Latest / Possible NOW / Songs Are Souls: Angela Hunte on Empire State of Mind, Rejection, and Starting Over

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Songs Are Souls: Angela Hunte on Empire State of Mind, Rejection, and Starting Over · Possible NOW

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Possible Now, Stories of Possibilities, the podcast where
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: we dive into the leadership frameworks, bold ideas, and personal
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: stories shaping the future of marketing technology and leadership. There
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: are songs you listen to, and then there are songs
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: that somehow stop belonging to the people who wrote them.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: They become part of a city, a memory, a moment
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: in your life. There's one song that New York plays
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  Speaker 1: when it wins. When it celebrates, when the lights come on.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Sometimes simply to remind itself what New York feels like.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: And the strange thing is, the woman who helped write
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  Speaker 2: that song grew up at the exact address that appears
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: in it. 560 State Street, Brooklyn. But if you think
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: today's conversation is about Empire State of Mind, you would
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: only know a very small part of Angela Hunt. She's
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: written for some of the biggest artists in the world.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: She's been behind the scenes and center stage. She lived
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, in Trinidad. She traveled the world. She's a singer, songwriter, artist, producer,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: and now director. She's been rejected by the very people
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: who later recorded her work. She's had to fight to
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  Speaker 2: belong to cultures she actually belongs to. And a few
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: years ago, life forced her to stop altogether. I got
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: to know Angela only relatively recently. I think we've met
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: around two, three years ago for the first time. But
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: We've already had some conversations, including a few in Cannes
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: this summer, that went well beyond music and business. And
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: that's the Angela I want you to meet today. This
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  Speaker 2: is Possible Now, Stories of Possibilities. I'm Christian Mucher, founder
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: and global president of Possible, and my guest today is
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a very special one. Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, artist, and creative force,
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  Speaker 2: Angela Hunt. Angela, I cannot honestly say that I'm more
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: excited than ever. Welcome to The Possible Platform.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you. I'm super honored to be here, Christian, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: that was probably one of the best intros. You always
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  Speaker 3: brought air to my eye. I was like, oh my God.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Christian, for having me.
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  Speaker 2: Angela, you and me, we know very well that today's
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: time won't be enough to touch base on all these
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: different projects, all the different events in your life to
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: talk about everything. But of course, we try our best.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And it's all about our audience, you know, that I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: want them to know you much better after this conversation.
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  Speaker 2: So let me start somewhere I don't think most interviews
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  Speaker 2: with you start. When nobody needs anything from Angela, no song,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: no performance, no advice, no strength. Who are you?
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  Speaker 3: I'm a mom and a wife at that moment because
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  Speaker 3: you spend so much of your career being needed. And
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  Speaker 3: you realize very quickly later on down the line, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's needed for, it's hard to say, it's not the
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: wrong things, but dare I say sometimes it's not the
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: things you really want to be needed for, but it's
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: your job and you do it. But in those moments
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: when I'm just Angela, when I became a mom, I
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: believe that's when life started for me. So those are
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: the moments I look forward to the most because those
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  Speaker 3: are the things I want to be needed for. Mom,
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  Speaker 3: I need help with my homework. Mom, take me to
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  Speaker 3: flag football. When my husband just says he wants his
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: favorite meal. It may sound very small to some people,
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  Speaker 3: like it means nothing, but when you are a singer-songwriter,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: you spend so much time in chaos, that those are
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  Speaker 3: the moments that, you know, I love the most. Now,
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  Speaker 3: if I look back, I probably wouldn't think I would
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: be saying that now.
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  Speaker 2: So when did this happen? I mean, your kids are
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: how old?
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  Speaker 3: My daughter is 11 and my son is 13.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe before that, or maybe still, is Angela being
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: in the studio, being in front or behind the mic,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: is it a different Angela then? being a mom and
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: a wife?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. The Angela Pre-Children was all the things you
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  Speaker 3: want to be coming up in your career, determined, hungry.
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  Speaker 3: I was passionate. I fought tooth and nail for any
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  Speaker 3: song or any session I was in. I was fearless.
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  Speaker 3: My nickname was Gunner because I would come in the
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  Speaker 3: room and everyone was a target, you know, in a
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  Speaker 3: good way. Meaning like I was going to nail this song.
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  Speaker 3: There's no way. There's nothing getting in my way. That
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  Speaker 3: was my thing. I'm also very competitive and it takes
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: a lot to be a top liner. When I learned
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: what a top, I was like, what's a top line writer?
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  Speaker 3: What is that? And I remember my publisher on the
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  Speaker 3: British side, he goes, oh, well, that's a writer who
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  Speaker 3: does everything. country, pop, rock, jazz, you name it. And
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to be that. I wanted to be genre-less.
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  Speaker 3: And that is a feat that I never thought I
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  Speaker 3: would reach, and I never thought.
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  Speaker 2: It was possible.
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  Speaker 3: But I did.
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  Speaker 2: Is this still the case, that you feel genre-less?
