Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / The Real Difference Between Wanting Success and Going After It - Ep. 139 w/ Charity Ward

Transcript

The Real Difference Between Wanting Success and Going After It - Ep. 139 w/ Charity Ward · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going through the results of like what it means to say you want something on a different level and go after it on a different level from what that means for my performances.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The music that I put out, the level of collaboration.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have to be able to successfully kind of execute.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've grown so much.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was talking about it then.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had an understanding of it here and here.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for the last two years, I've lived it out in a way that now it's not just like revelation kind of information I had about what I wanted.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've actually been able to like put boots on the ground.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, a lot of transformational as two years.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: This episode is bought to you by our friends at Bamboo.
• 0:59
  [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.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the reason that is is because Bamboo has been Black Friday's creative hub for the last couple of years.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: However,
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's much more than our creative HQ.
• 1:16
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• 1:21
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• 1:35
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• 1:48
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• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's time for you.
• 1:53
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• 1:54
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• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Time to get into the show.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: We don't build Black Friday's family.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to another installment of the Black Friday's podcast.
• 2:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But before we get into today's episode, I need to hit that like button, subscribe, I need you to drop a comment, and then share some videos with some friends, family, and love ones, so we can keep this thing going.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And now also watch some of our playlists as well.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now that we got that business out of the way, I have a guest that's returning for the first time in a little minute.
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we don't have a lot of repeat guests here on Black Friday's.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's my fault because definitely need to catch up with more of our guests, however.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: with all that aside, we have the multi-faceted artists, none other than mischarity in the building.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: How are you today?
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me back.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for coming back.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I got to tell you, or at least got to start with this, when people ask me about my most memorable or favorite episodes, I always mention your episode.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, because it was a good one.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know you from a can of paint, but you came up here.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: We would have had a great conversation, a lot of like how it flowed from a technical standpoint.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was one of my better episodes that we were able to shoot just visually and then also audio.
• 3:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like it was all like crispy.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm so fiercely, it was my most view episodes like a year and some change.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Really.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then that was number three.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, yeah, it's still hanging on.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's very, very impactful.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I felt like it was very impactful.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I always appreciate
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: two things about that.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I appreciate the role this that you came with in terms of just talking about your journey to openness and where you currently were at that point where you felt like or knew where you wanted to go.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then also the things that you talked about, you want to implement and do.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I saw you start to just strategic, like I can't talk.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Strategically start to put those things in place.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you start to see like the first year later now.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's been great to see your journey in your trajectory.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Says then.
• 3:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's why I always mention yours is one of my favorite episodes.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 3:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I definitely think that was the first place that I got to articulate like where my mind was and kind of, I was definitely turning the corner.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it was good to sit down and talk about it because now it's documented and I go back to that.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, it makes sense what came after that considering where you were there.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, definitely a key moment in the journey.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you could explain to us now,
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The person that you were from two years ago or previous today, people who may have engaged with your content, your music, anything like that, what they know about you and who you are today, could you?
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: How would you explain yourself as artists to those folks today?
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've grown exponentially.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I remember I don't even have any hair when we did that interview.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had I still had a pixie cut and so that's was like, I'm like, okay, it was twenty three, I think.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Summer of two and maybe it was around the time and maybe a little later in the summer, but no, it was July.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was July.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I look yeah, I looked it up.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So two years ago, it is funny because I was just like, we should talk again.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's so like, you know, two years checking, I'm a different person.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a different person.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I made a decision around that time that I wanted to take the limits off.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: of who I could be as an artist, what my music could be.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And from that intention, I found myself in spaces and having experiences that have forced me to grow and to expand and to face fears and to surrender.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just so many things outside of my control have happened that have forced growth
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's also been things that I've literally like, I pushed the button like, yes, I want that.
• 5:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going through the results of what it means to say you want something on a different level and go after it on a different level from what that means for my performances, the music that I put out, the level of collaboration.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have to be able to successfully kind of execute.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've grown so much.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was talking about it then.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had an understanding of it here and here.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for the last two years, I've lived it out in a way that now it's not just like revelation kind of information I had about what I wanted.
• 6:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've actually been able to like put boots on the ground.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, a lot of transformational as two years definitely.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: can see that transformation through your music and the content that you put out.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where would you say that you are, where the place that you went, music leave?
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I know you had a ton of success with cruel and I love how you push that like it was a mixed day like with an album like you pushed it and ran with it.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you're seeing the level of success that you've been able to have with that, including getting Uncle Snoop on the feature as well.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then also some of your latest music that you just recently dropped.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So where did you say that you're
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Where do you get music?
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Musically, I feel like it starts with me going, okay, that's not true.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't just want to be, I don't want to have a moderate level of success.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's fear saying that for me.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It starts there and it starts with being able to admit, I want to go as high as I can go.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to touch as many people as I can to judge.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: That intention leads me to more consistent showing up.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: like, this is my song, guys.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Check it out.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, posting more, performing more.
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Last year in July, there was a festival that happened in Detroit that I would have never felt like was a good fit for me.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: My disposition changed so much that I'm like reaching out to the promoters.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, hey, y'all considered me.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think in some ways, they were probably surprised.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, you sure?
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I'm like, yes, I want to, I want to,
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to prove to myself that I can touch people of all kinds, from stages of all kinds.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it starts there.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then on those stages, you learn things.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You learn which songs move people the most, which songs people like you know the most, which songs they're distracted on the most, you learn what you have in your life, what you're missing.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so what I would say is that the stage just taught me that not only did I want to be a bigger artist, but I wanted to have bigger records.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted a bigger impact and I also wanted the ability to go to different places during my show.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm always going to be a very vulnerable
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, let's feel, let's focus kind of artists, but I also want it high energy moments that felt like we're not in power just because we're naming how we feel but we're in power because we're making big and strong statements about that dancing through that, you know.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I would say that the stages have kind of influenced me to explore a more up tempo, a more global sound and I've been having fun with it.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, and it shows it shows definitely in the music and like I said, the content as well.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm a circle back to that because you should be used to this.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I got to introduce you to freestyle Friday.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you had a two-year hiatus, and I hope you came back with some bars.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not worried this time because I've done it before, but remember how worried that was the first time.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was stressed.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you, you actually got some bars?
• 9:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'm just confirming.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna run it back.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna run it back.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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• 9:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 9:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: All my headlining show in December at El Club packed a place out.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, five hundred person being you is full.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I come out.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We finally start.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have some technical issues that delayed our star about finally come out on stage.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, your inner monitor is how you hear the music, um, despite all the other things going on on stage.
