June 5, 2025 • 39 mins
Get ready to be inspired! On this episode of Culture Raises US, we sit down with the incredibly talented designer and creative director, Bobby Joseph.
Bobby takes us through his unconventional career journey, from working with giants like Reebok and FUBU to launching his own highly anticipated self-named brand. He shares the philosophy that fueled his success: "My done is better than your perfect," a powerful reminder that taking action is key in the fast-paced creative world.
Learn about the unique vision behind the Bobby Joseph brand, which masterfully blends "dope boy chic" aesthetics with influences from music, literature, and sports. Bobby also emphasizes the vital importance of mentorship, collaboration, and sharing knowledge to lift up the next generation of creatives.
Whether you're an aspiring designer, an entrepreneur, or just looking for a dose of creative inspiration, this conversation with Bobby Joseph is a must-listen!
#CultureRaisesUS #BobbyJoseph #FashionDesign #CreativeDirection #Entrepreneurship #Podcast #Interview #Mentorship #Collaboration #DopeBoyChic #FashionIndustry
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
To who much is given, much is required. Part of
that requirement is sharing. Culture is the heartbeat within our lives,
and it's at the core of so many things. While
we live in a time when we are starving for wisdom,
I welcome you to your wisdom retreat that culture raises us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
My done is better than your purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Bobby Joseph is a season designer and creative director who's
worked in shaping some of the most influential looks. Having
worked with the likes of Fat Farm Pop, He's now
the founder of his self named brand Bobby Joseph and
creative director of You'll Be, a Creative design Agency.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I don't use the term culture, Lucy. It's not a
static thing. It has to be constantly emotion. That was
working on my deck, yeah, and I wrote lessons on there,
and then I put a B in parentheses in front,
and I was like, man, blessing, you're trying to hit
the perfect You'll be here forever. You had to eventually
with this podcast, go I gotta get it done. You
(00:56):
probably didn't like doing it on Zoom initially. You had
to do it. If it wasn't this perfect, you would
have never.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Did it before. I have him give us even more
depth to his fascinating story. We always like to start
with when you hear culture, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Culture? I'll sum it up in three things. Fluidity, right,
Like to have culture, it has to be constantly in motion. Right,
It's not a static thing. It needs to evolve. Right.
I think maybe those two are interconnected, and it needs
to be rooted in something, right, something larger than an individual.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Was there a particular moment when you realize just how
influential and I'll say, when I say fashion to you,
because you work footwear and apparel, how influential those have
been in shaping overall culture as we know it in general?
Was there a particular moment or moments where you like,
this is when I realized this thing is real.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I could connect the dots, okay, right, So, like we
had a meeting. I had another agency when I left Fubu.
It was called Breaking Trust. Breaking means remember that, yeah,
breaking means brain office, and it was it was on
Broadway in like twentieth.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes so kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Closer Union Square and uh brain Trust. So me and
Spencer Chan we had an agency and we had oh
yeah you remember because you were at Rebox. So we
had Reebok as a client. We got it through stout right,
and uh, he said come by. He was still kind
(02:37):
of toggling Peter Arnell group, right, So he's like, come
by Arnell, let's go over some stuff. So we go
by there and the conversation immediately like veers into I'm
doing a shoe with Jay. I was like my knee
jerk was that's whack, right, And then he started talking
(03:00):
about he started talking about it's going to be a
country color play, so tell me more. So he's like, yeah,
we're we're thinking golf and we're thinking tennis and tennis.
Tennis is the baseline for Bobby Joseph. Right, I don't play,
(03:24):
but there's a there's a it's the aesthetic. It's dope
boy chic. Yes, right, So he says tennis ears perk up.
Then we go over to stuh blah blah blah. So
we we he plants that seed, we leave it, we
go over all the other business we had. He's like,
(03:44):
you want to go down we're leaving. You want to
see the shoe. I was like this. I was like
all right, So we go down. He has a driver outside,
pops a trunk. He pulls out the nineteen eighty four
reinterpretation and I was like, damn, held it. This is perfect, right,
Like this is the dope boy shoe, Like if there
(04:06):
was a dope Boy museum, Like this is a dope
boy right. So they did everything they had to. It
was perfect. So me and Spencer leave were walking back
up to the N and R and the whole time
I'm like, did you see that the job? And he's like,
see what it was a shoe and I was like no.
So we get back to the office a tear of
(04:29):
paper bag in half. I start sketching, sketching, sketching. It's
like he's like, I don't see what you see. We
stayed there the whole night, slept on the desk. He
was like, oh, I get it. So then he does
his thing and he puts his stink on it. But
I say that to say part of it as it
(04:50):
As we were evolving the idea, this is we were
doing two point zero, right. They didn't ask us no.
I was just inspired. So we were doing two point
zer and in that it kind of gave me the
idea we should really lean into the packaging, and Spencer
is like the most competitive designer I've ever met. So
(05:11):
he's like more than you, like ninety seven times one good.
So he hears packaging and goes ham Sandwich. So he
creates this box that's a drawerbox, and I say this
where I'm connecting the dots is the drawerbox and the
(05:34):
extra shoelaces and the toothbrush and the cleaner that didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Exist, thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
This is O three. It did not exist. So it
was you know, when we did the we did a
box that was tied to specifically golf, and it came
with an S Dot Carter golf club. It came with
additional golf balls that were branded. It was all that right.
So so and I called Steve. I was like, yo,
(06:03):
I need a meeting. He was like about what. I
was like, just put me on the calendar. So we
get on the calendar. I get like two days later,
we get on the calendar and we present and he's like,
you did this in two days. I said, we did
this that night and he was like he was like, yeah,
this is nuts. So it took a year for the
(06:27):
shoe to get green light greenlit, green lighted, and but
like I said, like that, I did so that my
first shoe, the two hundred and forty thousand pairs. I
had never done a shoe before, right, and that the
he was like, he was like, yo, can you send
(06:47):
me those boards? Right? This is the he it was
the anyway set the boards. Obviously they copied him, right,
because this was before the deal was even done.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
This is so much context that I didn't even know.
This is how you got to designing this, so please.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, So he got the boards and so here we
are twenty twenty five, twenty two years later, and it's commonplace.
It's commonplace to do. What was the Jordan box that
came with too?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh yeah, the two packs two packs or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But all that stuff didn't exist prior to then.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So you almost positioned yourself to design the S dot
carter without them even asking you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They didn't ask. I was inspired.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I was just like and he was just coming to
you as a mind, a designed mind that he knows.
Let me just let Bobby.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, no, no, no, we were there to go over.
We had Reebok was a client, okay, and he teed
us up because I had pitched him on this headwear program.
