Latest / Story Scaling / Scaling Moments: Serving, Shooting, Scaling: Stories That Stick

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Scaling Moments: Serving, Shooting, Scaling: Stories That Stick · Story Scaling

0:00
SPEAKER_07: Welcome to Story Scaling by Podcastvideos.com, where creators share the truth behind the content, the grind, and the growth.
0:16
SPEAKER_07: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and family.
0:18
SPEAKER_07: I am Bang of Podcastvideos.com, and this is Story Scaling.
0:23
SPEAKER_07: Make sure to like and subscribe, comment, let me know who you want to see on the show.
0:27
SPEAKER_07: Um, and you know, we'll get them on the show.
0:30
SPEAKER_07: Today's a special episode.
0:31
SPEAKER_07: I know I've said that before, but today, I wish I had like a little today's episode is near and dear to me.
0:41
SPEAKER_07: I have a good brother in the studio by the name of the.
0:46
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:46
SPEAKER_06: Come on, come on, come on.
0:47
SPEAKER_06: I I got a good brother in the studio by the name of Raymond House.
0:51
SPEAKER_07: Braymond House.
0:53
SPEAKER_07: Welcome, bro.
0:53
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, thank you.
0:54
SPEAKER_07: Glad to be here.
0:55
SPEAKER_07: Thank you for joining me, man.
0:56
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, yeah, glad to be here for sure.
0:58
SPEAKER_07: You know, shout out to the people in my life who have poured into me and helped mold me.
1:01
SPEAKER_07: Um, but when I think about like a brother, like a black man that's confident, family oriented, that's what I would consider successful, not just from a monetary business standpoint, but from a personal integrity standpoint, I feel like you fit the criteria.
1:15
SPEAKER_07: You're one of the few people that with a conscious mind, I said, like, yeah, that's that's a role model.
1:20
SPEAKER_07: You know what I mean?
1:21
SPEAKER_07: And so I'm curious about your story and your journey and how you got to the point where people like me and others can say, like, yeah, you know what I'm saying?
1:29
SPEAKER_07: I could, I could look up to this person or I could I can model myself after house.
1:33
SPEAKER_07: If I see him do it, I know that sounds crazy to you.
1:37
SPEAKER_07: But it but that's but that's the reality, bro.
1:38
SPEAKER_07: And I want to be intentional with giving you your flowers because that's the reality, like that's how we see it.
1:44
SPEAKER_07: And so for you, I I just want to go back to the beginning of all of this.
1:48
SPEAKER_07: Like, how did you even get to where you are now when you were, let's just say young house, bro, when you know, eight, nine, ten.
1:55
SPEAKER_07: Like, what did you think you would be doing?
1:57
SPEAKER_07: Who were some of those influences for you?
1:59
SPEAKER_07: Like, this is really your show.
2:01
SPEAKER_07: We diving in right now.
2:02
SPEAKER_07: So let's unpack all of it, bro.
2:05
SPEAKER_07: Like, let's go back to the top.
2:06
SPEAKER_07: Everything you just said, you actually feel like, you know, you were one of the first people to teach me success is a relative.
2:14
SPEAKER_07: It is, very relative, you know what I mean?
2:17
SPEAKER_07: And and B is is just completion of something.
2:19
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
2:20
SPEAKER_07: So if you want to do a project, just do it.
2:22
SPEAKER_07: Just do the project.
2:23
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
2:24
SPEAKER_07: And if it sells, if you blow up, great.
2:27
SPEAKER_07: But like you were successful because you did it and completed it.
2:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
2:30
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's really in the art form, it's just the the most, you know, striking piece of it all is that you think about art, it's just that starting with that blank catalyst.
2:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:41
SPEAKER_04: Like there's nothing there.
2:42
SPEAKER_04: And and it's uh so really the the real goal is not let me make this Magnum opus or let me make this just the greatest thing.
2:49
SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's really how do I go from something that looks like this blank sheet of paper to it not being blank?
