Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / How to Win in the Creator Economy - Ep. 143 w/ Amber Lewis (Social N The City)

Transcript

How to Win in the Creator Economy - Ep. 143 w/ Amber Lewis (Social N The City) · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like it's a shift happening for the creative landscape in Detroit.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, we've always been a creative city.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've always had creative community, but I feel like now more than ever before there are more creatives who are present, who are vocal, who are building community, who are in spaces that other people aren't.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I think it's a beautiful time to be a creative in Detroit.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a lot going on in the creative economy here, but it's all good things and I'm so proud to be here and be a representative and be someone who I feel like has been leading that charge.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: This episode is bought to you by our friends at Bamboo.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I am sitting in the podcast room at the Bamboo Detroit location right now, which is where you have seen a ton of the Black Friday's podcast episodes.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the reason that it is is because Bamboo has been Black Friday's creative hub for the last couple of years.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, it's much more than our creative HQ is home to hundreds of entrepreneurs, creators,
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: thinkers and doers just like yourself.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, rather you need a private suite that's customized to your like in so that you can effectively get work done or if you need a space to be able to host a meeting or a conference call, Bambu has flexible, creative spaces and a supportive community to match.
• 1:29
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• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead, click the link to check out Bamboo selection of private sweets at any of their locations.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Any of their Bamboo cowork locations, and you can also find a link in the show notes as well to get those details.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's time for you.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: You to join the Bamboo community.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Time to get into the show.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: With update Black Friday's family, welcome back to another installment of the Black Friday's podcast.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into today's episode, I need to hit that like button, subscribe, drop a comment, send some videos to some friends, family, and loved ones so we can keep this thing going.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now for today's guest, I want to introduce you to someone who you can say has been social in the city and is even Detroit's CEO.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Miss Amber Lewis, how you doing today?
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm good.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: How are you?
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for having me.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, so tell us how does one become the CEO of Detroit and what does that mean to be the CEO of Detroit?
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Man, it took a lot of years of being who I am and like publicly sharing that in order to be in the position to be Detroit CEO.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think my partnership with Visit Detroit came about because I met with their new marketing director.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think he started with Detroit in like, twenty eighteen.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: So once he started I met with him like how can I was still at the city at the time.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like how can we support and imply what y'all are doing and vice versa.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then I'm meeting he was like, I'm gonna have some work for you.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was side of this and I'm like, okay.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: Mind you, that's twenty eighteen is twenty twenty five today.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so in twenty twenty he had a marketing manager who reached out to me like, hey, we want you to be like our first ambassador.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was living in New Orleans and I was like, it's great because you'll be visiting Detroit and we're visiting Detroit.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, okay.
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so we did like a pilot run of me taking over their Instagram story.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: But in the meantime, I'm still doing a work of like sharing my perspective of the city and places to go.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: People don't know what I'm doing.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Um, and so it makes me still be relevant and then in twenty twenty four is when they reached out again.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, actually, twenty twenty three, they reached out again and were like, hey,
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: we actually have the team to support managing this partnership, like let's do it and figure out what it looks like.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it was maintaining and managing that relationship, but also like me still doing the work of whatever is presented in that partnership without the partner.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: So that when the partner is ready, they want to partner and see value in that.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like for a very long time, I've just always represented Detroit in a way that is authentic and like,
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: you had a thing back to the eighteen is city was very different people were talking about it in the way they were today and so I was able to carve out a lady for myself and that's what allowed me to be in a position to be a CEO today because yeah I've just been doing what we're in and as far as your partnership with the Detroit and being uh... having a title of CEO Detroit so what is breakdown CEO and then also that partnership and how that came about
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so the partnership with Visiting Trade Detroit CEO stands for Chief Energy Officer.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: They originally approached me to be a nightlife ambassador.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: They were like, you know, you a party girl, you always love going out.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm like, girl, I'm sad.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know if I could commit to that.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm like, I know I want to talk about wellness and talk about businesses and spotlighting other things that were extended beyond nightlife.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so they're like, okay, what kind of role can we come up with?
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it was a really collaborative approach to figure out
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: what this ambassador ship will be called and what it looked like.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it really, like, I'm building out what the infrastructure for them working with creators looks like.
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so when we first got started, it was like, okay, we're going to do a video on mine, or sometimes we did two videos a month.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now we're at a monthly video cadence, but we're also looking at how to expand the role of the CEO for it's when in twenty six.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's more than content or
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: creating a lane for other creators.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's like, how do we really amplify the gospel of Detroit globally and how can I be a conduit of that?
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm really honored to be in this position to do this work.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Again, it's like a combination of having relationship with this brain for over the years of me still doing the work without the partnership because it was true to how I wanted to show up online in real life.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then noticing, right?
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so, it's a beautiful partnership to have.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think it's definitely helps to elevate my brain, but also to elevate, to elevate, to elevate this V-way.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: But also to elevate the work that they're doing as a tourism board and shine in the light on what's going on here in the city.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's take a step back because you're what I would name a multi-hyped creative and you have been able to create and put on for the scene in so many different ways.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: When would you say that you're a creative journey or the essence of you being a creative started, that's something that happened right out the womb or did it take time for you to even get into that.
• 6:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was thinking about this concept earlier because I feel like some people grow into who they are and some people who are always who they are.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like, I'm somewhere in the middle.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I remember as soon as I knew how to write, I was writing my first song and performing it from my mom and my grandma.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: When I was a kid, I would be selected to be like a lead in the play at church.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I would be so mad.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was like, I don't know why they picked me and fussing to my grandma, then she's like, you just don't know this shall tell it, initial light.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so once I started doing that and giving speeches in the pool, I'd charge as a young age.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: I just felt like myself and I've always done that work since a young age.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: I threw my first party when I was in the fifth grade.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I've just been a continuation of this.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've been on leadership boards in high school and in college and managing social platforms and running organizations.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I feel like everything I'm doing today, I've always done.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it's just in a different space and in a different light and perspective.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now talk to us about social in the city, the business and brand that you have built over the years and has been able to culminate sort of a creative community as well as be a part of some great activations campaigns and initiatives around the city.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: So could you break down social in the city for us on what that looks like?
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, so also in the city is my brand.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's my personal brand that has kind of started to create a media agency.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: I remember I did my first brand partnership in so in the third team.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was still in school, influencer marketing wasn't even called influencer marketing.
• 7:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: But once I started moving back to Detroit in twenty sixteen and sharing my perspective, people was hit in me up like, hey, can we pay you to come to this event or talk about this thing?
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm like,
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, you can.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I started to do the work and I'm like, okay, I need to make this at L.O.C.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: at the time.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was there to be glam online and I went to a workshop with Charlie G. Embria and they were talking about like brands and building your brand and building your brand partnerships.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we were at a round table.
