Latest / The Erica Show / Creative Verse in The Triangle This Weekend

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Creative Verse in The Triangle This Weekend · The Erica Show

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  It's iHeartRadio Erica DeLong here. I'm excited to have my buddy Omar, who
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  I've known for years now, and your partner Elton in studio. Nice to
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  meet you, to meet you. You have something major coming up this weekend.
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  It's creative Verse, that's right. So you got to tell us all
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  about it because I'll be showing up for the social on Friday at Red Hat
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  headquarters. But you have some incredible speakers that if you're looking to grow brand,
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  all kind of stuff business related, just a young adult ready to burst
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  into the world. It really you have some great speakers to learn from,
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  that's right. So this weekend May seventeenth, May eighteenth, May seventeenth,
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  we're going to be at Red Hat. We're having a big city wide network
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  social. All of our speakers will be there. We have speakers coming from
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  all over the world, all over the world. We have la we have
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  London at Philadelphia, and they're just landing on Raleigh, downtown Raleigh to give
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  us some creative and business development to meet those two worlds. So how did
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  this come about? Like what was the idea behind this? Because I know
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  Omar, he's always popping off ideas every time I've seen you. You got
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  some new great ideas coming out. But what how did this come together?
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  Well, kind of like you just said, I've known Omar Omar for a
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  long time and I begin this. When I begin to put this together,
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  I'm like, what was getting with him? To talk about him doing some
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  some social media marketing, and he was like, hold on stop, how
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  do I become part of this? Right? So he came on last year
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  and we did it at NC State last year. But it was just a
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  brainchild of mine. Has been in the industry so long of branding and design.
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  The last ten years, we've had a new wave of designers coming on
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  with social media and content creators. But I saw a lack of business acliment
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  and some of the business culture that needed to be added to the creativity part.
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  And so that's that's where Creative Verse came from. And so this sessions
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  can people view? I know, Chris you can check out virtually, but
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  can you watch some of these sessions virtually? Like how does it unfold on
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  Saturday? We don't have some of the other sessions that are streaming live as
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  well, but the primary session is going to be Chris session and then we'll
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  have some of the other UH sessions that we're gonna stream as well, so
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  we will let people know what you know of the all because it's multiple rooms,
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  right, Okay, So we're gonna have a lot of different UH streaming
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  going on for the people that can't make it here. But and like you
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  said, man, I'm always UH looking for the next big thing and to
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  support our market. Right we all here where we live here, so and
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  Raleigh is growing so crazy. I've watched your career, I've watched Elton's career,
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  and with everybody from around the world moving to the Triangle, we're exploding.
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  And I used to live in New York City, and so I thought
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  when I moved back here years ago, because I'm from here, but I
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  moved back and I was like, oh, I'm failing but now And I
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  didn't mean it like that, but I was like, I gave up New
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  York City to come back. Now I'm so thankful and feel blessed that I
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  came back, because not only do you get the life balance and a beautiful
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  place to live, but we are booming when it comes from oh my Nanji
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  business, just where in the place people want to come to I've had so
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  many and my buddies tried to get me for TV, film and other stuff.
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  I've had so many and my buddies try to get me to move to
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  Atlanta, like, oh, come on, man, you gotta come.
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  But it's kind of like, hey, I can have the best of both
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  worlds right here and creative versus another part of that. Elton probably got two
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  sentences out of telling me what he wanted to do and what his idea and
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  his brainchild was before I stopped him. Like you said, I was like,
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  stop, stop, stop, I don't need to hear anything else.
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  You know, how do I get involved? I wanted to be involved because
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  this is not only about bringing in people from around the world UK California,
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  but also how we help our entrepreneurs and our business people right here so that
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  we can continue to grow our market and be at the forefront nationally. So
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  that's a very important thing. And then to have major brands like red Hat
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  and Adobe jump on board. Those are major brains. We're gonna Adobe not
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  only did they sponsor shout out to them, but we're going to be giving
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  away Adobe stuff all weekend long. Yes, that is something we use,
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  absolutely, absolutely so it's a tremendous event and just you know, shout out
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  to Elton for having a vision. Troy is the resident person at Red Hat
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  that said, hey, we want to have it. Like he said,
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  we did the NC state last year and they were wonderful. Troy came to
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  it and he said, hey, man, I want to have it at
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  red Hat. So we're in the Red Hat Tower downtown and the next day
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  we're at Red Hat as well. So they have opened their facilities to this
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  and support or so. The support has been tremendous and one thing I wanted
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  to say, man, we are about giving back to the community as well.
