Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / You’re Not Just A Photographer, You’re A CEO - Ep. 184 w/ Lee Media House

Transcript

You’re Not Just A Photographer, You’re A CEO - Ep. 184 w/ Lee Media House · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I'm not just a photographer.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so much more than that.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, I'm gonna challenge creatives to become more than that, to develop that business, to go and actually get that business name, that LLC, whatever, that S-Corp, that DBA, whatever it is, and it needs to be got to open up that bank account because some entities can only write checks to legal entities, right?
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, understanding that part of,
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: the creative business, right, making all of the money means that you have to be proficient as a business person and a creative.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: First and foremost is one to move and operate as a founder and CEO because that is who you are.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: You are not just a creative, you are a person running a business.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: and you are that CEO, and for you to be that CEO, you have to one second, I mean, secondly, go to education.
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: You have to go and learn the business.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: There are so many resources out here, especially now, especially not just in Detroit, or Wayne County, but in Oakland County, so many different places.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: Go to these programs and resources.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of them are free.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of them are free.
• 1:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's gonna take the work.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if you start moving and educating yourself as a founder and a CEO, then you start to know how to scale.
• 1:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: work in professionals, creators, entrepreneurs, I need you out of tap the answer.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Listen, if you tired of fighting distractions at home or bouncing around from coffee shop to coffee shop, then Bamboo has exactly what you need to be able to lock in and get your work done.
• 1:59
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• 2:05
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• 2:07
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• 2:10
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• 2:16
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• 2:19
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• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Use that promo code.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll be seeing you at a bamboo location sometime soon.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now let's go ahead and get back into the episode.
• 2:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: What up, Doug Black Friday's family.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to another installment of Black Friday's podcast.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Before we get into today's episode, need to hit that like button, subscribe, drop a comment, send some videos to family friends and loved ones so that we can keep this thing going.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now that we got that business out of the way, I had two of the best photographers that you are going to find in the Metro Detroit area and beyond.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: They just so happen to be married together.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got Miss Tay and Mr. Sean Lee of Lee Media House.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: How y'all doing today?
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: man, that's how I'm doing this was right now, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: know you over the years through Blacktakes Iron Days and being a part of that ecosystem.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's great to be able, I've been following y'all journey separately for years, but it's great to see you all obviously being able to come together and then combine your talents into one organization.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we'd love to be able to understand like how that story kind of came about.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: But as before I get into all of that, I want to first start.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to get grounded with, when was the first time each one you picked up a camera and knew that it was more to it than just taking pictures, quote unquote.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, so I think that first, it's like the very first picked up.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my god, man, that had to be late 90s when I picked up a camera.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know if you, I know you, some of you, this is a probably late 90s.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I came around in the game when when digital first, um, first took, um, grip, right?
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so my first camera was a can in digital rebel, the very first one that they ever made, um, and so I've been doing it for probably 20, 28 plus years, um, now.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, um, I'm going to lead that right there.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, how do I do that?
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, let my wife talk about when she started.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I would say, I knew that I want to pick up a camera when I dropped my son off to school.
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I was dropping my son off to school.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: He was probably patting on seven or eight.
• 4:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I saw a father walking down the street, holding his daughters hands each side.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, I wish I had a camera, like, to capture that, to capture a father just walking his girls to school and them just being in the moment together.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: So a couple years, maybe not even a year after that, I was saying, someone purchased me a camera.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: I did not pick that camera up, uh,
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: until COVID, so around 2020, and what happened was it was on my shelf, and everyone was going on through some people couldn't celebrate their birthdays, our elders were shutting in, they couldn't, you know, it was a season where people couldn't see their family, or couldn't be around each other, and I saw that camera, and I was like, you know, I think I do something,
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: So COVID isn't when I was 20 when I picked up the camera, I was real serious about it.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And combined, YouTube have worked with some of our premier companies, organizations, and the Metro Detroit area, and past that essence magazine being able to work with Black Tech Saturday, so that I mentioned first in the business bank.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: more to city master list goes on, but in terms of, before it, as you go through this journey and where to get to the point to work with these organizations, obviously being compensated for your work, when did it become a business for you?
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I know Sean, you've been in the game longer, so when did you decide to turn it into a career?
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh man.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Truth be true.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I used to work in a warehouse.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I used to drive the forklift truck.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and so I would do photography as a hobby on the side until the economy started to take it down turn.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I had two great logistics jobs driving forklift trucks, loading trucks, two jobs our days and nights.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I got laid off of both of those with their formats of each other.
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's when I decided to go into photography.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: and I already owned a camera.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, what?
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can give me $250 to issue your wedding with a camera already, huh?