• 8:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: and out of that social density was born and so I changed my name and I just continued to like share it in the same ways that I was doing but at some point along that line I was the playlist princess, curated music, I was doing my own events, I was modeling for a lot of places and hosting a lot of events at that time.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so social in the city also came from like me doing social media for the city.
• 8:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was this two-pronged approach of like being a girl who's social, who's a party girl, who's at the events, but also being a girl who's the voice of the city online.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that comes from like having an advertising degree, doing a lot of internships, managing social media and undergrad for anybody who would let me and sell together that kind of encompassed what social in the city.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: was and then today it's just bloomed into all of the things that I thought about when I was developing this bread I'm like I want to work with Cadillac and I want to like all the things that I want us to do as a business I've done and so now it's time to dream bigger and do more and what that's what we're looking at now with looking at a global lens for creators here in the city very dope and we gonna get more into your journey, but now I want to introduce my favorite part of Black Friday is which is Freestyle Friday okay
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you should know how this goes by now.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna need, we only need, eighteen, sixteen, eight bars, whatever you got.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know you'd be, you'd be going crazy on the karaoke.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you want them people I've seen from videos that actually go to karaoke and really be singing.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you're not there for play play.
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you would like to sing us on, do some poems, or give us a rap, you can, or you can do our repertoire questions this up to you.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Repify your questions.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, bet.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So would you deem yourself an extrovert or introvert?
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: Extrovert.
• 10:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, when did you come that realization that you were extrovert?
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: I love outside.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I love talking people.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: I do need my time to recharge naturally, but probably when I was in grade school and I would get three in citizenship for talking too much at class.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do they have a still do service of work?
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They just let the kids freestyle.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: They pass them either way.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: What would you say is your favorite place to co-work or get work done?
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Um, hotel lobbies for sure.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think I love the ambiance that a hotel provides in terms of the details of the experience, the scent, the cafe offerings, and just like the furniture, it just makes me feel like, oh, let me get something done.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: It makes me feel like the essence of being social in the city and wanting to be productive.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you could have dinner tomorrow night with five guests, people with all that you do not know, they could be famous, they could not be famous, they could be local, international.
• 11:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: What five people are you inviting the dinner?
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: Beyonce immediately.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: So why not?
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Kanye West.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I need to know what's going on.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: We need to, we need to real that in.
• 11:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: Let's have a talk.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: Who else would I like to sit at the table with?
• 11:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like I want to invite a researcher who's doing work around a psychology of social media, influence and trends.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know a specific researcher, but I would like them to be at the table just because I love to learn.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: I love academia, I love research and I just feel like that would just be such.
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: a nice set of conversations.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: You see my nerd, I'm nerdin' out, right?
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: And, hmm, someone from overseas, but I don't know where or who.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like, if this dinner was happening, just the way my life works, I want to meet that person between today and the dinner.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, oh, I'm having a day so I should come in.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who would you say is, um,
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm blanking on my question, but I'm a skip to the next one.
• 12:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where is your favorite restaurant in the city?
• 12:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: No, come on.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's my favorite restaurant.
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't have a favorite restaurant in Detroit.
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: I really don't.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK.
• 12:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's that you guys can do.
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can't stop.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: No, it's not even there.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's just like I go out to eat all the time.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to Brandon is all the time.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha.
• 12:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: And there's no place where I wake up like
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have to go here, you know, especially I live downtown, so the neighborhood in the other cell is kind of repetitive for me.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Understood.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's your favorite event that you've done either in recent memory or that you were really proud of?
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: Hmm.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: I would probably say the first event that I did in partnership with Bumble.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was called the Business of Black women and I brought together like a woman from wellness, a woman from crafting, a woman from finance and me to talk about like the holistic outlook of the experience of being a black woman during women's history, mine.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like that was at the beginning of my business and really a catalyst for how I did business.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: until this day and it was packed.
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: I remember my grandmother came and people were in there crying.
• 13:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was like, it was a really good and impactful experience that motivated me.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: I still look back at those pictures today and I'm like, yeah, I'm grateful for that girl and the women who showed up in that room.
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's dope.
• 13:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a favorite social media platform?
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm an IG Honey.
• 13:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I love Instagram.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: But LinkedIn, I love LinkedIn too.
• 13:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think LinkedIn is so slept on as a resource and it's full, especially for creatives, because everybody who's signing the deals who are looking for creatives, they're on LinkedIn.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: But even beyond that, I just feel like because I love to learn and I love to be an ecosystem of business.
• 13:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: LinkedIn is a place that I love to be.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: Instagram is where my business drives, but like LinkedIn is where I kind of share more and so get all in.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we can actually only think so.
• 13:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm definitely a big proponent LinkedIn.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've been trying to teach people how to be more active.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Only thing and why they should be more active.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I need to be more active myself.
• 14:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been in recent memory, but definitely need to get that back going.
• 14:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: So appreciate you for partaking and freestyle Friday.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: So thank you for engaging in the randomness.
• 14:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Should I still do a little rap?
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can't.
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like my dad was here.
• 14:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: He was like, you got a rap because growing up, my dad will make us freestyle in a car.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like everybody has to go bar for bar.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I was first.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, why was that?
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
• 14:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: He just like to rap.
• 14:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: He always started his rap like waiting in the vape.
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, so long.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: Even today, we recently did it.
• 14:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Me and my siblings were on my grandma's birthday party.
• 14:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like I will cut this and I don't feel like I was going to say this.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, this is a friendly show.
• 14:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll go say do he did he have your do clean rap for you let y'all do or he let y'all curse a little bit too.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: We can't be clean like if it was a word in there, we would kind of be like, you know, you did out.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 15:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So Amber you talked to we talked a little bit about your creative journey overall, but you also mentioned that your dad used to have y'all freestyling and advice that you got from your grandmother did you go up in the home of creatives entrepreneurs anything like that I wouldn't that look like for you coming up
• 15:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so both my parents actually work in the automotive industry, but my dad, like I said, would encourage us, encourage us a loose word.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: He will force us to freestyle.
• 15:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: And my, my God, mother, we're both singers.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I grew up listening to them saying, but I also grew up with my grandmother as an entrepreneur.
• 15:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like I'll talk about her all the time because
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: I said this at her birthday party.
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: She just turned eighty last month.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, I never knew you'd say have a job.
• 15:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like she had an event, design company in the nineties.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: She had a vegan restaurant in the nineties.
• 15:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like things that you see a lot of people do today.
• 15:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: That wasn't so popular back then.
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like she was doing all the little things.
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I felt like I saw her be creative in her work to do her business and as an entrepreneur.
