E508: Jonathan Azu, Amber Croom, Dr. Marc Baxter, Dana Chanel & Prince Donnell

Episode Transcript
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that she has the secrets of success experience firsthand by

(01:50):
marketing a Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's
given me advice to many occasions. In the case you
didn't notice, I'm not broke, you know he'll be interviewing
celebrity CEOs, on crepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what
he likes to do, it's what he likes to share.
Now it's time to hear from my man, ra Sean
McDonald Money Making Conversations. Here we go. It's always good

(02:10):
to be introduced. It's always good to have great guests
on your show. That they're the game changes. That's the
two people I'll be interviewing on a minute. Let me
set up the stage, Let me set up the platform.
You're listening to Money Making Conversation. I am the host
of this show. Um. This series is a talk show
series that about entrepreneurship and entertainment. I provide the consumer

(02:31):
and business owner access to celebrity CEO, entrepreneurs and industry
decision makers. It's important to understand that everybody travels a
different path to success. That's because your brand is different.
The challenges you face in your life are different. So
stop reading other people's success stories and start writing your own.
Now you can be motivated by their success because their

(02:51):
stories can offer a direction and help you reach your
goals through your planning and committed effort. My guests on
Money Making Conversation have the same passion and they share
that information when we talk about their career motivation, what
they're promoting, how they live in balanced life, and their
secrets success. It's really uh great. You know, it's the
start of new year. We always know in the first

(03:12):
quarter people have these goals of these News Year New
Year resolutions to change, to lose weight, to be better parents,
to be better people, to to save money, to to
make money. But it all starts with a plan. These
are just goals, these are just dreams, but you have
to be consistent with your planning. Like a young power couple,

(03:32):
they're very consistent with their goals and very uh, very
articulate and how they're changing the world. Their true entrepreneurs
and on the show today to talk about several of
their enterprises. There are many. They're the co creators and
this is something new co founders, a fragrance line for
men and women. You know, I gotta talk about that.
Rashaan always like to smell good. Sprinkle of Jesus, which

(03:54):
is the number one Christian mobile app with over five
million users, curl Bible which is the number one Black
owned online but you just supply distribution store, and Jumping
Jack Tax the fastest growing tax preparation service company in
the country. See all I lay it out there. They
number one across the board. Bam, bam, bam bam. Please
welcome back to Money Making Conversation. My girl Danish and

(04:17):
now and my boy Prince done. What's up team and Prince,
how y'all doing? Good morning? How are you d you
literally give a little exciting introduction we've ever heard, so
thank you for that. You are so good at what
you do. Well, you guys are good at what you do.
You know, I recently had prints on the show and

(04:37):
I wanted this, Uh, thank you guys. I gave him
some information. I think I told Prince about the success
when you when you guys came down to the HBCU
week that was in Wimington, Delaware, September twenty or last year. UM,
you know with that college fair where you were speaking
at dana UM they had owned registration for hbc U
schools and they registered twelve hundred students over full during

(05:00):
the twenty seven receives scholarships full and partial. They total
three point nine million dollars. Wow, that's that level of participation.
You you have to take credit. You were there. You know,
your your time was there, Your time was spaid. Prince
was there doing his thing, motivating talking though. I remember
you guys sat down and hit the conversation with Stephen A.

(05:21):
Smith about what what you guys are trying to do.
And there's always you, always the both of you guys
are always moving forward to inspire people. I want to
hear from you first day and then Prince, I want
you to share your vision on moving forward? What what
what drives that inspiration? I mean, the goal is to
move forward together, you know what I mean? I just

(05:42):
feel like there are so many you know all we're
all about family business, and we're all about family generational
wealth and and the goal is for us to continue
to aspire that one person in the family who has
the chosen one. Because at the end day, we know
that our message is not for everyone. We know that
everyone's not called to be an entrepreneur, we know that
everyone is not called to be a leader. But if

(06:04):
our message and we could just get it out to
that specific chosen person and your family and their family
and the families across the country, then we can rise
them up to the accountability and responsibility level that they
need to have in order to change the next generation
of their family. And so when it comes to business,

(06:25):
there's just so many hidden talents and just extraordinary things
that each individual family member could do, but there was
just never that one person that could pull it all
together for them to do it. For each other instead
of doing it for a corporation who could care less
what responsibility you have. And you are just a number,
You are just a you know, you're just a You're
just a person that at any point in time they

(06:45):
can let go. And so for us, our vision behind
all of our companies is literally creating an opportunity from
licensing to um with jumping jack tax to distribution for
getting people's products out there. But what's most important is
that we were able to do it together. And Don
and I have quickly found like what we're both individually

(07:09):
really good at, and then together it's like we have
absolutely no weaknesses and so um our recent project that
we came out with was co Founders, which is a
his and her fragrance on their two completely different sense
um and the goal behind it was, Dude, you have
no idea how much love and support we've gotten from

(07:31):
like social media, like people always in especially like older
people too, so like oh my gosh, social media is
the enemy blah blah blah, like it's the devil's playground,
but it also the breeding ground of purpose and extraordinary
like love when you're using it in the right way.
And from the beginning, since me and Don have started dating,
like literally, so many people have been so supportive, so
we just kind of wanted to put it in product form.

(07:53):
It's called co founders because we believe that every family business,
every family unit, starts with its co founders. Well, great, prince,
your turn, my man. I was kind of challenging the
file from there, but well, you know, I let the
headline and go first night, Let the headline go first.

(08:14):
That's the benefits of being with an extraordinary women. So
I think that she summed it up correct, is that
we are the co founders of our family, and we've
been using this term more and more over the past
few months. I think that when me and Dana first
originally started our brands, it was separate. You know, she

(08:36):
had her own separate brand and what she was selling
it and I had my own separate brand and what
I was selling because we were trying to build individually.
But now we've come to realize over these of course
of these past six months, that everything that we do
together in a sense of promotion and a sense of
putting our minds together from a business standpoint, from a

(08:57):
marketing standpoint, knowing how to run the company from a
corporate perspective when we put it like how to lead
our teams effectively, that when we put our minds together, uh,
we we just truly can be stopped. And when we're believers,
were we're believers that you know, uh, that our business
will only go as far as the bond that we

(09:18):
have with each other. And so we lean on each
other and we understand our weaknesses, we understand our strengths,
and we we we play our lane and play our position.
And ultimately what keeps I don't know, you know, Danny
gave her perspective, but what keeps me going is that, Um,
I believe that it sounds cliche, but I truly have
a purpose from God of understanding that uh we're sent

(09:41):
here on this earth with a mission. Right like for example,
when Moses was sent here, when Jesus was sent here,
when Abraham was sent here, they all had missions that
they had to play and that mission could not be
like in no way, shape or form, nobody could deter
them from that mission. They knew that they to hit
the target. And even when you look at uh animals, right,

(10:04):
an animal when he's when he or she is on
this earth has a mission to either mate to hunt
and to reproduce, like reproduce, and they follow that mission
to the team. Humans make it complicated. So for me,
I'm just trying to get to the point to where
I'm not trying to complicate my life but focusing in

(10:26):
specifically on the mission of what God has me here
to do until it's my time to go. And uh
hopefully I hopefully I make him proud of that that
make me proud and that I'm telling you it really does.
As a couple, you make me proud because in the
lanes that you guys are changing the game. First of all,

(10:48):
usually it's like people before that, you know, people my age,
you know, we experience people you know, you know, and
you guys are like telling young people and it's important
that you hear there's in a positive manner because like
I told Prince last he's on the show, Dan, I
went to the website and I saw these young people
on the cover, you know, and that letting letting them know.
And I always tell people in my conversation with him

(11:09):
this that your dream starts in your in your early years,
you know, when you're in a team, to when you
you know you're inspired to do great things. And what
happens is when people hit their forties and fifties, sometimes
those dreams are have been in a different direction. They
may get mad, they may have kids. They might people
if they saw listening to the wrong people too much,
saying hey, man, you're crazy for doing that. I remember

(11:30):
when I left IBM to be a stand up comic.
You know what, I many people told me I was crazy,
But look at me now. So you have to you
have to stop listening to people and so. But you
guys didn't listen y'all, y'all stay focused because you had
a family of entrepreneurship pushing you forward. That drive, it's
what makes you successful today. Just this this, I'm about
to wrap up this break because you know you guys, y'all, y'all.

(11:51):
You know I could just say as one question, I'm
gonna talk about two or three minutes. That's why I
love both of you. I don't have to work. I
don't have to work when I get d n P
on the phone, you know, Dan and prints on the phone.
But what I do want to make sure that people
understand that Jumping Jack Taxes is the first and fastest
growing tax company in the country to bring tax professional
to you. Just located Jumping Jack partner on our mobile app.

(12:13):
That right there, My man, it's a game change. We
come back, We're gonna get a little bit more detailed
because I want to also talk about the co founders.
We kind of like glossed over that because you know,
you got to ship me some cologne on here so
I can smell good for the young folks. You're back
from more money making conversations with Sean McDonald and my
favorite couple, Dana and Prince. Hi just ra Sean McDonald

(12:41):
and you're listening to money making conversation? Is tax season?
And Dana and Prince created the virtual tax preparation service
Jumping Jack Tax and the book keeping service software jack
Books to help people file their taxes and manage their
business finances on the phone. Is Dana and press tell
me again? Uh? I know French, she was on the
show of December talking about this. Dana as well. Talk

(13:04):
to me about exactly why did jump in Jack tax
jump off? How can you license it? And why is
it growing so fast? Absolutely? Uh well, basically I think
number one we can all agree right now that the
tax business is a universal service. Me need that every

(13:25):
single person across the country one needs their taxes done
or they're going to get penalties that they're going to
go to jail. Thank the government for that. So, but
that being we went into an industry where every single
person needs their taxes done, so everybody is your customer.
And also when you look at it as well, when
you when you walk around our communities, this is a

(13:47):
need based business. This is something that everybody, uh, everybody needs.
So when I look at it, I say to myself, Uh,
this is a perfect business for uh, somebody that wants
to go into entrepreneur worship it needs a blueprint, or
somebody that is already in entrepreneurship but looking for an
additional stream of revenue, or an entrepreneur who's looking for

(14:08):
an exit playing out of the business that they're currently in.
I think Taxes is the perfect opportunity. And the reason
why it's jumping off the way it is with so
much momentum is because we've created a blueprint. I think
something that why the reason why you see so many
nel salons all across the country is because they have
a set blueprint in place that whoever wants opened up

(14:31):
in nelsalon. That's in the Asian community can follow that
blueprint to the tea and just open it up. But
people hate complication, especially going into entrepreneurship. Um everybody, I
don't believe that everybody is a visionary, right, You've got
some people who can follow a system, because remember we
were all taught to follow systems from from from children.