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's right in your head.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: In my inner ears, I hear the song playing in one key.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And from the musicians, the monitors that are sitting on the stage, I hear the song playing in a totally different key.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this is, you know, people have been on a fee.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ain't no seats in the air club.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: They've been restless, you know, come on, start the show.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: We came for charity.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I come out on stage.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm totally befuddled as to what is going on.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I knew in that moment that you have to use this moment of vulnerability to pull people in closer.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to be honest about what's happening.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to remain in control.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you have to use this as an opportunity to be the transparent artist that you've always been.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of owned it.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think I said something like, I'm just growing right before y'all eyes, y'all bear with me.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, we just had the most sound issues ever in life that day more than I've ever encountered on any other stage that day.
• 10:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: my ability to keep people with me, you know, people cried at that show.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like it was, I remember people telling me after the fact like the first three rows and the front, like there was no way you were getting up there.
• 11:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those people came early and they were guarding their spots.
• 11:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it was a really beautiful, we love charity, energy in the room.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I was challenged in every way up there.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the moments, like when I say the transformation that I'm going through, that's one of the key moments where I realize, like, okay, I'm good at this.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, would you say that a previous version of you would have crashed up or you would have kept the same.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Composed.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would have kept the same composure.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that I would have known to own the narrative that
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have some failures up here.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're a bear with me.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm growing right in front of your eyes.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that means that you're going to see some moments of this that aren't seamless.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think that I had gone through so much of that throughout the year.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going through that right now.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So much like
• 11:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think people see the highs and celebrate the highs.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We live in this really superficial social media era where people are able to cure it and narrative about themselves that feels flawless.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the reality of chasing a dream, a rare dream is that they're going to be some really high highs I've had highs I've never had before.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I've had lows I've never had before.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was a moment where
• 12:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've just never experienced anything like that before.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think what has been the hallmark of my artistry is owning that and naming it and being like, share this moment with me because perhaps, perhaps you need the encourage me to understand that when all your shit is fucking up, you know, you can only, and we got your back to.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I noticed you mentioned previously that you had a different style of cut, however it was the same color.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't ask you it's the first time and I noticed that what's the significance of the color orange to you and the brand that you build?
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's on a very basic level.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just my favorite color and a color that I started dying my hair and getting brighter and brighter several years ago and I realized like, oh, I like it here.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I probably will keep this hair color and then I think a lot about branding and visual storytelling and aesthetics and how
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And artist isn't just, you know, their songs, the artist is the experience of everything around them.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I thought it might be smart to stick with orange as a way to identify charity outside of just charity.
• 13:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: People, if people clarify that it's this charity typically by saying, you know, charity with the orange.
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's just another identifier that has worked for me, because I like it somewhat.
• 13:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just, it's a very organic, you know, brand staple for me.
• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: love that yeah how do you know when the song is absolutely done because I know that you you are a perfectionist of your craft or at least try to be because I know you say you're kind of like trying to real that back a little bit but how do you know for you like okay this is done I can let it go it's funny uncomfortable which is the latest single very different for me right it's got that for on the floor that like is
• 14:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: native to like house music, little bit more simple in terms of like the melodies and some of those lines that are recurring.
• 14:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was so thrilled that I had written something different that I would play it in meetings, you know, with executives or music minds.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I would play it alongside other songs.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I would sit back like, I'm getting a different reaction there.
• 14:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: While you have to be careful about feedback defining what you're going to do and what you're not going to do, I think there is value in how the people respond.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so then I kind of went back with my microscope.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: My microscope slash my fine tool cone.
• 14:52
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yep.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: and really looked at it critically, brought friends in, brought collaborators in and said, there's some charity parts, there's some parts of me that are missing from this song, less adamant.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that might be a baseline that goes to a place that feels particularly gospel that may be, you know, we added a stump clap on one of the breakdowns because that feels like, you know, my church roots, right?
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think for me, it's done when I know that I've inserted myself fully in it.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no part of it that doesn't feel like that's not how I would do it.
• 15:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: When charity is in every part of it, it's done.
• 15:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes I have to bring other people in to help me and start myself.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the beautiful thing about collaboration.
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes people know you so well that they're so gifted at being able to
• 15:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I say this in the most beautiful way, serving artists that they're able to help you insert more of yourself into it.
• 15:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that was early Mac coming in.
• 15:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was Jay Brooks who I've done a lot of records with.
• 15:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was an incredible artist named St.
• 15:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Leigh and Gutier down.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was that was seen all, you know, tell just a lot of different people that I trust being able to say like, okay, yeah, and then me having that good feeling at the end of it too.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, quick follow up.
• 16:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have you been able to shorten your time from idea or concept of song so when you actually record it?
• 16:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what is so special about uncomfortable is that this is the fastest, this is the fastest turnaround I've ever had from inception to release or conception to release.
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what the right word is for that.
• 16:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I wrote it sometime around April and put it out in June.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe March I started on it, but normally I write a song and okay, that's done and I'll sit on it for a while and I'll overthink, you know, it being ready to come out or maybe my timeline just doesn't align with it coming out shortly after.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was a song and I don't feel different for some people, but this was a creative exercise for me that I can make something.
• 17:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can receive feedback on it.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can insert myself in it more fully and responsive that feedback and I can put it out into the world.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want overthink how people are going to feel about it.
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want overthink, you know, it's going to do a cruelty.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, this is about flexing the muscle of making it put it out.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: make it get as good as you possibly can.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't take too long on that though and put it out into the world.
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm really, really glad that it was just a couple of months for this one.
• 17:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: First time experience for me.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Love that.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm happy you say that because I just think about my journey as a podcast or content creator, media personality, whatever you want to call it.
• 17:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And just like I'd have I'd have had to put out episodes, audio to messed up, hammer and went out like, but just that muscle, you got to come out in the week.
• 17:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to come out.
• 17:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to come out.
• 17:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: No matter what.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Last free stop Friday question.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Would you ever consider I know spirituality is a big part of your life and it comes up in terms of your music as well, but would you ever consider doing a straight up gospel song or project?
• 18:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think I think everything I do is gospel.
• 18:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think that the music that I make glorifies God, because I've said it in tension, that my music is gonna administer joy.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna help people to feel seen.
• 18:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna be a healing bomb.
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna pull people in closer to themselves and it's gonna push self-love.
• 18:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love of self-love of God.