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I felt like
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: Both, you know, she's a writer too.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: My dad writes and I feel like they kind of cultivated creativity in me in those ways, but also like my school systems and the environments that I make sure I was in in terms I want to useville and like they had a recording studio in there when I was in high school and like
• 16:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: I went to a performing arts high school, and so I was learning how to read music and classically training vocalists and competing for superior rankings in the state for things like that and singing solo and so even at church before that I was put one of the spots to be in place and give speeches and singing so I feel like
• 16:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Throughout my whole journey, my creativity was cultivated by my community, whether it was in the household or my grandmother listening to me just seeing the gospel songs I was right in that five, or in school and in church or in my community spaces.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it was a holistic approach of like being feeling like I was supported as a creative also did like that need a baker jazz vocal program when I was in high school and being a teenager I was performing at the music hall and hearing myself sing on a radio and like there were so many opportunities to support creative youth.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I took advantage of them.
• 17:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like even having that kind of initiative is what exists in my business today.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like there are so many opportunities, but you have to be willing to take advantage of them.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm grateful for all of the people in community who supported those things when I was a kid because it made me confident to be able to do it today.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: So beyond creativity, my dad used to just always tell me like, here Amber Lewis, you can do anything.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I've always believed that about myself and
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: I can notice a difference when you know people don't have that kind of belief in force into them or you have to learn it on your own.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so whether it was creative or confidence like those are our environments that I was raised in.
• 17:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So getting back into your creator journey and your work that you do with social in the city, one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was one of the events you put together for creatives and you literally had hundreds of black people in the streets doing photography, doing videography, collabing on social media posts.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: How did that come about and how were you able?
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: How did that come about?
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll just stay right there.
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so I think about photography as a medium, I've always loved a photo, right?
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think there's a big part of being a constant creator, but there's also a big part of our kind of in history of documenting what was going on, who was there.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I try to integrate photography into my experiences as much as I can.
• 18:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: For my co-working event, working progress is started in Sooney, Twenty One, and we had like a portrait experience there.
• 18:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so annually, at our working progress events, we do portraits to just capture the creatives as they are.
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: and a good friend of mine like a shoemaker also does these portrait experiences where she invites a select group of creators typically women to come together well her last one was women and then she did one in the streets just to come together and like I think her first one that I went to was like for fly people only and then it was another one that was all women who were like entrepreneurs
• 19:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so when I was thinking about cultivating community for creators, I'm like, if I want to severe global power player visibility is a big part of that, right?
• 19:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: When I'm going into these rooms and Paris or DC or New York, and I'm like Detroit, they're like Detroit, and I'm like, yeah, I'm like, they don't know.
• 19:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so a part of that visibility is just documenting us.
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I hit Mike up like, hey, do you want to collab on the creator shoe?
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: And she's like, immediately, yes.
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so we just put this together figured out, I knew I wanted to pair creative directors with photographers and she already has some photographers who she worked with.
• 19:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had some photographers who I worked with and creative directors who I worked with.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we reached out to them like, hey, I want to do this.
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: They like, yeah, let's do it.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we all came together.
• 19:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: We put out a flyer.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was an open invite.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think we cheated between whether we wanted to invite certain people or just have it be open to whoever deemed themselves as a creator.
• 19:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we went with the latter and I felt like that's really the true essence of cultivating community is going beyond who you think is a part of this community inviting people who are really in this community to show up.
• 20:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it was crazy.
• 20:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: We did a pre-production call where we paired each photographer and creative director with a specific location down sound like you can go here, you can go there, you can go there.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then we split people up into groups as they showed up.
• 20:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so we allow everybody to get time at their individual spots.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: We did group shots.
• 20:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: We did solo shots and then everybody came together on a rooftop Was this huge picture and I just felt like it was so powerful and impactful for so many creators to come together and be like first of all you're affirming yourself in this industry and it was some people who were just starting out who are wanting to get started some people who have been veterans of who are known as creators and I think that's the magic of community right like you don't have to be an expert or a beginner to exist together and so that's what
• 20:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: that photo shoot felt like for me it was like me and Micah has creative minds coming together bringing in other creatives who want to collaborate and allowing them to shoot in their own creative expression and then inviting other creators and so it was so much content you could imagine like you're bringing together hundreds of constant creators to be captured by photographers it was photographers who showed up who weren't even part of the shoot they just wanted to shoot and so I feel like that also just allows all of us to get back into the energy of creation
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: without having a deliverable or dead mind or like we're just coming together to be creative.
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that's what we do.
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it was just such a beautiful moment.
• 21:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like people like, when is the next one?
• 21:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: It won't be the sear bag.
• 21:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: That was a lot of work.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I do think it's something that we could do annually, some bringing folks together.
• 21:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because I feel like it was a couple hundred people at this one next year is going to be even more people.
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because day by day there are more creators showing up, wanting to do content, posting online, going viral.
• 21:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: getting their brains established and developed and so like we're just making our footprint and making our mark and so I was very very proud and happy to have that happen.
• 21:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and the way that it looked it gave me kind of like New York vibes where you know anywhere and Manhattan or some of them different areas of New York people will just be doing photo shoots and you'll see models and I forgot what you call them.
• 22:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's the name?
• 22:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: You say you pair it for Tiger First creative director.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you'll see those people just out the job.
• 22:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, industries just creating content and it was definitely beautiful to see and see so many people that came out.
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: They Sunday's best and then they were they showed up and got the content and made it happen.
• 22:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: How was the energy on that day and like you said, no, you said, it was stressful, but
• 22:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was crazy.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was like everybody, first of all, looked good.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: They felt good.
• 22:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: They showed up, just excited to be there.
• 22:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: And again, it really fostered the energy of creativity and creation, which as a creator, sometimes you can get bogged down by like, I need to post this many times a week or I have to do this for this partnership or I have to do this meeting.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: So to be able to just show up and exist in creative energy among other people who are creative, I feel like we all charged up from that moment.
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like it was for me, I'm like,
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: creative directing a group of shooters and photographers and creatives but then I'm like running around to each group to make sure everybody's good and hopping in pictures while I'm with these groups and like still trying to run a show but be a part of the show and it was just so good it was crazy but even the people who are on the streets are like which I got going on and so that's what I want to cultivate the energy of like what are they doing in Detroit so that we can get that investment from the global economy
• 23:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so being a huge ambassador for Detroit and Detroit creatives, where do you feel like the state of Detroit creatives community economy stands right now from from your viewpoint.
• 23:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: The people you're in are like with the stuff that you're able to be a part of.
• 23:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you feel about that landscape of creative?
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like it's a shift happening for the creative landscape in Detroit.
• 23:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, we've always been a creative city.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: We've always had creative community.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like now more than ever before, there are more creatives who are present, who are vocal, who are building community, who are in spaces that other people aren't.
• 24:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I think it's a beautiful time to be a creative in Detroit.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I also feel like there's a need for all of these sub-communities to come together as one subject.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: works together to pull the needle forward.
• 24:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: We're naturally all working towards the same mission and so it's just beautiful to see so many people doing it and that's kind of how I feel about it.
• 24:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: I do think there's also a learning curve when it comes to brands here in terms of light.