(14:51):
You know, go to school, go to lunch, go to break,
do our homework, come back to school every day. And
we're doing that every single day of our of our
entire life eyes. So people follow systems very rarely do
you have somebody that goes the opposite way of the
system to start something, you know, creative. So what we
did was we wanted to create a simple system, a

(15:12):
simple blueprint that when we license out the Jumping Jack
Tax brand to you or whoever is listening to this,
basically you hop on, we give you the blueprint and
you'll be able to start generating revenue right away. And
that's the reason why it's becoming so popular because people
are like, wow, I didn't know how simple it was
for me to do this. Now I'm not saying simplicity

(15:32):
in the sense of you don't got to do work,
because within any system, you still gotta work hard, but
the work required to build the foundational piece of the business,
that's the part that they're skipping over, uh to be
able to start generating revenue. And that's when made Jumping
Jack Tax super unique. I don't think that we did
anything different than other tax companies other than the fact
that we did, of course implement technology, but technology was

(15:56):
still already around in the tax industry to begin with. Um,
you have other tax companies that have way bigger, way
bigger budgets for technology. But I think that we brought
such a great cool perspective, a fresh and cool perspective,
and we also brought the culture to the company. What
do I mean by the culture? While when you look
at a lot of other tax companies, many of them

(16:18):
are are ran by those of the white community, or
maybe not the white community, of other other nationalities that
are not African American or other minorities such as Hispanic.
So when we brought the culture, we now brought this
vision to where the everyday person can do taxes from

(16:38):
their home and they got a sweatsuit on and they
look really cool like in every day individual. So with
that being said, it made everybody say, wow, you look
just like me, and you prepare taxes in generating money.
I didn't know that I could do that, And now
everybody is like, hey, this is this is a great
opportunity for me. Really, it really is because of the

(17:00):
fact that you're, you know, the the young generation, and
you guys are the young generations get such a bad rap.
You know, you want to do things. You don't work hard.
You know, you know you you you you wanna, you
want to run before you crawl, you know. But but
I love the fact that again, you're talking to your audience. Okay,

(17:20):
And I tell you right now that that audience you're
talking to I probably wouldn't reach. I probably wouldn't reach
because I'm not relatable. Because I'm there, I'm there. I
look like their father, I look like their uncle. You know.
You know. Okay, but then you you looking at YouTube tractive,
intelligent artick lick couple saying you can be me in

(17:41):
that same age twenty two three, twenty four, twenty six,
I can be you? Well, how can I be you?
Then you guys started talking. Then Daniels started talking, and
when she get tied prints take hold, I got your
baby tag team. We're gonna go get this money. I'm
gonna get paid. We're gonna let people, these young people
know they could be the look like us. They could
be millionaires and too, they could be millionaires of twenty

(18:01):
five correctly, correctly, that is what That's why I'm so
motivated when I talked to you, too, because at twenty two,
I didn't know who Rashana mcdonne was. You know, I was.
They took me seven years to graduate from college, so
I was just I was, you know, I was trying
to figure it out. And then when I was when
I figured it out, I was still allowing other people

(18:22):
to direct me and Shin, I don't know about that
because what I've learned is that you cannot talk to
people who cannot understand your dreams, because you cannot talk
to somebody who goes to work and realize they want
a career as afford they are afford our weak career
because they want They know what they're gonna do there,
and there's nothing negative. They know they're gonna be as

(18:43):
a bank teller. They know what they're gonna do if
they're a shelf, they know what they're gonna do if
they're truck driving or or data management person they know.
But if you asked me what I do every day,
I'm gonna really go I don't really, I really don't
feel like telling you because it's so tiring because of
changes every day. Isn't that correct, Nina? Yeah, absolutely, But

(19:05):
I think there's something extraordinary that you mentioned. I would say,
once again, the only reason we are here. And I
think this is very important to say out loud because
I hate the idea of like everyone on social media
being quote unquote successful, but yet you don't know their
history and not understanding where their money comes from. Because money,

(19:25):
like whenever you buy something, there's a receipt, whenever you
got the r SCS, money has been transferred. It needs
to be taxed, right, so there needs to be a
clear history. Okay, how are these young stupid kids who
are like you said, how why older people call us
um they're so they're so stupid, they're just young, they're
just run in real fact, they don't know what they're doing, Like,
how is it that they're year old millionaires and the

(19:47):
and the answer is is because this is what happens
when you build a strong foundation in the household and
you mix old wisdom with young stamina. And that is
the key that is important when you mix old old
wisdoms given by our father an extraordinary plans. And I

(20:07):
think that's something that we need to just remember, is
that the goal isn't for your kids to go figure
it out, go into more debt and then make decisions
trying to look for their life when we're supposed to
be starting life with thirty forty years experience. However old
your parents are. And so when our dad looked at
us and said, yo, I see your gifts and I
see your talents. Right, John, you're good with numbers, and
you're good with finances, right, and then I see you're

(20:29):
good with with communication skills. Got to hear you're good
with marketing, and I see that you're going to bring
people together for a common goal in a cals you
guys would be great. Let's actually pick a product or
service that actually is beneficial to our community. And so
once again it started with our co founders, and we
were our dad's first co founders. Now as we push
the envelope and we're taking on the next generation, we
will be the co founders of the next generation of

(20:51):
the family. Now when my father dies, and so we
are only in the tax business because there was wisdom
that said, hey, this is extraordinary service that you better,
you better take this over. But what happens is the
reason why we're jumping so far ahead of these other companies,
like I won't even say their names, because they don't
pay us right, they're not listening to young people. They're
not listening to us. And mind you, they're not even

(21:12):
utilizing our our stamina to say, yo, I got these
young kids who are willing to fight for a cause
and bring people together to let me use them. So
once again, our lane was so open. I believe on
God fooes us for this because he saw that our
families was willing to share, share money, share information, share opportunity.
And that's the only reason why we're here today is

(21:33):
because God saw that we were a family that was
going to rise up a nation of other minority families
to be self sufficient, self reliant, and capable of making
money so that we don't fall behind the april when
these jobs are sitting there just firing us because computers
are taking over. So that's specifically why my dad gave
us wisdom and we built the company there you go,
there you go, see you. I'll tell you I just

(21:53):
love to talk about Let me just tell you something
about this, uh, this conversation we have it. How do
I'll just want to reach out? How does want to
get in touch about becoming a part of the Jummy
Jack text platform and the book he from software service
Jack Books. Yeah, download the Jumping Jack tax app. All
our contact information is in there. Don't ever be afraid

(22:14):
to give us a call. But most importantly, like like,
and I just want to thank you for such an
extraordinary platform. Is like, dude, we can't keep listening to
inspirational content but doing nothing with what God breeds. Inspiration.
Inspire means God breathe. And so my thing is when
God breathes life into your mind, whoever is listening, who's ever,
whoever's watching, When God says something to you and gives

(22:35):
you that bright idea or that very thing that says,
you know what I need to make a change, do
something about it, act on it. Stop listening to inspirational content,
stop watching it on social media on Instagram fifty million times,
and let's do something about it. We are not out
here for our health. We're not out here for you
to watch us the most importantly, We're out here to
make sure you can provide for your family, So please

(22:55):
download the Jumping Jack tax app and support the co founders.
We're just trying to do every thing we possibly can
to make sure our families are good and not just
are yours? Still? Now? Friends? Amen? Can I get amen?
Right there? I gotta throw amen. Let everybody know you
your transition from that without saying amen or hallelujah. Now,
I want to say thank you so much. And I'm

(23:16):
so proud of what you're doing. And I'm glad that
wisdom like you helps and and put puts their hand
down to rise up young people like us. And I
just want to say thank you so much. This show
is so much for that, and I'm just so grateful.
I'm just tell you something. It's it's it's you know,
it took me a minute to figure out what rochean
what my what my next step in life. I've had
a tremendous amount of success in my life, but this

(23:38):
next step my legacy. This is my legacy journey. There'll
be able to create this platform and be able to
come on here. Hey, No. Nine and nine gonna pop
up when you click on my YouTube channel, my links.
So it's about this is free information. I'm fortunate to
get people like you to come on my show. You know,
there's no negative spirit on this show, so you can
tell people, Look, this is how we do it. Hard

(23:58):
work is always tied to six sense gold planning, persistency.
That's always And now now we've got this new fragrance line.
That's what really, that's why I wanted to bring you
on the show. Go and they's stepping over again, they's
stepping in a smell good lane co founders on Valentine's Day.
That's the launch date, Prince Absolutely. Lunch date is February four,

(24:20):
Chief two thousand and twenty. Now, now you got any
free at Banners dot com, which is also one of
our companies. But we wanted to not just um, you know,
drop the perkium and cologne line, but we wanted to
show people, Hey, you don't need permission, you know what
I mean, You don't need someone to tell you that
you can do this. We are on the owners of

(24:41):
the co founder name, we're owners of we trademark that
we're owners of the actual product itself and um all
the content and we're owners of the actual distribution platform,
and so we're here to support support not just us,
but the other people on carall Bible um. But we're very,
very excited and we just wanted a fragrance because it

(25:02):
is our love and our obedience to God. And when
we became co founders and became married, we brought two
families together that just broke so many generational curses, like
do you know that we were the first ever for
our family, our our little brother and sisters to see
a wedding m hm and your family. You can see
our parents get married before. So this is a huge

(25:23):
thing for us, for our family, for for you know,
for young black couples to see, there's no reason to
go looking for something you're not gonna find, but to
find purpose in your spouse. And you might as well
start getting to work for God as soon as possible
because your time is limited in here and both of you,
both of you to talk. You know, there's a responsibility
that comes because you know you're asking people to step

(25:43):
out and it's not the love. The point I like
is that it's not about just stepping out on fate,
but stepping out on the plan. And also you remind
people there's a lot of work involved. You know, let's
let's let's not just just don't get in land lying
with me. If you if you're hoping, if you hope
this happen, you know, harsh, I'll hope I get some money.
I show hope I get this, I get my taxes done,

(26:05):
I show hope I can start a business with them.
There's a business principle that's put in place, and that
that cares with a responsibility because people can follow you
out there and then not realizing that there's a certain
time commitment that has to be put in place. What
in saying that, then, what is the responsibility of being
who you two are when you're out there marketing, when

(26:27):
you're out there talking to people about being successful that
you can do or create your own legacy within the
minority community. I think the responsibility is showing ownership um
over the things that you have as opposed to what
you got um. I think one of the biggest one
of the biggest things I tell people all the time
is there's a difference between what you own versus what

(26:50):
you got right right, So, and this is what we
want to explain to people. This is the reason why
we're going to all of these different lanes because we
want to show the blueprint. Um, I give a clear
example of what that means. When people go to college,
for example, and they go and get a degree, they
think that they own a degree, but what they actually
got as a degree. And what I mean by that is, uh,

(27:12):
my definition of ownership is when you have the ability
to sell or transfer an asset at any given time,
at any given price, whenever you feel like it's right. Um,
I can because I own it, I own the name,
I own the right. Now, when you watch something, my
definition of what you got basically means that you're holding
this asset for the true owner. But at while you're

(27:35):
holding it, it comes with perks, right, that's this is
my definition of what you got. So my ideas when
you go to college, right, you go to college, you
get a degree, you don't own a degree. You got
a degree because if I got a degree, basically admit
that I could transfer or sell that degree to somebody
else if I wanted to, because I control the rules
of the degree. But the university told me no, I

(27:58):
can't do that. They said, no, you can't do that.
This is yours you gotta somebody else gotta go get it,
because that means you have right to sell um to us.
What we're trying to do is ownership. We're trying to
show true ownership, and basically in a sense of, Hey
own your name, Hey own intellectual properties, Hey only own