Because remember Reebok had the NFL. That's right, So Jeff
tweet he was like, oh, you need to go holler
at Steve. Steve is heading up, he's running the show
(08:02):
at Reebok. So he gives me Seve's info. I meet
him at his temporary apartment as his Tribeca place was
being remodeled, right, and I gave him an NDA and
he signed it like this. He's like, nah, I don't
care about whatever. And he was like he was looking
at the headwear presentation. He's like, he's like, this is nuts.
(08:26):
Do you want to do any other work? And we
had just left right, We had no clients, no nothing, right.
We was like just out of pocket. The rent was
like four thousand a month, and I was like, yeah,
let's let's let's do something. And yeah, they they we did.
We did like that in ten months. We did like
seven hundred thousand business with them.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Which is so wild. Back then, back at which to
thank you for context, which which is huge, but it's
also a great segue because I think you are such
a great representation of the culture of what I call
betting on yourself. Yes, but I also look at you
as you were like one of the meanest ghost writers
(09:09):
in this no in this industry from an apparel and
a footwear standpoint, and you teed it up on the
stock carter, which was the example that I was using
or was going to reference. What was the moment that
you decided like, now it's time to bet on myself
to the way that you are right now, we're going
to get into the brand because I think that's a
(09:32):
significant thing that people need to know. And why Because
you were at all the prominent brands and you were
designing all the prominent looks and setting the tone for
the cultural uniforms. To then bet on yourself, somebody would
be like, well, why you're already doing it in all
these different environments. What was that thing that you said, Yo,
(09:54):
it's time to bet on.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It's a long time, man, I know it took a
long time. It was like, and I feel like you're.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Just now getting there to be completely.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I talk about these other two guys because they
are really important in terms of my design journey. Emmitt
heral Aliyasha more Right. So, we we eventually all converged
at Mecca, USA, Right, We were like team three, Right,
(10:25):
And what I learned working with them. Is what we
all learned is we learned the skill of being the vendor,
being a hired gun, being the right So in in,
in and and fine tuning that you you learn, you
(10:53):
learn how to sell, You learn how to have ideas well,
because the goal is the money. Right, So the goal
is like I want this company to hire me to
design this thing. Right, So in that in that you
you they you don't want them to be thinking about
(11:16):
should we So you go into the meeting and like
they give you the scope and you be like, oh no,
and right, just start start shooting. So so that skill
was fine tune over years and years and years and
years years how to like reel them in. That's the
worst skill you could have with your own self, right,
(11:39):
just too critical. You could be like I want to
make for example, I had it in my sketchbook for
over a decade, the perfect white shirt. Right. Well, you
have this skill of doing it for others. But when
(11:59):
you when you have the like idea, generation refinement, uh
and final execution, when you use those same things on yourself, man,
you be stuck. You'd be like, it's never good enough,
It's never good enough for yourself, right, You're like you
don't want you don't want you know, I don't want
(12:21):
to be whacked. I don't want to do that. So
it took me a long time to get to that point.
It took me a long time. And so the betting
on myself was like I had to listen to my
own advice. You had one of the quotes, my done
(12:43):
is better than your perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Break that down.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I love that my done is better than you're perfect. Like,
so you doing trying to you trying to hit the perfect.
You'll be here forever. You'll be here forever. Right, So,
like you had to eventually with this podcast, go I
gotta get it done, like you know, like you probably
(13:08):
didn't like doing it on Zoom initially, but you had
to do it. You knew what it was calling you
when we met, and so it was calling you, like
yelling at you. Right, so it was like, I have
to I have to do it. I have to do it,
I have to do it now. If you would have
applied your hired assassin lens to it, you would have
(13:29):
never did that. You would have never did it like that, right,
Like if it wasn't this, if it wasn't this perfect,
that you had to evolve to you would have never
did it, so eventually I had to, Like I'd been
telling my younger siblings for years, my done is better
than your perfect. My done is better than your perfect.
And then and then, you know, I'm waffling for years
(13:52):
on Bobby Joseph, and then I just had to.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Just yo, I'm so and you know it's wild man.
You know, I've known you personally for years, that's decades,
and I've watched and I've told you this in person,
the evolution of you as a man, and especially when
you became a father, I saw a distinct change, because
you know, anybody who knows you'd be like, oh no,
Bobby was one of the most arrogant people ever. And
(14:17):
when you were even telling that story about the Papa
Pap Pip, I could see you in those meetings and
people looking at you like, who is this arrogant ass
design I would think he knows everything, But it really
was your passion of it is. Thank you of creating
something special and now I'm so glad to be able
to see it come through the reflection of your brand
(14:38):
right and not necessarily coming through in other people's interpreting
or other brands you're now doing it on your terms
in your brand, but that my done is better than
your perfect if you don't put that on a T
I mean like that just hit me.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
It hit me when I heard it. I didn't make
it up. I read it somewhere and I was like,
out right, and you've run with it. I mean, yeah,
it'll it'll get you up off the seat.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So I mean, now, I look at that is a
significant reason or why behind the Bobby Joseph brand. So
talk about that and talk about what's the point of
differentiation between Bobby Joseph the brand and everything else that
we see in the smart because as you and I
both know, this is oversaturation is like an understatement, I
(15:31):
mean an understatement. Why is it now that this is needed?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
So I have the verticals of the brand, music, literature,
my son, right, uh, sport culture and I don't I
don't use culture the term loosely. I really mean sport
culture right, meaning there there there are specific things in
(16:02):
sport that are specific to the sports, specific to the
overall idea of athletics. So those are the those are
some of the verticals. And I have the horizontals, right,
So some of the horizontals are genius. So where in
the music vertical, for example, I started off the year
(16:26):
with Dyla and the second one was Shahdh And if
you hear those two, are you familiar? You know they're geniuses,
like hands down, hands down, right, So there's the music boom.
Then over here where we talk about like sport culture
and just the overall brand, it's my brand ethos is
(16:46):
dope boy chic, right, and dope boy chic. And I'm
not glorifying like you know, uh, drug dealing, but that
look did not exist before. And the look is born
out of tennis. The look is born out of Fela ls,
(17:08):
Sergio Tacchini, Adidas, right, and it's very specific, these very
color blocked, uh elevated fabrics, sweatsuits. I mean it was
shorts and polos and things like that too, but the
sweatsuit is the thing that's endured, right, it's look at me.
It's expensive. So there's it creates distance. So the the
(17:34):
brand Ethosis is dope boy chic. So so whereas a
lot of people like not a lot of people, and
I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't wanna, I
don't wanna diminish any other brand, right, everybody's trying. I
was looking at some of the questions so to jump ahead,
Like one of the things that you have to be
is you gotta be whack. You gotta be whack at
(17:57):
some point, like you're just not gonna jump out the
box and be perfect. Right. So, Like I've made some
products that didn't sell, I didn't love. I wish I
would have did this thing differently, but I had to
get it out of my head. So the differentiation point
is like I got I got the I got the
(18:18):
trademark for my name in I think twenty twelve, twenty twelve,
something like that. And so here we are thirteen years later.