• 18:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love of one another.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think gospel is a certain kind of box that we put on music to say, this is the music that glorifies God.
• 18:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I reject that.
• 18:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think on a song like Uncomfortable, where I say, always sending rain to my parade, but I never get wet.
• 18:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ten thousand weapons formed, a not one prosper yet.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: The ten thousand comes specifically from Psalm ninety one.
• 18:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: David says a ten thousand will fall at your side.
• 18:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You won't be touched.
• 19:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the most beautiful songs.
• 19:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then Isaiah fifty four says no weapon form against you shall prosper.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so.
• 19:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought about often, at some point in my career, I'm going to do gospel.
• 19:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be nominated for a stellar, but then I'm like, nah, you reject all of that.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: You actually believe that, see, I think we think as people that we create a God.
• 19:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So these are the spaces that are sacred.
• 19:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are the spaces that are God.
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: These old churches and, you know, ninety two point three Sunday at this time of the morning.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I believe God created everything.
• 19:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so God determines what is God leading, what is not and not us.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I feel firmly that my music is godly.
• 19:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe not gospel by John Ripper.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm already doing it.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ladies and gentlemen, past your charity.
• 19:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that and I completely agree and I think even in the genre of gossip or her gospel, we are starting to see more of that bending of the genre in the view in terms of who they put on gospel songs, how they make gospel songs like there's more of a blend versus it just being like, no, you're not the atoms and the Clark sisters is gospel.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not fair.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So
• 20:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: appreciate you again for partaking and freestyle Friday.
• 20:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I got to go back to one of my favorite quotes that I all is always in the back of my mind from our last interview when you talked about being a creative hustler where it's like you know you kind of sometimes at a creative you want to perfect your art and have things precise but at the same time you got to make money which art if you want to continue to feel the dream and
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: scale it and go up.
• 20:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So be essentially a creative hustler.
• 20:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to talk to you about the creative hustle that you have been able to scale since the last time that we talked in.
• 20:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've had some pretty significant moments.
• 20:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what has that been like for you to be able to, of course, grow in your creativity?
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like you say, you've changed and you grow so much, but also from a business aspect.
• 20:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, OK, yeah, I'm a creative.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm great at what I do, run me my coins.
• 21:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm full of time now.
• 21:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.
• 21:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I worked at a really cool music nonprofit, a youth serving music nonprofit for eight years and I had a really cool role where I was flexible enough to be able to still make music and perform and travel if I needed to.
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it was still consuming a lot of my time and I think my mental capacity was just like stretched and I realized I'm stable enough
• 21:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: from what I'm able to make off music where I can do this full of time.
• 21:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that may just be a more serious about selling things.
• 21:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like selling experiences, I did a fifty person concert on my birthday, higher ticket price because it's so much more intimate and exclusive.
• 21:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I sold merch for the first time.
• 21:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the coolities were a thing, you know, the T-shirt with my face on me.
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I realized that my show
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: that was designed that people wanted more than anything else.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and so March was able to cushion me in a way that I'm like, oh, I should've been thinking about this a long time ago.
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now I have to think about it because I don't have the security of I'm getting to check twice a week so no matter how music does my needs are met.
• 22:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there was a certain, I'm so brand new.
• 22:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm only seven months into full-time artist entrepreneurship.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think I've settled all the way in yet.
• 22:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking about it more.
• 22:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's in my dreams.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm clenching my jaw.
• 22:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm saying all the time because now I understand that this is it.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is my only option.
• 22:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think I've always felt that
• 22:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: underneath the surface, sort of in my subconscious, now I'm very aware of it because there is no safety net.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm grateful that I've been able to capitalize on my creativity.
• 23:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to
• 23:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: when I've settled in a little bit more, and I feel less of the capitalist pressure.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel the creative pressure so much right now, because I feel like I'm creative.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm in a flow.
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: That money thing is there.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you, as a creative, I'm always curious to understand how are you creatively curating the different
• 23:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: avenues for you to be able to monetize off of the work that you put in obviously and maximizing your output from your input.
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Would you be able to share with us like what are what are some of those things you've added to your repertoire because for artists I kind of see music being the foundation and the base of what you do but in terms of the different branches that you can go into from a monetization standpoint is I mean it could be endless but like how do you kind of focus in on what I would like to do these specific things?
• 23:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think for me, performing is probably the largest bookie.
• 23:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: actually putting music out there tends to for artists in today's musical landscape be the smallest amount of income that you're going to get from music.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So streaming is not really a thing.
• 24:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've learned the value of radio.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So serious like some really supported cruel.
• 24:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's how Snoop heard it.
• 24:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And serious like some is paying their artists far more generously every time a record plays than
• 24:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, your typical, like the radio stations that you can just access, like public access radio.
• 24:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: So here's the exam pay out to artists.
• 24:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Never knew that.
• 24:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Much more generously than public access radio.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's the right word.
• 24:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you all know what I'm saying.
• 24:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like a ninety two or ninety seven nine, those kind of spins.
• 24:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: For me, I have to stay on stage.
• 24:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: not only because I love performing and it is the most peaceful and pleasant part of this for me even though it's so intense every every time I'm preparing for a show I feel like I go through the fire but actually being up there like I need it to stay well and it's something I'm really good at so I've learned that like okay in order to stay booked you got to show yourself online
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: performing.
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you have to not only book shows, you have to make sure that your document shows will, that you have clips from these shows that you can post online so that the people that book shows can go to your page and be like, who that's a hell of a performer?
• 25:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me book her and let me actually pay her something that will add some value to the quality of her life.
• 25:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I've learned that that's really important and then merch is really important and understanding when to drop merch and how to drop it.
• 25:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 25:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So exclusivity is a thing.
• 25:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: We only got this many or this is going to sell out grab a while you can just kind of
• 25:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: being aware of the fact that people want to be a part of something that they feel like is theirs and not that many other people.
• 26:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So even applying that to some of my performances.
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I just saw this thing called the uh is it the Motown booky bus?
• 26:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's in Detroit.
• 26:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of similar to the pedal bars.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's up.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: You just ride the bus and they play the music.
• 26:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, Oh, I want to do a ten person concert on there.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody wear orange and I'm performing live at the front of it.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this is a super.
• 26:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It would be a higher price ticket.
• 26:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, Motown, Blue bus.
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's do something here.
• 26:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But those kind of exclusive things that might buy you a month where you don't have to worry about your expenses because this thing you're good at is able to make you money.
• 26:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: articulate your value and make sure that you get paid what you work when it comes to either getting booked or just possibly developing your own thing.