(28:21):
your ideas. Hey own real estate, Hey own stocks and bonds,
Hey own uh whatever it is that you have the
ability to sell or transfer down to your children or
to somebody else for profit, or in a sense of
if the economy were to collapse right now, do I

(28:45):
have anything to sell to be able to transfer for
the newest asset that makes my family comfortable? What if
that newest asset is right? Because we all need rights
in order to eat. But money no longer exists, Fiat
money is no longer around, So now I don't have
money no more because that that has no value. Do
I have some sort of asset that I own that

(29:05):
I can transfer now to say, Hey, I need to eat,
I need to take care of my family. And that's
basically all we're trying to do is co Foundlies is
just push that message that YO keep owning, keep owning,
and keep owning some things that you own may not
have any value. Some things that you own may collapse.
Other things that you own, though, might end up increasing
in value. And the more that you keep trying to

(29:26):
own things, the more that it's going to uh, something's
gonna stick that you're now going to be able to
transfer and have access to to have with your family.
But I just preached the ownership part as opposed to
people chasing the things that they got that that that
can be taken from the man in the given time.
Oh my man, we're talking. I'm talking to the creators

(29:46):
of co founders Freglan's Land for men and women that
will drop on Valentine's Day of this year. Uh. Sprinkle
of Jesus, the number one Christian mobile Apple over five
million and counting users, curl Bible, which is the number
one black owned online beauty supply distribution store, and Jumping
Jack Tax the fastest growing tax preparation service company in

(30:08):
the country. They're the best DNP. That's what I call
d P. Dana. I want thank you for taking the
time at Coling. The show makes you owe me some banners,
You owe me some information. You know how we're doing
on money. Main conversation I got love for you. Let
me help you spread the love of DNP Danny Dang.

(30:29):
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com and follow money Making Conversations on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

(32:38):
Ladies and gentlemen, in the time you stop thinking about
your dreams and put some plans into action. Wooooooo. Next guest,
she contacted us because I was supposed to say, hey,
takeusan McCown. He has money making conversations. He's the main
where she did by. Next guest is competing on the

(32:59):
first see into the new Food Network show Chop Sweets.
Her dream is to provide pastries and chocolates, private chef services, catering,
consulting and teaching on a grander scale. Please working the
Money Making Conversations. Executive pastry chef amber Croom, Hi, I
can mess up your intro and bro, I had the

(33:20):
head that slow it down. I can't do that. I
slow down. You know you're coming on my show. You
know they ended that out, you know they it's definitely
a mouthful. But you know the thing I gotta, I gotta,
you know, give you what you've accomplished. And that's what
this interview and what I do on Money Making Conversation
because I always tell people there are a lot of
stars out there, and this in the in the world
of entrepreneurship, in the world of baking, I'm I'm on

(33:44):
the war winning baking. So I was like, you know,
you're a little happy when I talked to other bakers,
and because we're like a little club, because you know,
I always tell people I cannot watch TV. I cannot
watch I cannot listen to music when I'm baking because
one mistake you you're done it is That's that's what's
so what's so special about baking versus like savory And

(34:06):
I'm not knocking the safety. You know, chefs, you know
we love savory food, but definitely when you're baking, it's
a science behind it. And you know, if you make
one mistake, I feel like one teaspoon or tablespoon off
of a cake or a or something like that, you
gotta start all way over, like there is no I
will let me see how I can fix this real quick.
Now you gotta throw it away. And I started all

(34:27):
the way over. And sometimes that's like thirty minutes to
an hour, you know, worth the work that you've just
put yourself behind. So, you know, baking definitely is something
special um for me as well as a lot of people.
I love the science behind it. Well, I'm gonna tell
you this is this is how I started baking. That
was executive producing and co created that Steve Harvey talked

(34:47):
shows Chicargo and Steve Hardy twenty twelve, and Steve Harvey
pranked me into baking. That's how I started, you know,
Chris prank me and said and basically Darren me, I
never baked in my life. In front of a live
study ord, he dared need to bake a cake. Of course,
I baked three cakes and the rest is history. Basically
because I have an app with eighty different desserts called

(35:09):
Perfect Bacon. Uh, I'm a brain ambassador for that. That's
how I started. How did you get started into into baking? Well,
like most people, UM, who you know always says, you know,
my mom is a great cook. You know my mom
really is. Um, she's an amazing coach. He's an amazing woman.
And she was always in the kitchen, you know, having

(35:31):
us try like all these different things. And I have
to say, like our house, especially for like Christmas Eve,
because that's when we had our parties, was the house
to go to because you know, we're not having like
a traditional food. She's doing duck and quail and you
know oyses and lamb. You know that fried chicken exactly.
And for somebody that you know grew up in the

(35:53):
inner city of Birmingham, Alabama. I'm originally from the area
of Petsville from the from them yeah, him from they am.
I have to represent my magic city, Um, but exactly
being from that area, you don't think that, you know,
necessarily these are the things are going to be having.
You know, we were having you know, like kid Lives

(36:14):
and him in Turkey and you know all that black
peas in college and all those things are great and
please don't get in twisted, but you know, she definitely
like opened my eyes, um to this world that's out there.
And I remember us going to um San Antonio if
I want of how works trips and this was I'm
just like I seek like eleven and twelve and this
is my first trying trying s cargo, you know what

(36:35):
it was, you know, and this was her. This was
what she did in our lives is you know, give
us a different type of palette. So watching her in
the kitchen like baking, you know, all these pund kicks
you know, for you spens and you know all this
is just it made me love it and I spell
in love with it then even though most of the
time I just watched her, you know, we like to

(36:56):
read the benefits of the labor We don't want to
actually want to do with the labor um. But she's
definitely what got me into it um in the beginning. Well,
this is awesome, This is awesome talking to you now
that I know you're from the ham Burmham, Alabama. You know,
I do eat chiplins, I do eat black eyed peas.

(37:16):
I put my chilens on white rice. I also eat
this car go. I'm not a duck guy. You know,
I tried it. You know it's it's it's you know,
it's it's a dark side of the meat for me,
and I kind of like it's. Yeah, it's it's very gamy.
It's it's prepared perfectly though. It's really good, but it
is a little bit, you know, a little bit too
fatty for me, so I don't just consume it like

(37:38):
I wouldn't just necessarily pick it from a mini most
of the time, you know, I'll eat it off of
somebody else's please, But you know it terms it's perfectly
really good. You know I can get down with that. Well,
you know that the whole thing about it, that's what
the menu is all about. That's what that's what being
able to serve different people because everybody likes has a
different taste. You know, a lot of people like Chinese food.

(37:58):
A lot of people don't like know a lot of
people don't like sushi. And I eat sushi. I don't
get too too sushi ish. You know it's me. You
don't need this. It's some stuff over that. I will
mess with it now, but you know you don't like
your fist straight out the open, just right. I'm a
California roll guy. I had some temporal shrimp roll your

(38:20):
boy winning. I'm winning. I'm winning. Listen. I I can'tnock
that because that used to be me too. I was like, yeah,
I never really liked the taste of raw fish period,
But like I said, certain places will make it. And
I'd be like, I can rock with that. I can. Yeah,
you know, stick with that temporal. Those crabs, you know,
the invitation crabs, don't be shooting down my taste buds.

(38:44):
Invitation crazy crazy, using a little I was stop talking
to you. I was talking to you. That's what you
have good people that I'm just trying to be old.
I'm opening my heart to you already, said dunk. So
you really kind I told you you chling, he's so country.
I thought he was a big time over you don't

(39:05):
want but I'm country. Yo. It's so funny because people
talk to me and then it's like, well, you don't
really have an excent. I was like, no, I'm not
really until I talked about number one, something I love
and I started talking fast, and that that that thing
in the back of your voice where you just can't
help us say Alabama country and if you just start
and then I'm like, talk to my friends and my

(39:26):
family gonna come back, you know, from seeing them and
my workar was like, I can't even understand you right now.
I don't even I understand. My listener will understand. YouTube.
We're talking to Amber Croom. She's competing in the first
season of the new Food Network show Chop Sweets. Tell
us about that. First of all, tell us about the show,
and second, tell us how you became I guess a

(39:48):
contestant on the show. Okay, oh man. So you know,
Chop Sweets is an amazing endeavor for them because out
of I think the forty four or the forty five
seasons that Chops has been on, I think it started
in like two thousand and nine. You know, that's you know,
eleven plus years of the show has been on. They've
may be done three or four episodes where they feature desserts,

(40:13):
that's it out of And so for them to say, Okay,
you know there's a market out there. These you know,
these talented artists are out there and they need to
be tested, just like the Savory chefs. And they decided
to do this platform. They decided to give us a
chance to kind of shine a little bit. And I'm
grateful for it because, you know, as a chef who
hasn't watched shops and sat there and thought, I know

(40:35):
what I would do. Why do you do that? That's nasty,
I would have you know, but you get there and uh,
hindsight and it's not somebody gonna say that day she's stupid,
but she nervous do that? Oh he left that off

(40:56):
the play. I wouldn't have left that off the play.
How are you going to leave that off? The leaves? Like,
sitting right there there, you could just dissect that thing.
And you know, as a chef, that's like a pinnacle
for you. You know, you really want to get on
that stage and really be you know, tested, and you
want to shine, so you know, to be able to
do it on a pastry platform is is simply amazing.

(41:19):
And I got on the show because um, in two
thousand and sixte I actually did the Holiday Baking Championship UM.
And so I was already like in my my casting
company's pool of like chefs, and so they contacted me
and asked me if I wanted to auditions UM or
like put in my you know, my information and stuff
to actually be considered. And that was like a week

(41:42):
and the next week they called me is like, hey,
can you get to New York in a week? I'm like, oh, okay,
you know I'm not working, but sure. So that process
was so fast, like super super fast, and they're like, okay,
well you know we need you here on on that day.
Can't comment? I was like, yeah, why not? Just part

(42:05):
of you know, they've people have contacted me to be
a contestant on these shows and that's not what I do.
You know, I'm just a fun baker, you know. You know,
you tell me, you know, one of them judges tell
me something my stuff is dry on tape. It's gonna
be a different conversation. You gonna it could be a

(42:26):
different conversation. You know, you know you tell me I
can't all you know I got, I got fans. Everything
I post gets liked. Everything I post goes viral. You
know what I'm saying, I can't go on the show.
And somebody I don't even know what we cannot bleep
out the entire episode. We can't. We can't do it.
See see, certain people just can't get on the show

(42:46):
like me. I would like they go who booked him
to be getting executive to do some fire to look
casting agent girl over there crying, I don't know why
we book that dude. He was so nice on the phone.
Well I don't. I don't like heard my failing that
I'll be taking I'll be taking my little desserts to
people that be crying. Who do you believe you bag

(43:06):
for me? And I go to that TV show, sir,
you know your iceing is dry and your cupcake is
dry to uh and they pick it through with the
with the fark. I hate when they do that, when
they when they pull it like like they surgically like
my stuff ain't ain't ain't touchable no more be pulling
it up that your mama mama. You know you automatically

(43:30):
want to go back. And but I had this. I
had to call my mom. I was like, you know,
I know you're gonna watch this show and your southern mom,
So I want to apologize in advance for my mouth.
I don't know, I don't, I don't. I just want
you to know I'm sorry right right when. You're the
thing about it this day. First of all, I know
while you're on the show, you got a great personality.