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, so that's what started it for me.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and honestly, um,
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: doing that, you find that some of the hardest part was the business portion of doing photography and so one time somebody handed me an American Express card and I didn't have a way to process it.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And this was before squared, this was before PayPal, this was before payment processors and stuff like that.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that journey, um,
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: along with learning how to shoot kind of pave the way for business for me and photography work.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nope, brought that.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: And just, um, I would kind of just keep going, so with COVID, um, I decided to take my apartment.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: and turn it into a studio.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I took all the furniture out of my bedroom, I had a two-bedroom apartment, all the furniture out of my bedroom.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: My son had a bunk bed.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: I decided to sleep on the bottom of the bunk bed.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: I turned the bathroom into a dressing room, the living room, and to the lobby.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: And people were coming over during the holiday season in Pami 75 dollars to take holiday portraits in my home.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: and it was at that moment, like I created a flyer, I had to all these things that I knew, the capability to do something, and the possibility was endless.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: If people were going to trust to come to my house and pay me to take their portraits in a barrel.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was a bearhole, and people would gladly go in there with the set up from an Amazon in the lights and all those things, and people still trusted me with their holiday portraits, and I know from there that that guy gave me gave me a gift.
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, fire fire and then I got to ask you all in terms of lead media house.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is a newer venture that you all are doing and obviously been able to work together over the years that you all have been connected but would love to get a download of what it is that you all offer in terms of your photography services.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to let the CEO speak on that.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, okay, so leave me the house and take it into a home at the level.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: So it's not just photography.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is taking it to an elevated storytelling production company.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: So we're not just offering photography.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're doing filmmaking, videography, content creation.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are helping organizations, communities, influencers, brands, to be able to tell their story authentically, but also have the ability to do with impact.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: The next level of lead media house is also being able to educate.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: on creatives.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: So as we are looking to build our team and take on more people that we don't want the creatives just to come in and provide their skill sets and their gifts and their talents, we want them to be able to go through professional development, business training, how to scale their business, how to grow, how to have even soft skills.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that was make us different
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that absolutely is what makes us different.
• 10:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we build our workforce, I think we're also simultaneously seeding the culture, seeding the creative work for seeding the creative community.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are so many people who are out there, it's just fearful.
• 10:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they don't have the skillset.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: They have talent, but they don't have the tools that they need in order to actually enter into business for business to be able to take care of them and their
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: for the rest of their lives.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think because me and Tay, we love giving back.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's just a part of who we are.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a part of this model.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it creates a win-win, not just for us and our family and the businesses that
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: that we work with.
• 10:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It also creates opportunity for the industry and the reason that I think that that's important is that one day we will look up and God willing, you know, we will be 80, 90 years old, right?
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to be able to hand down an industry to those that come after us that is solid.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: something that people can be able to use to take care of themselves.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not only our daughter, our children, but everybody else in the Metro Detroit area.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Legacy.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Legacy means something.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty dope.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love that.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love that.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's going to make a great clip.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: The way this all had did that together.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm before you.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love it.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's great.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Before you get to the next segment, I got to ask you the question, I'll be remiss not to ask.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So how did you meet?
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know the story, but are a little bit of stress saying, but yeah, please tell me how you all met.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you made a tell you dropped it on me as a CEO.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: You go and say, right above, so I am, I'm director of photography for TEDx Detroit and have been so since 2016, so last 10 years and one of the things that I'm really, really proud of with what I do with the photography team.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: is that we provide opportunity authentically for people, not just folk that are our pros and have skill set, but we make it a point to bring in people of all skill sets to give them real time, authentic experience, right?
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that they understand what it is to work in a
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: conference environment and up low photos and real time.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: So every year I have a team of about 20 photographers We change the team up every year to give people opportunity and turns all of it a thing and so Tay was being the head photographer for BlackTex Saturdays.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was on the team one year
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so it was completely platonic.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: She was just on the team.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we did TEDx Detroit at Motor City, Casino, said the sound board that year was at 2023.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, 2023.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it went well.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was great.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We had a great time.
• 13:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there were a couple of things that happened.
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: She announced that she was organizing a walk.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't notice she was a Swiss approviction advocate, which was dope.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: And let me know, let me know one thing that she had been through something in life and that she had healed enough to be able to help other people.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right.
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: So that was intriguing to me.
• 13:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so she said, if anybody wants to help that a dial or volunteer or come be a part of it, you know, it's happening this day.
• 13:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I think I responded to her and said, I think I'm going to be out of town that day, but I would like to hear more about
• 13:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: what that is and what that means.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then on the flip side of that, um, she ended up calling me.
• 13:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Didn't you call me or text me?
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, first of all, all right.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: For because she got an opportunity to do some work to make some money she had never before made, right?
• 14:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And she, uh, and she asked for some advice on how to price it.
• 14:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I gave her some advice and she ended up pricing it and got
• 14:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And after that happened and this had never happened to me before because I just help people actually help I say yes She she took me to lunch to say thank you.
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
• 14:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was like our moves Follow the move Yeah, that's what I thought if you know She told me that wouldn't it, but you know
• 14:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: So how I'm much turned from just to say thank you turned into a marriage and a child later till you want to tell them what happened in lunch.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I will tell them, I do want to also say that I do want to acknowledge Johnny Turner's from Black Tech Saturdays because it was Johnny that told me about the opportunity with TEDx these days and he stayed at one knee until the very last day.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: to submit my application to TEDx.