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  Speaker 3: When I wanted to do the music that I wanted
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  Speaker 3: to do, no one really looked like me. I was
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  Speaker 3: 9-11 shipped off to Sweden and London to work in
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  Speaker 3: an area where you just didn't see me at all.
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  Speaker 3: And I was Caribbean. I wasn't just, you know, African-American.
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  Speaker 3: I was Afro-Caribbean-American, which is a totally different thing. So
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  Speaker 3: you really didn't see me in these circles. But my
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  Speaker 3: publisher believed, like, you can really write pop songs. You
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  Speaker 3: write anthemic music. And at the time, I didn't know
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  Speaker 3: what that was. I didn't know what that meant. But
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  Speaker 3: I knew something happened when I left on 9-1-1 and
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  Speaker 3: I got to London. I was like, this is where
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  Speaker 3: I belong. And like when I fast forward today, I'm
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  Speaker 3: still fearless. I still take risks. But I manage my
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: time a lot more differently now. not just because of
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: my kids, because I just don't feel everything in the
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  Speaker 3: world for me revolves around music. I have other things
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  Speaker 3: that I love to do. I would spend 17 hours
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  Speaker 3: in the booth, never drink a drop of water, never
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  Speaker 3: take a bite of food. I wouldn't see daylight. They
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: would have to pry me out of that booth. Whereas now,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I want to cook. I want to come
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  Speaker 3: home to my house. You know, I want to do
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  Speaker 3: things like that that I never thought It would be me. But,
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  Speaker 3: you know, here I am today being that exact person.
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  Speaker 3: Everything is not as important as it was before.
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  Speaker 2: And you see that you can combine all these different
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  Speaker 2: wishes and responsibilities at the same time.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely. Someone did that for me and it was a
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  Speaker 3: young artist. She wasn't even known. She was trying to
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  Speaker 3: find her way. And she looked at me and she goes,
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  Speaker 3: you know, this is like a made up world. you know,
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  Speaker 3: the reality of your life is that you're going to
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  Speaker 3: be a mother, you're someone's sister, you're going to be
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  Speaker 3: a wife, you're a cousin, you're a friend. And I
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  Speaker 3: just looked at her and I was like, that is
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  Speaker 3: a reality.
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  Speaker 2: So I've mentioned in my introduction, empire state of mind.
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  Speaker 2: And I know that you probably answered a thousand questions
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: about that song. But I want to ask you about
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: what happens to a song after you created this. We
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: saw those extraordinary scenes a couple of months ago, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in New York. I've seen you posted a few things
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  Speaker 2: as well. Everybody was celebrating the Knicks and singing that
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  Speaker 2: song together. What does it feel like to watch something
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  Speaker 2: that is so deeply yours? Something that began with your
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  Speaker 2: own story, your own city, even your own address becomes
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  Speaker 2: something millions of people now feel belongs to them too.
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  Speaker 2: Is it a weird feeling? You know, is it a
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: super exciting feeling? I mean, you created this, but now
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  Speaker 2: it has become part of New York itself and part
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  Speaker 2: of so many people's life. How do you feel about that?
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  Speaker 3: I will tell you this, Christian. That is something that
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  Speaker 3: I have not asked a lot. So I'm glad you
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  Speaker 3: asked me that because songs are souls. That's what we say.
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  Speaker 3: I may write a song for you and you may say,
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  Speaker 3: I don't like this song. And I say, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've learned to say, okay, this song will find a
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  Speaker 3: home and it will find an owner. But you also,
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  Speaker 3: just as in business, you love this little baby. You
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  Speaker 3: love this little startup company. This is your life. You
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  Speaker 3: love it with everything in you. And one day, you're
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  Speaker 3: not going to be the owner of that company anymore,
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: you know, if your intention is to grow. And I
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: had to realize and take a step back and go,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: what I am doing is for the world in the
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  Speaker 3: first place, right? It is to invoke emotion whether I
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  Speaker 3: make you sad, angry, happy, it is to invoke emotion
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  Speaker 3: for someone, for them to have a memory when they
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: hear this song. I will tell you, nobody can prepare
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  Speaker 3: you for a record. I've written hundreds of records, but
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  Speaker 3: no one could prepare you for a record that will
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  Speaker 3: invoke that amount of emotion, that cancer patients are listening
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  Speaker 3: to it in the hospital and it's bringing up their
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  Speaker 3: cell count because it's just releasing a certain endorphin in
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  Speaker 3: them that's just happy. You know, people who live thousands
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  Speaker 3: and thousands of miles away from New York and they
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  Speaker 3: put this record on and they just I've heard every
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  Speaker 3: story you could possibly think of. You know, I remember
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  Speaker 3: sitting with Donna Karan one night and her just crying.