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you kind of stand up for yourself?
• 26:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because that's something that I'm continuing to learn about myself in business, but also I know that that's a struggle for a lot of people starting out because they say like, oh, kind of short change themselves in the beginning because they feel like they're just getting started.
• 27:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I necessarily know the worth, but how have you kind of identified your worth and then stand on like, I deserve?
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm fortunate to be in a spot where I don't have to have these conversations for myself.
• 27:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've been able to do some team building where, you know, people really respect when you're not saying the number that you want, when it's somebody else saying, on behalf of charity, we're requesting, you know.
• 27:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think the way that I stand on it is through the quality of my product.
• 27:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I put on a show.
• 27:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I'm performing, I am bringing my soul.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't care if it's a show that barely has budget that I say yes to or a stage with three thousand people in the audience.
• 27:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I treat them all equally.
• 27:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm really about to give you my whole self.
• 27:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think I stand on business by knowing the value of what I do.
• 27:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: and then building an infrastructure where I have people in place who can communicate and reinforce that.
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Glad to not have to have those conversations, because it feels uncomfortable sometimes.
• 28:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, no, that's dope.
• 28:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's shout out to being able to build and curate a team.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: How does that come together for you?
• 28:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know that you've been able to leverage people in your village to help you with different things that you've done before, but as far as like your business practices now, how does that kind of come together for you with the team?
• 28:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So in two thousand nineteen I got a grant from just so the multi on using them did a multi on accelerator program in collaboration with a tech company called generator where they put not a tech company they were actually putting startup money and mentorship and resources around startup tech companies.
• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
• 28:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so they took that approach but applied it to musicians.
• 28:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so they picked four musicians, four artists from Detroit, gave them twenty thousand dollars, mentorship, a trip to LA, a trip to New York, New York, LA, I should say.
• 29:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I made Mark Buyers.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: in two thousand nineteen and mark buyers was a general manager at Motown at the time.
• 29:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so we connected.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was able to see me perform out there.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: We connected.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he was just kind of watching the things that I was doing keeping his eye on it from afar.
• 29:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then when I put out eclips and then cruel, he got really interested in kind of giving me strategy and coaching from LA.
• 29:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so this is somebody that's worked with everybody from
• 29:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Eve to usher to Glenn Lewis has worked with the producers that did butterflies for Michael Jackson superstar for usher yo for Chris Brown so a lot of a and our music industry experience a lot of artist development experience and so
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: to have that kind of coaching in my corner has made a lot of difference in the moves that I've made and also the representation of, you know, when there is a greater conversation to have somebody who understands how to leverage can have it for me and also
• 30:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: teach me after the fact like this is how you handle that.
• 30:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I've got some great guys behind me great guys from from producers to you know BJ who's playing that day of role kind of screening a lot of those initial phone calls mark who is strategizing and leveraging from LA the band you know my MD my drummer who I've played with since before my hair was orange you know I've just realized that
• 30:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: people who stuck around as long people who've added value.
• 30:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, leaning like allowed them to be what they are, you know, you are my MD, you are my day of you are my manager, whatever it may be.
• 30:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, I think I struggle with.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: giving anybody anything official because it's like, oh, this is mine.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 31:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what you about to say to me, I want you about to do this, but I've realized that it's not sustainable.
• 31:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's too heavy to carry it if you are really growing into something.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 31:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I know how much you put into your artistry and the business behind it as well.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to know as far as
• 31:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Talking from a music standpoint, do you ever think about the vulnerability, vulnerability that you have in your music?
• 31:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And is it, do you ever feel like you're too open with your audience and stuff like that?
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Or is that kind of like a confident play for your dude?
• 31:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh man, I might have put too much into this or telling people too much about business.
• 31:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It feels good to be vulnerable when everybody is celebrating your vulnerability.
• 31:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: When everybody is double tapping and commenting and applauding it, it feels good.
• 31:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you're in a room of five hundred people and you say, I'm sorry, y'all, we have a technical difficulties, but just grow with me and everybody cheers.
• 32:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It feels incredible.
• 32:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you're vulnerable and you're bearing your soul and you're bearing your gifts and people are not as loud.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: People are not as affirming.
• 32:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It can't almost shake your foundation.
• 32:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought about what will I share today?
• 32:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: How vulnerable do I want to be about what about where I am?
• 32:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what I've realized is that I'm vulnerable.
• 32:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: period.
• 32:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a transparent artist and that is the hallmark of who I am as an artist.
• 32:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is why people come.
• 32:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've not been having the most fun in this season at all.
• 32:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Last year was, I feel like God was teaching me through all wins.
• 32:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: This year, I feel like God is teaching me through losses.
• 32:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, oh, you really do have to take the highs with the lows.
• 32:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And in many ways, when you talk about vulnerability,
• 32:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to hide that because sometimes we want to prove to the world that like this is working for me or the race that I took was worth it.
• 33:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is that this shit is hard.
• 33:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is difficult and we live in a world where the algorithm has way more power than it should.
• 33:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's hard to be vulnerable all the time.
• 33:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like it's harder for me to be vulnerable now, but I still feel called to vulnerability and to tell them my deepest truths.
• 33:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: what do you feel like some of those challenges are that you've had to do it that you are willing to share with us of course yeah um
• 33:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm growing so much that I think I'm changing.
• 33:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as my sound changes, there may be, right, even change, it just as it expands.
• 33:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think that certain people are like, we like that other thing from you though.
• 33:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know.
• 33:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's starting to hit you with that.
• 33:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you want to over there.
• 33:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm comfortable out.
• 33:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: People are commenting like, why is this not warm and so on?
• 33:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And my thought was,
• 33:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, one of the songs is not a summer record.
• 34:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a deep feeling, borderline heartbreak song.
• 34:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like my heart has been broken.
• 34:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I need this to get better for me.
• 34:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't feel like June to me.
• 34:10
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 34:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: That feels like September, October.
• 34:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, I said, I want something upbeat that can't help.
• 34:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: lived my show up.
• 34:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that didn't feel good to me.
• 34:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, oh, I just worked really hard on this thing.
• 34:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually deeply proud of it.
• 34:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's one of my favorite things I ever made.
• 34:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I put it out and y'all are like, we didn't want this.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 34:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, oh, this is new for me.
• 34:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I consider it a blessing that I'm at a point in my career where my fans get on my nerves.
• 34:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: because there are some people who don't get to a point where people expect anything from them, where people have attached to a certain sound so much that when they do something else, they're like, this wasn't what I expected.