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, okay, he stayed on me so much so that when I did it, um, Sean ended up coming to DTS to tell me a person, but I wasn't there.
• 15:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had somebody covering me.
• 15:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the part he kept coming up to my friend.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was like, aren't you today?
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: And she was like, no.
• 15:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he just kept coming up to her like, but aren't you the one taking photos?
• 15:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he like, she like, yes, but aren't you, take, take the lead of photography.
• 15:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like, so my friend is from you, I'm not sure this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like, this man is like,
• 16:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, at the end of lunch, I was drawing on my take-out backs.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna carry out backs and making, making mouse.
• 16:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, making, I do it all the time and I was just drawing on the backs and he got so excited and sent the backs from me and then finished the drawing.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was making my, I drew Mickey Mouse since I was four years old, exact same one, right?
• 16:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I haven't drawn, it could my mom's an artist, I've been drawing us as I was four, and I would always draw Mickey Mouse always.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so when she was drawn it, it was like, I did a semester take off.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my god, this is crazy, right?
• 16:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: He just finished it and I kept, I kept.
• 16:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she kept it.
• 16:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: He didn't know.
• 16:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, God.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: But after, like, I got home and everything, I remember taking that part of the box off and I ended up keeping it in my camera bag.
• 17:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because it was just a moment that was just really authentic.
• 17:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was almost shout like, but it was like something magnetic put us together.
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: That was just divine.
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: And somebody that could,
• 17:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: take something that I started and finish it.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's kind of how I feel like evenly media house or everything that we've done.
• 17:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: It has been us together in partnership and I could have an idea and Shanka elevated.
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: He can execute it.
• 17:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that has been really how we've been moving in life.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be able to follow the time to which I'm doing now and how it all started.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's out out to Johnny because him and Lex said every BTS trying to hook people up.
• 17:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And inadvertently he did so this time and it worked out.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: They, they, they, they were a way of efficiency.
• 17:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, they're right.
• 17:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 17:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're right.
• 17:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're, they're got parents to grace.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man.
• 17:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look at that.
• 17:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's, uh,
• 17:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, a big shout out to them because they authentically, they authentically, everything that they do is is for The community.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it really is to help people and to give people our opportunity Um, okay, keep it.
• 18:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's no gay keeping or I need that stuff, and that's that is to be that is to be commended Yeah, that is real that is real authentic growth that is how that is how it should be yeah, you know, that's real talk
• 18:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep, and I know that from first-hand experience, like you said, no gatekeeping, anytime I see them, it's always love, and it's always sharing the game and new information and new knowledge.
• 18:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So definitely shout out to the BlackTex Heritage community.
• 18:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now, I'm a transition to my favorite part of Black Friday is with the Freestyle Fridays.
• 18:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, you talked about working together, finishing, Mickey Mouse, Pitcher, just like each other.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna need y'all to come together and come up with some bars for the Black Friday as audience.
• 19:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: So far.
• 19:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's nice that you wrap a little bit back in the back.
• 19:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's nice that you take it down.
• 19:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, we all can't remove it.
• 19:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remember, I told you, I started photography back when Jesus played it, right?
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're saying the last supper and he was there.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He took the thing.
• 19:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He took the last supper.
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus.
• 19:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so talking to me about about bars bars.
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I need four, six, eight, whatever you can come up with.
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Taking due to beat.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can do the bars.
• 19:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can do the beat.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Taking due to bars.
• 19:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have y'all want to do this thing.
• 19:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
• 19:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just moved.
• 19:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even think you need to be, I think.
• 19:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just moved, y'all gonna just see me in the background because that's what I'm giving you.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: You just flow with it.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is about to be ugly.
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a bunch of go out there and she was fine.
• 19:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 20:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just a little media drop it like it's hot
• 20:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: off the top, off the top, off the door, off the dome.
• 20:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: He got an X.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Stretch.
• 20:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's all I've got.
• 20:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm still rocking with you.
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: No matter where we are, I'm still rocking with him.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you notice, my gift.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, which is how we win this is how we do it.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there we go.
• 20:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's all I got here with you guys.
• 21:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I appreciate y'all for giving us some bars for sure But if y'all mind I got a couple of rapid fire questions for y'all as well just to just to wrap it all up Right, so Sean one of your sins is rock that yeah, and very apparent you are you stay true to Brad where did that come from?
• 21:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: on that rock that was rock that simply if I can put it simply is is we not gonna stop rock that is as I was growing up as a kid you know and when I was a kid 10 years old I had a black and white TV you know you put your hand on the hanger right uh you put the hanger was the antenna because the antenna broke and put your hand on the hanger so the signal safe straight see if y'all don't know what I'm talking about then y'all don't know nothing all right rock that so I had a black and white TV you see punk rock bands come on
• 21:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: the TV and they what they would break the guitars on the stage and jump in the mosh pit and as a as a little kid man in the hood my first thought was why would you break a perfectly good guitar brand new guitar why would you break it I later understood it to mean is that for this set we're gonna sell out to it we we're gonna break the guitars on the stage we're gonna jump in the mosh pit and for the next show we just gonna have to get new guitars
• 22:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so rock that means is that there are no plant bees, right?