(43:52):
And secondly, y'all you know I want you to be
a friend of the show because I want to follow you.
This is just one step. I always tell people, you know,
a lot of people what they get old TV, Oh
this is my moment. Who I'm gonna be discovered and
be famous? Well, yes, and though you know these are
the steps, like you're going up a ladder, you know
you're gonna you just want to keep climbing and climbing.
Nobody knows what that top step is, you know, because

(44:13):
you always here a billionaires, they want to make more billions.
So that means everybody's goal. Keith moving. Now, if you
get a point like Pat mahomes Patrick mahone, he wants
super Bowl you want. You want the super Bowl. You
know already he wants six, you want seven. So your
goal is gonna always keep moving forward and on your
next step. I want to talk about some of those
steps they happened when in the past they're a good step.

(44:36):
They got you to be this very personable girl from
the Ham that you dug scaRNA go oh, you know,
real eggs, all that good stuff all in the city
of Birmingham, the Ham Magic saying we'll be back more
with the executive pace yourself who started the New Food
Network show Chop Sweets. We'll be right back with more

(44:57):
from March McDonald the money making conversations. Touch that down.
I just Rashan McDonald and you're listening to money making
conversations on the phone today is a good friend of mine.
I'm gonna calling my friend. We had one good interview.
We've been laughing and you know, doing mama jokes, all
kind of good stuff on this phone and we talked
about pastries and appearance on the New Food Network show

(45:19):
Chop Sweets. Please welcome back to the call Amber Chrome Amber. Now,
I'm I you know, early in my stand up comedy career,
one of the things that I did on the regular basis,
was performed on cruise lines. I performed on the Royal
Caribean Cruise Line, performed on the Norwegian Cruise Line. And
one of the things I loved was food, food, food,

(45:43):
and one of the beauties was the pastries that they
gave out there. Now you performed on a six star
cruise line called the Silver Sea in twenty level. How
did that help your pastry career? Oh? Man, um that
that helped me in so many ways that it's not
necessarily just pastry, but just personally on the pastry side

(46:04):
of it. You know, this this particular cruise line. You
know why I chose it is because it went around
the world. It went literally, it literally went around the
entire world. And you know, I remember when I started
in this industry, I sat down and I say, Okay,
I'm gonna do this dream board thing. You know, I'm
just gonna do it. And I just said there, I said, okay, well,

(46:26):
what in your wildest dreams, if money were never an option,
if obstacles were never in your way, what would you
want to go? What would you want to do? When
I just created this board and in my time with
Silver Sea, I literally crossed off every single place I
wanted to visit in the world. And yeah, it's like

(46:48):
it just when I look back at it, it was
just it was mind blowing. Um to be able to
have this opportunity again. This little girlfriends, his real little
girlfriends is real. Is you know, sitting in the Mediterranean, see,
you know, making pastries, just you know, sitting and I'll
show you making pastries. And you know, the cruise line

(47:08):
will test you because you know every night, like you
you know, you generally work six months. Um, when you're American,
they only give you like six four to six months
of contracts. Everybody else is like eight to nine. But
if this is an everyday thing, you know, and everyone's like,
well you didn't have a day off, Like no, honey,
Like we worked every single day, you know for six
for six months, you know, and I was able because

(47:31):
the line I was on, I mean change daily. So
every day I was making a different type of cuisine pastrie.
So I'm learning how to make Indian, I'm learning how
to make you know, Asian influence. I'm learning English, I'm
learning Irish, I'm learning all these different messes and all
these different types of pastries. That now when I make things,

(47:53):
I have a box support from where I'm not, you know,
one dimensional in my creations. And not just that. It
teaches you time to management. It teaches you, you know,
how to make quantity, but not just quantity, but actually
making quality um things. And you know it's it texts
you that whole no crying in the kitchen, um, yeah,
I mean I cried in the cool look a few

(48:13):
times when it took when my French step is yelling
at me because I didn't know how to make a
proper crepe. And I remember one day they just had
me standing at you know, this eight ten top burner
with ten pans where I'm making crepes for like five
hours boom boom boom, like you know, and then I

(48:35):
got amazing at it and now I'm, you know, a
great crepe maker. But you know, in that environment, you're
either gonna thrive or you're gonna fail. And that's your choice.
You know, that's your choice, and to how you're gonna
take this experience. It's not just about being able to
travel the world. This place tested who I was and
built me, you know, to where a lot of times

(48:57):
I look in the kitchen now and you know a
lot of people four are so sensitive and so soft
because you gotta work like nine hours. I'm like, boo,
I was sixteen hours in the kitchen. Come on, let's go,
let's go. You know you're younger than me. Let's go,
let's go, let's get it. And I feel like that
being in that environment actually fostered that inside of me.
It fostered my work ethic, it fostered, you know, my creativity.

(49:20):
And then on you know, on top of all that,
I'm getting east An amazing foods, you know places and
get the authentic cuisine of these places, and it was amazing. Well,
you know, you've told me a couple of stories here, Okay,
you told me about your mom teaching you how to
do just watching her because you really watched and had
this amazing option to view her. Just having a diverse

(49:45):
kitchen menu. And then we talked about the Silver City
in twenty eleven. Where did the education and the training
come from. Well, originally I went to school in New Orleans.
I went to the University of New Orleans and I
did enable arcas textra and marine engineering. So I was
on a totally and I was on a totally different

(50:06):
path than what I'm on now. And um, when her
Kane Katrina happened, I was there, but I wasn't one
of the people that actually evacuated. So I was there
for four to five days during that entire old deal,
like everything we saw and TV, that was when we
were dealing with And I remember, um getting to Houston
and stay in the night and like sitting on the

(50:28):
edge of my bed and just trying to figure out
what happened, what just happened. And I got to Alabama,
and um, nothing seemed right, and I really didn't know
what to do. And I knew I didn't want to
go back to New Orleans. I didn't, you know, want
to pursue his career anymore. Um, while it was you know,
lucrative and you know, I'm still creating, it wasn't making

(50:49):
me happy. And I saw a lot of sadness. I
saw a lot of death that happened, you know, during Katrina,
and I just realized that, you know, life was too
short to not be doing what you love. And you know,
I had to sit there and say, what do I love?
What can I do every day and not get paid
for it? And I was like, well, I love eating
and I love paigetries and I want to pursue this.

(51:11):
So I actually went to culinary school in Birmingham and
Obama time at the colon Ard and that is where
I got like my former education and that's where it
all really started for me. In two thousand and ten.
Good well, it's uh, it's led to you are opening
your own business called and for desserts. That's a cool day.
And for desserts and for dessert yeah, you know every

(51:34):
every way wages and for dessert you like you know
they I was asking that what do you want for dessert?
You know? You know it's funny. That's exactly where that
came from. That's exactly where it came wrong. I was
on brain Songe with my friend one day. We were
in the basement um of my church that I was
going to at the time, and um, I'm just like,
you know what, I really want to open my own
dessert restaurant. I don't want just sing on big ground,

(51:57):
want you know, to be able to have like the
things that I up and my favorite with your appetizers
because I love appetizers. I love a good app I
really do. I could just eat like six seven apps
and you know call it a day and then really
good dessert and really good drinking, really great ambi hont
and so what are you CAUs like, I don't know,
you know, we started throwing it up. It's like, you
know when you go in there like one for dessert,

(52:17):
you haven't right there? Cool. Now here's the thing you've
set me up for the show because you've shown me
that you know, you have this little southern background. You know,
your mom kind of set the stage before you to
be very open mind. And then you went on this
cruise line and you had had all these different styles,
all the different uh you know, Indian, Chinese, all these

(52:40):
different dessert Now you're on the dessert show that you're that.
Food Network has launched a competition show called Chop Sweets.
Did it help you? Did your background help you this?
This this, especially the cruise line opportunity to help you
and being able to provide I noticed at the first
competition show. But it is this It is kind of
like the d did what they say they the top

(53:01):
of the line, chop chopping the top of the line.
You know they're coming in with the dog like don't
don't don't you know you walk in there. You know
they got they suited up. They know that they know
they this just the Oscar of the Emmy Award. When
you chopped right here, were you intimidating it all? And
were you intimidated it all? Were you just ready? You know,

(53:22):
you're ready to get fired up about this? You know, honestly,
I thought I was gonna be intimidated, but you know,
I had to have the coming Jesus meeting with myself
before it started, and I was like, you, you know
what I mean, You've been through so much. You you've
been tested, you've been tried. This ain't nothing. You got this.
Either you're gonna win, you're gonna lose one or Two's
only one, you know what I mean. And whatever you're

(53:44):
gonna do, go out there and leave it on the floor,
because those couple of shows can be really nerve wracking.
You know, the way they do it, you gotta do it.
Separate interviews and repeat what you already. You got like
thirty people just looking at you, and that's all they're
paid to do is just stand there and look at you.
Like that in itself is like it it's hard, and
got the cameras and you know, certain places you can't walk,

(54:07):
you know, like you know, and then they want you to,
you know, actually engage with your people. Were you trying
to focus? But you know, I I was prepared for it.
I was when I lose you know, everything that I've
done in my career prepare me for that moment. It
really did, you know, cruise ship teaching how to manage
my time, you know, checking the clock, making sure I'm
you know, I'm on point. It taught me how to

(54:29):
you know, actually do my menu. You know, Okay, I
can do this, is this while I'm doing that. I'm
gonna do that. While I'm doing that. I'm only that,
you know, you're multitasking. Um. And then it also the
box and you're a good talker to so that really helps.
You know, you got personnelit that really helps. So what's
next for you, Amber Croom? Um? You know, honestly, my

(54:50):
next step after opening my place is I want to
do my own show. I'm not going to speak too
much on it, like you know, you know, you're talking
of the one of the biggest producers and television Rashan McDonald.
And that's why we're friend. That's why we're friends. What
are you based in the ham or use someplace of
the hand with where you came from. Um, that's where

(55:13):
I'm from. But I'm currently living in Baltimore, Maryland, the
East Coast. Okay, well you know I'm up there alive,
being DC. So I'm coming to the DC next month.
This morning, fact, I got us the meeting tot so
maybe we can coordinate some things and and and because
some things that you ran and that you talked about,
I thought this would be a great television idea. So
I like to like to connect that in your head

(55:34):
because of the fact that you are a very very
talented artists. Artists as they say. I always tell people
that you know that food and it's just art that
you eat, that's all. It's just odd that you look
at that's so pretty. Then you eat it, you know, yeah, exactly,
you just eat it. And so so you you you

(55:54):
you you. You can't tell us how it goes. When
is this? When does the competition start? When when is
this starts? When is the show airrors? And um, the
first episode air is February third at timpm, but my
episode airs February tenth, tympm Eastern Standard time. Because you know,
that's the one I want. The February tenth one. Yeah,
I know there's a lot of people out there I
should be promoting, but I'm only going to promote you