There's a bunch of years in it. I made some
wax stuff. There's a bunch of years where I didn't
make anything anything right, So so here we are now
(18:40):
I have my my feet under me. Like I know
I want to do music, right, genius. I know I
want to do sport culture. I know I want to
do literature. I know I want to do stuff that
relates to my son, right, But it took me a
long time to get you know what I mean. Like
(19:01):
I had to make a T shirt with a world
War one, Uh, illustration of a fighter plane and be
like that ain't me you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know it's a it's a testament to I think
a journey, right everybody. I think our society is so
programmed to just look at the ends. And you are
giving a perfect example of it took a journey. It
took chapters, Yes, it took different you know, learnings, adversity, winds, winds, blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Ls L lessons or bless blessings, blessings. Okay, yeah, I was,
I was writing. I was no, I just saw this
another day. I was. I think I was doing not
the other day, but I was working on my deck. Yeah,
and I wrote lessons on there and then I put
a B in parentheses in front, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's another one something, there's something something, another one, yes,
because it's nothing a loss, it's a lesson. But the
bless songs yeah wow yeah, No, I mean, but I'm
so glad you're sharing that, because again, we're in a
society where you don't get privy to the journey, and
(20:13):
you don't get you don't get privy to the reality
of time. Right, things take time. We're so microwave like
every they want to put something in for ninety seconds
and they's supposed to pop immediately. Where we come from
an era of the oven bake, like let that thing
marinate six good hours.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It ain't never going back to that though, Okay, it
ain't never going back to that. So, like you don't
want to hang on to that too tight.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Okay, tightly, right, But there has to be an evolution
of what that represents. How do we give things time
to become what they can be?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Like yourself, I think my target demo is not super
young people. So because my target demo is more of
my aid hmm, they they want it right now. That's
why I was telling you earlier. I was like, I
can't really do the the I can't plant seats for
(21:10):
too long on social right because like, no matter what
the demo is, they like yo, I need yo stop.
I need let me right now, right right now. That's
what That's what the phone did. It's like it's binary,
it's yes or no. It's not. You're not gonna keep
just stringing me along. So so I understand the like
(21:33):
I remove the like. I understand both sides of the fence,
particularly because you know, you know I wear all the hats,
and you know, so I really, I really get. I
get the I do the research, I do the design,
and and I shipped the goods so and everything in between.
(21:53):
So I really get. I get all the data. I
get the I get the why the my hat manufacturer
is mad at me, right, you know what I mean?
And I get why the consumer is elated when they
get the the origami folded tissue paper.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, you know what I mean. But you're also nimble
enough and I don't want to say small enough to
do that, right. And I think that's another learning of
being in the big machine and now just betting on
yourself and doing it this way, because you can truly
take all those learnings and apply them as you see fit,
not somebody else's interpretation and ego of how they want
(22:32):
to push it through. That's all you, which I think
again is the beauty of seeing you in this space
and growing. And I listen to you, know, I know
how much sport plays a role in your life, right,
Like we've played ball for years. I missed them and
moments to against with one another, and I know what
(22:53):
that competitive juice and just waking up Saturday mornings and
knowing we got to get there early to get on
the list, to be on the right team. Are there
other influences or people that have influenced you greatly in
your creative vision?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh? Absolutely, I yeah, it's funny, this is interesting. I
just recorded this for myself, like a friend of mine
who was a producer. We're just in the backyard, just
just chopping it up. She asked a similar question, and
I was like, so, I have it teed up and
ready for you please. It's my parents. It's ah Guy
(23:35):
Guy Would and Troy Johnson from five thousand and it's
eminent in Aliasha context on each So both of my
parents are informally trained, but like, because it's been so
(23:58):
long now they're masters. So my mother has been sowing
since she was a child, and and they come from
they were teenagers in the sixties in the Northeast, So
you had to dress or you just wouldn't have access,
(24:20):
you couldn't get the job, you wouldn't have the social latitude.
You had to dress, you know what I mean. So, like,
so clothes were important to them. But in that because
their parents were you know, crafts people or something like,
they they got the seed from their parents and then
(24:41):
they took it wherever. So like my mother, my mother's
probably she's top five designer I've ever met ever and
doesn't want to be famous, doesn't want to be no, right,
And my father all so has you know, he doesn't
(25:02):
know he has I don't know if he knows he
has technical skills, but he like supremely like he has.
He has a thousand species of plants in his backyard.
He's a beekeeper. He paints, you know, like growing up,
we was always remodeling something, built a barn for you
know what I mean, like so all you know, so
like they they have that thing and then like so
(25:25):
then jumping to guy in Troy, I get to New York.
I have never met anybody like that in my life.
Like they made all the clothes for every video, every tour,
every video, every every everything. Right, so they had to
to Harlem dudes, they had to sell it to the
(25:46):
labels until they got you know, now they bad Bunny right,
but before that, when he was doing Biggie or Lil
Kim or Mary J. Blige or whatever, like, they had
to they had to get the labels to believe like, oh,
they know what they're doing and so like I had
never seen that coming from California, like the cars, the jewelry,
(26:09):
the shoes, the clothes, the glasses, like every day all
the time. And then and then Emmett and Don Juan,
like emmittt Virginia Beach grew up with Pharrell Uh, Aliyasha
Brooklyn you know, grew up with most death you know,
(26:32):
like they just I was I was telling in the
in the in the clip, I was saying, Aliyasha did
a T shirt that I'll never forget. It was like
this might have been like late nineties, and it was.
It was a step by step figure line art figure
drawing of somebody doing tai chie so figure one was this. Yeah,
(26:56):
And I was like, coming from where I come from,
that would never be a reference. I would never you
know what I mean, Like that's a that just was
that's in your level of interest, you know what I mean?
Or like when I met Emmett, he had a brand
that he was doing sublimated soccer goalie jerseys in the
(27:21):
nineties as a as as a brand play, not like
he worked for Umbro or he was doing it. No,
he was like, nah, this is the this is the
vibe and So those three groupings of like creatives really
shaped why I am.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love that and I love how it started with
your parents and the influence that they had and have
had on you. And you know, I kind of transitioned
to look at, you know, the times that we're in today,
like we're in some yeah, to say the least right
to say and given the state of things, I mean,
(28:03):
we need more parents like that. What are you doing
specifically to ensure that the cultures and the spaces you
frequent and are kind of being nurtured and pour it
into properly and kind of what would you recommend creatives
do to ensure that these cultures remain and I don't
want to say intact, but just cared for the way
(28:26):
that they need to.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Simple answer, got to participate, Okay, you got to get
in there. You can't do it from sidelines. You can't
be like what you should do is take that box
over there. You got to actually go show to whomever,
lift the box like this, use your knees, carry down there,
(28:49):
put it on the dolly, call for the elevator, take
it down, stack it this way, make sure the labels
facing out like you know, I'm using it as a
weird anow and like, you gotta get in it. You
got you can't do it from the sidelines. You can't
do it on the phone. Every now and then you'd
be like, Yo, come through, We're doing X, Y, and Z.