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  Speaker 3: I wish I had this song when I came to
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  Speaker 3: New York and became a designer for her. It reminded
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  Speaker 3: her who she was, that car, that little, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think it was a Volkswagen she said she was
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  Speaker 3: in when she got here. And for me, it is
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  Speaker 3: very hard to part with songs because it is a
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  Speaker 3: piece of your soul. No one ever asks you, how
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  Speaker 3: do you feel? Because in that moment, you're leaving a
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  Speaker 3: hotel in London and you're walking down the street and
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  Speaker 3: you are not financially where you want to be. You
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  Speaker 3: want to go home. You are in a foreign land,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: but you're pushing on every day. student at the studio
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  Speaker 3: and I just wanted to go home and I was like,
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  Speaker 3: I want to write something about New York because everything
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  Speaker 3: that I took for granted, I wish I had right now.
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  Speaker 3: The subway, the pushing, the rudeness, whatever it may be,
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  Speaker 3: being able to go and buy any type of food
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  Speaker 3: from all over the world. And it's always the best,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: you know, all those little things. And you decide to
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: do this thing and you don't know if it's going
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  Speaker 3: to happen or not. And somehow it happens and it
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  Speaker 3: happens very quickly and you get pushed to the side.
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  Speaker 3: And You know, it gets put in this place that
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  Speaker 3: you never think, okay, where's it going to go? Where's
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: it going to go? I don't know. I don't know.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know. And I remember like saying to Jay-Z,
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  Speaker 3: it was just over text because we hadn't seen each
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  Speaker 3: other while this whole record was being. So do you
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  Speaker 3: understand what this is? This is a letter to New
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  Speaker 3: York City.
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  Speaker 2: This is a love letter. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 3: He was, yes, I do. And then it was a
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  Speaker 3: bunch of no's. I'm going to be honest with you. No, no, no.
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  Speaker 2: From whom?
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  Speaker 3: From me. No, I don't think he gets it. I
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: don't know if he gets it. And my publisher was like,
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  Speaker 3: he gets it. He gets it and he's going to
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  Speaker 3: do this record no matter what you say. And I
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: was like, even though we come from the same part
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  Speaker 3: of town, we actually lived in the same building, it
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  Speaker 3: didn't matter to me if no one had it because
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  Speaker 3: this song, this particular song was such a piece of
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  Speaker 3: my soul. But then you got to let it fly.
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  Speaker 3: And you got to give it a chance to be heard,
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  Speaker 3: to breathe life into it, for people to feel what
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: you think you feel. Because you're never sure. I can
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  Speaker 3: love something to death and someone will go, I hate
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  Speaker 3: that song.
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  Speaker 2: So you don't know.
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  Speaker 3: You have a feeling that this is different. And in
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  Speaker 3: the beginning, I have to be honest because I feel
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: like I'm always honest with you. It hurts. It hurts.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: You're like, oh, I maybe don't like how Alicia changed
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: this one word.
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  Speaker 2: Did it hurt because of this very special song or
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: did it hurt because to give something to others, in
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: this case, other artists, you know, who then further develop
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: things and make it their own? You are the invisible
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: person in this moment, right, for the audience out there.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Does it hurt because of this or was it because
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: of this very special song?
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  Speaker 3: Both. It hurts because you kind of want to say something,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: but you kind of have to let it breathe. You
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: have to let people get their room, see what it's
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: going to be. And sometimes I don't care. Sometimes I'm like, oh,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: you know, if you want to change something, you can
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: change it. That's fine. It's no big deal. Sometimes you're
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: very passionate about something and you're like, I don't even
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  Speaker 3: know how I feel about that. The original song was
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the exact same as you hear it. except they were
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: verses that were speaking song. Alicia was supposed to sing
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: that version. She ended up doing her own version. That
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: hurt because I know that everyone wanted the original version.
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  Speaker 3: So things like that really dig you at your core,
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: but I have an incredible publisher and peers who've been
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: through the same thing. And they said, listen, this is
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: a piece of your soul that is chipped away. And
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: that is okay. This is why you do what you do.
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  Speaker 3: But look at the joy you have brought to the world.
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  Speaker 3: When the song first came out, Christian, I didn't get
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: to enjoy it. You don't know what's happening when you
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: start a company and it takes off. You're so focused
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: on the company And making sure the parts are working.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: So maybe you don't really realize that you sold five million.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: You know? So I didn't realize that it was on
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: every chart in the world. You know, my posture was like,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: the Yankees are going to win. And this is going
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: to happen. And you understand that New York now has
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: a song. And being the songwriter, Hall of Fame, and
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: Billy Joel going, it's on you, kid. It's like, wow.
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  Speaker 3: This is really happening.
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  Speaker 4: So.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Honestly, the first time I did not get to enjoy
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: how everybody's in the club and they get to sing
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: it and scream it out. And people were, I remember
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: people being in the streets, just playing it in their cars.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: It was mayhem. I just moved on to the next
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: project and didn't think about it because I was so
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: focused on and scared if I get complacent and I,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: and I'm not hungry anymore. And if I get comfortable with,
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: You know, I might not get another one of these.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: And I kind of believed in my head because media
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: was like, oh, when are you going to give us
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: another one?