(56:15):
because you're my friend. You're from the Ham, You're not
living in Baltimore. You know, You've You've cruised the world.
You you you you survive Haricane. Katrina went to my
sister city, Houston. That's why I'm from Houston. So I
felt kind of a little a little something about you
when you said you was in Houston feeling bad on
the edge of the bed. Wow, Okay, Houston is not
that bad. But I realized that it was challenges that

(56:38):
you're facing like make you. They shape you and make
you who the special person that you are. More important,
they let you know that you can be inspired to
do great things for yourself. Thank you for coming on
my show, Amber and uh, February tenth. You know they're
gonna hopefully send me a banner so I can promote
your appearance on the show. And I wish you good
luck and also know this is your home for anything

(57:00):
you want to promote in the future, because you just
told me my business I'm doing some great things down
the libray shot. I want to change the game and
put my name in LAFE for success. Please come back.
I want to make a conversation. Okay, sticky notes, email
alerts a string around your finger, They're just not big enough.
So here's a big reminder from the California Lottery. Tomorrow's

(57:22):
MAKA millions jack potties over three million play now, please
play responsibly. Must be eighteen years older to purchase player Flian.
Hi everyone, i'l roker here as a guy with his
own catchphrase. I appreciate that Smokey's only said only you
can prevent wildfires, but I'm filling in because there's a
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(57:45):
like burning yard waist. After all, wildfires can start anywhere,
even in your neck of the woods. Go to Smokey
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(58:07):
see the wrinkled face of a wizard with arms outstretched
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see you. They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world? Find
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forest dot Org. Brought to you by the United States
Forest Service and the ad Council. My next guest is

(58:30):
a two time Billboard forty Under forty power player. In
his career, he has overseen the development of many notable
artists and brands, including Anita Baker, Emily Keene, Corey, Henry Luke,
James Michelle, Willim's Miguel Cooling, the Game, Look craz Leon Thomas,
festivals like Outside Lands Music Festival, and many more. He's

(58:53):
an artist manager, founder of Culture Collective and Culture Collective Records.
Please welcome back to Money Making Conversations, My man, Jonathan A.
Zool Hey, how are you doing? Hey man, it's the
the intra only gets bigger every time you come on
the show. Appreciate I appreciate the invite to be back

(59:15):
on the show speaking with you. Well, you know the
great thing about watching your brand and and it's all
about reinventing yourself. You know, you're doing this, this this process,
and then all of a sudden you see an opportunity.
But there's always a possibility that ship may not work.
In the process of how you're building your brand and
leading talent but also recognizing that you are a brand

(59:35):
and a talent to how do you separate the difference?
You know, it's interesting. I mean I've always considered myself
personally a brand, right, and and you know, people ask
me what do you do and I usually say, well,
I'm a longer, very hard right, I'm an artist manager
and I apply that market that approached the marketing as

(59:56):
raised to my my ideals with my clients, but also
the relates to myself as a brand. And I used
to always think about myself like a blank cereal by
walking down of a grocery store. You know, what are
the what are the things, what are the images of colors,
what's on the side of the packaging that is going
to make what to say? I want to I want
to buy that, I want to do business with that person?

(01:00:16):
And um, you know, if you got one of the
elements to make up Jonathan, and what are the elements
to make up Culture Collective. And I think about that
packaging and the thing that we want to apply to it,
and that's all marketing and all marketing, that's all brand development, um.
And we applied that. We played that same to that
same approach to working with our clients as well as ourselves. Well,
you know the good thing about I know a lot

(01:00:37):
of your clients. And just a little side note, Anita
Baker giving to you the best that I got. My
wife now got married on that song. It was our
song at our wedding. So you know, I always wanted
to tell the needs whatever I meet. I'm a Hugson.
There's a two years later we steered together, Nita and
your song, your song help does that. And so but
you know, grab thank you really are. I appreciate what

(01:01:01):
you're doing. Let's let's let's define where UH from one
of my research UH you founded Culture Collective in twent
and eighteen. Importance of Culture Collective regards to urban artists
make up less than one percent of the client base
at stations UH top firms nationwide. So just a drive
to understand that that urban artists are underrepresented in the

(01:01:23):
field that they may dominate and so that's what the
basis of your development, correct, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean
it's somebody that's out of the top of major organizations
and had an opportunity to look down at you know what,
what's what's coming up next with what's having a cultural impact,
but then also who's working on it. I saw this
massive lack of diversity and inclusion um within the corporate

(01:01:46):
ranks of these bigger companies um. And then in addition
to that, and when you look at the artists that
are that are the trend setters and warning the payment
in today's generation, and you know, they look like us,
right and people that are representing them do not that
that it's it's necessarily a race thing, but ultimately the
CULTI perspective, you want to be able to look across

(01:02:07):
the table and know that you're that you're you're you know,
somebody really connects with what you're doing. So I started
Culture Collective with that mind step of permission statement, where
diversity inclusion is how we think about who we work
with and how we hire. My goal is to really
really have a well represented set of team members that

(01:02:27):
can fit with our clients and come up with the
concerts an idea to build their career and it's a
birth the culture collective. Uh. And you know, I'm having
a lot of fun. It's been almost a year as
you last spoke. I joke that we still have a
new car smell, you know, right, So we're in but
we're you know, we're having We're having a lot of
fun and and being entrepreneurs, we get an opportunity to

(01:02:49):
look at opportunity spaces that, um, that need to be
filled and within that. We have some clients that were
in between record labels. Uh, they didn't have partners to
put out music. But they have very very force and
careers and touring and other other aspects of what they
were doing, but they didn't have a partner without music.
And I started to look at why why can't we

(01:03:11):
put out that music? You know, what are the various
entries of us putting out that music? Um and UM,
you know, we started talking collective records with that mind
and we we we partnered with in Groups, which is
a universal company to help make sure that our artist
music is available across all digital service providers, and we
were closely with their team on the marketing promotion of

(01:03:33):
those artists and Luke James, a long time client, is
the first artist to be released through this new venture. UM.
His new album, To Feel Loved was released on January
thirty one. UM To Feel Loved Extuiing was released on
January thirty one. And uh, we not only are the
managers fools, but now we're probably the record label foods. Well.

(01:03:55):
You know the interesting part of why I maintain a
relationship with you because of the visionary relationship that I
feel that you're bringing to the industry. When you're talking
about the limited recognition of you know, urban talent, the
African American town, of the talent of color, how we participate,
but we seem to be bottled in you know. I know.
I know that for a fact because I executive produced
and create co created The Steve hard Mornin Show and

(01:04:16):
I was on there from two thousands. So I know
how the music industry can industry can play itself out.
And what I'm what I'm getting at, it's like, you know,
we always get underrepresented. For instance, we have June is
our Black music month. You know, June is Black music month. Okay,
then you look at the music month for everybody else.
You have the Grammys, you have American Music Award, Yeah,

(01:04:37):
bill Boards, you know how our radio we know, even
talking about Carting Western and then BT Music Award is
basically our watcher when we should have more, you know
we you know, that's the area that I really want
to start talking to you about. How can we get
more visual representation in award shows on television because that
is necessary. We have to have more than just be

(01:04:57):
two awards. And my mistaken when I say at Jonathan,
I agree, and I think it's interesting. It's interesting point
because they think that part of that more is our
culture in in brands coming to life, UM in more
ways than just you know, our worship the BET Awards,
I mean, one of the most cognitive awards shows ever. UM,

(01:05:19):
you know, the Hip Hop Awards as well, and when
we look at the Grammys and Amis and all these
other shows, it's important for us to be able to
have a presence within those environments to UM and not
be underrepresenting. And I think part of that is making
sure that we do have people that represent our culture
within the executive rings of these companies so they could
hire the right folks and be in the right room

(01:05:40):
for these conversations to come to life and this is
about business. Because one of the big things about the
Grammars this year was diversity, and uh he did. He
made a big deal on stage doing his speech about diversity. Now,
explain to people why was it important to have diversity
in music behind, you know, behind the moments, behind the talent.

(01:06:02):
I think so. I mean, I'm gonna go back to
last graining because it's just something that was that was
that was well talked about, not not this past graend.
It's not two thousand in betweenty, but two thousand nine,
and there was Amazetown. There was a Motown tribute. A
lot of people had a lot to say about, and
most of that was around the fact that we want
well represented within that tribute. Okay, and I think that

(01:06:25):
sometimes that can happen if we don't have the right
people in the rooms to make sure that our culture
is really really represented. The wrong people singing Motown hits right,
the wrong just because you're trying to get a hit.
Don't just throw somebody out there singing something that there's
not There's not that there shouldn't be singing it correct Yeah,
or or or has no has no real time, has

(01:06:47):
no real Tide, to the to the to the history
of Motown. So you know, I think, um, you know,
I think it's it's super important at the end of
the day. And and you know, creating Culture Collective it's
just my way of helping to break that cycle UM
and really developed the next executive. And we focus a
lot around hiring young talent and hiring interns and mentoring

(01:07:08):
the folks. I always say that the ways, the ways
into the world of Jonathan Azoo and Culture Collectives are
as high touch of negotiating um deals, uh, partnering on
on deal, on doubts, you just inspiring each other. Well,
you know, it's really it's so special when I talk
to Jonathan Jonathan and the fact that you know, I

(01:07:31):
am meeting and talking to so many minds like you
you know, whether it's a Charles Kane and Macrow. Now
he's starting to managing the division of his company and
you know your visionary and I know that this year
we're all going to meet in the room because because
it's it's it's you know, you have to talk to
this conversation even with Byron Allen is doing you know,

(01:07:53):
you know he's talking about you know, it's a. It's
a group of people make a decision for everybody. Don't
look like everybody and so and I'm not trying to
turn this call into a war path call, but it's
an information call about the fact that if you really
want to be successful in any business, you have to
be allowed to participate. And so that's what you're trying
to get and that's what you're saying and starting the

(01:08:15):
management firm that you have and what you've done all
your life. Correct. Yeah, you know recently on Martin the
King day, I got together, um about twenty in the
last minute thing. You know, I was supposed to be
traveling on that day. We thought that was actually be
in Los Angeles. No one having a shot out of
an email about thirty or so both within my network. Um, um,

(01:08:40):
you know, senior level executives in the company are down
to two interns and said, you know, I want to
I want to cheat everybody in dinner and let's get
in the room, closed the door and let's have a
conversation how we can lift ourselves, right, um, and open conversation.
And it was a beautiful thing. And it's something that
need to happen or not. Just so Himmel Kingdad. It

(01:09:02):
needs to happen every single day, uh, for us to
be able to share with each other and in tight
guidance knowledge that we have in the struggles of how
we lift ourselves with an entertainment. Often times, you know,
one of the things that came out in that in
that conversation when people are like, well, it's not just
in my head. You know, uh, this other, this other,

(01:09:22):
you know, leading leading voyts in that spaces is creating
the same challenges. So I'm not crazy, right, because when
we receive in the environments and you're the only one
of color, you also to get side your head to
think that it's just me right cool. We're talking to
John A. Zoo. He's the founder of a culture collective
started in twent and nineteen and guess what he's rolling

(01:09:44):
with partnerships he's created with in Grooves. We'll be back
with more on money making conversation. This is awesome again.
Collective minds, collective thoughts generate success. We'll be right back
with more from Marsa McDonald and money making conversations. Don't
touch that down. Just for Sean McDonald and you're listening
to money making conversation. I'm talking to Jonathan Azoo. Uh.