2:56
SPEAKER_04: And then you and you just kind of take it from there and you start starting.
2:58
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's what um can be restrictive from a creative perspective, is that there's these expectations people have in their mind about what it what it what it should be, what the outcomes should be from it, what it should do, all of that.
3:10
SPEAKER_04: But it's but it's really like how do I get from nothing to something?
3:15
SPEAKER_01: I didn't um I actually started pregnant.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: My water broke at the coffee shop.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: That's just a little fun side story.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: But I wasn't ever really creative with drinks.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: More than anything, I was just learning how to make drinks at that time.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: But then in 2019, I started working for another company that encouraged me to do barista competition.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Now, before that company, the one I ended up doing it with, another company did encourage me and say I could, but I just didn't know that much about it yet.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't know what barista competition was.
3:43
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: And when I did actually decide to do it, a new category had been created: coffee and good spirits, which is coffee cocktails.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know really that much about being a bartender, but I had thought to myself, like, if I could be in barista, I'm pretty sure I could be a bartender.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty much the same skill, right?
4:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: And so I decided that I'm gonna do that competition.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: And that really opened up my mind to cocktails.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: But more than that, it really showed me how creative you can be with drinks.
4:10
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: And not just like alcohol, but coffee as well, which is brown, so it's like hard to mix with, everything turns its color, it's strong, it's overpowering.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: So learning how to um use it is like a choir singing quietly, you know, it just like takes a certain level of finesse.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4:29
SPEAKER_06: There's some bonus right there.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: There's some bonus right there.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: So I learned that in this process.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: And um, the first part of the competition that I did, I did win it.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: And then the second part, I got sixth place in the country.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: But um, COVID, like everything else, kind of like it derailed the whole competition space for me.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: But I did learn a lot about myself as a creative because I had before, like in my past, like I've been really into like poetry and like I wanted to be like honey.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to dance, like I thought I was gonna have a career in music.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Really, it was actually pretty recently.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was really recently, like a few months ago.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: I was at Aldi in Bentonville, which I live 30 miles from Bentonville, and um I was just bebopping through Aldi, and the lady stopped me and she was like, Hey, are you the dirty Borisa?
5:15
SPEAKER_06: That's like wow.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: I was with my kids, so I was like, Yes.
5:20
SPEAKER_06: I am seeing, I told you I was 20 minutes right now.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh they know, right?
5:24
SPEAKER_01: They know now.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: They're like, we Googled you, we saw.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: And uh I was like, Yeah, I am.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Oh my gosh, I follow you.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: My name is, you know, say her name, but she's, you know, I follow you, I really enjoy your videos, and da da da da.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, cool.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: It's nice to meet you, da da da.
5:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: She messaged me like maybe like a few weeks later on Instagram, and she was like, Hey, this is da-da-da.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh yeah, we met it all the way I remember you.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: And she was just telling me, you know, I have cancer, I have breast cancer.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: This is like a cancer story.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's a cancer story, but this is a cancer story.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I have breast cancer and I'm having to get a double mastectomy, and I really want you to make drinks for my like farewell breast party.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What?
6:05
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I just really love your drinks, and you just seem so fun and nice.
6:08
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: So we like had dinner together, and uh, me, her, and her partner, and we planned the party, brought the drinks.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: It was super fun.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: Wow, and I did it for free, but she still paid me, which I really did not want her to, but she did, and I was just like, That's just so kind of you because what you like just recognizing me and asking me to do this, like, you don't know how much of a payment that was to me.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: And she was just so kind, and I was like, This is this is cool.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: Like, drinks can really change things.
6:37
SPEAKER_07: That's wild.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: It is wild.