• 22:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: We, there are no shorts.
• 22:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: We gonna give it everything we got.
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: We gonna rock it out.
• 22:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: We gonna break the guitars on the stage and we gonna jump in the mosh pit.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, we're not stopping.
• 22:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Don't tell me what I can't do.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Tell me what I need to do in order to get it done.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Failure is not.
• 22:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: an option.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so if a person is telling me their dreams in life, I don't care how far away it seems, I'm always going to say to them, rock that, go get it, go do it, don't stop, hit it, hit it hard and transcend overcome.
• 22:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is you got to do, do it.
• 23:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's what rock that is.
• 23:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fire, fire, my drop.
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's a ball.
• 23:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the real part.
• 23:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's the real part.
• 23:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then so, say I got to ask you, what does pay short for?
• 23:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, we just had this.
• 23:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my.
• 23:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: We just had this.
• 23:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to cry.
• 23:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: So just take short for Tation A.
• 23:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was just asked earlier today, or maybe even yesterday, as the season is becoming and changing.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, who did I want people to see me as and know me as?
• 23:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I said, Tation A, because everybody knows me as Tate.
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: But everybody knows me as TAE because I wanted to make it easy.
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: And people couldn't pronounce TAE JNA when I was younger.
• 23:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: I got to Johnny, Taj JNA.
• 23:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: I got all these different things.
• 23:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: And as I grew up, I started to fill those up.
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: My name was, it wasn't worthy to be, to be say it.
• 24:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: So TAE was easy.
• 24:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: TAE was something that people, it was simple.
• 24:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was simple people would accept it, all those things.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's hazelnay, and I tell Sean this earlier today and we're writing over here is that that's who I want to be.
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to settle to make people comfortable anymore.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that it can also be said to anybody, don't settle to try to make people comfortable.
• 24:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Be your authentic self, and when you are your authentic self, then
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: you can truly be inspiring because you're coming from a place of impact, of love, and this art.
• 24:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Awesome.
• 24:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm not saying work, but yeah.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: But that's so important because Tasia Nay is who I've always been.
• 24:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Tay has been the person that people have seen and things of that.
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: But Tasia Nay is is at the core of my heart.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is what my mom and my dad named me.
• 24:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it is my birthright.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I want to live in that.
• 25:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I want people to not only know the name, but I want people to start to remember when I say it's as you name, to remind them to not settle anymore.
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Don't hide who you are to make other people comfortable.
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: You are made exactly who you are supposed to be.
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And people that don't accept that,
• 25:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: 100% so Tasian A for no one.
• 25:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
• 25:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I call it I call it Tasian A when a mad at her For the full government So now Separate Yeah Last but not least Most or first job or most random job that you remember having
• 25:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Shoot, seven mile and losser, the YMCA, I was a counselor.
• 26:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was a summer counselor at the YMCA.
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
• 26:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was 19.
• 26:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That was random, that was random.
• 26:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was skinny too, maybe that's why I remember I was skinny, well, I could run around with the key and not get tired, I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd go up to steps and get windy.
• 26:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, MSU, um, Michigan State University, I worked at, um, Sparty's, I worked at Sparty's, so I worked in the convenience store.
• 26:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and, and they had like a coffee area, so.
• 26:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, she goes Sparty.
• 26:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right y'all, there's been another episode of Black Friday, five, guys.
• 26:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a fight in the office.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was a fight in the office.
• 27:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was a fight in the office.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
• 27:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't do y'all as bad as I used to.
• 27:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got love for Spartans.
• 27:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, y'all just Spartans, that's all.
• 27:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's all.
• 27:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's funny.
• 27:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for taking a free style Friday.
• 27:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: We got some bars.
• 27:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: We got some rapid-firing questions answered too.
• 27:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I appreciate you all.
• 27:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then we wanted to go back into the story.
• 27:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then being able to talk a little bit more about what it's like to be able to work together.
• 27:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So obviously you all got a chance to meet through the BlackTex nowadays connection and then being able to work together in that regard.
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then obviously from the relationship, get married, things of those nature.
• 27:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just what it looked to understand, what is that journey
• 27:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: In terms, and obviously, you both have had your own businesses and entities, but obviously, been able to have opportunities to partner together over the years.
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what has that been like in terms of being able to work with one another and kind of like learn each other's work habits, ethics, all those things?
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can I?
• 28:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can I?
• 28:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Can I start?
• 28:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was given some great advice by
• 28:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Rachel Allen, we were doing a photo shoot and, you know, I am older than my wife, right?
• 28:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, um, and just being honest, right, I'm 15 years older.
• 28:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so, she said to me, she said, Sean, don't discount, um, the first that she has.
• 28:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: She said, you've lived a lot of some life.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: don't discount the first, and that started me on this journey of unlearning, right?