• 34:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ultimately, that's a good problem.
• 35:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But unless you are standing tentals down on who you are and on your decisions, it can keep you up and night.
• 35:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because ultimately, I am the business.
• 35:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all have to look at, we all have to step back and look at our products and say, why isn't this performing or why are people saying that objectively, we have to be able to do that.
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when you're doing that about yourself, it can feel, that's the slippery slope.
• 35:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what artists are up against.
• 35:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: All entrepreneurs have a product that they deeply believe in that they're putting out in the world and they have to see how does the world respond to it.
• 35:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: as artists, we are the product.
• 35:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that is why I am so anti-credit culture, because I think sometimes people who are not creating, people who are consuming, don't understand the bravery that it takes to even try.
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, so that's the space that I'm in and Shoring myself up to where it's like, no, I believe in this song.
• 35:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all gonna get it.
• 36:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I may help you get it.
• 36:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell the story of it.
• 36:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll help you understand where I am.
• 36:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So why this to make this song in this moment makes sense.
• 36:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you just kind of have to be, you have to be so sure of yourself.
• 36:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a vulnerable space to be.
• 36:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, that's where I'm at.
• 36:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: got so talk to us about uncomfortable you're a latest song that came out how did it come about it is a change of pace for you from what we're used to getting so how did it you talk a little bit about the process the development or the timeframe but where did the inspiration come from and what made you want to go this route which I was really fortunate last year to perform at Afro Nation so
• 36:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of my big girls, if not biggy stages, definitely biggest audience.
• 36:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's a certain energy at our donation.
• 36:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I would say a comfortable was born there.
• 36:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I walked out stage like, I want a certain kind of song that's still charity that can perform and get a certain reaction, a physical reaction in a space like this.
• 37:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I remember walking out stage like, hmm.
• 37:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got some writing to do.
• 37:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it started there and I didn't aggressively go after it.
• 37:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this beat just kind of fell in my lap.
• 37:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Hicks who was a producer at thirty five twenty five studios sent BJ a few songs for me to listen to.
• 37:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I heard it and was instantly like
• 37:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can get in my Beyonce energy on this song.
• 37:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's about.
• 37:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, started writing it.
• 37:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Praise God.
• 37:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a song that fell out of me.
• 37:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some songs make you work for them.
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you got to really sit there in labor and take a break and come back on carnival just kind of fell out of me.
• 37:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was my testimony.
• 37:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I had come against a lot of oppositional energy that it felt like was attempting to get me off my square, get me off centered, move me out of my confidence.
• 37:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: personally and professionally, you had come against so much of that, that this felt like a story that I needed to tell, that there are some years that the trueest thing about what I'm living is heartbreak.
• 38:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: That I've had to choose myself, even though nobody chose me.
• 38:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't the truth that I had to share this year.
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The truth that I had to share was that, you know, I say, I think I count it.
• 38:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thirty-nine times that I say, no, you want to.
• 38:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you want to.
• 38:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: It comes up in the hook all these time.
• 38:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, that's so pop.
• 38:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it's not pop.
• 38:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not shallow.
• 38:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really my way of saying, I am aware that you're on mission.
• 38:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Whether that is, you know, the light versus the darkness, you know, in Christianity, we would say God and Satan and wellness, maybe we would say lightness versus darkness or positivity versus negativity, it's the energy of the up.
• 38:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for many years, I thought that that was not real.
• 38:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought that my mom, when she would talk about spiritual warfare, I thought she was being very dramatic.
• 38:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've learned now, though, that when you make
• 39:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: a decision and set an intention to move in the light that the darkness now becomes aware of you.
• 39:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I learned that in a way that challenged my sense of self in such a way that as I moved through it, I wrote this song that I needed.
• 39:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wrote a song that when I felt that thing trying to get me off center could remind me that
• 39:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: These weapons are being sent that they're not prospering because of who you are, and it's just so cliche.
• 39:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And who's you are?
• 39:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 39:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's powerful.
• 39:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And are we getting visuals for that?
• 39:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We are.
• 39:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 39:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is the first time I shot a full length of music video.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: So wardrobe, multiple locations.
• 39:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's choreography, dancers, extras, and all night.
• 39:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's still in the editing phase, but before the end of July, the video will come out.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: love it.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 39:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And quick follow up to that because I recognize like I've always been curious.
• 40:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: I enjoy your visuals and things that you post digitally and I want to know how do you do?
• 40:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: How are you able to craft those visual experiences and do so from a quality standpoint on a consistent basis because it seems like I know it's a lot.
• 40:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know I can just from a little bit that I do like I know it's a lot that goes into it.
• 40:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I've wondering how is that for you?
• 40:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I talked about the great guys that are behind me.
• 40:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 40:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Gabriel with go take media has like really bought in to the creative intention of we got to put visuals out consistently.
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he's been really, really, really supportive and partner with me.
• 40:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not only on this video, but a lot of the stuff that I put out last year, the tiny desk this year.
• 40:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, cruel eclipse content.
• 40:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um,
• 40:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we have similar tastes and similar intentions.
• 40:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm also very much interested in the sort of visual space.
• 40:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to get into TV series and film eventually.
• 40:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so it's a space where I can kind of flex that muscle of like move boarding and shot listening.
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I care about it a lot.
• 41:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe borderline is much as I care about like the process of making a song.
• 41:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just don't really have the skills set yet because it's fairly new to me.
• 41:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's a strength that I have.
• 41:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that's been a space where building a team that actually has the equipment and the support and is invested enough to not be like every time we got to shoot a video, I'm going to charge you what I would charge a corporation.
• 41:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's really important.
• 41:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: And during the season and being in Grimmo, I had thought about the meme or what people say around the time that Mariah Carey, she basically throwing out November for all I want this Christmas in for that season.
• 41:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I just thought about like
• 41:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I know you're working here wrong, but I'm just like, well, I know charity you are usually busy, especially like last year during the summer time.
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So do you feel like you are in like a grand season or a busy season right now with it being warm out and so many different opportunities out there?
• 41:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's interesting like
• 42:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was busy all the way through December.
• 42:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the crazy Ron show that I did at ill club was on, it was early December.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was December sixth.
• 42:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 42:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't get a chance to release, and it was so funny.
• 42:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I worked so intensely all the way through December.
• 42:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was sleeping four hours a night.
• 42:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if I didn't have anything to do, my brain was just so, I was just so, like, turned up.