6:38
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: During the election season, whenever you know, race would come up.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: I think uh Donald Trump would pivot to talking about crime in Chicago and things like that.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't talk about race without talking about crime in Chicago.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, after he won, you had people on the left who would talk who would say things like, you know, the South is horrible for electing Donald Trump, let's just get rid of South.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Um racist backwards people live there.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: But black Southerners, of course, did not vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at a map, I mean, uh, Pew Research Center has shown that the majority of black Americans live in the South.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: So when you talk about the South, you're really talking about black people too.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Even if you're trying to be progressive and inclusive, you can't bat bad mouth the south without bad mouthing black people.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Because we because we live here, we make it up.
7:25
SPEAKER_07: With an overwhelming majority.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the majority, but like the majority of us live here.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Like so we have a few in the you know, we have so many percent in the west and northeast and rightwest, mostly here.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: So um I want to tell more of our stories, um, more stories of black southerners, because I think part of it was kind of like um when I went to leave feeling like there was nothing for me here, like, oh, this is this place isn't a good place for you know black people to be.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: But then when you step back, when you think about the movements in this country that have kind of led to other movements, it started a lot with you know black folks that are kind of resisting and doing things like that.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: So like we've always been that, and sometimes we forget because we just look at the problems, but not like harder ways black people have kind of progressed this country forward, especially you know, in the South.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So um I want to tell more of our stories to people who are just show the diversity of black people, show the diversity of the South, and also talk about it just inspire people that we're like there's folks here doing cool stuff.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: You may not hear about it in the in the news, but there's people here just building their communities, like just doing neat things.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: So that's how Black Voices as a platform got started.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: There's a workshop I went to, it was a workshop on race that was hosted by an organization The Little Rock, um, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, I believe.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: So they brought in a speaker, I believe he's from New York, and that national speaker named Glenn Harris, and he he was over this um social inclusion institute or something like that.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: So a story he told, it stuck with me and it sticks with me to this day.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: But he was trying to explain equity in a way that made sense.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: So he he used an example um called Street Lights in Seattle, and if you Google that, you can read this the story, but I'll try to summarize it.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: But um I think there had been something happened in like a black neighborhood in Seattle, which is mostly white, but there was a maybe an incident where some people were killed or something.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: And so, like the city officials, the mayor, they drove around the city, that that part of the city to kind of see what was going on and stuff.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: And then they noticed that all of the lights, the street lights were out in that city.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Like there was had a lot of light bulbs out.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And then I think someone said, Why are all these light bulbs out over here?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And then they said, Well, because to fix the light bulbs, you call in and then someone comes and fixes them.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: But then to encourage equity, what they did was they just made a note of the life expectancy of all the light bulbs and changed them on the schedule.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Which is a very I mean, just think about how small that is.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: But the reason it was so powerful was because they didn't everyone was happy.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: So you know who was who's the most happy about this change?
10:05
SPEAKER_07: The residents.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Well the residents in the other parts of town, the more fluent parts, who weren't afraid to to interact with government and they because they have to call as much.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have to pick up the phone every time a streetlight was out and say, hey, we can come fix a streetlight.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Like they knew what to do when a street light was out.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: They weren't afraid of interactions with city officials, they spoke English.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, they were well off enough to kind of care about the streetlights, you know.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: But the that part of town, they probably want to interact with city officials.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Some people didn't speak English.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So it's like once they had the more the most vulnerable in mind, that change affected everybody.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: It helped everyone.
10:42
SPEAKER_09: I'm a servant leader through and through um with or without any money in my pocket, I'm gonna serve.
10:49
SPEAKER_09: Be it opening the door for somebody, helping an old lady get her bags.
10:53
SPEAKER_09: Kids don't do that no more, but I used to be the kid seeing a lady walk out with a couple bags.
10:58
SPEAKER_09: I'm gonna help her get them bags to the car, open the door for her, put them bags in, help her get her stuff out the basket.
11:04
SPEAKER_09: So in any and every way that it moves me.
11:08
SPEAKER_09: Not that I have to think about it to serve somebody I'm gonna try to serve.
11:11
SPEAKER_09: And this kid's really committed to helping other people, we're gonna help him.
11:16
SPEAKER_06: Let's let's go there.
11:17
SPEAKER_06: What?