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  Speaker 2: And as you said, you compare it with businesses. I mean,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: you create your own business. You potentially sell it or develop.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: It becomes bigger. And yes, at some stage, you have
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: to let it go. There are so much other influences,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: not just when you started this on your own. But
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: that's also a good thing. It opens other doors, right?
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Sometimes it's hard to understand. And it may take a while.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: And same with your project and your song. I get it.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And the fun part, well, not really fun part, of course,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: but the interesting part is that it was rejected at
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: the very beginning, right? And then, of course, you send
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: it back again.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: Of course, it was rejected. Like, no, I hate this.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: Very strong words. You know, in music, we say, you know,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: I like it or I don't. That's okay. It'll find
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: its home. Originally, it was originally written, we were in
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: a session for Sting, and that's what we were writing for.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: So to me, you know, Sting is like my ultimate
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: songwriting hero. So for me, in my mind, I saw Sting.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: I saw no one else but that. You know, Englishman
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: in New York, I saw it. I was like, this
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: is it. But then when we heard the song back,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: I was like, wow, he really gets it. Same thing
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: in business.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I don't want this.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I don't like it.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: This is, nope, nope.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: And then eight months later, They're like, this is the
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: best thing I've ever seen. And that's kind of like
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: exactly what happened. He was just like, what is this?
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: This is, you know, I was like, well, you heard
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: this eight months ago. But, you know, a song goes
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: where it wants to go. And it took off and
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: had a life of its own. And it continued to
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: do that, even with the Nixes, when this had just
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: hit a billion streams the other day, before the Nix, right?
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: So we're all watching the next thing we know, you know,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the next is going to possibly do this. And it happens.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: But now my children are grown. They understand what this is.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: They didn't understand what was happening the first time. Where
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: in life do you get to do a do-over? You
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: don't get that, Christian.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about this for a sec, because let me
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: make you choose, because we talked about this being rejected, right?
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: And It's hurtful, of course. You know, everybody wants to
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: hear how great your work is and da-da-da-da. So if
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you can keep the Grammy or if you would keep
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: the rejection that came before it, which one taught you more?
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Or is it a combination of both which creates the
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: future opportunities? Is it more the shiny world, you know,
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: with all the successes and awards? Or is it more
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: the other side when you believe you did something outstanding
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: and then somebody tells you, This is not good. I
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: don't believe into this.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: The rejection. Because the rejection teaches you so much. If
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: you don't learn from rejection, then I don't know what
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: you're doing. Because rejection is not failure. It is another success.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Because it is going to do nothing except make you stronger,
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: maybe bring you back down a little bit, maybe push
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: you in a way you never thought you was going
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: to be pushed. And at that time, I was at
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: a very height of my career. But I have to say,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: even though the rejection was more, I knew in my gut,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: this was for him. This is for you. How do
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: you not see this? You don't have a song like this.
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: You know, this can change so much. And so the
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: rejection definitely put me in a place where I was like,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: I just wanted to work so hard and I wanted
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: to accept that no failure is a failure. You're just
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: one step closer to to success. That's what it taught me.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: And spend even more efforts, you know, to, in this case, sometimes,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you know, convince those people or to move on and
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: convince others.
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And also to help you to accept the rejection
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: in the future even better. You know, you could only grow.
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: But then the Grammy... was a lesson too because although
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: it's something that you know in music that's our that's
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: our thing it's our pinnacle to win a Grammy and
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: that's all I've ever wanted to do I was a
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: little girl in Trinidad and Tobago writing speeches and saying
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: them in front of my family like this is my
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: Grammy and I want to thank my grandmother and you
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: know I always had these speeches and here I was
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: it was in my hand and I panicked because I
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: realized I spent 22 years trying to get this statue
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: that statue over there. And I realized I had to
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: do it all over again. When you let go of
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: a company, you have to do this all over again,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: unless it's the end of your, you know, your career.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: But if it's not, it's almost like rolling back again,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: all over again. So that was a huge lesson. I
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: thought it would be just completely joyous moment. I think
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: anyone is foolish if they think it is to sense,
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: but it also is very It's a huge reminder of like,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: it doesn't stop. And what I also learned was I
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: refuse to have anyone tell me that, when are you
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: going to do this again? I don't have to do
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: it again. I already did it. You did it. You know,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: you did it. You don't have to do it again.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: I don't have to write another Empire State of Mind.
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: I will go on to do something else, possibly even
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: greater than that.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: You've mentioned you grew up in different cultures. You was
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: born in Brooklyn, raised in Trinidad. You traveled the world.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: How does it feel to live and be connected to
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: different cultures? Do you see it as a massive advantage?
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Is it challenging at some times because people may say, hey,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: you don't belong to our culture?