• 42:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: All my thoughts were so loud.
• 42:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And no matter how tired I am, I'm energized by performing.
• 42:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So literally I didn't start sleeping again until like late February.
• 42:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I remember telling my friend like, okay, it took me about six weeks, but I'm finally coming down.
• 42:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I didn't start writing the new music until like March.
• 42:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 42:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm already putting music out in March, but I was recovering and writing.
• 43:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so the music has come out in June.
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you learn as an artist like Dam is kind of best to put music out before people are distracted by pedials and cocktails and parties and all of that.
• 43:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think I'm in the year of like, it's funny.
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought that last year was just like,
• 43:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought it was, I thought it was the beginning of something.
• 43:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: The year that I had, you got to think Snoop Dogg feature.
• 43:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the summer, I'm on stage, almost every weekend.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everybody knows crew, everybody knows crew.
• 43:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking, oh, this is the beginning of my winning season.
• 43:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I actually think that it was the top level of something that I had been building for years.
• 43:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it introduced me to the basement of something brand new.
• 43:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I couldn't have seen it coming.
• 43:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought, oh, twenty twenty four was insane, twenty twenty five.
• 43:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's rent and repeat.
• 44:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, twenty twenty four pushed me to the bottom level of a new thing and all the lessons are different on this level.
• 44:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the lessons are different and they don't feel as good.
• 44:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't even remember your question.
• 44:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, keep rolling.
• 44:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's all it all the lines.
• 44:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 44:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: But to say, I say all that to say,
• 44:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm learning that, oh, you might have to slow down a little bit earlier so that you can get your writing done at the end of the year and put music out before summer comes.
• 44:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that by summer, everyone has died.
• 44:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just wouldn't have known that had I not gone through everything.
• 44:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We just learned from experience.
• 44:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you have to have the experience to learn.
• 44:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm tired of learning.
• 44:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just genuinely I am.
• 44:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: I started playing guitar when I was thirteen and this became my dream at thirteen.
• 44:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think sometimes we think that like I'll put this much work in and then it'll click.
• 45:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you're going to keep learning.
• 45:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to keep having highs and lows.
• 45:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to keep busting your head because it's less than that only come by weight of busting your head.
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so
• 45:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's where I'm at.
• 45:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I kind of was like, do I even want to talk?
• 45:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do I even want to share where I am in this particular season?
• 45:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think enough people talk about it.
• 45:22
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 45:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think enough people say I had an incredible year last year, dub after dub after dub, meaning when after we and after we and this year got damn off like every time I turn around, I'm being taught a lesson through a challenge.
• 45:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody admits it.
• 45:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's right where I am right now.
• 45:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I just, I think I just wanted to tell the truth about it.
• 45:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: love that and we definitely appreciate that because it's especially the state of the world overall like even if like let's say things are okay in a personal life or copesthetic it's so many things that's like externally that could be affecting people and I've seen impact people as well and so you know some people don't be okay sometimes and you got to be okay with not being okay yeah and you have to know that
• 46:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: life is both and love is both and we have been programmed to think that your relationship with the person that's your person needs to be marked by peace and ease and pleasure.
• 46:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why are you talking about
• 46:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: not true.
• 46:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be some of that and it's going to be some conflict and some friction and some expanding and some discomfort.
• 46:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Life is both in.
• 46:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: You've got to dream your choice.
• 46:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have some moments that fulfill you so deeply that it just brings you to your knees and you're going to have some moments and some seasons even that make you go.
• 46:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I built for this and my really caught to this because you won't have as much evidence by way of the wins and the pretty things.
• 46:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think we need to be a little bit more honest about that because I think if we were than people who are chasing a dream or that are entrepreneurs or that just have these big ideas that they're throwing out there into the world, they would know they're not alone in some of those darker seasons.
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 47:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And to watch and listen there.
• 47:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stop lying on the internet.
• 47:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stop going on social.
• 47:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: We start telling the truth on Instagram.
• 47:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start there.
• 47:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 47:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's where a lot of it comes from.
• 47:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: We only literally to the point that people can turn off their likes.
• 47:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't get the likes that I wanted on this.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I was going to cut them off.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to delete the video.
• 47:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Instead of showing people, sometimes you put a lot of effort into something and it don't hate.
• 47:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: It could be the algorithm, you could be shadow band, it could be the season that you put it in, put it out in, it could be all of these various factors.
• 47:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes it don't do what your KPI level of success expectation for it was.
• 47:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think because we hide those things or because we delete those things, we've created an environment where there's no room for failure.
• 47:57
  [SPEAKER_05]: Right.
• 47:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not even, I don't even want to use the wire of failure.
• 48:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's no room for just growth.
• 48:02
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 48:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 48:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The growth, the same.
• 48:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Growth.
• 48:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
• 48:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: We want to be there.
• 48:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 48:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be there already.
• 48:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So big.
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm like, I'm, I told God.
• 48:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I'm tired of learning.
• 48:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm tired of growing.
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's exhausting.
• 48:14
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 48:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: But that is the path I chose.
• 48:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's the growth path.
• 48:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: My therapist told me the other day, life is pain.
• 48:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You either choose the pain of growth or the pain of staying the same, either way, pain.
• 48:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just starting to digest it now.
• 48:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's powerful.
• 48:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 48:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna digest on that a little bit later.
• 48:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And how do you get through these grantees?
• 48:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, what are those things that help you get through those tough moments, those challenges that you deal with?
• 48:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it family?
• 48:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: Is it you being able to have someone to like, what does that look like for you?
• 48:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have some friends.
• 48:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got some friends.
• 48:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: First of all, I have three sisters that are my built-in friends.
• 48:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: My best friend, Shay, my very close friend, Brittany, she borderline, my other best friend.
• 49:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've known Shay since.
• 49:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: high school, break me since college.
• 49:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course, my sister since I knew anything.
• 49:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I knew them.
• 49:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I run my mouth.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I talk about it.
• 49:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: BJ is in my corner as well.
• 49:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am introverted in the sense that I don't really like to go outside to socialize.
• 49:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm extroverted in the sense that
• 49:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm processing out loud everything.
• 49:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I have a day where I'm like, damn, I thought this was going to do better on social media.
• 49:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't have three conversations about it.
• 49:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think for some people that feels excessive, it is my way of making sense of things.
• 49:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm really fortunate to have a community of people who hold space for me and who are interested in
• 49:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: not only the creative process, but the analytics and the brand and the story like they get in there and really think through it with me.