11:17
SPEAKER_06: Take us there.
11:18
SPEAKER_06: Like how?
11:21
SPEAKER_06: You know, I was like, I just I used to read the magazine.
11:23
SPEAKER_06: You know what I'm saying?
11:24
SPEAKER_06: Like, and so and so if if even just for a couple minutes, I touched on that, man.
11:28
SPEAKER_09: Like, what I came out of a time in the 90s when, you know, Little Rock, Arkansas was the murder capital of the world per capita.
11:35
SPEAKER_09: Um, more young people were being shot andor killed.
11:39
SPEAKER_09: Um statistics show today that between the ages of one and 44, I think, or something like that, you're bound to either get killed or die if you're black.
11:49
SPEAKER_09: And growing up, for me, that was a big statistic.
11:52
SPEAKER_09: You're either gonna go to jail, have a baby out of wedlock, or die before you turned 18.
11:58
SPEAKER_09: And now the real statistics are I graduated, I'm 46, so I made it.
12:04
SPEAKER_09: And I and I I that gave me chills.
12:06
SPEAKER_09: I was a little bit scared, and then I lost a friend early on, um, Kendall, who was murdered um one summer when Mike Tyson had a fight and we were all away.
12:15
SPEAKER_09: He was shot, but he was the only guy in our neighborhood banging.
12:18
SPEAKER_09: And he's the only real gangster we knew.
12:20
SPEAKER_09: And um, he lost his life to banging, and um, it was unfortunate.
12:25
SPEAKER_09: But sometimes the worst things can make the best things out of you.
12:28
SPEAKER_09: And some of my homeboys, I think, with his death, took that on.
12:31
SPEAKER_09: It's like, we're gonna switch this thing up.
12:34
SPEAKER_09: I went on from there, adapted into helping people, community service.
12:39
SPEAKER_09: I was a kid in my boys and girls club, big, big advocate and proponent of that.
12:46
SPEAKER_09: A man that went on to die right after I won this national award.
12:49
SPEAKER_09: I was a national spokesperson for Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
12:52
SPEAKER_09: It's a national year award you win.
12:54
SPEAKER_09: Uh, and it's sponsored by Reader's Digest.
12:58
SPEAKER_09: So I went to DC, competed nationally for that one, and when I came back to Little Rock, Mr.
13:05
SPEAKER_09: Wethington um called because he's just a special kind of cat like that.
13:09
SPEAKER_09: The local police had a police escort, cameras when I got off the plane, like your life changed.
13:14
SPEAKER_09: Like you went to a, I call it like a Miss America pageant or something, and you come home, you're getting all the hometown hero love.
13:20
SPEAKER_09: Absolutely.
13:20
SPEAKER_09: So cameras lights action.
13:22
SPEAKER_09: I fall right into it, love it.
13:24
SPEAKER_09: So I lived by three Fs when I used to give my boys and girls cup speech and U of A orientation speeches.
13:31
SPEAKER_09: Um, I made straight F's at one point because my mom and dad had split, and I'm dealing with my own issues on that, and not paying attention in class and up and down and getting in what they call trouble.
13:44
SPEAKER_09: But I made straight F's.
13:46
SPEAKER_09: And I wasn't proud of it, but out of that, I adopted a 3F rule.
13:51
SPEAKER_09: And I tell people all the time it's so important that you have fun in this life, no matter what you do.
13:56
SPEAKER_09: You wake up, it can be the worst day.
13:58
SPEAKER_09: Rent due, thing is crazy.
14:00
SPEAKER_09: Something, try to imagine, think of something, try to have an ounce of fun.
14:05
SPEAKER_09: People say I'm too serious sometimes, but I know how to have some good fun.
14:08
SPEAKER_09: So have fun, stay focused, and finish whatever you set your mind out to start.
14:12
SPEAKER_09: If you start something, finish it.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: You know, if anybody were to take anything away, is keeping the main, finding the main thing and then keeping that main thing the main thing, you know.