(01:10:04):
He founded UH Culture Collective eighteen and right now I
want to talk about the current artist roster that includes
Emily King, Luke James, Leon Thomas and my favorite person
and good friend, Michelle Weaves. Talk about your roster and
why are those particular people on your roster? Uh? You know,
and for me, I got into this business because I

(01:10:26):
have a passion for it, and um, I was able
to take a passion her into profession and include the
arts that I work with. I'm I'm fan. I'm a
fan everyone I've ever worked with in my career. I've
been a fan of. I've never once worked with somebody
that I was like, right working on this, I know
you're not into it, right, I'm passionately, passionately a fan

(01:10:47):
in each one of those artists that you mentioned, um
are I've always been on my playlist, right, So it's exciting.
It's excited to be to be working with him, and
it's exciting experience growth and you know, as you know
an entrepreneur and successful business executive yourself, growth is a
is A is A is a powerful world word. Um,

(01:11:09):
And you know, we develop a lot of really great
blue prints and road maps to help to help help
help growth, right, And that's from the bottom line at
that point. That's from an audience ree standpoint, that's from
a streaming standpoint, from the ticket sales standpoint. Uh. And
each one of those artists had great growth to their
their their careers working with us. Well, it's really important
that when I'm looking at you, when I when I

(01:11:31):
introduce you, we're just talking about the brands that you've seen,
overseen the development. I need a banker, Emily King in,
Luke James and share with Miguel cooling the game look crazy.
That's my man right there. So that's that's gospel gospel
as Miguel, that's hip hop. Coles in the Gang. You know,
there's R and B. I need the Banker, that's social
all and B. You know. Okay, that's that's a love

(01:11:51):
of fair music. That means your playlist is like you're
grooving and you're popping and then you're praising the Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Um.
You know it's again, it's it's so food in some
form of fashion, right, And it's really really important that.
So what do you see the direction of music like
I was. I was at NAPTY that's a national associat

(01:12:12):
Television program and program executives, and podcasts was just the
rage you know, we know streaming out there came out
and explode it, and uh now podcast is the rage
of not just the audio version of but the video
version of podcasts. Next level that you'll see that more
and more being being spoken about because they realized the
generation really don't care about screen on the wall here.

(01:12:34):
Don't they care about what's in their hands, and right
now what's their hand is things they're willing to download,
willing to play, willing to care with them. We're just
the future of music in that in that particular era
of that particular space or does it stay the same Yeah,
I think you know. And then just to just to
build on what you're saying, they wanted when we wanted

(01:12:55):
wherever they are right So, if I want to to
do a podcast, I don't. I don't want to to
to schedule it as I want to if I'm sitting
on the bus on the way home, like full look
on my phone, whether it be audio or visual, at
that time, that's the time that they wanted. And it's
almost like, you know, music music, and it's in any
in stream music really was the leader in that behavior

(01:13:20):
that adopts to that behavior. You know, you know, what
I want, what I want when I want UM, And
now you've seen to start that the later through other
forms of media. Um, as far as you know, you
music and streaming is obviously beginning to have aggressive growth.
When it first handing take and tip to pouition. Um.
You know, there was a lot of different companies trying

(01:13:42):
to figure out streaming, and I always felt that once
it was all said and done, there would be a
handful left, maybe a few. It was were proven that
to be the case between Amazon, iTunes and Spotify, and
now we kind of have the three, the big three
for the most part. Um. There's a couple of other
small ow one within that that the step fourth and
to the sixth positions. But ultimately this is how people

(01:14:02):
consume music. And now you're starting to see you know,
as uh, you know, as as as as older older
audience just get older and younger artists start to come
into the consumption mix, streaming won't only get bigger and bigger,
you know, it's really look at you're tied to festivals,
are you tied to festival as a person who's a
blast talent or as a producer. So I, after many

(01:14:25):
years working in the radio myself, I just went over
to a company called super Fly, which was which was
a group of of of guys that graduated Jewlian that
come up with the concept of putting a large scale
music festival together in the United States. That was built
off of the Glastonberry So what would happens when you
duty dropped sixty seventy eight thousand people into a field

(01:14:48):
and you build multiple stages and multiple experiences within that
environment and live live on that property for that site
for for three to four days. And that was the
birth of Bonaroo And I went into work with the
team that actually put that festival together. I wasn't on
the talent buying side, that was more on the operational side,
but all aspects of the festival fall underneath operations, so

(01:15:10):
we had a very very good preview of of of
of talent and who's coming up. One of the funner
things that I do around my house is I have
all the old posters from all the shows that we produced,
and you know, you know, you know, you know, billing
for for a show or the fight of like who's
at the top of the poster, Who's at the bottom
of the poster? Right, um, and I just need to

(01:15:30):
look at the bottom of the poster some of these
previous years and looking at the artists that are down
there that have now, you know, a ride to the
top of the top list. Yeah, like Miguel way back. Yeah,
say wow, I think Drake about to break his record
or something on airplay or something like that. It's really

(01:15:51):
amazing money. When when? When? When the first tour I
did was was Miguel uh Chip remember of the year?
But Miguel was direct support to Drake, right, So drink
of the headline? It was it was would you like
a tour? Right? Drink the headline? And began opened in future?
Was the was the was the first act? Oh my god,

(01:16:17):
well knows that's the beauty of of Sining the beginning
and watched it come to the end and watch the
path of growth and you go, you know, because you know,
everybody has that hustle, that hustle, that hustle, and you
like I met nim Miguel because its side of the
l A when Steve and I was doing local radio
hip hop and R and B. When he was when
he was when he when he was trying to find
his bars, getting his music out there. And I was
looking at him now and go, wow, it's been that

(01:16:38):
many years and he's still got the passion to win.
He still has the passion to say, I'm gonna be
number one, I'm gonna be successful. That's a drive when
you when you manage talent. I always tell people, like,
right now, manage that Steven A. Smith. You know, for
many years people have known me to Twitter. Actually sixteen
or twenty years I managed Steve Harvey and built his
brand to the Media Media International media brand. But it's

(01:17:00):
a lot of work when you manage talent. A lot
of people don't understand that. Talk about your version or
your skills, or are the things that you put in
place so you can manage the different talent that you have. Yeah,
I think for me, you know, I'm an interesting intersection
because I spent many years in media. You know, you
have essentially doing label relations um and developing interesting partnerships

(01:17:23):
for CBS Radio corporately. So we had a hundred any
radio stations, fifty program directors, and then I leave that world.
I go into the life of festival. Business with festivals
were just really starting to take off in the United States. Right,
We're pioneers in that space, and now you see a
lot of festivals out there, but we were the first
to be there and then to jump over and help
help to run Red Light, which you know eventually became
one of the biggest management companies in the world. You know,

(01:17:45):
I had this, like am I seeing that this is
an interesting intersection where I have the ability to be
able to go in there and work with artists and
when things come up absolutely to their career on one
phone call away from you know, you know, figuring something
out in the life of that in the media space,
technology space, or the managers. I've been around there. I've
been always places. So one of the things that I
always try to be stone upon the young executives that

(01:18:08):
work on my team and let's get you as diversify
it as possible, right in your skill set, in your
ability to be able to um speak from a strong
standpoint of various topics of business because you have experience
within those worlds. And you mentioned it, you said, I
hear you radio. You know red Light you talk about management,
which means you see contracts, which means you you're dealing

(01:18:29):
with decision making situations. When you talk about the festivals,
you talk about the operational end. You know that those
those things like really help you out. I'm say, calm writer,
just myself. I'm the stand up comments. I understand talent
to go, I managed shows, I produce shows. So when
I walk in the room, there's a lot of information
that I can absorb rapidly and make decisions associated with it.

(01:18:51):
And that's all you're saying to young people as they
come into are being mentored by you. The more you know,
the more diversified your pality is for information that you
zor through experience. That's how you have longevity in this
business and respect in this business. Correct, Jonathan, that's absolutely right.
You know that's absolutely right. And in respected the big
thing I mean you want to you know, conducting character

(01:19:14):
and respect. Ultimately, that's all businesses, but especially within entertainment,
especially as a minority with entertainment, you want to make
sure you preserve that in the best way possible. So
conducting yourself in the most positive, upbeat, respected, professional manner possible,
you could do nothing but grow well, my friend, just
recap a little bit about your partnership with in Groove

(01:19:36):
before we wrap up the interview. Uh that you you
have Culture Collective Records. You have a partnership with in Grooves.
Talked to us about again while I was that launching
that manner and what's the future. Yeah, Luke James isn't
a client that we worked with so many years in.
Luke was a former major label artist and for various reasons,
Ted left the Island Records um uh label, which is

(01:19:59):
the major record able. And here here you was sitting
with a bank of beautiful music to put out and
nobody to partner with to do it um. And you
know we're as his managers, dealing with him on a
daily basis on development his road map in his career.
So well, what if we just develop a strategic relationship
and let's work with the music out, Well we'll be

(01:20:20):
beliebel right, um. And I've done some work with Injuries
in the past, a lot of great success with them.
And when I sat with them and launched Culture Collective
a little less than a year ago, I wanted to
their officers and share the vision in initial statement of
the company. It thought it was great, They thought it
was during much needed in the business and at the
same time as if there's any way in which we
can be helpful um to you or your clients, we

(01:20:42):
should have a larger conversation. And that was you know,
the birth of our first uh you know, you know,
brain storms around coming together to develop a pipeline for
us to be able to put music out through their system.
So fast forward eight months later, you know, Luke James
is putting out his release through the Injuries Universal Pipelining
digital service providers. Um, we are gonna, we are gonna,

(01:21:05):
you know, working with ingres Um on all aspects of
this release. And uh it's been great. It's in a great,
great relationship, awesome as always, articulate, informative and uh spewing
out the knowledge we all need to hear. Johnathan Zoo,
thanks for coming back on money making conversation. We're talking
again this say another six months? Is that cool? Absolutely
appreciate your brother. Talk soon. And we're live here outside

(01:21:28):
the Perez family home just waiting for that. And there
they go, almost on time. This morning. Mom is coming
out the front door strong with a double arm kid
carry looks like dad has the bags. Daughter is bringing
up the rear. Oh but the diaper bag wasn't closed.
Diapers and toys are everywhere. Oh but mom has just

(01:21:49):
nailed the perfect car seat buckle for the toddler. And
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(01:22:12):
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(01:22:34):
of the new podcast Navigating Adoption, presented by adopt Us Kids.
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(01:22:58):
What grows in the forest to ease sure you know what? Else?
Girls in the forest? Our imagination, our sense of wonder,
and our family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect
from this and connect with this, we reconnect with each other.
The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest

(01:23:19):
near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot
org brought to you by the United States Forest Service
and the AD Council. My next guest currently is a
motivational speaker, Arthur patent inventor in, an award winning behavioral
therapist for over sixteen years, and an entrepreneur. He recently