• 49:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that's how I stay grounded.
• 49:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: My people.
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm also learning that like self-care is essential.
• 49:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: artists are intense people.
• 50:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if we can get around it.
• 50:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think the intensity is just a part of the nature of the beast.
• 50:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm learning that like you had to eat first of all, you have to eat.
• 50:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like you can't lock you and so deep that like you don't eat all day.
• 50:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to eat well.
• 50:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to drink water.
• 50:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to take vitamins.
• 50:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have to work out.
• 50:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You'll burn out because it's such an intense, hot thing by nature.
• 50:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: It will consume you if you aren't finding ways to channel that intensity.
• 50:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm learning that right now.
• 50:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You got to channel it or you can't get burnt up.
• 50:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 50:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me.
• 50:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what do you feel like?
• 50:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel like from an an artist standpoint that opportunities are still here in Detroit or do you feel like you have to explore elsewhere in order to deal with a brand or get recognition?
• 50:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because I know you've had opportunities to obviously record in different places.
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know you like took a trip to California.
• 51:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that's more about to lock in and do some music.
• 51:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel like
• 51:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: is opportunity still here in the city or do you have to still explore and like go elsewhere?
• 51:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think both.
• 51:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that there's plenty opportunity and Detroit to build a home base fan base that is really behind you and will buy tickets and buy merch and come to shows and really just
• 51:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: help to launch you into the world.
• 51:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think LA and New York are key markets where when you can go out there, you should go.
• 51:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You should do a showcase in LA.
• 51:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: You should open for somebody in New York.
• 51:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just had the opportunity to open for baby roles in New York.
• 51:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not only are you going to learn a lot on those stages, but there are people just like key people, key industry people who can come out and see you and hear about how you did that can ultimately assist you in your journey.
• 51:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm still here.
• 51:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I had the privilege of meeting and working with no ID and LA and he was very much like don't move out here.
• 52:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Come out here when you need to spend time out here to perform, to record.
• 52:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the cost of living is high.
• 52:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's superficial.
• 52:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Your family is not going to be here.
• 52:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to be less grounded.
• 52:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you're going to have less money.
• 52:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so if you need, if you absolutely need to come out here, because you're like filming something and the industry that you work with is here, come out.
• 52:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: But for the very most part, don't be in a rush to leave.
• 52:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm like, OK, if no, I do say in that, I think that that's probably facts.
• 52:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I just think you got to be able to move around as much as you can without necessarily upholding your life.
• 52:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 52:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 52:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 52:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: As for you, I know that you were able to have like that realistic conversation with yourself and out of Piffney of wanting more and wanting to step up.
• 52:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any advice for creatives or fellow artists as to when you should start to think or actually put action to work in terms of scaling up and like just doing more going for more whatever that looks like.
• 53:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Mmm.
• 53:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's such a good question.
• 53:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to make sure I answer it accurately based on what I really believe because I do think that timing matters.
• 53:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I also feel like there's a part of this that is out of our control.
• 53:23
  [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
• 53:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I tend to try to convince myself that like
• 53:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta make this happen.
• 53:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta lucky and I gotta make sure that I'm not wasting time.
• 53:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, tomorrow's not promise.
• 53:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got all these time behind me.
• 53:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's next?
• 53:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like I can be really, I can be a real control freak about that.
• 53:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think I ultimately believed, oh, deep, deep, deep down.
• 53:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm trying to get this belief to be a little bit closer to the surface, like my conscious thinking.
• 53:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that God isn't control.
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that what we have to do when it comes to, I want to scale, or I want to launch, I think that what we're ultimately seeking is alignment.
• 54:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's no better time than right now to get aligned.
• 54:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: My best friend shared with me from a sermon.
• 54:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: She was watching another day that we shouldn't be seeking success.
• 54:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: We should be seeking obedience.
• 54:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Success is the fruit of obedience.
• 54:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Success is it just comes anyway when you're obedient.
• 54:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so if somebody is like wrestling with
• 54:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if I should put this out now or I don't know if I should launch my business now or I don't know if I should jump out there.
• 54:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that what they should start seeking is alignment and obedience.
• 54:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so my prayer is, God, can you show me what it looks like to be obedient?
• 54:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because there are some seasons where you're gonna be releasing.
• 54:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to be releasing and you're going to be celebrating the opportunities that are going to be coming your way.
• 54:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: There may be a season where God is trying to develop something in you so that you can create what it is that he called you to create that you will later on put out there.
• 55:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think sometimes we reject those seasons or we see those seasons as evidence of out of line because we live in this superficial world where if we're not putting something out there, there's no value to who we are.
• 55:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so
• 55:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: My advice is get aligned, figure out what obedience to God and obedience to your purpose looks like.
• 55:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: However, that is, you might find that through prayer, you may find that through meditation, you may find that through a career coach, conversations, whatever it is, and then be really devoted to obedience.
• 55:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what I'm working on.
• 55:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't mastered it.
• 55:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm working on that.
• 55:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then once you can lock in on that, then it's time to put that obedience and action.
• 55:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm assuming if you like, whatever it is, whatever it is that you're supposed to be obedient to.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: It may be a season for you to live.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I admire my best friend so much.
• 55:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's a mother of three.
• 55:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's married.
• 55:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's from Detroit.
• 56:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: She moved to Milwaukee.
• 56:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: She has such a contentment in our life.
• 56:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I told her today, like, I just envy your consent me.
• 56:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I envy it.
• 56:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she is very much like, I just, she's like, I know I'm going to get back to it.
• 56:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: She has a company called GetoMontress.
• 56:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 56:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shout out to GetoMontress for her.
• 56:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 56:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 56:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 56:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 56:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I know about different names, but yeah, I know it.
• 56:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's like, she just had a baby.
• 56:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So she's like, I'm going to, she's, I'm going to get back to it.
• 56:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: It'll probably be back full swing in a couple years.
• 56:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she's about to start a master's program, too.
• 56:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: could never say that.
• 56:33
  [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
• 56:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I could never be like, I'm just going to chill for a minute.
• 56:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I'm gonna get back to it.
• 56:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: But she's like, I just know that God's going to give me my heart's desire.
• 56:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
• 56:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like, she has this certain contentment in the fact that for these next two years, she needs to live.
• 56:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: She's like, I just gotta do some more living and everything will come on life.
• 56:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a level of contentment that I don't have because I'm so ambitious that it feels like in every season I must be doing.
• 57:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think sometimes we come up against friction and what can look like or feel like failure because we're not accepting this is a season where you just need to live.