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  We have a ton of high school sponsorships that are absolutely free for high
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  school students that want to learn about creative and learn how to you know,
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  do some of what Chris Doe does, do some of what Elton does,
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  and even what I do. And those kids have questions and things of that
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  nature. So not only is it an opportunity for business people, but we
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  want to make sure that we give back to our local high school the next
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  generation. Absolutely yeah, absolutely, Okay. So some of these sessions which
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  I was looking through the lineup and following some of the speakers, like,
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  they really are incredible. You've got somebody that's coming in for mental health,
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  Oh yeah, Sarah Sarah. Chris Doe watched a lot of his videos.
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  He's really like insightful with things you're learning no matter where you are in your
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  life or what part of your journey, You're like, there's a lot of
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  perks and a lot of things you can learn from these speakers. So mental
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  health, how to grow and make money? Like Jamie talking about I was
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  like, yep, ears perked up. So what are some of the other
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  sessions. Some of the other sections are some things that people are getting into
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  now more and that's podcasting. Yes, I really really wanted to touch on
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  podcasting a lot because if you follow people in the last four or five years,
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  we made to think it's just about podcasting, is just about entertainment.
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  But as a vast world of podcasting that goes on now and those a lot
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  of those lot genres don't come together and meet together and talk to each other
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  and say this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm doing, this
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  is how you really make money at it. We have Jason, Jason Gilcom,
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  he's here in Raleigh and he has like three studios and has like thirty
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  seven different shows come out of that. So with him, we're going to
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  get everybody in one room and be able to give him, let him give
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  a talk, and them to be able to ask him questions what am I
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  doing wrong? What I'm you know, what am I doing right? Right?
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  So to make just to make sure that we're trying to monetize, we're
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  doing just that monetized and not wishing and hoping and not doing the right things.
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  And I would ask Jason too, because you know iHeart Radio or I
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  Heart Media, they're a huge podcasting you know, outlet, and sometimes I
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  question, like is it oversaturated because everybody with the mic is doing a podcast,
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  So like, yes, how do you stand out among a crowd of
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  all these other people? How you niche yourself in your podcast? Right?
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  Also talk about the things that I'm personally excited about a few of the of
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  the panels. I'm super excited about Sarah because mental health is a big topic
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  now and then when you talk about mental health for creatives and entrepreneurs, because
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  it's a little bit different when you have you don't have that nine to five
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  and you don't know where your next paycheck or dollars coming in. So as
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  an entrepreneur, you your mental health and that stress can be a little bit
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  different because you're solely depending on yourself. So that's going to be a very
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  very good one. Another one that I'm personally excited about is AI. We
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  have an expert coming in with Adobe NAI to talk about AI is affecting all
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  of us, how we design, how we you know, I'm a writer,
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  so how we write and what I can use and can't use and what's
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  copyright. So we have a whole AI segment as well, and you know
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  AI is taken over and if I do a little bit of self promotion,
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  I'm excited about my own PAMIA for my part. Now, Elton is going
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  to probably go into more of the design because that's his forte. I don't
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  have a design background. I'm more let's know what I want to see me.
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  I'm a problem solver like he. If you have what does your social
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  media look like? What does your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram look like?
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  And what is our strategy to grow and build it? How do you
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  get from place A to place Z? And I was saying that I personally
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  don't like to lecture to people. So when I'm doing my portion, I
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  want to jump in with people and say, hey, what is a marketing,
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  social media business problem that you have right now, and let's solve it
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  right here, live on the spot. Let's come up with solutions executables that
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  we can do right now or in the next day to get it solved.
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  Because I like to I want to work on the problem. That's my style.
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  So I'm excited about you know, if you have a problem and you're
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  coming to the conference and you're stuck somewhere, you know, tap me on
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  the shoulder and let's figure it out. Let's do it right there on the
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  spot. And so you know, let's make it happen. So that's it's
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  just great because you get tangible like solutions that you can utilize right away.
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  Did you design this great? Okay, yeah, it's really good. So
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  yeah, and and and what he tesched on is like, like I look
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  at the end result. What does the end result need to look like?
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  Then I start working backwards what do we have to do to those things?