(01:23:40):
launched an apparel company called Gangster Mindset, LLC that is
redefining the word gangster with a positive spin. Please welcome
to Money Making Conversations. Dr Mark D. Baxter, Thank you,
thank you. It's truly a pleasure in honor to be here.
I appreciate you. Mr Rashawn. It's always a pleasant, well
awesome a friend. You know. I'm a member of the

(01:24:01):
Lincoln LinkedIn Social Media society. So I get a chance
to watch your videos, I'm motivated. Uh. I find them entertaining.
I find them. Uh. I could never do them because
you you know, you're very active. You're very active in
your in your in your video video. Explain that technique
that you developed in you in your videos. Well, I,

(01:24:22):
first of all, thank you, and when it comes to
the videos, it's all passion, it's all purpose to me.
I gotta drop a name for you. Paul Brunson, they
recently moved to the UK. Has the Relationship show was
picked up my own years ago and they put them
on a great path. I was in the Mastermind group
with Paul and he said, Mark, your power, your energy
is amazing, but you got to get it out to

(01:24:43):
the world. So he said, in today's era of social media,
you just gotta let it all out. And that led
me to start doing videos. And I was standing still.
He said, Mark, that's not enough. You too possible start
walking around. And then when I was in Atlanta, I
was at John Hope Bryant's Hope Global for for him.
And I was the first one I did walking around
and he said, that's good. Mark, I feel it. But

(01:25:04):
it's another level. And and and listen, Mr Rashwan, when
I started putting that video camera down and just start
letting guy use me naturally, that's what you see today,
and that's what's bringing everyone in the world that's taking notice. Well,
I take notice. I showed it to my staff. I
told him, I said this, I helped up. I said
this the guy one on my show right here, Mark,

(01:25:25):
look at it. Let guy right here look at it.
Moves back, he runs to the camera, goes back, he
makes that statement, and the steps back. I said, he
does it everywhere. He could be. He could be on
the street, he could be in the parking lot, he
could be in front of the building. I just love
the fact that you're saying you're willing to take your
your message wherever needs to be heard. That's basically what
you're saying in your videos. Correct. I am definitely saying that.

(01:25:47):
And here's the thing. See, I get motivated when I
can motivate others. God set me up, and see what
happens is that this is the only thing that's this
liberating for me, it's liberating. I've been holding that power
and of so long and now you know, we getting
the other questions later. But I made millions and lost
it all. But now I'm in alignment with my purpose.

(01:26:09):
So now I'm able to do things like this video
and just let all the power out because my job
is to take the power that's in me and transferred
to the people of the world. Well, what you do?
You caught my eye and I find it because I
feel you know when you when you're in this business
is a competitive business, Okay, motivation and information and you
know what separates you what catches a person I and

(01:26:31):
and allows them to share your views, And that's the
whole thing in social media. You know, you're marketing and
branding machine. And so what's your hook, what's your take
on it and how you can grow your brand and
basically what you're doing and developing this technique? I find it. Uh,
Can I congratulate you on that? And one of the
reasons I'm a fan is because I know that's tied

(01:26:51):
to a plan, a plan of action. Correct, yes, absolutely, absolutely, yes,
it's definitely tied to a plan of action. And again
you know, um, and that's how ironic. We're in Black
History month, and um, what happened is that you know
Martin had a dream. We all know that. But I
also had a dream at the age of fifteen. In fact,
I had the same dream each and every night for

(01:27:13):
an entire year. And this is what it looked like.
I'm talking about. When I wake up and fall back
to sleep, to dream continue. When I go to sleep
the next night, the dream continues for an entire year.
So so Mr rashawn Is, I stand on your show
and I sit and I spilled my heart out to
you into the audience. I'm here to tell you that
that dream is coming true right here, right now. So

(01:27:33):
I'm a testament that life is real. You can create
your own life. We're on a delayed gratification scale. That's
why your life is created by how you think, how
you feel, and how you respond to situations. I'll say
it again, your life is created by how you think,
how you feel, and how you respond to situation. Well,

(01:27:54):
Mr back, you have not failed me so far in
this interview. Now your book here, how to be One
with your Greatness. Before we get into the book, I
had one question, though, what is your greatness, my greatness
and I And this is a great question. In fact,
I was talking to a couple of friends the other day,
and my view of greatness is that greatness is in
the eye of the beholder, meaning that everyone's greatness may

(01:28:18):
look and feel different. That's why we're all made distinctively different.
And here's how you know, because that fingerprint that you
walk around with that DNA is unmatchable. You can search
the whole world, but there's no one that can specifically
match your fingerprints. So that's basically what my greatness is
this to come and total alignment with that fingerprint, with

(01:28:41):
that uniqueness that I was created to be. So in
doing that, and I'm trying to get into the book
a little bit, but you gotta come in alignment with
your truth and the so so therefore you gotta first
learn what your truth is. Because what life does. It
forces things on you. So it forces education, all these
other things on But the true true definition of education

(01:29:02):
is not systematic knowledge to go out and make other
people wealthy. True definition of education is not is development
from within. So we're already wired for greatness, but when
we come into this world, they've bombard you with other
aspects of what you have to do, and often times
we we put up these artificial layers to try to
suffice all of these things that are coming at us

(01:29:24):
in life. When the truth of the matter is that
you're already wired for greatness. You just gotta resist the
external and believe and what's inside. My man. We're talking
to Mark D. Baxter, author of How to Be One
with Greatness. You were Born to be great this book,
I read it always what I when I do when

(01:29:46):
I bring authors on the show. I always read the
book to day out, you know, like I get up earlier,
read this so everything stays real fresh. And there was
some really key moments in your growth, you know, five six, nine,
early years. You know that with the mining and if
the reason I bringing that up because it's important to
understanding you can be shaped so clean in those early

(01:30:07):
years and a lot of people understand how important it
is to start really, you know, putting a proper imprint
on the kid, because those memories can carry you to
adulthood as it has you because it's it's written in
your book. When you were five years old, when your
brother Tony walked you down to your school for the
first time he was excited and then he just let
you go. Yeah, it was a traumatic It was a

(01:30:32):
traumatic experience. And what you you said that, Mr Rashawn,
you said it. We are all a product of our home,
our environment, and our experience. We are all products of
our home, our environment, and our experiences. And whatever you
choose to do back in the day, way mixed it
in a pot like gumbo. So however you mix it

(01:30:53):
in your pots, and whatever recipe you come out with
is what you have to deal with. See, I was
challenged with a lot of adversity early on in my
life and throughout my life because I understand for who
much has given, much is required. And see, you gotta
change your perception of adversity. Adversity is not bad. Adversity
is nothing more than growth opportunities because the only way

(01:31:16):
you can grow is by being challenged. So you gotta
change the way you look at adversity. And that's what
my life has toward me early on in my life.
I'm from I'm from a very dysfunctional household. I have
a mom that didn't finish high school. She's from South Carolina,
has to grow up really really hard. And I have
a dad that only went to the sixth grade from Savannah, Georgia,
and they both migrated here to Philadelphia and and and

(01:31:39):
created a relationship. And don't get me wrong, God rest
my dad and my mom. I lost my dad on
June eight to, two thousand and eighteen. I lost my
mom on June twenty last year, two thousand nineteen. God
rest their soul. But the truth of the matter is that,
you know, I'm a realist. They should have never been married.
You know, they created a high I love my siblings,
and I'm thankful for being created, but you know, you

(01:32:00):
gotta call us fade of space. And growing up in
the household it was very traumatic. I mean, they slept
in separate rooms, stretching to kill each other every day.
And then we were in the hood, we were from poverty,
and then on top of that and so so so
everything is just reinforcing the negativity. And then on top
of that, I was the youngest at all of this

(01:32:22):
drive and all of this insight inside of me, and
I had no outlet to let it out, no mentors.
You know. That came later on and I found refuge
to football and in church. That saved my life, and
I poured all of my pain into it, and henceforth
it got me a scholarship to college in football, and
I got a tremendous relationship with God because I didn't settle.

(01:32:46):
You know, you got a choice. I mean, listen, adversity
comes free, but you gotta fight to secure the blessing.
Every adversity comes with an equal with not greater blessing.
The adversity will find you free, but you gotta fight
to secure a blessing. And the difference is that us,
especially as a people, we've become comfortable with simply surviving

(01:33:06):
as this you get a reward for surviving. You know,
it's admirable to survive. But it's time that we start
to thride. So you gotta push the issue to thride
to get to those blessings. And that's what I just
learned how to do, and that's what I'm showing the
world how to do it. He's doing on a First
of all, you're successful, and you called my attention. That's
why you're on money Making Conversation. I'm talking to Mark

(01:33:28):
the Baxter, the author of the book How to Be
One with Greatness. You were born to be great, motivational
He's honest. Uh, Mark, do you have a YouTube channel? Absolutely? Absolutely,
if it's in my name, Mark Baxter, Mark Baxter, and
so to all the videos that I see on LinkedIn
stored on your your YouTube channel. YouTube, Absolutely, I have

(01:33:50):
over to I have hundreds of videos on YouTube. I
haven't counted in a year, but I'm I'm very very
active on YouTube, my daily videos on YouTube. In fact,
I've been doing videos on YouTube for years. It's just
that I picked it up. I've had great people around me,
you know, runs to give me a vibe. You know,
I'm on you know, the Rash Donald's show. So it's amazing.

(01:34:10):
I'm getting people around. Success is closing in on me.
I can't lose. You can't lose, you can't not lose
because of the fact that, first of all, I'm chasing
the man. I appreciate you. That's what money made conversation
is all about. First of all, individuals who willing, who
are willing to share their stories so everybody can find
that the path can't be relatable, okay, because you know

(01:34:32):
you can see that journey. You can see superstars, you
can see millionaires, you see big cars, you see Blaining
basically was always played out in music videos. Now it's
being played out in social media because people post their
best Nobody pay post their tragic Everybody wants post their
best clothes, the best play, the food, you know, the
best vacation experience. You know, they're sitting them from They're
standing in front the car. They might not even own

(01:34:53):
that car, but they're standing in front of you know,
so they're presenting that image to you. And so so
you are. You're a guy who's sitting in the middle
of all that. You know, you like like peeping through
the curtains and guess who's on the other side. Mark,
we know that said come on over here, don't be afraid,
don't be afraid, don't be afraid, and that's why I
started Money Making Conversation. We will come back in our

(01:35:15):
next break and getting more detail on this board. I
hope enjoying the interview here, Mark, because I'm so happy
you came on my show. I follow him on LinkedIn,
uh and uh he's spectacular on LinkedIn. He he motivates
me every week with his videos with his energy as
you hear in this interview is incredible. We'll be back
with more money Making Conversation with my man, Dr Mark Baxter.

