. So one of my
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: mentors is Tim's story Think like a Man, ride along
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: barbershop and he's kicking me under his wing and he's
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: teaching me the ropes. What is it like to do
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: one hundred million dollar film? So putting myself in those
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: positions and.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: You pick up the phone, call him or text questions. Yeah,
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: So he's like a mentor, now big mentor. We worked
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: on Kevin's latest commercial on guitar airways. If you ever
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: fly guitar airways, I don't know, I have a lot
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: of airline stuff, but if you ever fly guitar airways.
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: The new safety video starts Kevin Hart and so I
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: was co writer and creative producer on that and Tim
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: Story directed it.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: All right, and you're doing more stuff but yeah right now.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, heading back out to New York right now to
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: do some more stuff for guitar and nice all the
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: social stuff from guitar areas have I got to direct?
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: And then, what advice would you give to anybody pursuing
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: either the industry influencing filmmaking. Even though I feel like
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: you left a nice road trail of nuggets.
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: For anybody that is looking to do something that they're
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: passionate about, go all in, bet on yourself. No one's
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: coming to save you. You have to be your biggest
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: fan and just do it, like a little bit of
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: time every day towards the thing that you want to do.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: You're going to look up at some point to be like, damn,
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: I did a lot because that was me enjoy the
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: person that you are right now that is doing that thing.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: Because a lot of stuff I talk about, I was
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: always looking at the future like, ah, man, one day,
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: one day, one day, not realizing oh man, I did
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff.
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: So now when I'm in the thing and I'm trying
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: to get more out of it, I'm like intentional about meditating,
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: sitting with it, enjoying that thing, promoting that thing, being
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: proud of that thing, and then what's the next thing.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: It's always like you have to be comfortable with being unsatisfied,
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: Like you're always going to be like, shit, what's next?
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I feel like the on this in particular,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: you'll see that everyone that sits in your seat, like
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: the sealing just keeps moving.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the goal post keep keeps.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Moving, and everyone focuses on the goal post. You see
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: it every They're like, what can I do more?
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah? The goal post keeps moving.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: What was one of the what was one of the moles.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: The thing you took away the most out of dealing
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: with the masterclass with Kevin Hart. Who do you think
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: his golden up for success.
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: Was nobody's coming to save you. The Sun's gonna come
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: up again tomorrow, and you have an opportunity to do
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: the same thing and bet on yourself. Seek information. Don't
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: be scared to say I don't know. Those are huge,
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: huge things him, boss. They give me. There's so many
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: lessons inside there to take away of how to pursue
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: the thing that you want out of life, and they
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: are living, breathing testaments of that thing. And yeah, I
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: think also it's like surrounding yourself with people that are
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: doing better than you. It's so important those conversations. And
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: there are such things as people that can drain that
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: energy if they always have my mom would call a
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: fly in their soup, like something's always wrong. Ah man,
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: this just happened. I don't sorry. I ain't trying to
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: be around that smart. Let me hear about something positive.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Let me hear about something that I'm not doing. How
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: can I elevate and do something different? Yo? Tim? What
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: was it like doing this movie? What are some of
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: the things you dealt with like I'm in pursuit of greatness.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I love that. And then for anyone out there that's
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: currently going through broke times had to rip off eviction
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: notice while on dates or eight burgers, slept on couches,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: literally was homeless. Just how did you get past those
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: errors without making it without making it the focal point
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: because it seemed like you were ripping off eviction notices,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: but it wasn't like the highlight of oh shit, how
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: am I going to pay this bill? Was like how
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: do I get more projects? Like how did you?
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: Just? I don't know, man, God, I knew. I know
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: that something's gonna happen. I know how it's gonna happen.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: I'm just like, I'm very self driven and I think
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: my mom, I thank God for that. If this person
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: can do it, why can't I do it? I just
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: I cannot. I was never in this woe is me, Like, dang,
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: it's just not gonna happen for me. I was just
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: never that. It's just if you don't know about me,
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: I gotta tell you about me, like I gotta tell you.
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: I gotta get this out of my system in some way.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: And even when I meet people like, I'll be honestly say,
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: I meet the president of Paramount and this is true story.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: I'll go up to them. I'm like, listen, I don't
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: really have the exact words to say right now, but
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: I just know that I'd love to show you some
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: of my work if is there any way I can
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: get in contact with you. It was a real interaction. Yeah,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: here's my business card. Hit me up. You have no
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: idea what you just not did, because I for show
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: I'm going to hit you up. So and I'm still
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: playing that game like, I'm still like, job's not done.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: I'm inching closer to the thing. But it's a constant
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: wake up set. My intentions chase the dream. Even this
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: right here, this is another. This is a piece of
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: the pie of chasing the dream. This is exposure to
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: a whole new audience. This is and fulfill your thing.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: Like anytime I work with someone that's like, how can
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: I make you look great? This is your dream, this
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: is your goal. If I can help contribute it, that's
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 2: good carbon to me. Why not?
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: Thank you?
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you coming on and I'm super thankful. Yeah,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: and I'm so proud of you. Thank you likewise, So
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: thank y'all for tuning in you could keep up with
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: what's good.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: Hell on all social media's spell it out, it's w
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: u z g oo D. It's literally the one on everything.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. Peace out. For more eating while broke
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.