I want you to I want you to meet this person.
(29:11):
I want you to have this experience. I want you
to be whack. You got to grow from something. I
got another one for you, another saying that I heard
say yes to everything, Say yes to us, say yes
to everything. You can filter, you can figure it out later.
What you gotta what you have to calibrate, you know,
(29:33):
like you may you may you said yes, I'm going
to speak on this podcast, and then you get there,
and you know you be like me, right, you know
what I mean, like and you and you calibrate from there.
Or or conversely, you could go and be like, yo,
this was this exceeds my expectations, right, But you have
(29:53):
to say so. So I heard this maybe two years ago,
and I've been trying to I've been trying to implement that.
Say yes to everything, say yes to everything, Go get
your hands dirty, participate, you know, be answer the phone. Hey,
this this person wants to get your vite, give some
free game, Give some free game.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It sounds almost like it's also similar to your my
done is better than you're perfect. Yeah, because like you're doing,
you have to do, you got to do it, and
just be an example of it in the spaces that
mean a lot to you, as opposed to just sitting
on the sideline and watching and complaining.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
My son's playing basketball, right, So he's playing out to
why we go there one day? There's no practice, So
I said, we're already here. I'll work you out. So
we're doing drills and I'm glad I set up the
camera to capture this at the During the drills, he
(31:00):
and I'm like on him right, like he had he
been kind of playing, but he hadn't. He didn't have
any kind of formal instruction. And I'm not saying I'm
I'm training to do this, but I'm more trained in
the eight year old eight year old time. So we're
going through a drill. He doesn't quite get it right,
and then he just hugs me and says, will you
(31:23):
will you be the parent coach for my team? Right? Yeah, yes, yes,
yes I will. So. So I'm talking to my dad
one day and I'm you know, a couple of seasons
in because they have a lot of seasons in a
year because it's like eight games, so they play eight
(31:43):
or ten games then they restart. So I'm talking to
my father and I'm telling him about I have all
these like uh, what's the imposter syndrome? And he was like,
get over it. He was like, all those other parents
won't do it there on the sidelines, right, so they
(32:06):
can't say shit, m h. And I'm in it making
the mistakes, being whack. I never coached. I mean, I've
had team, I've.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Mad and you've played I've played that.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Man, I created teams and stuff like that, but I've
never coached, right, So it was like, all right, So
seeing where where they are in terms of skill level,
try to l it elevate it from here what I learned.
And I'm using this as an analogous to even designers
or whatever. So like a lot of them kids have
(32:40):
never been complimented, you know what I mean. Like I'm like,
great shot, you did a left hand lay up, and
then and then and then they're all like I did
you know what I mean? Like and you could see
it in their face, like nobody's ever been as excited
for me. So you got to get in it.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Few And you know something else that you said that
is really I think necessary to hear. It's okay to
make I don't want to call the mistakes, but to
be whack like you have to have those moments. I
think that's the other thing where people they look at
other people's journeys or other people's stories anything. Oh, there
was never anything whack right right. There was never any
(33:23):
downfall or robum. It was a lot. There was a ton,
just it hasn't been exploited, it hasn't been spoken about
or but I think we probably need to do that more.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I didn't even know that until I left Fuoble, because
like I got there. When I got there, I was like,
I need to make on this next job, I'm going
to make some royalties, right, And I didn't know how.
(33:55):
I just knew. I just knew them in the back
of my mind. I was like, I'm going to create
something that I'm a participating, right. And so I got
there and I wrote that into the contract. I was like,
I have this idea, didn't have it, it wasn't fleshed
out yet, but I got so they was like, hey, yeah,
whatever they was doing, they was doing. They were shipping
twenty million a month. So they was like, yeah, whatever million.
(34:15):
They was like whatever, sure, right, and and so so
then I'm there. I get there in July. I'm walking
down the street and soho and say August and I
get the idea. Boom, that's it, all right, cool, Now
(34:37):
I have this tucked away for me to develop. And
and the thing Platinum Fuobu that I created didn't come
out until I got there. And I got there in
July of ninety eight. It didn't come out till April
two thousand.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Oh wow, right, okay, So yeah, so this.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Is like a year and a half of me doing
inline product for them. I was, you know, I was
VP of Designed to Merchandizing. But like I was doing
their thing right, right, And so when I left, I
got to look back and go, damn, they let me
be whack for a year and a half, right, And
they let me be whack because it was doing twenty
(35:21):
million a month. I was like, whatever, we just need
somebody like to to head the ship, you know. But
like the stuff that I I mean, I mean, I
did NBA and I you know, I had some hits,
but overarchingly, like I could look back at that product
and that was not compelling, right, that was not it
was off brand for them. It was more of my ego.
(35:48):
So not that it was like done by a child,
it just was not on brand. And so I could
look back at that product for that first year and
a half and go like, damn, they let me, and
they paid me a lot of money, right, and then
it's like, they pay me a lot of money for
you very well. Yeah, and so yeah, that was a blessing.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
You know, you've shared a lot of I think, great
insight that so many people can learn from, but also
get more insight into you and kind of your journey.
I would love to hear if there were like three seeds,
three seeds that you would leave for the stewarts of
culture moving forward, what would those three things be?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Success is a collective, right, I am successful in any
of these stops because there were people to help me,
right and vice versa. Right, I probably get more out
of the assist than making a shot.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Like I called you the consonant ghostwriter, but yeah, go
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So the success is collective. Elevate others, right, like it's
it's it's great to see somebody get get the shine,
you know. Magic Johnson said the best. He's like, I
like the assist. He was like, when you score the basket,
(37:25):
one person's happy, when you assist, two people are happy.
I was like, I like that. I love that. I
like that. And the last one is to share the info.
Can't die with this information, man, There's no there's no
upside to leaving and having it all stored. It's like
it's like dying with money, Like what would you do
that for?
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Man? Listen, I personally am am so grateful that we
had this conversation because, like I said, and you corrected me,
known you for decades and I've been able to watch
your professional and personal growth over that span of time.