14:23
SPEAKER_03: Because if the main thing is just focused on you, it's gonna run out.
14:27
SPEAKER_03: The flyness comes and goes, that's all subjective.
14:30
SPEAKER_03: Somebody ain't gonna feel it, and who cares?
14:32
SPEAKER_03: Right.
14:33
SPEAKER_03: As long as you cool with whatever it is, and I get to go teach them hundreds of classes this way and them uh hundreds of students in my classes this way, and then when them students uh uh leave that class, not only do they know more about uh America and uh our historical legacy and uh uh what that means to them today, uh they also can see the real life example of how that uh context provides freedom for an individual.
15:06
SPEAKER_03: Because I'm standing here telling you this as Dr.
15:08
SPEAKER_03: Eric Hughes wearing my own stuff there with my own studio.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: When you go to go shopping, when you leave campus and go to wherever else, you probably walk past my studio and I don't gotta say nothing.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: It just is, you know.
15:22
SPEAKER_03: My family has been through that keeps us focused, you know, um being a husband, being a father, having lost a child, um and then also at the same time living in the same skin while you're doing all these things that you're doing and accomplishing the goals that you have for yourself is it it takes that level of uh uh understanding and groundedness of who you really are and what you're really uh uh here to do.
15:53
SPEAKER_03: Because in going through those things is uh helped me to uh be courageous.
15:59
SPEAKER_03: And uh the the tools that have uh benefited uh my growth the most have been love, wisdom, and courage.
16:08
SPEAKER_03: And you know, the love is a requirement, the love is the essence, the wisdom is the skill and the understanding that you build through the experiences, through the bumps, through all those things.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: And the courage is to be present and execute in the moment, you know.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: And growth takes that, it takes that courageous intent, you know, and to be able to speak about the loss that I've experienced and be able to use that for myself and to be able to help others, you know, that that's a part of the purpose.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: And being able to walk in that purpose is it is the reason that we keep the main thing the main thing, and that I keep the main thing the main thing, because there ain't nothing that no person on this earth will ever say to me that's gonna be better than well done, my good and faithful servant.
16:56
SPEAKER_03: Because at that point I get to see my daughter again.
16:58
SPEAKER_08: I got in trouble uh when I was up here for college, uh end up messing up my record.
17:05
SPEAKER_08: So then it's hard for me to get jobs and stuff like that, but I still end up finishing college and stuff like that.
17:11
SPEAKER_08: But that's the thing.
17:12
SPEAKER_08: Like I finished college, I got my degree in information system, so I got a minor supply chain, but because of my record, I wasn't able to pass HR for certain jobs and stuff like that.
17:24
SPEAKER_08: So I also never knew that, bro.
17:26
SPEAKER_08: I didn't know that was your background.
17:27
SPEAKER_08: That's crazy.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: We get some exclusive right.
17:31
SPEAKER_08: So um, so yeah, so that happened.
17:34
SPEAKER_08: So then like the places I were working were like more like family-owned, sure, where I can really go in.
17:39
SPEAKER_08: Because I had like people at Walmart who wanted to hire me and hiring managers like, hey, before we even continue with the next part of the interview, let's just do your background just to see if I can so we don't waste nobody's time because that's like I like you, and I like I like how you come on.
17:55
SPEAKER_08: You seem like a good candidate, but couldn't get past the AR pods, right?
18:00
SPEAKER_08: So then it just became me working jobs, but no matter what job I worked, I just made sure I worked my way up, all of that stuff.
18:07
SPEAKER_08: Um, moving forward, uh I ended up uh hired a photographer one time, um, got what I paid for.
18:16
SPEAKER_08: It wasn't even that great.
18:18
SPEAKER_08: And that's where I think the first idea came in my head.
18:21
SPEAKER_08: I was like, you know what?
18:23
SPEAKER_08: They still made$800 in one day.
18:26
SPEAKER_08: I think I could do better than this.
18:28
SPEAKER_08: I'm gonna get a camera because I want to side hustle.