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: When you come from a culture, no matter what it is,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I think you're blessed. You're lucky to have this culture.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: thing that belongs to you in your heart. It runs
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: in your blood. But I also had to hide who
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: I was and where I was from for a long time.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: And then I got my publishing deal and I traveled
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: the world writing. And one of the first like really
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: hard situations I had was in London and I was
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: working with a group called Magnetic Man. They were like
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: the founders of dubstep. Dubstep was huge. It was massive
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: at the time, but it was mostly instrumentals. But it
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: was becoming a world stage type of genre. And they
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: got signed to a major label. I believe it was Capitol.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: So when you get signed to a major label, it's
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: like a company. You're here. You're with Target now.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Things are different.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: You need songs. And we're going to bring a songwriter in.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: And I remember one of the guys just like, what
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: are we doing? A songwriter? You got to be kidding me.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Is she going to come in here and write? This
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: is not what we do. This is not what we
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: signed up for. And I just remember sitting there and
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: I was just taking this beating. And he said, doesn't
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: understand us, doesn't understand where we come from. We're from
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: this part of London that she doesn't know. She's an
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: American girl. She doesn't know anything about this. And I said,
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: why don't you just give me a chance? I do understand.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: And I promised. if you give me a chance, you
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: will be happy. And I was scared. I don't know
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: if it was going to work or not, Christian, but
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: it did. It ended up being their biggest song to date. Huge,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: huge record. So culture, you know, although I have had
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: to fight different cultures, I've also been embraced so much.
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: Because when I go into something that is not something
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: I know nothing about, I respect it, number one. I
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: try to learn as much as possible, and I try
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: to bring their culture to the forefront. So culture right
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: now is in everything that we do. You'd be foolish
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: to think that it's not.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: And that means you would also agree, or maybe disagree,
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: that you can live in different homes. It's not just
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: one home, right? Currently you live in Miami, or you
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: travel between New York and Miami, but tomorrow you can
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: go back to Trinidad and you would feel home immediately, correct?
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, which I do all the time. I'm getting ready
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: to go to Trinidad in a couple of weeks, and
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: I'm home. My second home is in Jamaica, and my
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: other home that I love dearly is in St. Lucia,
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: which is my muse, and I want to recharge. Culture
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: just brings that out of you. It's a great thing.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Your career has been about movement, right? Singing, writing, performing, traveling, creating,
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: and then? your body basically said, stop, hold on. So
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: there was a very serious event for you. When you
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: were recovering from heart surgery and even had to learn
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: to walk and to talk again, what suddenly stopped mattering?
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: And what suddenly mattered much more for you then? I
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: assume it was family, but was there something else? And
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: what else where you felt, I don't care about this anymore.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: It's not important anymore.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: What people thought about me. You could like me. You
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: could not like me. You could think I look weird.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: My hair was weird. I dress weird. Those things didn't
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: matter to me. But there's a part of you that
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: does really think and cares what people think. When you
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: don't know if you're going to make it out of
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a surgery where they've stopped your heart for two hours.
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: you take on a completely different projection in life. I
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: used to just get angry about the littlest things. So
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: many things. I would just get so angry for it,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: like just boiling over. Everything, literally everything changed. When I
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: woke up after that surgery and I thought about what
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: could have been, I know someone who had the same
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: surgery and who had completely different outcome. They're not healthy.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: They're unable to walk, talk, all of the things that
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: could happen. And I came out and was able to
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: live a completely normal life. So every day for me,
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: I start with gratitude. Every single day I wake up
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: out the bed, I'm just grateful.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Me and my husband, we.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: Do not bicker. My children, I'm like, I talked to
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: them differently. You know, I'm like, does it matter? No.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: But it also fueled me. I was laying in the
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: hospital and I was just having all these visions of
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: things that I didn't do. And so I went on
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: this mission. I was like, okay, I'm getting out of
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: here and I'm going to do every single thing that
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I want to do in life, no matter what it is.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: I wanted to start riding a bike again, and I
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: started getting on my bike. I was riding my bike,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: planting a foundation and buying a home. Just all the
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: things that I want to do. But I will tell
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: you that anybody who's had a life-changing moment, it doesn't
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: take a health scare to be that moment.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: I was very healthy.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: There was nothing no one knew. Walking time bomb, it
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: was something I had as a child that was completely undetected. And,
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: you know, I learned to be still and I learned
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: to take time for myself, which is something I never did.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: I have a saying, all money isn't good money. You
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: don't have to be the top of the food chain.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: It is okay. And people who know me, they can
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: see the change.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: Getting rid of those moments, that many moments, as you
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: said at the very beginning, where you're just wasting your lifetime, right?