And it's the beauty of you delivering those three seeds
(38:11):
when I don't know if you would have delivered those
thirty years ago, yeah, twenty years ago. And so I'm
grateful to be able to see this and hear this
because I know how much you can serve to others
and you have and I want you to know. Great
job of making that left handed. Later, bro, you should
(38:32):
be applauded as well for your growth. It's seen as
a human human, it's seen, and I'm elated, elated to
see that growth. And I'm so thankful for anybody who
comes in contact with you to be able to receive it,
because you've got so much to offer. Thank you, and
(38:53):
for that, I thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Likewise, Likewise, we truly appreciate your support because it helps
us fulfill our mission of promoting cultural awareness and personal development.
Please click the subscribe button below to help ensure and
solidify our mission
To who much is given, much is required. Part of
that requirement is sharing. Culture is the heartbeat within our lives,
and it's at the core of so many things. While
we live in a time when we are starving for wisdom,
I welcome you to your wisdom retreat that culture raises us.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
My done is better than your purpose.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Bobby Joseph is a season designer and creative director who's
worked in shaping some of the most influential looks. Having
worked with the likes of Fat Farm Pop, He's now
the founder of his self named brand Bobby Joseph and
creative director of You'll Be, a Creative design Agency.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I don't use the term culture, Lucy. It's not a
static thing. It has to be constantly emotion. That was
working on my deck, yeah, and I wrote lessons on there,
and then I put a B in parentheses in front,
and I was like, man, blessing, you're trying to hit
the perfect You'll be here forever. You had to eventually
with this podcast, go I gotta get it done. You
(00:56):
probably didn't like doing it on Zoom initially. You had
to do it. If it wasn't this perfect, you would
have never.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Did it before. I have him give us even more
depth to his fascinating story. We always like to start
with when you hear culture, what does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Culture? I'll sum it up in three things. Fluidity, right,
Like to have culture, it has to be constantly in motion. Right,
It's not a static thing. It needs to evolve. Right.
I think maybe those two are interconnected, and it needs
to be rooted in something, right, something larger than an individual.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Was there a particular moment when you realize just how
influential and I'll say, when I say fashion to you,
because you work footwear and apparel, how influential those have
been in shaping overall culture as we know it in general?
Was there a particular moment or moments where you like,
this is when I realized this thing is real.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I could connect the dots, okay, right, So, like we
had a meeting. I had another agency when I left Fubu.
It was called Breaking Trust. Breaking means remember that, yeah,
breaking means brain office, and it was it was on
Broadway in like twentieth.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes so kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Closer Union Square and uh brain Trust. So me and
Spencer Chan we had an agency and we had oh
yeah you remember because you were at Rebox. So we
had Reebok as a client. We got it through stout right,
and uh, he said come by. He was still kind
(02:37):
of toggling Peter Arnell group, right, So he's like, come
by Arnell, let's go over some stuff. So we go
by there and the conversation immediately like veers into I'm
doing a shoe with Jay. I was like my knee
jerk was that's whack, right, And then he started talking
(03:00):
about he started talking about it's going to be a
country color play, so tell me more. So he's like, yeah,
we're we're thinking golf and we're thinking tennis and tennis.
Tennis is the baseline for Bobby Joseph. Right, I don't play,
(03:24):
but there's a there's a it's the aesthetic. It's dope
boy chic. Yes, right, So he says tennis ears perk up.
Then we go over to stuh blah blah blah. So
we we he plants that seed, we leave it, we
go over all the other business we had. He's like,
(03:44):
you want to go down we're leaving. You want to
see the shoe. I was like this. I was like
all right, So we go down. He has a driver outside,
pops a trunk. He pulls out the nineteen eighty four
reinterpretation and I was like, damn, held it. This is perfect, right,
Like this is the dope boy shoe, Like if there
(04:06):
was a dope Boy museum, Like this is a dope
boy right. So they did everything they had to. It
was perfect. So me and Spencer leave were walking back
up to the N and R and the whole time
I'm like, did you see that the job? And he's like,
see what it was a shoe and I was like no.
So we get back to the office a tear of
(04:29):
paper bag in half. I start sketching, sketching, sketching. It's
like he's like, I don't see what you see. We
stayed there the whole night, slept on the desk. He
was like, oh, I get it. So then he does
his thing and he puts his stink on it. But
I say that to say part of it as it
(04:50):
As we were evolving the idea, this is we were
doing two point zero, right. They didn't ask us no.
I was just inspired. So we were doing two point
zer and in that it kind of gave me the
idea we should really lean into the packaging, and Spencer
is like the most competitive designer I've ever met. So
(05:11):
he's like more than you, like ninety seven times one good.
So he hears packaging and goes ham Sandwich. So he
creates this box that's a drawerbox, and I say this
where I'm connecting the dots is the drawerbox and the
(05:34):
extra shoelaces and the toothbrush and the cleaner that didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Exist, thank you.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
This is O three. It did not exist. So it
was you know, when we did the we did a
box that was tied to specifically golf, and it came
with an S Dot Carter golf club. It came with
additional golf balls that were branded. It was all that right.
So so and I called Steve. I was like, yo,
(06:03):
I need a meeting. He was like about what. I
was like, just put me on the calendar. So we
get on the calendar. I get like two days later,
we get on the calendar and we present and he's like,
you did this in two days. I said, we did
this that night and he was like he was like, yeah,
this is nuts. So it took a year for the
(06:27):
shoe to get green light greenlit, green lighted, and but
like I said, like that, I did so that my
first shoe, the two hundred and forty thousand pairs. I
had never done a shoe before, right, and that the
he was like, he was like, yo, can you send
(06:47):
me those boards? Right? This is the he it was
the anyway set the boards. Obviously they copied him, right,
because this was before the deal was even done.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
This is so much context that I didn't even know.
This is how you got to designing this, so please.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, So he got the boards and so here we
are twenty twenty five, twenty two years later, and it's commonplace.
It's commonplace to do. What was the Jordan box that
came with too?
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Oh yeah, the two packs two packs or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
But all that stuff didn't exist prior to then.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
So you almost positioned yourself to design the S dot
carter without them even asking you.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
They didn't ask. I was inspired.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
I was just like and he was just coming to
you as a mind, a designed mind that he knows.
Let me just let Bobby.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
No, no, no, no, we were there to go over.
We had Reebok was a client, okay, and he teed
us up because I had pitched him on this headwear program.
Because remember Reebok had the NFL. That's right, So Jeff
tweet he was like, oh, you need to go holler
at Steve. Steve is heading up, he's running the show
(08:02):
at Reebok. So he gives me Seve's info. I meet
him at his temporary apartment as his Tribeca place was
being remodeled, right, and I gave him an NDA and
he signed it like this. He's like, nah, I don't
care about whatever. And he was like he was looking
at the headwear presentation. He's like, he's like, this is nuts.
(08:26):
Do you want to do any other work? And we
had just left right, We had no clients, no nothing, right.
We was like just out of pocket. The rent was
like four thousand a month, and I was like, yeah,
let's let's let's do something. And yeah, they they we did.