18:30
SPEAKER_08: I was on tired of working with the people I'm working with.
18:32
SPEAKER_08: So I was like, I'm gonna just pick up a camera, I'm gonna do this.
18:36
SPEAKER_08: That's how I really started.
18:38
SPEAKER_08: Wow.
18:38
SPEAKER_08: That's that's the real life now.
18:40
SPEAKER_08: The reason it was photography, I still always somewhat had an interest in photos and stuff like that.
18:46
SPEAKER_08: Sure.
18:47
SPEAKER_08: And it was more like I'm gonna do like landscape and architecture because I like the screenshavers on computers.
18:52
SPEAKER_08: And I was like, I'm gonna photograph people for the money.
18:55
SPEAKER_08: And then I started photographing people, I actually felt in love with it, yeah, yeah, with the storytelling.
19:01
SPEAKER_08: I also kind of made it related to um like my dad's dad, my granddad, I never got a chance to meet him.
19:07
SPEAKER_08: But I always loved going through those old photo albums where you know you got the plastic that rips up.
19:13
SPEAKER_08: Yeah, like yeah, yeah.
19:15
SPEAKER_08: So, but I see all these like older photos of my granddad, and it wasn't too many of them either, but that mixed with the stories my dad told me, it's like, oh, I got to imagine the person.
19:26
SPEAKER_08: I got to actually feel like I met the person and stuff like that.
19:31
SPEAKER_08: So, more that I felt in love with photography and photographing people, more I started understanding that people need to tell their stories, they need to be photographed because when when a person passed, that's really all you left with.
19:43
SPEAKER_08: Like you did the materialistic things, like you would actually forget what a person looks like that's right, have a picture.
19:49
SPEAKER_08: That's right.
19:49
SPEAKER_08: So, going back to Bedford camera and video, when I first got my camera, I took like some, I took like a class up there that just taught me what aperture, so to speak.
19:58
SPEAKER_08: So it's like the base.
20:00
SPEAKER_08: That Fort Smith?
20:01
SPEAKER_08: Nah, in Fairville.
20:03
SPEAKER_08: So then, yeah, it taught me the basic and stuff like that.
20:08
SPEAKER_08: And then from there, I'm just pretty much self-taught.
20:11
SPEAKER_08: But I ended up getting a job there because I was like, let me go in here and work here.
20:15
SPEAKER_08: I'm getting into this photography baby job there.
20:18
SPEAKER_08: But that also helped me realize people would come in because they lost a little boy.
20:24
SPEAKER_08: And then they come in with wallet-sized pictures, or maybe just pictures on their phone, and they're trying to blow up a big picture for the memorial.
20:31
SPEAKER_08: And they like, this is the only picture I have of my mom or my sister or just whatever.
20:37
SPEAKER_08: And it's like we can't blow it up bigger.
20:40
SPEAKER_05: The biggest thing that stands out to me personally, it's like, man, I don't really realize what all I do.
20:45
SPEAKER_05: And I'm not necessarily doing it for the title or the bio.
20:50
SPEAKER_05: I'm doing this because this is what I really want to do.
20:52
SPEAKER_05: So the biggest thing is like, man, when when you say like two or three lines, it's like, man, I I am really doing that.
20:59
SPEAKER_05: You know, it makes me proud of myself in a different light, you know, because I I hear people that give me credit, you know, I people who discredit me.
21:08
SPEAKER_05: But like to hear it in such a context and different form, and other than somebody you really doing it.
21:15
SPEAKER_05: Right.
21:15
SPEAKER_05: You got clout, or like even more like the slang way.
21:18
SPEAKER_05: To hear it in a professional way is dope.
21:21
SPEAKER_05: You know, I that's why I want to hear if we in a a gala and and people are just getting these speeches or they're getting talking.
21:28
SPEAKER_05: I want to hear somebody speak like that.
21:31
SPEAKER_05: It's possible.
21:32
SPEAKER_05: Everything started um sports.