• 24:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: What makes sense for a contracting agreement for creators?
• 24:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: What a right is.
• 24:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like I'm constantly having to educate brands on what's equitable.
• 24:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I know a lot of brands come to me first for partnerships.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: So by me doing that education, it makes it easier for the next person who comes behind me.
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's a lot going on in the creative economy here.
• 24:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it's all good things.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm so proud to be here and be a representative and be someone who I feel like has been leading that charge.
• 24:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: for sure.
• 25:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I believe we graduated college run at the same time.
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: I graduated, twenty thirteen.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are you graduate.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_05]: Twenty fifteen.
• 25:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Twenty fifteen.
• 25:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that was the timeframe that I felt like was the error of at least for me coming back to the city from in Arbor being able to understand like the
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's hard to see more of like an emergence of creative, whether it was in music, independent music or independent artists, then we started to see some of those brands like, for example, DSE, also Theo Simpson, like, start to emerge during that time frame, and then you fast for it now, and that's kind of like the norm with
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: chief e-mail fly and like a field center and all of those dope artists do could you talk about that transformation for you being someone who like came out of college at that time and it came back home to where we are right now
• 25:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think for me, my experience with the creative industry was a little bit different, because I went to DSA.
• 25:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so we were always creatives, right?
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, chief people to DSA, Tony, who again went to DSA, we were going to the rarecub sessions in high school and like all of these events that creatives, independent artists, and et cetera, we're curating.
• 26:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we already kind of had a sub community for creatives, even in high school.
• 26:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so then going to college, like,
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: I remember like, Cari will come visit me.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I'm my creative friends from DSA who are successful now.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: They will come up and visit me at state.
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: I will go visit them at their schools and we will still keep up with each other.
• 26:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so now, I was having this conversation with my friend, Adrian, who was a trauma-informed wellness instructor.
• 26:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm down a day who DJs everywhere, producer.
• 26:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Just talking about like how we were all in the same place, like really stepping into who we are today.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: And like over the last ten years seeing the fruit of that labor coming to fruition.
• 26:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like it wasn't without people who were before us.
• 26:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think the reverence for those who were trailblazing before us is what is lost on today's creative economy and the creative scene.
• 26:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because there are women who I can point to directly and say like, I know how to do a good event because I helped Kim Dobarne with the Vince because I was helping Megan work with the Vince because I was helping Tony Jones with the Vince because I was helping be Brown with the Vince, right?
• 27:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: And those women showed me what a good event was like how to market it, how to brand it, how to sell it.
• 27:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I know those things because of them, or I know what a good creative scene community looked like, because I was at the red cup, but I was seeing them doing those side first.
• 27:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I see a lot of them today get plaques for their music, right?
• 27:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I know what the girls look like.
• 27:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: And having had those examples, I feel like just sets a better level of excellence and a better standard and a better bar for me.
• 27:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: But also, it's just like, we're really rooted in this work, right?
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: That was our community.
• 27:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so we're still here, we're still doing the work, seeing all those people bloom, whether we have those personal relationships or not.
• 27:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's like the beauty of community and coming together and starting somewhere with somebody, whether that's next to you or in front of you or behind you.
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it's our responsibility.
• 27:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: Having been those people ten years ago feeling like we're coming into ourselves to make sure that people who are coming up today, we are those examples for them, right?
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, so I hope that answered.
• 28:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, it does.
• 28:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel like you got OG status at this point?
• 28:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, somebody told me that, somebody told me that, I wanted to create a girl.
• 28:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: She was like, yeah, you was like, oh, gee, it grew.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: Her name was a girl online too.
• 28:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, okay, I'll say that.
• 28:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'll say that, you know?
• 28:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's long thing I call you TT.
• 28:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I have nieces.
• 28:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay, so you said you're barely a TT.
• 28:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't mind, like, whatever.
• 28:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm thirty.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, it is what it is, come on, territory.
• 28:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 28:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So with you mentioned that you essentially educate a lot of brands as far as what it looks like to work with creatives and possibly help them navigate which creatives to work with and how they can partner with them.
• 28:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are some things that you feel like brands overall misunderstand about the creators and then I'm gonna ask you the reverse of that question as far as what creators may misunderstand about brands.
• 28:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like brands must understand.
• 28:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: Number one, how much it costs.
• 29:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: If you are going to an ad agency for the same spot, you will be paying a million dollars.
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Don't be cheap over here.
• 29:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Number two, I feel like they don't really realize the time that it takes.
• 29:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like working with a lot of brands, especially when it comes to social fire's content.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's like hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: We need this out now.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: We need this back today.
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: This is still a creative process.
• 29:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so you have to, when working with the creative respect to that process.
• 29:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: And those are the two things I would put on the brain side.
• 29:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: On the flip of that, I feel like creators don't really understand the value of what they provide, which is why brains can come with three dollars and creators will accept it.
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it's like, again, because I have an advertising degree, I know how much an ad agency will get paid to do something like this.
• 29:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And we have direct to consumer
• 29:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: impact, so like that's where it's something.
• 29:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: Also at an agency, they would have departments to do all of these things, whereas you're one person, being the account manager, managing the finances, developing the creative, writing the copy, shooting the content, editing the content, posting it, managing the community, reporting on the analytics, when an agency they have all of these departments with several people to do each of these roles.
• 30:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I feel like creators kind of undervalue what they provide in terms of the work.
• 30:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: And also, everything, just how you can get in relationship with a brand, right?
• 30:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: How do I connect with brands?
• 30:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: Open up your mouth to say, well, you connect with everybody else, right?
• 30:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so those are the two kind of things I would say on the flip, it's like someone who's hired creatives and someone who has worked with brands.
• 30:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So in that same vein, you, I feel like you gave us some key points to the question on about the ads, but I want to know if you might be able to walk us through what a path would look like in terms of the no BS guide for a creative to get to the back.
• 30:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to get brand deals, if you want to get paid on social platforms, whatever the case may be, like if you have like a no BS, let's get straight to it.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is where these are the steps you need to take.
• 31:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, the beauty of the industry right now is there is no standards.
• 31:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: So whatever number you come up with as your rate is your rate.
• 31:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 31:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Nobody can be like, oh, your rate is in your rate because you need to get paid this much like, no, this is not right.
• 31:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think that exists for any creative, but especially content creators right now.
• 31:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: There are some brands who I've like sent my numbers to and they're like, oh, we've had other creators who's bought that lower rates.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: What are the things?
• 31:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not other creators.
• 31:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is my rate.
• 31:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: You're going to meet it or beat it.
• 31:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I think that no BS is like having that outlook on it.
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like a lot of times people are afraid to say a number because they don't want to lose a deal, but like you have to go into this with the confidence and the value of yourself and or just know like, okay, if they don't come with what you need, whether it's number or
• 31:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: whatever you negotiate in terms of amplification or whatever you need to feel good about a partnership.