We did like that in ten months. We did like
seven hundred thousand business with them.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Which is so wild. Back then, back at which to
thank you for context, which which is huge, but it's
also a great segue because I think you are such
a great representation of the culture of what I call
betting on yourself. Yes, but I also look at you
as you were like one of the meanest ghost writers
(09:09):
in this no in this industry from an apparel and
a footwear standpoint, and you teed it up on the
stock carter, which was the example that I was using
or was going to reference. What was the moment that
you decided like, now it's time to bet on myself
to the way that you are right now, we're going
to get into the brand because I think that's a
(09:32):
significant thing that people need to know. And why Because
you were at all the prominent brands and you were
designing all the prominent looks and setting the tone for
the cultural uniforms. To then bet on yourself, somebody would
be like, well, why you're already doing it in all
these different environments. What was that thing that you said, Yo,
(09:54):
it's time to bet on.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It's a long time, man, I know it took a
long time. It was like, and I feel like you're.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Just now getting there to be completely.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
So I talk about these other two guys because they
are really important in terms of my design journey. Emmitt
heral Aliyasha more Right. So, we we eventually all converged
at Mecca, USA, Right, We were like team three, Right,
(10:25):
And what I learned working with them. Is what we
all learned is we learned the skill of being the vendor,
being a hired gun, being the right So in in,
in and and fine tuning that you you learn, you
(10:53):
learn how to sell, You learn how to have ideas well,
because the goal is the money. Right, So the goal
is like I want this company to hire me to
design this thing. Right, So in that in that you
you they you don't want them to be thinking about
(11:16):
should we So you go into the meeting and like
they give you the scope and you be like, oh no,
and right, just start start shooting. So so that skill
was fine tune over years and years and years and
years years how to like reel them in. That's the
worst skill you could have with your own self, right,
(11:39):
just too critical. You could be like I want to
make for example, I had it in my sketchbook for
over a decade, the perfect white shirt. Right. Well, you
have this skill of doing it for others. But when
(11:59):
you when you have the like idea, generation refinement, uh
and final execution, when you use those same things on yourself, man,
you be stuck. You'd be like, it's never good enough,
It's never good enough for yourself, right, You're like you
don't want you don't want you know, I don't want
(12:21):
to be whacked. I don't want to do that. So
it took me a long time to get to that point.
It took me a long time. And so the betting
on myself was like I had to listen to my
own advice. You had one of the quotes, my done
(12:43):
is better than your perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Break that down.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
I love that my done is better than you're perfect. Like,
so you doing trying to you trying to hit the perfect.
You'll be here forever. You'll be here forever. Right, So,
like you had to eventually with this podcast, go I
gotta get it done, like you know, like you probably
(13:08):
didn't like doing it on Zoom initially, but you had
to do it. You knew what it was calling you
when we met, and so it was calling you, like
yelling at you. Right, so it was like, I have
to I have to do it. I have to do it,
I have to do it now. If you would have
applied your hired assassin lens to it, you would have
(13:29):
never did that. You would have never did it like that, right,
Like if it wasn't this, if it wasn't this perfect,
that you had to evolve to you would have never
did it, so eventually I had to, Like I'd been
telling my younger siblings for years, my done is better
than your perfect. My done is better than your perfect.
And then and then, you know, I'm waffling for years
(13:52):
on Bobby Joseph, and then I just had to.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Just yo, I'm so and you know it's wild man.
You know, I've known you personally for years, that's decades,
and I've watched and I've told you this in person,
the evolution of you as a man, and especially when
you became a father, I saw a distinct change, because
you know, anybody who knows you'd be like, oh no,
Bobby was one of the most arrogant people ever. And
(14:17):
when you were even telling that story about the Papa
Pap Pip, I could see you in those meetings and
people looking at you like, who is this arrogant ass
design I would think he knows everything, But it really
was your passion of it is. Thank you of creating
something special and now I'm so glad to be able
to see it come through the reflection of your brand
(14:38):
right and not necessarily coming through in other people's interpreting
or other brands you're now doing it on your terms
in your brand, but that my done is better than
your perfect if you don't put that on a T
I mean like that just hit me.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
It hit me when I heard it. I didn't make
it up. I read it somewhere and I was like,
out right, and you've run with it. I mean, yeah,
it'll it'll get you up off the seat.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So I mean, now, I look at that is a
significant reason or why behind the Bobby Joseph brand. So
talk about that and talk about what's the point of
differentiation between Bobby Joseph the brand and everything else that
we see in the smart because as you and I
both know, this is oversaturation is like an understatement, I
(15:31):
mean an understatement. Why is it now that this is needed?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
So I have the verticals of the brand, music, literature,
my son, right, uh, sport culture and I don't I
don't use culture the term loosely. I really mean sport
culture right, meaning there there there are specific things in
(16:02):
sport that are specific to the sports, specific to the
overall idea of athletics. So those are the those are
some of the verticals. And I have the horizontals, right,
So some of the horizontals are genius. So where in
the music vertical, for example, I started off the year
(16:26):
with Dyla and the second one was Shahdh And if
you hear those two, are you familiar? You know they're geniuses,
like hands down, hands down, right, So there's the music boom.
Then over here where we talk about like sport culture
and just the overall brand, it's my brand ethos is
(16:46):
dope boy chic, right, and dope boy chic. And I'm
not glorifying like you know, uh, drug dealing, but that
look did not exist before. And the look is born
out of tennis. The look is born out of Fela ls,
(17:08):
Sergio Tacchini, Adidas, right, and it's very specific, these very
color blocked, uh elevated fabrics, sweatsuits. I mean it was
shorts and polos and things like that too, but the
sweatsuit is the thing that's endured, right, it's look at me.
It's expensive. So there's it creates distance. So the the
(17:34):
brand Ethosis is dope boy chic. So so whereas a
lot of people like not a lot of people, and
I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't wanna, I
don't wanna diminish any other brand, right, everybody's trying. I
was looking at some of the questions so to jump ahead,
Like one of the things that you have to be
is you gotta be whack. You gotta be whack at
(17:57):
some point, like you're just not gonna jump out the
box and be perfect. Right. So, Like I've made some
products that didn't sell, I didn't love. I wish I
would have did this thing differently, but I had to
get it out of my head. So the differentiation point
is like I got I got the I got the
(18:18):
trademark for my name in I think twenty twelve, twenty twelve,
something like that. And so here we are thirteen years later.