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  So more of a brand strategy type deal. Quick is good. But when
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  you have and you can build a relationship and we can see and look at
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  those pain points and see what the real pain points are or what you're going
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  or what you're going with, what you're dealing with. So my I come
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  at this with a more of a more of like I said, branding strategy
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  deal where a lot of people say, okay, times are gone. Well,
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  I started back way before the internet, right, and so everything was
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  buying billboards, buying radio time and a lot of stuff that you know,
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  a lot of people didn't have the funds to do if you was just your
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  startup or no. Right, but now you can do whatever you want.
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  It's the best time in the world to be an entrepreneur, right, the
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  best time in the world. And I like to come up with help people
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  build. I help. I like to help business people brand strategies, brand
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  leaders. Right, don't throw something to the wall and see if it stick.
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  Let's see what we're throwing to the wall. Let's see what colors are
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  we're throwing to the wall. What is the industry saying about what you're doing?
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  Right, and so building creative verse, that's one thing that I want
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  people to understand. There's a lot of people to say they're in business,
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  but they don't understand branding. There's a lot of people in branding that don't
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  understand business right, and so they have to marrty to and with with what
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  we're doing this weekend, I think we're going to help people to do that.
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  Now do you help? So I've been in the corporate world since I
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  was nineteen. I have been very blessed to meet a lot of CEOs learn
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  a lot about business. I also want to be an entrepreneur. I just
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  don't know what I want to do. And so will you guys help talk
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  to people that maybe are future entrepreneurs that want to find what they want to
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  do, Like I don't know. I know I'm good at a lot of
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  things, but I don't know what the business should be. The thing is
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  this, This will help you put the science to it. Yeah, there's
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  a lot of us that we're already doing certain things. We just haven't put
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  the science to it right. And usually we do stuff well, we do
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  stuff so well and so easily that we don't realize it can be the business.
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  Okay, right, we try to take so much and put this on
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  top of this, and put this on top of this. You may be
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  you may say, okay, I want to be a public speaker, right,
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  all right, a public speaker to who to whom? Right? And
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  you sit down and you break down all you take a pad out and you
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  start breaking down the people that you hang out with, who calls you?
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  What do they call you for? What kind of advice? Then you know
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  who you need to be a public speaker for. Yeah, that's good,
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  that's great. Just simple ships that start narrowing down. It's so simple that
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  we negated you kind of you know, how how women to say? How
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  they say? Okay, man, it's so simple, right, But it's
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  so simple. If it's so simple, you get them. But you know,
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  we try to make me in the like a oh, it's so you
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  know, but simple simplicity is the way to get to things. And when
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  you get to the simplistic way of it, you start seeing those pain points
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  and those realistic points. Okay, all right, So not only will you
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  be helping high school kids, also how do you get your tickets? If
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  you haven't already signed up? Where do they go? So you can go
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  to Creative Verse creative and then the word verse v e r se dot org
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  is the best way. Creative verse dot org and the website is still open
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  and you can you'll be able to get tickets all the way up until I
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  think Friday morning or Friday at noon. The website will still be open.
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  And you know, there's there's visuals everywhere all over the place, and and
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  like you said, with entrepreneurs, we're both serial entrepreneurs, and I think
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  that for you know, my strategy is, let's dig down into the details
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  of what you want to do and what is going to make you happy.
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  Because entrepreneurship is very, very very difficult. So you certainly want to make
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  sure that whatever you're doing you're going to have a passion for because that's going
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  to pull you through, you know, the tough times and the low revenue
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  times and the challenges that you have with your family that may say, hey,
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  maybe you should go back to your job. This is not a good
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  idea. So you got to you know, being an entrepreneur for a very
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  very long time, being aware of all of those different points and what's to
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  come is a piece that's very helpful because it's just more than business. Earlier,
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  you talked about a great work and life balance right right in North Carolina
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  and Raleigh, and so being an entrepreneur part of the business acumen is having
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  a great work to life balance, and there are a number of people coming
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  to the conference as well as myself and Elton that can certainly speak to that
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  and support people with that. And I wanted to say as we close,
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  one of the things that we understand is that a strong business community in the
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  Triangle is a strong business community for all of us. And I know me
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  and you talk about that, and I've talked about that other times that I've
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  been here. Whether it's in music or TV, or or any type of
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  restaurants, bars, anything of that nature. A strong business community as a
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  whole is beneficial to everyone, and so we're here to support that and encourage
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  that. All right, Creative verse dot org, get your tickets, high
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  school students want a step come, you know, visit creative verse dot org.
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  Thank you so much, it's nice to meet you, to see you.
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  Absolutely as always,