• 31:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can be okay we're walking away from it.
• 31:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think a lot of times people are so desperate to get partnerships that they sell themselves short and they end up resenting the work because they didn't get what they needed out of it and that's what any relationship or partnership not just brand deals and so all of this kind of starts with
• 32:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: yourself like how you view yourself how you value yourself how you communicate your value how you understand what you provide and then you naturally communicate those things like where you exist in that realm and so the no BS guys to get in brand deals is like you gotta be good with you flat out
• 32:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: because when you're good with you, you're okay with nose.
• 32:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: You won't look at it as rejection or it wasn't good enough where I missed out.
• 32:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: You look at it as okay, that wasn't for me, but something else will be.
• 32:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: And you also are okay with saying, my rate is my rate.
• 32:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can be open to negotiation.
• 32:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: You don't have to be strong on it, but being confident in the value that you provide and knowing what your number is, I'm not going below this.
• 32:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: But also because I'm not going below this, I'm gonna start up here.
• 32:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so,
• 32:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: You just got it.
• 32:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's just a checks and balances game with rates and with partnerships, but I think the biggest thing is making sure there's alignment with your brain, yourself, and who you want to work with.
• 33:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: And not just because someone's so worked with them, I would not see their working with creators.
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I want to be on the same kind of path, so I'm going to work with those same brands, like, what do you need for you?
• 33:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that's kind of my biggest tip for creators when I look and like, I want to get started, okay, who are you?
• 33:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: Who are you outside of the brands that you want to work with?
• 33:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: Outside of what you see everybody else do where
• 33:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: Who are you as a person and how do you show up in this work in your brain?
• 33:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: What's your voice and then what brands naturally align and connect with that because that's where you won't have to negotiate your value.
• 33:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: They'll already see it because you're naturally who you are
• 33:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I've been through this platform.
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've had the opportunity of people coming to me where it opportunities and so I know exactly what you mean when it comes to that.
• 33:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Especially if you continue to do the work and you are putting out quality content and you present yourself in a certain way.
• 33:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: The opportunities definitely come.
• 33:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to see if I could use you as a or use myself as a case study because I know you said open your mouth when it comes to work on your brands.
• 34:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't work with Cadillac.
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
• 34:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just so happened to be a black man that drives a cat like so let's say black Friday for love to work with a cat like in general.
• 34:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but let's do a podcast in the cat like in a cat like as glazed specifically, but you know, I'm not picky.
• 34:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: How would I how would I how would one make something like that happen?
• 34:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so what I would do is first of all, make sure you post to me when you're going to Cadillac.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Second of all, you said this, so now you got to post a clip and tag the relevant people who could make that happen at Cadillac and you find those people on LinkedIn.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: looking at who's on their multi-cultural marketing team, who has done deals with Cadillac before?
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: Who did they tag in those posts when they did those deals?
• 34:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like you got to do a little digging to get to the people and then making sure that you're in front of them.
• 34:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: And sometimes that means you're going to an event that they're doing and introducing yourself or if you see them out or asking for a girl from someone that you know worked with them.
• 34:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: But there's no wrong way to network to make the connection, but maintaining the connection is what makes the difference, right?
• 35:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: You can meet all the people in the world, but if you don't have integrity, or if you do something within your bed or business, that's like, or you just don't maintain that relationship.
• 35:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's like, oh, remember we met back in, no?
• 35:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: Why would I remember we met?
• 35:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: Take years ago in that relationship wasn't maintained.
• 35:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: So even if it's on fire and you're like engaging with their content, or like I said, tagging them in yours, it's just like any other business is to the nature of relationships.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: that would be how I would go about.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then of course, you could put together a deck and you could share it, pitch it, like figure out what you want to do specifically and you know, take the business and everything, but it all stems from knowing who to send it to and having access to those people.
• 35:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So should I make a video of doing me doing an episode in the Cadillac and then tagging these people and sending it to me?
• 35:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, because honestly, you remember that guy who was doing karaoke in the Cadillac?
• 35:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: He wasn't doing that in partnership with them at first.
• 36:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: He was doing that as himself and like that's what I mean by you have to show up as you in the work.
• 36:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then kind of like saw like yeah we got to get him on here.
• 36:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: He was doing that with her without the brand.
• 36:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that's kind of like proof of concepts is always going because even when you connect to them you can send them an example like oh this is what it would look like.
• 36:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: And everybody's not a visionary thinker so you could tell them all the details but when they see it that's what makes it makes sense.
• 36:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, how do I package my value?
• 36:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: What advice do you have for people to package your value?
• 36:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because obviously, there's metrics like how many followers you got on a type of stuff.
• 36:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have the biggest volume.
• 36:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, obviously, I would have to be able to bring the whatever numbers and then whatever I've deemed appropriate value for what I'm trying to do.
• 36:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do I piece all that together if my number's not jumping out to gym?
• 36:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think what I think about value and data is quantitative and is qualitative, right?
• 36:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: Your qualitative is your metrics, your numbers, your followers, how many episodes, all those kind of things.
• 36:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: But quantitative is your impact.
• 37:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like what are people saying?
• 37:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: What are people taking away?
• 37:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: Who did you work with?
• 37:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: What's their reach?
• 37:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like what's the amplifier reach based on that reach, right?
• 37:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like that is what kind of to me tells the story more, but also looking at the initiatives that a brain has.
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: looking at like the the values that they're already invested in and seeing where there's alignment and making sure that's including your package if there is alignment right when I worked with Cadillac I looked at my bio and I looked at their bio and I did like when I worked with them it was I brought four brands into the mix it was visiting trade me it was Cadillac and it was hunting templates and so but when I was right in the script and looking at our bio there were so many words that were the same that I had never seen any other brand used before I'm like
• 37:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, kind of like, like, I'm a Detroit girl, so you already think that.
• 37:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: But when you look at like how they talk about themselves, they're positioning the brand.
• 37:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm like, this is how I talk about myself.
• 37:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: It just was a perfect marriage of that.
• 37:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so researching what beyond like product, but mission, vision values, what are they invested in, what community, or is there already partner with?
• 38:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: and seeing what an alignment is and including that in your package, I think makes a lot of difference because even when a brand reaches out to me, when I see they've done their research, they're like, oh, they're referring to my content or they're using language that I've used in post.
• 38:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: It makes me more inclined to wanna work with them because it's like you actually know me and you're not looking at me from a vanity metrics base, like you did some research.
• 38:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: Even if it was scrolling a couple, you did some research to be able to speak to what I say and that to me makes a difference.
• 38:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cadillac aside, do you have any other partnerships or brand deals that you've done that you really enjoyed and was able to create a fruitful relationship with?
• 38:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've said visit Detroit, like, fifteen times already, but visit Detroit.
• 38:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like my partnership with them is really just an extension of the work I've always done.