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: Which are not worth to spend time. second on it
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: and there's so many there.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Is so many you know my publisher he's like so
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: i'm like no i don't have to have the biggest
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: song share those things don't matter what matters to me
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: now is what i do with my voice what i
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: say what comes out of my body what matters whose
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: life am i changing whose whose life am i touching
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: you know when i speak when i mentor when i
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: when i when I have public engagements and I'm speaking
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: and I'm doing panels, I want to be one person
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: in that room. It may not be everyone, but if
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: I can reach one person and hopefully they walk out
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: of that room feeling like not just, you know, I
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: feel like sometimes you look at these engagements that you
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: go to and you should be inspired, not intimidated. And
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: sometimes you have this feeling, you're looking at them like,
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I don't think I could ever do that. I don't
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: ever want to do that to someone. I want them
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: to be inspired. So if someone can leave my presence inspired,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: feeling like, you know, I didn't think I was going
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: to be able to do it now. i want to
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: do it and i don't care if i fail if
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: i succeed but i'm gonna try.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: When we met first it was at the possible event
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: you came and since then you come every year which
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: i highly appreciate you're part of it it's like this
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: already And possible, obviously, it's about marketing, technology, culture. So
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: let's talk about this for a second. You spent your
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: career making people feel something in three or four minutes,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: the duration of a song, right? Often before they even
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: understand why they're feeling it or what they're feeling. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: marketers spent billions trying to do the same thing. What
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: do great songwriters like yourself understand about human beings that
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: brands still don't? You connect with so many people out there,
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: with millions, in what you're doing, but in a so
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: different way than marketeers. Do you see a relationship between,
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: you know, archers and marketeers in some way?
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: Yes, and I knew that even before I came to Possible.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: And then Possible came, and I went, and the conversations
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: that I have had with some of the most business-minded
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: people And I see in their eyes when they start
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: talking to me, I never thought about that or I
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: never looked at it like that because we are always
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: in the human element. But we also have to be
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: very branding in what we do.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I have to.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: Give the people what they don't know they want yet
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: because that's the key for everybody. Success is the people
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: who lead, right? They take the risks. They do something
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: that no one else is going to do. And the
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: people who become mega, mega, mega, mega successful and they
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: make millions and millions and millions of dollars is because
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: they did something that was incredible. But the millions came
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: from the followers, the people who jumped on and who
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: bought it. But that core moment of that idea was
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: a human element. I think people would want this. And
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: they don't know they want this yet. But this is
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: something I think we're missing and they want. That's how
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: we write songs. How many times have you gone to
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: a show and you watched an artist who was fearless
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: enough to say, you know what? I'm not going to
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: sing the song that everybody knows. I'm going to sing
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: this song that no one knows. And then you sit
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: there and you go, I don't know. He sang the
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: song and it was the most incredible thing I've ever heard.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: And I love this band now. That's what we do.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: We always have the human element in everything that we do.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: We have to. We have to. And we have to
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: be fearless when we do it. We cannot be followers.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: I can't write another song that's already happening right now.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: We already have that. What is not there and what
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: is needed in this moment?
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: And that's the obvious way for brands as well to
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: reconnect with the culture via the people. You created some
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: of the most valuable songs of your generations. And you
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: also talked about and mentioned how difficult the economics of
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: songwriting have become in the streaming area. My thinking is,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: can you be culturally successful today and still be economically undervalued?
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: Do you see a solution for that, for the artists
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: to be valued in a way as it was maybe
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: decades ago? I can hope that's number one. Is there
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: a solution?
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's many solutions.
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: But the way we are being killed by streaming, because
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: there's so many things people don't really know about streaming
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: and how it really works and how we are paid out.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: You're in a business where you do something today and
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: you walk out of that studio and you probably won't
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: see a dime from that maybe two years, three years
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: down the line. Music is always sometimes late to the
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: table with everything. Technology. And the ones who suffer the
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: most in our business are the creators, right? And artists
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: can go and take the song. They can go get
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: a branding deal. They can go tour. Right now, branding
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: is huge. It's a huge way a lot of us
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: make our money. Never thought that would be the case,
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: but it is the case now. No one's buying albums.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: No one's doing that. You just turn on YouTube or whatever.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: And we literally get paid pennies to the dollar. So
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: you have to be creative. When I saw this coming in,
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, here we go with another turn.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: And it comes every six, seven years. There's something that's
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: going to challenge you. That's going to make you have
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: to pivot. But in any business you have to pivot.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: There's always going to be something. It's the ones who
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: don't know how to pivot that suffer. And it's sometimes
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: really sad to watch because We're a talent-driven business, so
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: you see people who are very talented, but they can't
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: pivot with the changing of the times. And I've always
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: been one to say, I love what I do, and
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: you can get caught in the, you know, we just
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: write songs, or you can understand that this is the
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: business of music. And if you don't know the business
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: side of this, how to pivot when change comes in,
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: How to actually, knowing your craft is knowing the business
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: side of this. The money's structure in this is so profound.
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: In my early part of my career, I realized the
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: way my contract was shaped, the more money I made, actually,
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: the less money. You know what I mean? It was
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: all these things you have to learn and you pivot
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: and you pivot. Streaming right now in AI, as you know,
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: which I know you're going to get to at some point.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, yes. Listen, you know what? Dr.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Dre just came out, I think it was yesterday, saying
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: he's using AI in his music. You can fight it
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: or you can find ways to make it beneficial for you.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give you a clean cut example. My son. Mommy,
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: are you really using chat GPT? Yeah, I am. Oh,
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: I hate it. I have a child who doesn't like it, right?