21:36
SPEAKER_05: Um Spider wanted to be a ball player.
21:39
SPEAKER_05: Um Spider didn't know what he wanted to be a lot of his life.
21:43
SPEAKER_05: Like even as a kid, I don't I don't have a lot of memories of just like what I wanted to be.
21:49
SPEAKER_05: Um I just wanted to do something.
21:51
SPEAKER_05: Uh, and I knew that I had to work hard to do it.
21:53
SPEAKER_05: So whatever I decided, uh, when I decided it, I did it.
21:58
SPEAKER_05: Um at certain points in time in my life, I just wanted to be the manager of where I was at.
22:03
SPEAKER_05: So uh one of my first jobs was uh Kroger's.
22:06
SPEAKER_05: And I was I wanted to be the best uh buggy pushing that we that we got.
22:11
SPEAKER_05: And bagging groceries, I was the best.
22:13
SPEAKER_05: I want me and me and the guys who had just have competitions.
22:16
SPEAKER_05: And like I wanted my boss to know that when if it was a rush during Christmas, you could count on Spider to come and do his thing.
22:24
SPEAKER_05: You know, of course, they I wasn't necessarily um spider to ever in my job.
22:29
SPEAKER_05: They, you know, I was just Artavius, uh especially throughout school.
22:33
SPEAKER_05: Um, Spider King uh really when I was looking for it more like an identity in school.
22:41
SPEAKER_05: Uh when I was in school, which was a very long time ago, um it was people really into like cartoon characters.
22:49
SPEAKER_05: Um Spongebob was really big.
22:52
SPEAKER_05: Um and so I seen everybody doing all those things.
22:55
SPEAKER_05: It was like, man, I'm gonna take Spider-Man.
22:57
SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna make Spider-Man the dope thing.
22:58
SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna I'm gonna wear Spider-Man nobody else is doing it.
23:01
SPEAKER_05: T-shirt, backpack, yeah, all that birthday parties themed around it, you know, call me Spider.
23:08
SPEAKER_05: It translated really good with playing basketball because I was short and I've put the same effort into playing basketball.
23:15
SPEAKER_05: Even though I wasn't as great as I could be, I would do things smart.
23:19
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
23:20
SPEAKER_05: You know, it's like, okay, how can I beat this guy who's three, four, three, three feet taller than me.
23:25
SPEAKER_05: And so like I I I jump really well.
23:28
SPEAKER_05: So it's like, okay, you are like a spider.
23:30
SPEAKER_05: You know what I'm saying?
23:31
SPEAKER_05: So that kind of that's kind of like what was going on.
23:34
SPEAKER_05: Um so after school, um, I went to work.
23:40
SPEAKER_05: And basically that's what I was, I was like, man, I'm not, I'm not probably gonna uh play basketball because I'm I'm pretty short.
23:48
SPEAKER_05: Um and I didn't I wasn't I wasn't really good at school.
23:53
SPEAKER_05: Like the thought process of going to school, studying, and things like that wasn't really my thing.
23:59
SPEAKER_05: You know, I I can but I I I could comprehend very well.
24:03
SPEAKER_05: I can go to a classroom and just listen and then I can pass a test.
24:07
SPEAKER_05: So I kind of just I don't know, wasn't taking this as serious as I should have.
24:11
SPEAKER_05: Right.
24:12
SPEAKER_05: I dropped out and I got my GED.
24:14
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
24:15
SPEAKER_05: And so it was like, okay, what do you do now with your life?
24:17
SPEAKER_05: All right, you got a job at the Sonic.
24:19
SPEAKER_05: And I was working there throughout the process of getting my GED.
24:22
SPEAKER_05: And um really good people person.
24:27
SPEAKER_05: Like uh people will come back after I car hop to their car and tell people that will request for me to be the guy who brings them their drinks and things like that.
24:36
SPEAKER_05: People it got a real good report.
24:37
SPEAKER_05: Manager caught on that, made me a manager.