There's a bunch of years in it. I made some
wax stuff. There's a bunch of years where I didn't
make anything anything right, So so here we are now
(18:40):
I have my my feet under me. Like I know
I want to do music, right, genius. I know I
want to do sport culture. I know I want to
do literature. I know I want to do stuff that
relates to my son, right, But it took me a
long time to get you know what I mean. Like
(19:01):
I had to make a T shirt with a world
War one, Uh, illustration of a fighter plane and be
like that ain't me you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You know it's a it's a testament to I think
a journey, right everybody. I think our society is so
programmed to just look at the ends. And you are
giving a perfect example of it took a journey. It
took chapters, Yes, it took different you know, learnings, adversity, winds, winds, blessings.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Ls L lessons or bless blessings, blessings. Okay, yeah, I was,
I was writing. I was no, I just saw this
another day. I was. I think I was doing not
the other day, but I was working on my deck. Yeah,
and I wrote lessons on there and then I put
a B in parentheses in front, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That's another one something, there's something something, another one, yes,
because it's nothing a loss, it's a lesson. But the
bless songs yeah wow yeah, No, I mean, but I'm
so glad you're sharing that, because again, we're in a
society where you don't get privy to the journey, and
(20:13):
you don't get you don't get privy to the reality
of time. Right, things take time. We're so microwave like
every they want to put something in for ninety seconds
and they's supposed to pop immediately. Where we come from
an era of the oven bake, like let that thing
marinate six good hours.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
It ain't never going back to that though, Okay, it
ain't never going back to that. So, like you don't
want to hang on to that too tight.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Okay, tightly, right, But there has to be an evolution
of what that represents. How do we give things time
to become what they can be?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Like yourself, I think my target demo is not super
young people. So because my target demo is more of
my aid hmm, they they want it right now. That's
why I was telling you earlier. I was like, I
can't really do the the I can't plant seats for
(21:10):
too long on social right because like, no matter what
the demo is, they like yo, I need yo stop.
I need let me right now, right right now. That's
what That's what the phone did. It's like it's binary,
it's yes or no. It's not. You're not gonna keep
just stringing me along. So so I understand the like
(21:33):
I remove the like. I understand both sides of the fence,
particularly because you know, you know I wear all the hats,
and you know, so I really, I really get. I
get the I do the research, I do the design,
and and I shipped the goods so and everything in between.
(21:53):
So I really get. I get all the data. I
get the I get the why the my hat manufacturer
is mad at me, right, you know what I mean?
And I get why the consumer is elated when they
get the the origami folded tissue paper.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Right, you know what I mean. But you're also nimble
enough and I don't want to say small enough to
do that, right. And I think that's another learning of
being in the big machine and now just betting on
yourself and doing it this way, because you can truly
take all those learnings and apply them as you see fit,
not somebody else's interpretation and ego of how they want
(22:32):
to push it through. That's all you, which I think
again is the beauty of seeing you in this space
and growing. And I listen to you, know, I know
how much sport plays a role in your life, right,
Like we've played ball for years. I missed them and
moments to against with one another, and I know what
(22:53):
that competitive juice and just waking up Saturday mornings and
knowing we got to get there early to get on
the list, to be on the right team. Are there
other influences or people that have influenced you greatly in
your creative vision?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Oh? Absolutely, I yeah, it's funny, this is interesting. I
just recorded this for myself, like a friend of mine
who was a producer. We're just in the backyard, just
just chopping it up. She asked a similar question, and
I was like, so, I have it teed up and
ready for you please. It's my parents. It's ah Guy
(23:35):
Guy Would and Troy Johnson from five thousand and it's
eminent in Aliasha context on each So both of my
parents are informally trained, but like, because it's been so
(23:58):
long now they're masters. So my mother has been sowing
since she was a child, and and they come from
they were teenagers in the sixties in the Northeast, So
you had to dress or you just wouldn't have access,
(24:20):
you couldn't get the job, you wouldn't have the social latitude.
You had to dress, you know what I mean. So, like,
so clothes were important to them. But in that because
their parents were you know, crafts people or something like,
they they got the seed from their parents and then
(24:41):
they took it wherever. So like my mother, my mother's
probably she's top five designer I've ever met ever and
doesn't want to be famous, doesn't want to be no, right,
And my father all so has you know, he doesn't
(25:02):
know he has I don't know if he knows he
has technical skills, but he like supremely like he has.
He has a thousand species of plants in his backyard.
He's a beekeeper. He paints, you know, like growing up,
we was always remodeling something, built a barn for you
know what I mean, like so all you know, so
like they they have that thing and then like so
(25:25):
then jumping to guy in Troy, I get to New York.
I have never met anybody like that in my life.
Like they made all the clothes for every video, every tour,
every video, every every everything. Right, so they had to
to Harlem dudes, they had to sell it to the
(25:46):
labels until they got you know, now they bad Bunny right,
but before that, when he was doing Biggie or Lil
Kim or Mary J. Blige or whatever, like, they had
to they had to get the labels to believe like, oh,
they know what they're doing and so like I had
never seen that coming from California, like the cars, the jewelry,
(26:09):
the shoes, the clothes, the glasses, like every day all
the time. And then and then Emmett and Don Juan,
like emmittt Virginia Beach grew up with Pharrell Uh, Aliyasha
Brooklyn you know, grew up with most death you know,
(26:32):
like they just I was I was telling in the
in the in the clip, I was saying, Aliyasha did
a T shirt that I'll never forget. It was like
this might have been like late nineties, and it was.
It was a step by step figure line art figure
drawing of somebody doing tai chie so figure one was this. Yeah,
(26:56):
And I was like, coming from where I come from,
that would never be a reference. I would never you
know what I mean, Like that's a that just was
that's in your level of interest, you know what I mean?
Or like when I met Emmett, he had a brand
that he was doing sublimated soccer goalie jerseys in the
(27:21):
nineties as a as as a brand play, not like
he worked for Umbro or he was doing it. No,
he was like, nah, this is the this is the
vibe and So those three groupings of like creatives really
shaped why I am.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I love that and I love how it started with
your parents and the influence that they had and have
had on you. And you know, I kind of transitioned
to look at, you know, the times that we're in today,
like we're in some yeah, to say the least right
to say and given the state of things, I mean,
(28:03):
we need more parents like that. What are you doing
specifically to ensure that the cultures and the spaces you
frequent and are kind of being nurtured and pour it
into properly and kind of what would you recommend creatives
do to ensure that these cultures remain and I don't
want to say intact, but just cared for the way
(28:26):
that they need to.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Simple answer, got to participate, Okay, you got to get
in there. You can't do it from sidelines. You can't
be like what you should do is take that box
over there. You got to actually go show to whomever,
lift the box like this, use your knees, carry down there,
(28:49):
put it on the dolly, call for the elevator, take
it down, stack it this way, make sure the labels
facing out like you know, I'm using it as a
weird anow and like, you gotta get in it. You
got you can't do it from the sidelines. You can't
do it on the phone. Every now and then you'd
be like, Yo, come through, We're doing X, Y, and Z.
I want you to I want you to meet this person.