• 38:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: An amplified in a way where I'm being paid more for it, right?
• 38:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like again, I'm telling people proof accounts that I've do the work.
• 38:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: So when you get a partner, that was literally that.
• 39:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like I was already doing these kind of posts.
• 39:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: And now I have this platform behind me.
• 39:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Patron, which is a new one for me.
• 39:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've worked with different brands under the Bacardi portfolio, but Patron just started within the last month.
• 39:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: They already said me out to Mexico.
• 39:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: I learned a lot about the product, and they really want me to integrate the work that I'm doing with creators into my partnership.
• 39:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: And again, that goes back to like, a brand doing their research with me and knowing what I stand for and my values.
• 39:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: and wanted to integrate that just beyond like do some posts do some events is like no less like how can we amplify what you're already doing in your work and what you're already doing in community and put our support in our dollars behind it.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I've been able to dream about some really exciting things and I'm looking forward to bringing into the creator community this fall.
• 39:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was invited to go to Paris through Detroit Sublime, which is an art initiative.
• 39:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had to interact with U.S.
• 39:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: Embassy.
• 39:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think that was my first international brand trip.
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've done some local ones with peer Michigan, and here and there with that trip for me, it was like a group of fine artists and curators, right?
• 40:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: For the DIA, Mariah, and Cranbrook, and Artists who was a work artist based in the middle of the media content creator.
• 40:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: Hey, and so I think just being able to represent Detroit in our way, represent creators in our way, and then they spent the block, and we might be doing some more amplified work.
• 40:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: This fall for that initiative in partnership with some social platform, and it's just like anything that's continuous, that acknowledges the work in the community that I'm building, and that allows me to grow that community work.
• 40:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: is since across the board for me.
• 40:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: Cadillac, of course, they gave me an escalator for like two months.
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't even drive, but baby, I was in that email.
• 40:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay, I felt like, I have my payroll wrong.
• 40:54
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I feel real lost up in that escalator.
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, maybe I don't want to get in.
• 40:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: So that was always good, but energetically, because I felt like,
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: I felt like myself in that car, I mean, and they had it all, I don't want to say, trick that up him, doubt with all the features, right?
• 41:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I think those are three reasons.
• 41:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then going to the White House with the former administration, that was really, really good.
• 41:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't a partnership per se.
• 41:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was an invitation.
• 41:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: Just being in a room full of the hundred people from the creator economy across the US like top people I met Jackie I know who's somebody who I looked at before I even considered being a content creator and I was represented Detroit as the only person in that room and so that was always just like a good moment in the special moment I met a lot of people who I'm still in relationship with today who are building communities in their respective cities in New York and really like helping to influence how I'm building community here in Detroit
• 41:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So given that you are the ultimate Detroit girly, I know that you had mentioned in twenty eighteen, you were working for the city and being able to do some create content for the city and be able to do some branding and unique campaigns that way.
• 42:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But you also had mentioned that you had moved away.
• 42:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so as someone who has lived away from Detroit for four years in my life and then came back, we'll love to know what took you away from Detroit.
• 42:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: What did you learn and what brought you back to Detroit in that journey?
• 42:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think Detroit.
• 42:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: We have a history of the University of I hustle harder and I was deep in my hustle bag like
• 42:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had my job, I had my brain, I had three umbrellas in my brain that I was showing up as, and I was just tired.
• 42:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: I felt like I was giving so much, and as much as you will give as much as people would take.
• 42:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so there was no shortage of requests for the work, and I wasn't saying no to a lot of things, because it was like, oh, I would love to do this.
• 42:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: I was interested in doing this.
• 42:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I would work my nine to five, and then I would go host an event from five to eight, and then I would go DJ event.
• 42:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: from eight to ten and then I had to wake up the next morning and do it again and like doing that day after day, my job was already so demanding.
• 43:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: Um, was just a lot.
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I quit my job in twenty twenty, which crazy, but that was a crazy year.
• 43:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I gave all my stuff away.
• 43:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: I moved to New Orleans because I was really like,
• 43:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: I had the vision of living in a different city for a month at a time.
• 43:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: I used to be sitting at my desk like I'm going to go to the airport and get on the next flight out.
• 43:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because as much as I love the work, you still work with people who don't necessarily understand it.
• 43:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so yeah, I quit my job and I'm like I'm going to live in a different city for a month.
• 43:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: That doesn't have to put this deck together.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like the social in the city tour.
• 43:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: in a middle of a pandemic like lesbian for you.
• 43:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, yeah, when I travel to these cities and build creative teams in these cities and like establish a footprint for social social, social, and the city in these cities.
• 43:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: But New Orleans called out to me so strong.
• 43:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: It was like every day.
• 43:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Something else about New Orleans was popping up on social media.
• 43:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: in conversation, podcast was coming up and I didn't even listen to podcasts at the time.
• 44:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, okay, what's up in New Orleans?
• 44:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I had only been there twice, but I'm very like, if I get a message, I've got no symptoms and I got an act on it because I know otherwise I'll be the source of my own suffering.
• 44:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I moved to New Orleans with two suitcases in the yoga mat.
• 44:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: My laptop.
• 44:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I was there for a year and I really just had time to just be with myself.
• 44:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I didn't really know anybody down there.
• 44:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like I had met like maybe three women.
• 44:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: I did the two times I've been there previously.
• 44:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I really just had time to like
• 44:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: create a home and like I gave up my furniture away so I had to buy a new furniture and build a space in a way that was just for me and being a guard and then go for my walks and cook and make new community and make new friends and like refilling love with all the things that I was so burnt out from back home but it also gave me space to develop like who I wanted to be as an entrepreneur and how I wanted to show up in a work
• 44:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I came back to Detroit to do my first like pay work.
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: I moved in November and I was producing a campaign in February with Foot Locker for three one three day called Detroit Go.
• 45:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it was with reverence to Detroit rappers from different niches of the community.
• 45:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I was actually based on a poem that I had wrote years ago about somebody I was dating.
• 45:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And it came to me when I was laying down like, oh no, this is about Detroit.
• 45:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: This is about Detroit music.
• 45:24
  [SPEAKER_04]: I just had room to be creative, like, and to go back into my older decks of things I've already done and pull up those roots to plant somewhere else and come back home and make some money and go back and relax and just have some time for me without having to give everything I had to other people.
• 45:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so when I returned to Detroit, I had this renewed sense of energy of being charged up to do the work again, to get my feet on the ground and run with building out the narrative of real Detroit from real Detroiters.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I learned how important it was to make time for myself, to give space to myself, to allow myself to get into my own creative flow without giving everything away.
• 46:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like in this moment, in my own business, I'm back in that space where I feel like
• 46:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's been partnership, after partnership, after partnership, after partnership.
• 46:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I've noticed like I need to reintegrate my voice into my own brand because I've been speaking for everybody else.