• 28:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: What I wanted to be entering into this marriage was to be willing to learn new things and to become somebody I hadn't been before.
• 28:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: And honestly, as a 50-year-old man, being I'll be 51 this year, as tough.
• 28:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: It is tough to do when you've lived your life and you've experienced some success, and you've experienced success being the person who you are.
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But now entering into this stage of life in a new marriage, first child ever, right, having grace for me.
• 29:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've had to
• 29:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: this new Sean, whoever that was going to be, right?
• 29:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so that has been, that has been a journey, that has been dope.
• 29:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's been really dope, but it's also been really hard, right?
• 29:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I wouldn't change it for nothing.
• 29:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that that's part of the reason that I think we are able to enter into what we're getting ready to enter into now, having had a child and get ready to have this
• 29:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we are now entering to the space where we need to be, right, and I think we're both growing and learning, but for me, and I'm just going to speak from my perspective, it has been, it has been an amazing journey, right, it has been an amazing journey, and and it has been a hard journey.
• 30:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: And it has been an amazing journey, right?
• 30:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I liken it to, and I'm gonna say it like this, and then I'm gonna give it over to my wife.
• 30:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: People tend to run away from the process, they tend to run away from pain.
• 30:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like we grow up in a society where people don't like to deal with things that are difficult.
• 30:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: But process is necessary in order to become.
• 30:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: We really don't want them, I don't want them to teet anymore, right?
• 30:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Teeting is a part of the process in order for them to cut teeth, right?
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we, we help them along that process.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We may be comfort some of the pain, but we let them go through the process so that they can
• 31:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: so that they can have the things necessary for life.
• 31:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 31:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think that process is necessary.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I think once we go through some of the difficult things, we become better.
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 31:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that has what has been dope.
• 31:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for us, we're coming into this next phase.
• 31:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's prepared us to be able to enter.
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 31:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: The lead media house phase of life, right in business for us.
• 31:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, he says so much and I think about three years ago coming into photography and business and the growth and I remember feeling so I had to be so independent, I had to be so strong, I had to be the mover and shaker, um, I came into this marriage, um, already with child.
• 31:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: and making things happen, but it was this ability to come into a marriage and be willing to take off the cape and be able to surrender.
• 32:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I know sometimes we fight against the word of submission, but the reality that the person that I was learning to submit to was also submitting to God.
• 32:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that was so important because it wasn't this, oh, I need to just give and give myself to you.
• 32:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm gonna be in your background on being a shadow.
• 32:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, no, we're gonna go on this journey together.
• 32:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: And as much as life, because life, and just like China says, sometimes it's hard.
• 32:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: It tries to pull you apart.
• 32:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: and the ability to be able to say, I'm sorry, to apologize to recognize and then have a awareness and accountability of self.
• 32:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think has allowed us to say, okay, now we're ready to move in business because if you are a leader,
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: You have to know those and how those skills says.
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if you are part of nurse, you gotta have that skill set as well too.
• 33:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because how can I expect to deal with someone if I can't communicate?
• 33:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: If I can't trust, if I can't honor, if I can't have those hard conversations with, how do we co-lead something that can impact the world?
• 33:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: If we can't be able to go through the hard parts and the struggles,
• 33:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: the glitz and glamour and social media sometimes we only post the good things but there is things that happen behind the scenes that has to be chiseled and worked on and healed and I appreciate our growth
• 33:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: these last three years, especially with our daughter.
• 34:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: We named our daughter Grace because she was not supposed to be here.
• 34:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: They told us we would not be able to have children unless we went through certain things.
• 34:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And within five weeks we found out we were pregnant, and we had not done anything.
• 34:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: We did anything but just trust and release.
• 34:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: that from there just let us know that there is favor on our marriage.
• 34:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: There is favor on the things that we do and we have the ability not just to help others but we have the ability to break cycles.
• 34:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: We have the ability to have enough faith and hope and investment that is
• 34:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: has as really what caught us to be able to do business together is because we know it was bigger than us.
• 34:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then us being able to come together as a family and a business, what are some of the things that you all have been able to teach each other and it could be technically it could be soft skills where the case may be because I'm really curious as to what your
• 35:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: picking up a camera and taking the seriously in 2020 and then vice versa like it's something she's been able to take from Sean and the work that he's been putting in over the years.
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 35:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
• 35:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: So from Sean.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure, a skill set is his attention that detail process professionalism is unmatched.
• 35:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: He is the way he sees things and he sees photography.
• 35:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't just photography.
• 35:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was technical.
• 35:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was logistics.
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that to me was something I was able to pull because I picked up the camera and I had eye.
• 35:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had an eye and I was able to capture things, but I didn't really understand the tool that I had and what it could do.
• 36:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think with being married, I had the opportunity first hand to kind of learn from him and lean on him for those opportunities to learn.
• 36:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think for myself a little bit was business.
• 36:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: I came from
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: a couple of different things from corporate from nonprofits and leadership, and I was able to kind of dive in into business and kind of understand that more.