(01:35:36):
We'll be right back with more from Marsa McDonald. The
money making conversations don't touch that down. Just Rashan McDonald
and you're listening to money making conversations. I host this
show to bring individuals on the show that can give
you information on how to be successful. I know their
life is different, their path to success is different, but
they will share with you nuggets of information that will

(01:35:57):
allow you to understand that your path after your dreams
can be achieved. One of the true uh and inspirations
of this whole technique, seeking your greatness, accepting your greatness
is on the phone with me today. Is a very
successful book alcohol How to be One with Greatness. You
were born to be great? Uh. Dr Mark d Factor Mark,

(01:36:19):
how are you doing to day, my friend? I'm doing excellent.
Nesr Rashine and listen. It's such a pleasure to be
here and I want to thank you again for having
me well great. Um. I was talking about we we
kind of dipped in a little bit when you know,
like I love the fact that you know you just
told her on the story about your home life. But
it was these these little slices of life that stories

(01:36:39):
are experiences you provide your book, like like dealing with issues,
how we how we will hide and how we will shield,
how we tend to stop ourselves, like like expecting something
that happened, and then when it doesn't have that happen
that way, how do you deal with it? And that
was that simple walk to school when your brother Tony

(01:36:59):
was taking you. You thought he's gonna walk you all
the way to school, and you was having a good time.
You know, you're barely keeping up with him with your
little short legs, and he was just he was just
walking normal. You know, what are you looking at? You?
You just trying to keep up. And then you just
you just say a word or two. You thought there
was gonna be like a big brother little brother conversation
and he's gonna just tell you about life on the way,
and he barely spoke to you. And then when he

(01:37:20):
was almost almost out of school, he just pointed at it.
You got it from here, I got you now. But
that's what the life feels about though, because a lot
of people, they get on the job, they think the
job is gonna go this way, and then when the
when the job throws in the curve, how they how
they deal with it is the next step on how
they're going to be successful. That's what I took away

(01:37:41):
from that story. You walk in to school with an
expectation your brother's gonna take you to the front door
that school, and he didn't. How you dealt with it
along the way for the rest of your life. Really,
it's who you are today and and and I thank
you for the for the knowledge that you use with
social media and things, I say the same thing. Everybody

(01:38:02):
proclaim their own goodness is a perfect place for me
invent yourself. But no, you're you're you're a hundred percent right.
It's all about what how you handle the situations that
you're faced with. And when my brother was walking me
to school, um again, you were perfect. You're in your
analysis of me thinking it's going to be a big
brother and little brother interaction. I rarely saw him. He

(01:38:24):
was about sixteen years older than me. I was the youngest,
and it's a big gap in between us. And this
was individual time and then when he left me. But
what I had to realize, this is what I encourage
us all to do. The first person you have to
look at in any situation is yourself, because all of
the answers to life's problems are in the mirror. And
what I realized at a young age is that I

(01:38:45):
mislad my older brother. See, any situation that you're part of,
there's something that you gotta learn, even if it seems
like it's not your fault, Like if it seems like
you're Huney innocent, there's still something you gotta learn, or
else you wouldn't have never been encountered the situation. So
when I had to look in the mirror, I realized
that I created that situation because I used to act

(01:39:06):
tougher than I really was. You see, because I had
these older brothers that were cool, and I used to
act that way too. I act more mature. I had
some pride in there. Because of that pride is what
my brother called on too. He he felt those vibrations
and in his mind, he didn't feel like he was
doing anything wrong. He felt like he may have been

(01:39:26):
doing me a favorite because I was. I was projecting
as if I was more mature than I really was.
So I had to look in the mirror fers to
acknowledge how could I do different or what how can
I change my behavior in order to get a different result.
And I had set the tone for the rest of
my life. And I realized I used to question God
all the time because I didn't just have little things

(01:39:47):
happened to me. I had big things happened to me.
Like I didn't E just break her arm. I broke
my femur bone, the biggest bone in your body, your
side bone. So I had to be in a body
cast for three to six months. I had to learn
how to walk all over again. So I didn't just
have little stuff happened to me, And I used to
always question, you know, God, why me? Why me? I

(01:40:08):
didn't ask for my mom not to like me. I
didn't do anything. I didn't ask for her to do,
to do anything in her power to try to tear
me down. You're the one that I looked to. You're
you're my point guard, you're my go to first, and
you're my quarterback. You know what I mean. But what
I realized about life is that that was just life
challenging me to be my best self. And now that

(01:40:30):
I was able to meet those challenges, that where they are.
And I mentioned earlier, every adversity comes with an equal,
if not greater blessings. Adversity comes free, but you gotta
fight to secure the blessings. And I'm just one that
fights to secure my blessings. And now I'm just trying
to help other people to fight to secure their well man,
that's exactly what I have you on this just to

(01:40:52):
tell my fans and my listeners are people who are
listening for the first time because it also plays out
on my YouTube channel, who might just click on your
your photo and say wow, because I wanted to share
your values. You know this book that you've written, How
to Be One with Greatness? You were born to be great?
What can we buy this book at? Mark? Well, the
book is an Amazon, I mean I published it through me,

(01:41:14):
uh the book Essence Essence Publishing, UM. And you can
email me directly and I'll ship it out to you.
You know, I met M Baxter at Mark Baxter dot com.
That's M Baxter, b a x tr at Mark Baxter
dot com. UM. You can also hit my website Mark
at www dot Mark Baxter dot com and just shoot

(01:41:35):
me an info or whatever. But I'll get it to
you because and I appreciate you, Mr Rashaan, because it's
all about awareness. You know, a lot of people need
exactly what I have, just like we all need each other,
but we don't know, you know, so we have to
keep expecting and having a desire for better. It's all
about your desire. If you don't have a desire for better,

(01:41:57):
better is not gonna come your way, you know. So
it's all about your desire. And uh, let's talk about it.
Let's talk about the business side of you. You. We
know you're a great motivator. We know you you're passionate
about your reminding people that your past. Do not allow
your past to determine your future, your destiny's chide to
your effort. Now, you have a business that I wanted

(01:42:17):
to bring up to apparel company called Gangster Mindset LLC
is reading redefining the word gangster with a positive spin.
Talk about that absolutely, like I've always um, you know,
I've always had designed being from the inner city, from
poverty and things like that, and coming out being a
being a man of character and integrity, you know, not
not perfect, but as pure of a hard as you'll find.

(01:42:40):
You know, I realized that, you know, it's all about
growth and development. You know, it's all about growth and development.
So you gotta put yourself in the best position so
you can continue to grow and develop. And that's all.
That's all that I do, and that's all that I
aspire other people to. The So Empartment Unlimited is a
company for individuals, businesses and then higher world and it's

(01:43:01):
it's about coaching and consulting from a mindset and leadership perspective.
So I have a mindset methodology program that I use
to take people and master themselves. Because I have a
personal quote, once you master yourself, life has no choice
but to forever bowed down to you. I'll say it again,
Once you master yourself, life has no choice but to

(01:43:24):
forever bowed down to you. And here's why. Because the
world is all fake as you just mentioned social media,
but yourself, you have your wired with greatness and authenticity.
So when you master that the world can't touch you.
So in my company, I raised businesses, individuals, two levels
unimaginable you know, gainster mindset of parer with a closing

(01:43:45):
company I just dropped. And what it means is boldness, excellence,
and uniqueness. So every day I do a video and
I get three steps on that video. The last step
is always you got to develop against mindset. And I
give a different description of what gangster mindset is in
fact today's video. The third point is you got to
develop a gainster mindset, a mind bold enough to believe

(01:44:08):
that life is always happening for you and not to you,
regardless of what it may look like or feel like.
My man, Okay, you know you got me fired up right,
let's been messing accomplict. Thank you everyone. Well, you know
the beauty. First of all, you noticed that the last

(01:44:29):
time on my show. Because I don't reach out to
people because I have a vision. People have called me
a visionary. I see things and how I talk to
people and these conversation. A lot of people call me
their uncle. And you you can come into the Little
Roushan Uncle club because of the fact that I want
to be there for you. You know, if you ever
want to call and uh, I give myself. If you
want to call and say, Rashan, what do you think

(01:44:49):
about this? It's about not about me making money. It's
about making ensure you that you're getting the advice from
a successful person who's had many paths out there and
and and many some people call me a renaissance man
because I'm able to rechange myself. I'm able to reinvent
the process of that path. I see an opportunity. What

(01:45:10):
I do not do, Mark is think about it. I
go forward. You know, if we're shining over there thinking no,
I think he's over there digging the ditch. Now, I
think he's already laying the concrete to the foundation for
his next house. I think that's what you're doing. So
when you turn out before we get off there, when
you see you contribute most to business success, can you
give us some nuggets and what you mean when you

(01:45:32):
say that statement? Oh man, listen, business success is nothing more.
Before you got a business, you got an individual. All
the team is as a group of individuals. And what
what makes it the team as the commitment to the
common goal. You see. So in order to have a
successful business, you gotta first have a successful why. You

(01:45:52):
gotta know your why. Why do you want this business?
Who are you serving? Why do you want to serve
that population? As Damon John says, I've been a rising
Grind ambassador. Now I'm a power Shift ambassador for Damon
John over the last two years, and his main thing
is know your target audience, Who are you selling to

(01:46:13):
So you gotta know your why, like why do you
want to get this product or this service out? And
then you gotta know who wants the service and products,
and then you gotta find creative ways to put it
in their hands, make them friends, make them, you know, customers,
and you gotta and that's what you have to do.
And you gotta constantly reinvent yourself. See the reason when
Puffy and Damon John broke up, you know, I mean,

(01:46:36):
not Puffy, when jay Z and Damon and David, I said,
Damon John. When Puffy and Damon Dad broke up, you
know from Rocket Feller, you know what I mean. And
jay Z said, okay, you may, you may hold make
another hole in his recordcy So, so what happened is
that jay Z was able to reinvent himself. Now you
see billionaire Jazz It See this game is about reinventing

(01:46:59):
yourself because sins constantly changed. Life is about evolution, constant change.
So if you think you can stay the same and
continue to rise and elevate your wrong, So in order
for you to be successful in life and in business,
you gotta want you gotta know your why, sitting to
the depth of it. You gotta know your why, why
are you doing it? Why are you want to be successful?
Who can you help? And then you gotta know who

(01:47:21):
who you going to help, Who's who likes your product,
who wants your product, who needs your product or service?
And then you've gotta find creative ways to make them
want it and need it over and over and over
again while not being afraid to dive then and reinvent yourself.
I'm talking to Dr Mark the Baxter, the author of
the incredible book How to Be One with Greatness. You

(01:47:42):
were born to be great. Mark, thank you for coming
on my show where you making conversations the pleasures all mine. Man,
I thank you so much on the depth of my
heart and we would talk to my friend keep winning
and uh I keep watching those videos, so you better
not stop. Okay, I can't stop. Won't stop. That's the
puffy one for you. I've in this season of giving

(01:48:06):
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million dollars to local nonprofits nationwide. Give with all your

(01:48:27):
heart this season with great gifts from Coals or coals
dot com. Still living in manually taking notes, there is
a better way to start the new year with auto
dot ai automatically get meeting notes. Auto dot ai works
for virtual meetings like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
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the app stores auto dot ai. That's O T T
E R. Dot ai. Sticky notes, email alerts a string

(01:48:51):
around your finger. They're just not big enough. So here's
a big reminder from the California Lottery tomorrow's Megamillions jackpot
in the three million plain out please play responsibly. Must
be eighteen years older to purchase Blayer Funds.

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Host

Rushion McDonald

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