(29:11):
I want you to have this experience. I want you
to be whack. You got to grow from something. I
got another one for you, another saying that I heard
say yes to everything, Say yes to us, say yes
to everything. You can filter, you can figure it out later.
What you gotta what you have to calibrate, you know,
(29:33):
like you may you may you said yes, I'm going
to speak on this podcast, and then you get there,
and you know you be like me, right, you know
what I mean, like and you and you calibrate from there.
Or or conversely, you could go and be like, yo,
this was this exceeds my expectations, right, But you have
(29:53):
to say so. So I heard this maybe two years ago,
and I've been trying to I've been trying to implement that.
Say yes to everything, say yes to everything, Go get
your hands dirty, participate, you know, be answer the phone. Hey,
this this person wants to get your vite, give some
free game, Give some free game.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
It sounds almost like it's also similar to your my
done is better than you're perfect. Yeah, because like you're doing,
you have to do, you got to do it, and
just be an example of it in the spaces that
mean a lot to you, as opposed to just sitting
on the sideline and watching and complaining.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
My son's playing basketball, right, So he's playing out to
why we go there one day? There's no practice, So
I said, we're already here. I'll work you out. So
we're doing drills and I'm glad I set up the
camera to capture this at the During the drills, he
(31:00):
and I'm like on him right, like he had he
been kind of playing, but he hadn't. He didn't have
any kind of formal instruction. And I'm not saying I'm
I'm training to do this, but I'm more trained in
the eight year old eight year old time. So we're
going through a drill. He doesn't quite get it right,
and then he just hugs me and says, will you
(31:23):
will you be the parent coach for my team? Right? Yeah, yes, yes,
yes I will. So. So I'm talking to my dad
one day and I'm you know, a couple of seasons
in because they have a lot of seasons in a
year because it's like eight games, so they play eight
(31:43):
or ten games then they restart. So I'm talking to
my father and I'm telling him about I have all
these like uh, what's the imposter syndrome? And he was like,
get over it. He was like, all those other parents
won't do it there on the sidelines, right, so they
(32:06):
can't say shit, m h. And I'm in it making
the mistakes, being whack. I never coached. I mean, I've
had team, I've.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Mad and you've played I've played that.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Man, I created teams and stuff like that, but I've
never coached, right, So it was like, all right, So
seeing where where they are in terms of skill level,
try to l it elevate it from here what I learned.
And I'm using this as an analogous to even designers
or whatever. So like a lot of them kids have
(32:40):
never been complimented, you know what I mean. Like I'm like,
great shot, you did a left hand lay up, and
then and then and then they're all like I did
you know what I mean? Like and you could see
it in their face, like nobody's ever been as excited
for me. So you got to get in it.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Few And you know something else that you said that
is really I think necessary to hear. It's okay to
make I don't want to call the mistakes, but to
be whack like you have to have those moments. I
think that's the other thing where people they look at
other people's journeys or other people's stories anything. Oh, there
was never anything whack right right. There was never any
(33:23):
downfall or robum. It was a lot. There was a ton,
just it hasn't been exploited, it hasn't been spoken about
or but I think we probably need to do that more.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I didn't even know that until I left Fuoble, because
like I got there. When I got there, I was like,
I need to make on this next job, I'm going
to make some royalties, right, And I didn't know how.
(33:55):
I just knew. I just knew them in the back
of my mind. I was like, I'm going to create
something that I'm a participating, right. And so I got
there and I wrote that into the contract. I was like,
I have this idea, didn't have it, it wasn't fleshed
out yet, but I got so they was like, hey, yeah,
whatever they was doing, they was doing. They were shipping
twenty million a month. So they was like, yeah, whatever million.
(34:15):
They was like whatever, sure, right, and and so so
then I'm there. I get there in July. I'm walking
down the street and soho and say August and I
get the idea. Boom, that's it, all right, cool, Now
(34:37):
I have this tucked away for me to develop. And
and the thing Platinum Fuobu that I created didn't come
out until I got there. And I got there in
July of ninety eight. It didn't come out till April
two thousand.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Oh wow, right, okay, So yeah, so this.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Is like a year and a half of me doing
inline product for them. I was, you know, I was
VP of Designed to Merchandizing. But like I was doing
their thing right, right, And so when I left, I
got to look back and go, damn, they let me
be whack for a year and a half, right, And
they let me be whack because it was doing twenty
(35:21):
million a month. I was like, whatever, we just need
somebody like to to head the ship, you know. But
like the stuff that I I mean, I mean, I
did NBA and I you know, I had some hits,
but overarchingly, like I could look back at that product
and that was not compelling, right, that was not it
was off brand for them. It was more of my ego.
(35:48):
So not that it was like done by a child,
it just was not on brand. And so I could
look back at that product for that first year and
a half and go like, damn, they let me, and
they paid me a lot of money, right, and then
it's like, they pay me a lot of money for
you very well. Yeah, and so yeah, that was a blessing.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
You know, you've shared a lot of I think, great
insight that so many people can learn from, but also
get more insight into you and kind of your journey.
I would love to hear if there were like three seeds,
three seeds that you would leave for the stewarts of
culture moving forward, what would those three things be?
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Success is a collective, right, I am successful in any
of these stops because there were people to help me,
right and vice versa. Right, I probably get more out
of the assist than making a shot.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Like I called you the consonant ghostwriter, but yeah, go
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
So the success is collective. Elevate others, right, like it's
it's it's great to see somebody get get the shine,
you know. Magic Johnson said the best. He's like, I
like the assist. He was like, when you score the basket,
(37:25):
one person's happy, when you assist, two people are happy.
I was like, I like that. I love that. I
like that. And the last one is to share the info.
Can't die with this information, man, There's no there's no
upside to leaving and having it all stored. It's like
it's like dying with money, Like what would you do
that for?
Speaker 1 (37:47):
Man? Listen, I personally am am so grateful that we
had this conversation because, like I said, and you corrected me,
known you for decades and I've been able to watch
your professional and personal growth over that span of time.
And it's the beauty of you delivering those three seeds
(38:11):
when I don't know if you would have delivered those
thirty years ago, yeah, twenty years ago. And so I'm
grateful to be able to see this and hear this
because I know how much you can serve to others
and you have and I want you to know. Great
job of making that left handed. Later, bro, you should
(38:32):
be applauded as well for your growth. It's seen as
a human human, it's seen, and I'm elated, elated to
see that growth. And I'm so thankful for anybody who
comes in contact with you to be able to receive it,
because you've got so much to offer. Thank you, and
(38:53):
for that, I thank you.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Likewise, Likewise, we truly appreciate your support because it helps
us fulfill our mission of promoting cultural awareness and personal development.
Please click the subscribe button below to help ensure and
solidify our mission
Host
Astor Chamber
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