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Because some of them now think when they see it,
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: they go, Oh, that's ChatGPT. It's so obvious, right? And
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: I said, I get what you're saying. But mommy is
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: very creative. And my vernacular is very different to a
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: lot of other people. So it's what you say and
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: how you describe.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: I will go through.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: ChatGPT 50 times before I get exactly what I want.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: And sometimes my son can't draw. He's the worst artist.
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: So a lot of his projects, I say, listen, let's
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: put it in. Let's tell it what you want. Let's
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: make your vision come to light.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: Because it supports your creativity or what?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: Because if you can speak to it from your point
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: of view, then I believe it is your point of view.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: There's some things I think you're getting a cleaner version
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: of your point of view. I've done so many things
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: with it that I feel like it was me because
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: I know how to talk to it in a way
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: where it is me. It is Angela. You know, yeah,
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: you could take a shortcut and you can go, I
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: need a picture. But you have something that you have
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: to draw, which is your vision. Let's make it your
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: vision and then use it as a tool to help
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: you do your project in a way that would make
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: it beneficial for you. And I do the same thing
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: in music. I, use a rhyming dictionary, what is the
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: difference really?
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: But AI can also write you a complete song, right?
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: With the melody, the lyrics, the rhythm, everything. But there's
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: a boundary, of course, for you and most, if not
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: all artists, right?
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Yes. I mean, when you have, you know, in the beginning,
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: when the TikTok artists were winning Grammys and stuff, we
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: were like, this is not going to last. And it didn't.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, raw talent will
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: always win. And I have to hold on to that
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: and I have to believe that. Because although at one
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: point I was an anomaly, like a lot of my peers,
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: the way I write songs, the way I approach songs,
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: the way I go in the studio and write it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: No one could really do that.
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: But now today you can go, hey, write me a
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: song like Angela Hunt, put in Empire or Nas and
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: put in all these songs that I've done. And it's really, really,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: really close to what I would do. But I still think...
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: I will top it every time. I will top it
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: every time. Because the only time it could ever come
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: close to me is when I put my data bank
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: in it. So I still feel like once we have
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: our own human data, we'll always have the one. That's
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: just how I think. A lot of people don't think so.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I think so. That's why I don't fight it.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: And of course, emotions comes on top. Your doubts about something.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: and then ending up in a great creative work, which
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: AI maybe cannot, can support for sure, but maybe cannot
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: completely do it on its own. So definitely a topic
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: which deserves more time. I've come up with some questions,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: and I would like to ask you to answer, but
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: in a very focused way. So are you ready to
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: do this?
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: Yes, rock and fire, let's go.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Let's do this. So when you're tackling a big new idea,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: what gives you confidence that it's actually possible? Oh, Christian.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: And that's not in words. It's a systematic thing that
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: I've always had since I was three years old. You know,
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: I just, I try to say like this, I don't
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: believe in necessarily thinking I'm going to make this board while,
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: you know, if I'm going to talk to the moon
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: or I'm going to put it out there in the universe.
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: I believe if you focus on something and the vision
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: is so clear and it is so clear in your mind,
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: it becomes so laser, so hyper clear that you actually
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: start doing it and you don't even realize that it's happening.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: That's how clear it is. So that's my confidence. My
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: confidence is I have to see something so clear that
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: I'm already at the end of the project. I'm done.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: I've seen every aspect of this project in my vision
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: because it's that clear. So clarity for me is my confidence. Me,
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: I have to have it. I've learned I have to
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: be able to tell the person who's going to help me,
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: because you're never going to do this alone, exactly what
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: I see. And if you don't have that clarity, you'll
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: never really reach the end goal. And that comes from confidence.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: You already maybe somehow covered the next two or three
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: questions because one of those would be, you know, who
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: challenged you to imagine a bigger possibility for yourself. A
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: couple of minutes ago, you mentioned your publisher, right? When
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: you got rejected. Is that a good example?
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely. The biggest challenge in my life is me.
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: I always feel like there's another angel on the side
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: of me going, you know, there is a person going,
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: you know, I don't, I don't know. I don't know.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: This sounds crazy. Like this is something that's actually possible.
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: But then all the things, all the failures, that's what
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: gives me confidence. That's what gives me go, what's the
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: worst thing could happen? Nothing. So you have to do
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: this with everything that you have. That's what gives me
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: the confidence, you know, because I've seen failure turn into success.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: And that's the best thing ever.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: What moment changed your definition of what was possible?
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: I used to think prior to heart surgery that, yeah,
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: I could do things, but no, there was always still
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: doubt and always fear, right? And when you come from
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: something like this, because you're literally coming back to life,
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: I can't explain it, but you just get this feeling
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: that any and everything is possible. Everything you put your
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: hand on will come to fruition. Because it has to.
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: It has to. Because this is the life you want
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: to lead from now on. You want to lead a
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: life that is possible. So for me, that is the
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: thing that made me say every project, anything I dream of,
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: anything I think I want to do, I have to
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: see it through no matter what happens. Because life was
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: meant to do just that.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: What most often stands in the way of possibility?