• 36:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, it was you.
• 36:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely.
• 36:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: If what she made that phone call to you, because she wanted to know how to quote, yeah, quote unquote makes the quote.
• 36:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: to go back to the unlearning, right?
• 36:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like I've been an industry for a long time, right?
• 36:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And for a long time and a lot of times, I've been the only black, right?
• 36:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: And sitting in certain arenas and certain circles in a photography world, right?
• 37:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've been the black guy that has had to represent black people, in a lot of circles.
• 37:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I had this idea that,
• 37:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right, um, I know what I'm talking about.
• 37:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know what I'm doing.
• 37:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've had to work hard.
• 37:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: I know what it is, but what I've understood is that like when I stepped back and I look at taste work, she's a better eye than me and some scenarios, and I'm like this.
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, I've had to submit to that, right?
• 37:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Um, I've had to submit to the way she captures and her, her mindset behind it and say, you know what, you're better, you're better than me at this, at this thing.
• 37:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm a let it go.
• 37:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing is is that that business thing, I've, I've listened to her talk to, um, to clients and customers and her mind around how she communicates and how she outlines things
• 38:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I have relented, I have relented and given that up and say, you know what, no, I can't, you can't let Eagle get in the way, right?
• 38:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Eagle is not good for the whole, right?
• 38:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so we have to die to ourselves so that so that what is best comes forward, right?
• 38:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in that sense, my wife is, wife is brilliant.
• 38:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: My wife is brilliant in that sense.
• 38:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I have step back and I've learned a great deal.
• 38:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: From her and so I think it's that it is I think it's that ability for us to be honest with ourselves
• 38:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: right that given that take and don't get me wrong it's not like it's not difficult right that times that where I'd be like no right and then know that I'm wrong in the moment and had to come back later and say you know what um i was wrong i apologize right let's let's switch this direction and she's done the same thing right and i think um i think
• 39:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think to be a little authentic, I think publicly, I think we are even more authentic than maybe most, right?
• 39:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think we're not afraid to talk about our mistakes, our frillities, the things that make us human because it's just real.
• 39:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was just saying I had to add to that.
• 39:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Some of us had asked us that before, you know, why do we choose to be so open or vulnerable publicly?
• 39:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think we chose to do it.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think that we decided or we have moved in and like this is what it is.
• 39:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we need, we need grace too.
• 39:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like we are because a lot of times people see when a light and they don't know what should been through.
• 39:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, no, we
• 39:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Every step we have made, especially in our marriage, has not been easy.
• 39:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: It has been work to stay together, has been work to raise our daughter, has been work to raise our spine, has been work.
• 40:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we have public about it, because we don't want anyone to think that this has been just given to us.
• 40:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: To store it, we have to store well.
• 40:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the only way to inspire that I think we
• 40:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then people feel like they've got to only want us because you know that stuff that that looking perfect That that looking perfect stuff and all that stuff fails It just falls at a point right and and so I would rather than not I would just rather not because it's
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Too hard, right?
• 40:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now you know, I don't want that personal body.
• 40:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to do it.
• 40:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to get life right, right?
• 40:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I want to get it right.
• 40:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I want to be, and I want to say it real, right?
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm trying.
• 40:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: And every time I try, I fail more than I succeed, right?
• 40:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's like, what?
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: What?
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the frustration of failure is like, God, leave you.
• 41:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do I keep doing this?
• 41:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do I keep doing this?
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do we keep doing this?
• 41:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And it goes back until what you said earlier with rock that and it's so funny because Everybody catches on and say rock that rock that and everybody has it.
• 41:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: I have not said it as often Right, um now because I don't believe in it, but because um it is different.
• 41:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are together because then we have to identify What those things that we are saying rock that too?
• 41:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: and be able to come at it as partners and I think we are learning a love language between each other that is undeniable.
• 41:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's good, but I'm just scared.
• 41:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to ask you all because I noted you're both very passionate about and that's what this next frontier of business for you all are doing.
• 41:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: In terms of being able to enable and support
• 42:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: creatives and we talk prior to rolling about like the whole starving artist theory and how people are out here don't necessarily know how to put business around their art or creativity.
• 42:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I want to know if we can get a little bit of game to create us and being able to outline what are some of the foundations of things that they should be considering.
• 42:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: if they are going to become the next daily or the next Sean Lee in terms of photography or whatever the medium of creativity is and just if you could be able to provide some wisdom for them on how they should be approaching their creativity and then you know price and since you know you had price and conversations over the years which kicked this whole thing off but uh yeah just want to know if you could share some light on that oh sure
• 42:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are a few things that I tell people generally that they should be doing.
• 42:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Creatives know their creativity, they know their talent, they do it, they do it well.
• 42:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I would say developing other skill sets alongside of that.
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Creating the thing and then pricing for it, selling it is their two separate skill sets.
• 43:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to develop that other person.