• 46:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm actually posting today a series launch of according my own creativity, just to get back into the groove of like being creative for the sake of being creative and not for the sake of the campaign.
• 46:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so
• 46:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you to the Tony Tony me for taking that time so that Tony's twenty five me can be like, you're doing so much for everybody else you need to do something for yourself.
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the open.
• 46:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's one of the reasons why I want to ask you that because I think that living away from me also gave me kind of like that serenity of being able to slow down, you know, have as many as commitments and things that you have to go to and the hustle and bustle of, you know, work in family friends.
• 47:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And don't let you want to be entrepreneurial on the side too.
• 47:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like it's just a lot of things going on, but being able to have that space away and kind of being able to sit back, you get a chance to really learn a lot more about yourself and
• 47:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: what it is that you really care about, what charges you up and what brings you passionate.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: My next question was going to be, how do you keep the creative juices flowing?
• 47:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I can only imagine, like you do this for work, obviously, this is your career, your passion.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it may not burn you out as much, but I can only imagine that, you know, you're working with different brands, you're working on different stuff for yourself.
• 47:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then, of course, you got to live your life outside of that.
• 47:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you keep the count of burning to make sure that you don't experience a similar burnout?
• 47:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I feel like the creativity doesn't like.
• 47:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like there's always an idea, there's the capacity issue, right?
• 47:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so the burnout comes with having all this creativity, you don't feel like you have all this capacity when you're just one person.
• 47:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: And that's where mine lives.
• 47:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't ever have a shortage of ideas, right?
• 47:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like at any given time is seven-teen things that I could be doing that are in all different directions, but having the focus to show up fully for one of them is like,
• 48:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: how I don't burn out, right?
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I can't, I'm going to be doing a lot at all times, right?
• 48:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, working on different things because that's how the business keeps growing, but also being realistic, my capacity, and also just making sure I have a time for my own creativity, right?
• 48:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to go do something with my hands to get out of my head.
• 48:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to do a craft or I'm going to get into the studio and have some fun and make some music.
• 48:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: Making sure I do what fills me up so that I can pour out into the community.
• 48:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: But even this weekend, hosting four events back to back.
• 48:40
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, oh, I'm burnt out.
• 48:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, and they were all day events, right?
• 48:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't just like, oh, two hours here and two out, no, twelve hour days.
• 48:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I'm like, okay, Monday, I'm in a bed, right?
• 48:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: Or Monday, I'm only working one.
• 48:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: I do that on Mondays anyway.
• 48:53
  [SPEAKER_04]: Monday is a social and a city day.
• 48:55
  [SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
• 48:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: So if it's not social and a city, you won't be seeing me on a Monday.
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: But making sure that I reserved time for myself.
• 49:02
  [SPEAKER_04]: I can have room for creativity.
• 49:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: And writing for me is a big tool of creativity.
• 49:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a big tool of expression.
• 49:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: I've always been a journalist in that way.
• 49:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like me and a kid having diaries that were told is with a little lack on it.
• 49:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I've always been a writer in that way.
• 49:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that's a simple thing that I can do to bring me back to myself and bring me back to my creativity.
• 49:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then allow me to reflect on where I was or where I'm going or where I've been.
• 49:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then I go for walks.
• 49:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm a girl.
• 49:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: I go for a walk every day.
• 49:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes from multiple hours.
• 49:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because it's a way again to get out of my head and to get into my body and get into my environment and notice new things.
• 49:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: See, the city from a different perspective every day is different, especially downtown.
• 49:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: But it also allows room for mental clarity, right?
• 49:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, when I'm walking, I'm thinking of no things, or I'm like finding solutions to problems, or I'm going to the water, which is a good source of peace for me.
• 49:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so figuring out what am I to toolkit, helps me to not only grow myself, but to tap into my own creativity.
• 50:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: And what I'm working on now is building structure and discipline for my creativity, right?
• 50:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: Because
• 50:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: We can have all the ideas in the world, but how do we bring them to life?
• 50:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: How do we execute an implement them?
• 50:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: And that comes from systems and structure, right?
• 50:18
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I've been figuring out what that looks like for me as a creative outside of an entrepreneur so that I can act on some of the art that I want to do.
• 50:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a team that you work with?
• 50:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: I do, I have an assistant, she's been working with me for a couple of years.
• 50:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have a videographer and photographer who I've been working with for years and I have a creative assistant who works with me per project and I've talked to like some interns, social media managers.
• 50:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: I have a lot of needs, but I've had a budget to reflect those needs and I know people with a lot of people just want to work.
• 50:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: So work, I've been that girl a lot for a lot of people.
• 50:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I'm a champion for equity and wellness.
• 50:55
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I want to be able to properly accommodate people for the work.
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like if we're doing a pilot of something okay, but we got to make sure you get paid because otherwise you won't be sustainable and you'll be burned out from showing up to do all this stuff without being able to sustain your livelihood.
• 51:11
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so I think the next kind of things that I would like to have within my business
• 51:16
  [SPEAKER_04]: When I will love a manager, people always ask me to manage them.
• 51:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: I manage them myself.
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's a lot going on over here.
• 51:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: But I would love to have a manager whether that's an agency or a person who really knows the business and who has time to focus on me.
• 51:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: I think that's my biggest concern.
• 51:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: With getting representation, people have so many clients that, you know.
• 51:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I will also love like a production person who handles the logistics for the shoots, for the partnerships, for the campaigns.
• 51:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: That also has a creative mind that could contribute to ideas and then a social media manager.
• 51:49
  [SPEAKER_04]: My God, my God today, if I had a social media manager and as much as I know in love social media, I also understand capacity.
• 51:57
  [SPEAKER_04]: I can't be the CEO when I'm also making a post every other day, right?
• 52:01
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like, and so all of this is capacity building to really be able to step into the full vision of the next iteration of the business.
• 52:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I saw a video recently where you talked about you want to bring I believe it's like a two hundred fifty billion or something along those lines creator economy some of that piece of that pie to Detroit.
• 52:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I wanted to ask you what's your outlook for the future of creators being able to get in on that piece of the pie here in Detroit.
• 52:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so for me, Detroit has influenced everything in this world.
• 52:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: We created the cars.
• 52:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: We created modern pop sound fashion like that's us.
• 52:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so there's no reason why we shouldn't be looked at as a global power player in this creator economy, right?
• 52:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I spoke to this a little bit earlier when I have to go to DC or to New York or to Chicago or to LA to have these experiences for creatives, for creatives that
• 52:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: Brands are directly supporting and I know it's easier because with an added industry, those companies already existed in all cities, but y'all can come to Detroit.
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so my vision for that is like having the infrastructure to support that here in the city of Detroit and also having trained talent.
• 53:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: to be able to meet the needs of the infrastructure, right?
• 53:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: So it's kind of a two-pronged approach.