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: Time, I feel like I never have enough time. And
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: I was blessed with just so much creativity. Like it just,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: it never shuts off. And one of the things, one
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: of the challenges in my life was being just surrounded
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: by no's. No, no. Challenge of the no, Christian. I
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: don't know if that's going to work. You get way
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: more of those in your career of yeses. But I've
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: come up with this mantra and it's something, even at
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: the height of the success that I'm at now, you
• 43:19
  Speaker 3: still get no's. And I just say, okay, I'm just
• 43:23
  Speaker 3: talking to the wrong person.
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: That's all.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: And you just keep going until you get that yes
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: and you're talking to the right, you're like, this is it.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: This is where I belong. This is the home.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: Or just initiating something and others will follow you. You've
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: mentioned several times you're a fearless person. What's a risk?
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: you took that expanded your sense of what was possible.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: Starting my own film and television production company, actually letting
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: the words come out my mouth that I wanted to
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: start my own network. That was something I just, I
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: wouldn't even let pass here because I was like, that
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: is impossible. And because of what happened to me, I
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: was like, I want to be able to do this.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: And I jumped into a place that, although I work
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: a lot in it, it's still very foreign because I'm
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: coming fully on. I am scared. I am scared every day.
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: You know, I started actually my career directing, but I
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: didn't do it because I turned back into music and
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: stayed into music. So it's not something that I'm foreign to,
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: but I am foreign to where it is today and
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: how it works. And you have to be completely fearless
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: in it. It is so much more of a beast
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: than music. I don't know if it's because maybe I've
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: just conquered so much in music. This just seems like
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: another level, but I am jumping into it. I've just
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: jumped off the ledge because I'm looking at films from
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: a music standpoint of view, which is completely different than
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: a lot of other people. I want people to come
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: to my films because they're like, this score is is
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: going to drive this film or show in a way
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: that we've never seen. And when you're writing things, you know,
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: scripts and ideas and all those things that come with
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: television film, you're getting people that are looking at you like, well,
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: that's not the way that it works. You know, this
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: is how it works. And, you know, I'm like, the
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: fail is part for me and the part that I
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: have no problem with. I'm like, I do not know.
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: Please tell me. Enlighten me. How should I go about
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: doing this?
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: What do you hope becomes possible for the next generation
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: that isn't today.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: I tell my children, you have to be a leader.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: I don't see enough leadership. I don't see enough people
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: creating things that are just a dream, a vision. I
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: see a lot of kids that are just, I just
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: want to do that because that's already there. I have
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: nieces and nephews that's like, oh, I just want to
• 46:02
  Speaker 3: be a nurse because that's good enough for me. Not
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: that there's anything wrong with that. That's a great career
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: within itself. But you don't want to go a little
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: bit more? Maybe be a doctor?
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: No.
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: So I see a lot of generation of, this is enough.
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: This is okay. And although that is okay too, where
• 46:23
  Speaker 3: are the dreamers? The dreamers are what gave us the princes,
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: the Tina Turners, the Michael Jacksons, you know, the Steve Jobs,
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: all of the above. You know, the Christians, they have
• 46:36
  Speaker 3: to do unique.
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you for saying this because in today's time, everybody
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: tells us, you know, we have more access to everything,
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: you know, than ever before, which is true. And on
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: the other hand, you said we need more leadership or
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: let's say more visionaries, more visions to open everybody's mindset
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: and see all the opportunities out there. Angela, we could
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: go on for hours and days. Thank you so much
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: for your time today. I knew before we sat down
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: that this would be a very special conversation because you
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: are a very special person and human being. And maybe
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: that's also because I've been fortunate enough to get to
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: know not only Angela Hunt, the Grammy-winning songwriter and artist,
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: but also Angela the person. And I wanted to share
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: this with my audience. What I love about your story
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: is that possibility hasn't always arrived looking like success. Sometimes
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: it looked like rejection. Sometimes like starting over and sometimes
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: it took life literally forcing you to stop before you
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: could see what might come next. And that's very, very special.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: And again, thanks for sharing this. I'm grateful for our friendship,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: for your openness today and for everything you're still going
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: to make possible for yourself, for your family and friends
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: and for so many people out there. Thank you for
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: being part of Possible Now. Thank you, Christian.
• 48:02
  Speaker 3: I look forward to Possible coming up again, of course.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: And I love our friendship and our talks. And I
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: hope we continue to have so many, many, many more
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: of them.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. For sure.
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: If you're curious to learn more about Possible, sign up
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: for our newsletter. Or if you want to join us
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: at the Possible show in Miami, visit PossibleEvent.com. Possible Now
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Possible. Our executive producers
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: are Ryan Martz and Yasmin Melendez. Our supervising producer is
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: Meredith Barnes. Special thanks to Colleen Lawrence-Mack from our programming team.
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: Our theme music is composed by Anthony Catacoli. For more
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, or
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.