• 57:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: So charity, what is next?
• 57:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: What's in your crystal ball now for the future?
• 57:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: The last time we did this, some of those things came into our fruition.
• 57:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I want to hear what do you feel like is, well first need to hear the summer schedule, what's you doing and working people up on you at, but then also what do you have in the works as well?
• 57:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I'm doing a show with a smear-off, a showcase.
• 57:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: LeBritney is on it as well.
• 57:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: The days on it as well.
• 57:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Another artist.
• 57:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: for getting her name, but in an incredible artist that I think it's maybe from Detroit and it's coming back for the show.
• 57:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's Thursday at Vinyl Society.
• 57:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm doing African World Festival on the nineteenth at Heart Plaza.
• 57:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: doing some stuff with Afro Future in August on the sixteenth.
• 57:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I got to get a project out.
• 58:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's been single single single.
• 58:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really excited to have a proper like ninety day rollout in terms of like at the top of the ninety days you get the music done.
• 58:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You start to craft the narrative of the project.
• 58:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: You start to think about
• 58:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: how you want to market it and sell it and then I mean and push it and then the the album actually comes out in the ideal season where you can perform it and people are more locked in.
• 58:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm looking at like October.
• 58:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's actually put music out.
• 58:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um, and I wanted to do a camp.
• 58:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we've renovated at thirty five, twenty five studios.
• 58:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's my, that's my home studio home base studio.
• 58:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've been working with somebody incredible creatives there.
• 58:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to do a camp where I invite writers and producers to just come out and help me finish the product, just kind of catalog music collaborate together.
• 58:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Um,
• 58:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then finish music and put it out like that.
• 59:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is my goal.
• 59:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: That is what all signs are pointing to get a get a project done.
• 59:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that's where I'm at.
• 59:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you answer my next question because I was going to definitely ask you when are we going to get out when are we going to get the next project and what's just praying that you wouldn't card you be as in the sense of singles after single that singles.
• 59:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I know you are you do extremely well with collections of music.
• 59:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I prefer them.
• 59:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've shifted into this single space, understanding that people have like this low attention span and they have a hard time consuming a bunch of a new thing at once.
• 59:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I say a new thing because I'm like, how many episodes of Love Island are people watching though?
• 59:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're consuming a lot actually.
• 59:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's not sure across the board, but when you're trying to break into an industry, you know, you got to be mindful of how much you give people that one time.
• 59:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 59:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I love to make it entertaining.
• 59:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I loved it.
• 59:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I loved weaving it all together as one story, you know, a consistent story, which I think is like, it's a coming of age story.
• 1:00:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a felt lighter to put singles out, but I'm ready to
• 1:00:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm ready to pull a project together.
• 1:00:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a reflection of all the ways that I've grown.
• 1:00:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 1:00:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that's the district's way, no.
• 1:00:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think so.
• 1:00:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:00:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's time for a project.
• 1:00:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I got to ask you, I meant to ask you this earlier, but I almost forgot in terms of so you talked, you mentioned in your head and during the time frame that that came out in the last conversation we had, you mentioned how that
• 1:00:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: you understand how that help people get through the pandemic or certain situations.
• 1:00:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: They may have been dealing with at the time friend that we dealt with that situation of the world.
• 1:00:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: How do you feel like your music now is impacting people?
• 1:00:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: What kind of feedback are you getting from the projects that you put out and how do you think is helping them?
• 1:00:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Or through situations or a lift to them, encouraging them, like what type of feedback are you getting now?
• 1:00:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: The feedback that I get consistently is that
• 1:01:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: that I give language or words to feelings that are difficult to emit or articulate.
• 1:01:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think tenderheaded did that to a certain extent too, but I think he clips and cruel specifically were like, oh my god, I'm going through this.
• 1:01:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that a lot of times, women feel like, even with uncomfortable, they're like, how do you know my life?
• 1:01:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like how do you know that I'm going through this exact thing or that I need this exact thing?
• 1:01:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm grateful to be somebody that's like tapped in, you know, that I'm still in touch with
• 1:01:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: the narrative that particularly women in my generation are going through so much that they can say, like, you know, you wrote that for me, right?
• 1:01:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hope that that is always the response to charity music.
• 1:01:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I think it started in Tenderhead, but it continues to grow as I, and a little bit more raw, a little bit more vulnerable, because you know, the things we talk about any clips and and cruel are like, kind of,
• 1:02:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: You could kind of be ashamed of having those experiences when you can admit it and admit it beautifully.
• 1:02:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was song that has an infectious nature.
• 1:02:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, okay, this is all right.
• 1:02:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Charity went through that.
• 1:02:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: All these other girls that like this song went through that too.
• 1:02:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it can kind of feel empowering at the end of it all, you know, even admitting something that's so like yuck.
• 1:02:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's dope.
• 1:02:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And charity, we appreciate you pulling up.
• 1:02:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: You got to let the people know where they can find you, what social media handles, website, best way to get in contact with you.
• 1:02:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can the people tap in if they want to book you?
• 1:02:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want to buy some music.
• 1:02:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: They want some merch.
• 1:02:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: How can they find you?
• 1:02:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Charity on all streaming platforms, charity on Instagram, so c-h-a-r-i-t-y.
• 1:02:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It'll pop up with a little carrot next to it.
• 1:02:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: My website is charitytheartist.com.
• 1:02:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Best ways to keep up with me is definitely Instagram.
• 1:02:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to book me info at charitytheartist.com.
• 1:02:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: There it is.
• 1:02:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, once again, we appreciate you pulling back up on the podcast.
• 1:02:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for having me again.
• 1:03:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 1:03:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of the few guests to come on here multiple times.
• 1:03:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and we're going to do it again.
• 1:03:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 1:03:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Two years from now on, July.
• 1:03:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is my thing.
• 1:03:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
• 1:03:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're going to do it.
• 1:03:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to hold another place and we can compare.
• 1:03:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: So these are your twenty twenty five, twenty two seven.
• 1:03:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like Grammy or something by the end.
• 1:03:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Come on now.
• 1:03:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Say one more time.
• 1:03:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully it's a Grammy by the end.
• 1:03:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Grammy twenty seven.
• 1:03:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Best new artist.
• 1:03:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get it.
• 1:03:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: There we go.
• 1:03:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, we appreciate y'all for watching.
• 1:03:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen to it.
• 1:03:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tap it in.
• 1:03:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk y'all soon.
• 1:03:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Peace.