• 43:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: right and and so that's what I tell people to start working on um you have to start to develop um that other person right and so um that means becoming proficient in um business finances all of those things priceless also understanding your market who are you selling to who's willing to buy it as as a member of the professional photographers of America um they have this phrase
• 43:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: right and so there was a document came out a few years ago that says that your target client right should not make less than $60,000 a year.
• 43:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: Why?
• 43:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because those that make less than $60,000 a year don't value a printed wall art.
• 44:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Right?
• 44:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so you have to understand who your market is, who your client is, who you're creating for, so that you can sell to them in that form.
• 44:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's becoming more than just a creative.
• 44:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I had to say back in the day where people would call me, well, shall I you just a photographer?
• 44:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm not just a photographer.
• 44:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm so much more than that.
• 44:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm going to challenge creatives to become more than that, to develop that business, to go and actually get that business name, that LLC, whatever, that S-Corp, that DBA, whatever it is, it needs to be got to open up that bank account, because some entities can only write checks to legal entities.
• 44:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: the creative business, right, making all of the money means that you have to be proficient as a business person and a creative.
• 45:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I would just piggyback off that and break it down a little bit further is first and foremost is one to move and operate as a founder and CEO because that is who you are.
• 45:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: You are not just the creative, you are a person running a business.
• 45:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you are that CEO.
• 45:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: And for you to be that CEO, you have to One second, I mean, secondly, go to education.
• 45:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: You have to go and learn the business.
• 45:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: There are so many resources out here, especially now Especially not just in Detroit or Wayne County, but in Oakland County, so many different places Go to these programs and resources
• 45:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: a lot of them are free.
• 45:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: A lot of them are free.
• 45:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to take the work.
• 45:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if you start moving and educating yourself as a founder and a CEO, then you start to know how to scale, how to price, how to do your taxes, how to also become a supplier.
• 46:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: and service provider for counties, a lot of organizations they look at your taxes at your Lara, and if those things are not up to date, they are not going to take you serious.
• 46:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you have to take yourself serious as that founder and CEO, but just like in corporate companies, they have you go through trainings for professional development.
• 46:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: be a part of educational opportunities, not just for business, but also for your skills that in your craft.
• 46:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Gold to conferences, not just to network, but to also retain the information and to build on it.
• 46:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: There is so much to continue to learn and grow never stop learning, never stop learning.
• 46:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then the third I would say is community.
• 46:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the reason why I say community is there are so many amazing communities, but the opportunity to collaborate with people, to build teams, you do not have to run as a one man or one woman army.
• 47:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so many times we do that because we think that we have to do these things solo.
• 47:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: No, a lot of the opportunities that will come to you're going to need a team for.
• 47:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: not just a team of creatives, you want to need a business team.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: You want to need people that's going to talk about you and your rooms before you even get there.
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: So build your community.
• 47:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I will say those three things is one piggyback off shot.
• 47:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a build that person that person is a founder and CEO.
• 47:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Believe that that's you.
• 47:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: believe that's true.
• 47:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: The second is education, never stop profession, development, and growing and learning, and a third is community, um, and being able to really build a community of people that not only help you.
• 47:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's, I don't know what I do Black Sex Saturdays.
• 47:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is not just me half the time.
• 47:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I am bringing all other creators to hopefully execute,
• 47:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that TEDx, TEDx, Pani, TEDx, Detroit, we are bringing on other creators to help us execute the goal.
• 48:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: So if you move as one, you're not going to accomplish the goal.
• 48:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: You're not going to accomplish the goal.
• 48:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think I actually want to add one, a fourth one.
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know I said three, but the fourth one is good back.
• 48:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: give back.
• 48:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Once you have start moving like a founder and CEO, once you have, when you got the education and professional development, you create a community, give back to others, give back to others, rather it is people in the same community, rather it's people in different communities,
• 48:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: There is never a, not a need to give back, but a lot of times we have to learn support and so ourselves so we can overflow because then you're giving people truly the tools to help them to help them thrive and not just survive.
• 48:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can talk about this forever.
• 48:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, that was, that was phenomenal.
• 49:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was phenomenal.
• 49:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I'm very excited for people to be able to, as you all are rolling out, Lee Media House and the services that you're going to be able to have in this new entity.
• 49:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: that what you all just went through.
• 49:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited for people to be able to definitely tap in at that.
• 49:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I got to ask y'all now what is next?
• 49:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's next for the Lee family?
• 49:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's next for?
• 49:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Lee media house?
• 49:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you see in the crystal ball for the future?
• 49:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go there and see you.
• 49:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: He's come on, is it airy?
• 49:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Come on, come on, come on.
• 49:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Leave me the house, we're just getting started.
• 49:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that will be next for at least the next year.
• 49:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am excited to be, you say it was next for the Lee family, was next for Lee Media House.
• 49:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am very excited about this new entrance into the unknown.
• 49:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: I've been a photographer for my entire career and it's just been photography, right?
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so now entering into the phase of Chief Creative Officer,
• 50:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the person who are directs right these projects is new for me, right?
• 50:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I am wrapping my head around what that looks like, what our processes are going to be.