• 53:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's making sure these brands and companies see us, know our value and invest in us, and it's making sure that the creators and creatives are ready for that type of investment.
• 53:26
  [SPEAKER_04]: So they're good with their confidence and their value.
• 53:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: They know they're ready.
• 53:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: They know how to negotiate.
• 53:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so it's a two-pronged approach of leveraging the relationships that I have and the rooms that I'm in, but also educating the people who are here to make sure they're ready for that.
• 53:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: love that.
• 53:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how can people actually catch you being social in the city?
• 53:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: So tell us about your coworking event series that you're doing right now and then also any other events that you got coming up.
• 53:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: So working progress is my free co-working experience to kind of combat isolation and also like allow people to focus in an environment with like minded people, make connections.
• 53:59
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, corporate professionals who work from home.
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: Anybody who has something to do, who needs somewhere to do it, right?
• 54:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: And this iteration of it is a summer tour where we're taking it to community spaces that already exists for us to do work in, but they're underutilized because people just don't know about them.
• 54:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so the next one is the love building.
• 54:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: That is tomorrow, which I think this will be out after that.
• 54:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: The one after that will be in partnership with the Detroit River Friends Conservancy at the late park.
• 54:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: They do a co-working event there already, but this is separate of that.
• 54:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: And then it's all going to give you the seat for the September ones.
• 54:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we'd like to exclusive here.
• 54:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I will be doing one with Michigan Central in September and hand them with their Fridays at the Station Programming.
• 54:44
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm going to be curating some really special experiences with that one with some of my friends who are artists.
• 54:50
  [SPEAKER_04]: I'm really excited about that one.
• 54:52
  [SPEAKER_04]: And in our closing tour, we'll be at Spotlight, which is a cafe during the day.
• 54:56
  [SPEAKER_04]: We know it has a club at night, but they are open as a cafe during the day.
• 55:00
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so that kind of concludes that work in progress tour.
• 55:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: I do have some other workshops and events coming up for creators.
• 55:07
  [SPEAKER_04]: and some incubators programs for creators as well that I'm really excited about.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.
• 55:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Real quick, I got to ask you because you're familiar with Spotlight.
• 55:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you know the man who is always there?
• 55:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
• 55:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is his identity?
• 55:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: We don't speak with words, but we speak with body language.
• 55:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: OK.
• 55:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: So we know each other in that way.
• 55:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to grow that one today.
• 55:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: If you see me out, I'm going to be dancing.
• 55:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 55:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: And so not as much as him.
• 55:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 55:34
  [SPEAKER_04]: But yes, you can respect the respect.
• 55:37
  [SPEAKER_04]: You, you all sides have a good time.
• 55:39
  [SPEAKER_04]: You're not bothering nobody.
• 55:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, it's a TikTok video with him in different places in Detroit, just dancing, just being him.
• 55:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Same fate, everything.
• 55:47
  [SPEAKER_04]: Do you remember that older couple who used to come to parties in like, do sausages?
• 55:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like he's like, two point no more than like, if those people were actual parties, like, hey, I'm doing something right.
• 55:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 55:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very dope.
• 56:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you mentioned you, uh, you just dropped some merch or you got merch out now.
• 56:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, tell us about that and what made you go that road?
• 56:06
  [SPEAKER_04]: So this is my first piece of merch.
• 56:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's summertime.
• 56:09
  [SPEAKER_04]: It says, shard, that says Detroit creator.
• 56:12
  [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like when I'm thinking about the work of making us a power player in the global creator economy and visibility, I think something that stamp that says, this is who I am.
• 56:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: That you can wear in other places.
• 56:23
  [SPEAKER_04]: I know I have a hat that says creator from the CCMYC.
• 56:28
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's not from them.
• 56:29
  [SPEAKER_04]: Sorry.
• 56:30
  [SPEAKER_04]: I know I have a hat that says creator.
• 56:32
  [SPEAKER_04]: That's from, what is his company called?
• 56:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: I know I have a head that says creator from the creator economy in YC and I was in the wanted to hold so lobbies I work in and I was wearing this girl came up to me like did you get that from there and so I want to be traders to be able to have that same experience when they're going out in the city or when they're going out in the world to be able to say this is who I am this is where I'm from and you know we already a city full of people who have a lot of pride we want to represent Detroit so why not say this is who I am so yeah I have a limited drop of the Detroit creator thank
• 57:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's all right now.
• 57:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: It's all right now.
• 57:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
• 57:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: And I've kind of exclusively been selling them at work in progress.
• 57:08
  [SPEAKER_04]: I haven't even promoted them yet.
• 57:10
  [SPEAKER_04]: So like, yeah, but there I'll do have them available online.
• 57:13
  [SPEAKER_04]: And yeah, so hopefully our next Detroit Creator Show will be full of Detroit Creator These.
• 57:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: So are you are you planning to do different variations?
• 57:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cause I know you say you have to think out now.
• 57:25
  [SPEAKER_04]: And the tank is one-man size.
• 57:27
  [SPEAKER_04]: Guys have seen me and it's like, you guys are like, no.
• 57:31
  [SPEAKER_04]: But that's also because I feel like streetwear is always catered towards me.
• 57:35
  [SPEAKER_04]: Like we need something for the ladies too.
• 57:36
  [SPEAKER_04]: So I do plan to do some t-shirts with the guys.
• 57:38
  [SPEAKER_04]: Maybe we'll do some hoodies for the fall.
• 57:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: And just see how it's received and what people want really because like this is for us.
• 57:45
  [SPEAKER_04]: This is for our community.
• 57:46
  [SPEAKER_04]: So what people want is what people will get.
• 57:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can do the G in the beaters for the fellas.
• 57:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: What are you saying?
• 57:51
  [SPEAKER_04]: Right, we are in the whites of K-Hero fashion.
• 57:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: They will definitely wear it.
• 57:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 57:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So how can the people get in contact with you?
• 57:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's your website, your socials?
• 58:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: All that contact information.
• 58:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: So you can follow me at socialsletter in the city and my events page at sntc.vince socialnessity.com, which I've never talked about on my website because I just made it.
• 58:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm never had a website over it so now.
• 58:17
  [SPEAKER_04]: I don't really use it yet, but it exists.
• 58:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 58:19
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, go check it out.
• 58:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.
• 58:22
  [SPEAKER_04]: That's where you could buy me.
• 58:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Very nice.
• 58:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Amber, we appreciate you pulling up to the podcast.
• 58:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: This was very insightful and helpful.
• 58:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully the creators entrepreneurs people listening to this would be able to take some jam from it.
• 58:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure that they will, but really admire and appreciate the work that you're doing and see to push the needle for it for those people who create no matter what the medium is.
• 58:41
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much.
• 58:42
  [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for having me.
• 58:43
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this was great.
• 58:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 58:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody watching, listening, we're going to tap in with your own piece.
• 58:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Bye.