• 50:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: How we're going to train our talent, bring culture of our company up so that there's an expectation when we, when we step on scene, step on site, when our people are greeting our clients that there is an expectation of standard.
• 50:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is there all of those things, right.
• 50:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like really excited about it.
• 50:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm also really excited to create This community when we were talking before about what is next or what what do creatives need?
• 50:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that came to my mind is my wife was talking was a lot of people have fear They know what to do They know they know they're supposed to do it, but they don't operate out of fear and a lot of that is lack of a community around them, right?
• 50:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so you surround yourself with people
• 50:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: who are better than you quote unquote right or who are in the place where you want to be.
• 51:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so the goal is to is to with Lee Media how start to create a community of people who excel, right?
• 51:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not so they can make us better, but so that we can make the old community better.
• 51:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: period, right?
• 51:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm excited about that.
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm excited as a dad with a four month old daughter.
• 51:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm here for it, right?
• 51:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am very, very new to it and it scares me.
• 51:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I am here for all of it, right?
• 51:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm very, very excited about that and what that brings and what that means for our family to be able to break out, to be able to go on vacations,
• 51:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: and not only that to be able to create a model that our children will sustain from, we want to build wealth.
• 51:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And so by the time that she's, she gradually ties school, I'm going to her to be wealthy, right?
• 52:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: That is the, that's the stuff that's on the front of my mind.
• 52:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think what I would just add to that is I think for lead family is to be intentional.
• 52:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like I said, Noah is 15, Bryce is 4 months, and as well as becoming the young man, he's a baller.
• 52:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
• 52:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I have watched him become and one of the things that I told shot in the midst of this greatly media house and all the things we're doing for the community and for the people, my first and foremost is also my family.
• 52:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I want to I want to really highlight that for other individuals.
• 52:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know what we all are doing is for us being able to sustain.
• 52:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Noah and Grace, and Sean, I want to be able to spend time.
• 53:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: with my family.
• 53:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's about realizing that it takes a village, not just to raise a child, but a village for everyone in it.
• 53:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that is so important to me right now is that I don't want the years to go by and we put so much into everybody else that we did and put into our family.
• 53:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think this gives us the opportunity to be able to scale, to be able to grow,
• 53:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: time with our family.
• 53:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: Everybody sees grace everywhere.
• 53:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I don't want to miss another basketball game because I got to be somewhere else.
• 53:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: That is important to me.
• 53:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I want to know what it means to could dinner and be able to could dinner from my husband and my family and have enough time to do that.
• 53:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I want to help others be able to make that time for their families and their loved ones
• 53:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think with Lee media house, I think I'm being honest with you.
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's just a beginning.
• 54:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 54:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know it's just a beginning, but I'm not saying I think it's just a beginning.
• 54:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think that...
• 54:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: The way that things are happening and aligning, I think it's not going to be just something that's local.
• 54:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to be something that's just in different states.
• 54:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be international.
• 54:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be global.
• 54:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that...
• 54:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: The what we are envisioning is only a fraction of what's going to come and I'm excited for those that support us, I'm excited for those who are joining us and I thank everybody that is there being a part of it and I just ask you to hold on for the right because I am looking forward to West to come and
• 54:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: to just continue to believe and bigger.
• 54:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think you guys calling us to something.
• 54:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll only do it to something bigger.
• 54:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I thought we're on this the other day.
• 54:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: I said, the levels to what's going to come.
• 55:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is not to give us any glory.
• 55:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is to give God glory.
• 55:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's also, and I know we are going to, we're going to church with this a little bit.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I truly believe that what we're creating is wanting to be just,
• 55:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: a platform to what other people are going to be able to excel and grow from.
• 55:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I just I think it's just beginning.
• 55:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's just been.
• 55:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for the people who are not already a part of the journey, they want to get on this ride with you all.
• 55:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where can they find you website social media, how can they get in touch with you all?
• 55:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or if they want to work with you?
• 55:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, um, lead lead mediahouse.com.
• 55:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
• 55:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, we are also on Instagram.
• 55:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's underscore lead mediahouse.
• 55:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Leave me down.
• 55:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is.
• 55:47
  [UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
• 55:47
  [UNKNOWN]: Okay.
• 55:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's all.
• 55:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
• 55:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 55:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 55:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 55:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 55:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 56:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, this has been amazing, and I definitely appreciate you all.
• 56:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: We love love, so it was great to be able to see you all as a couple of being able to work together, do life together as well, and then the way that you met, it makes it even more magical in the sense of being able to take the things that you're doing individually, and then now build it out together for that generational welfare opportunities to be able to create for the future.
• 56:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not only for your own families, but other creators and other folks as well.
• 56:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: So truly amazing, and I appreciate you all stopping by the podcast today.
• 56:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate you, man.
• 56:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for having us too.
• 56:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
• 56:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Of course you don't.
• 56:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, this is it was black Friday's.
• 56:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, me rock that rock that and we spit it on the bar.
• 56:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,