April 29, 2022 • 36 mins
Chuck Styles sits with Money Moves to discuss his journey of becoming one of the top barbers in the Philadelphia area and how the barbershop industry aided in his transition to becoming a full-time artist. Chuck also shares intel on his collaboration with Tops and Nascar while giving us gems on how he's built multiple streams of income through art.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @chuckstyless
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
back to Money Moves. I'm your host, Hannya Sam and
(00:22):
welcome again to Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to
give you the keys to the Kingdom of financial stability,
wealth and abundance. Today's guest has been an artist since
he was six years old, then broke off into entrepreneurship
and became one of the best barbers in the Philadelphia area.
And now he's continuing to follow his childhood passion and
dream and living the life as an artist. Welcome to
(00:45):
the podcast. How are you today? It's so good to
have you here, Chuck Styles, I thank you, thank you
so so much for having me. It's a pleasure, big
fan of Greenwood and the platform that you know you are.
You guys are doing and creating to just you know,
spark conversation about um financial literacy within the black community.
(01:07):
So thank you for having me. Well, we're so happy
to have you here, and we really like to delve
into the trajectory of success in the lifestyles of people
from all different industries, from creatives to artists, musicians to
entrepreneurs and startup and technology. So really excited because your
art speaks for itself. We are all staring at it
right now and you've got some amazing works behind you.
(01:29):
But I want to rewind to the beginning. Tell us
about little Chuck Styles growing up in Philadelphia, um, and
sort of I want to dive into you know, how
you were raised in terms of looking at money, making
money moves, saving money, investing. Like, people come with a
lot of different stories about how they were introduced to
this at a young age. Yeah, man, were little Chuck Styles. Um.
(01:53):
I actually grew up in a small stuburb like right
outstide of West Philly, UM in Landsdowne. UM. Big big family, UM,
six other brothers and sisters. So we were like we
were like the Black Brady Bunch in in the in
the in the community. UM. Low income but you know,
a lot of love, a lot of a lot of
(02:14):
fun um. And you know, when you're a kid, you
don't realize that you're poor, you know what I mean?
And the order and then you started realizing like, oh
I did have a lot of syrup syre, which is
you know, growing up. So I guess, um, just growing up.
You know, my mom worked hard, my stepfather worked hard,
and we you know, we made it work. Um, but
(02:36):
I did. I did pay atttention to how we lived
as a family, especially when I got to a teenager,
when I started to see, like, you know, our roof
was falling apart, and there was water that was coming in.
And you know, every every night when it rained, I
would have to stay up, you know, get like hours
of sleep because I had to empty the trash cans
(02:57):
fill it up with water. So it a little things
like that started started. You know, I'm sparking the interest
to you know, UM, want to make money and when
financially I get older. UM and my uncle who owned
barbershops in uh In, Germans in the German talent section
of Philadelphia. That's what piqued my interests of being a barber.
(03:21):
So I tried the I tried the college route, and
I tried the corporate nine the five route. Um, but
I ended up you know, pursuing my barbering passion right
out of high school and being a young man trying
to you know, get out of your mom's basement. Um,
I was you know, buying my own car and you know,
(03:43):
funding my own lifestyle at like nineteen twenty years old
and stuff. I kind of jumped right out into the
world of like making money. And because barbering is you know,
fast money. Um, I learned a lot of good things
as a barber, but a lot of bad habits as
a barber. I didn't didn't know about chances, I didn't
know about retirement plans. I didn't thank you for speaking
(04:05):
the truth, you know, because these are a lot of
things that people stumbling, like you said, they're making some
fast money, they think they're doing good, but the infrastructure
behind it nobody taught them to do. In barbering, like
there's so many people in our community who have barbershops,
but there's a business side of it that you know,
you don't talk about in the barbershop. Absolutely, absolutely so.
So barbering barbering, um is the area of my life
(04:29):
that I contribute so much to like the artists that
I am now, especially when it comes to business because
through barbering and being a successful barbera, I learned how
to market myself, um, you know, in in in large
convention areas and and um selling products and selling yourself
things like that. UM. But it took me to jump
(04:50):
out and take the sleep of faith as a full
time artist, where I had to relearn or or unlearned
a lot of bad habits, Like I said, ability, the
credit um, looking at retirement uh, plans and and things
like that. UM. So I learned how to be more
financially responsible with the money that I was making once
(05:11):
I started taking my art career a lot more serious.
But those two careers go hand in hand because barber
and taught me how to make the money and running
an art business taught me how to manage the money. Wow,
I like it. So how many how many years were
you working as full time barbering and how many shops
did you own? UM in the Philly area. Uh. Well,
(05:34):
I want to say that I I started. I started
cutting when I was about like in eighth grade, you know,
but professionally, professionally I would say, from the age of
nineteen to the age of thirty. So over ten years
of my life was dedicated to just you know, being
a barber. UM. I didn't own any shops. I was
(05:55):
fortunate enough to really work with some um, some really
talented UM business savvy you know barber shop owners that
I I you know, owe a lot to just as
far as my government as a young man and you
know the business side. But um, but yeah, that was
that was about ten ten eleven years of my life
(06:16):
to the barbering. The barbering arts is what I call it,
the barbering arts. And so when did you begin to
transition into actually creating art? Behind us? There's like some
incredible art and I'm wondering when you took the lead
to follow that full time? Uh well, art is one
(06:36):
of those things that I've done since I was a kid.
But I never wanted to be an artist because I
never saw any role models, um, depicted on television or
you know, in media that looked like me that was
a successful artist. So, you know, growing up as a
young black kid and you know in the community, I
wanted to play basketball or do all these other things
(06:57):
except follow the gift that God aid me. Um. And
it's because I didn't see any leadership with with UM.
When I turned when I turned thirty, UM, that's when
I took the leap of faith and said, I'm I'm
I've accomplished a lot as a barber and I'm still
young enough to try something else and be great at
(07:20):
that too. So I took that leap of faith at
thirty with the support of my wife and my family
that kind of just let me have that time to
figure it out. Um But but like I said, it's
so much. I learned so much in the barber industry
that it was and I remember this moment. I used
to do a lot of hair compet to barber competitions
(07:41):
where I would cut hair for you know, trophies and
prizes and things like that. And while I was at
these convention centers of ten thousand people, I would look
at the boots, and the boots all were the same.
It was like a cookie cutter kind of like repetition. Yeah,
there were some there were the products that were selling
(08:01):
all these things, and nobody was selling artwork. I've seen
thousands of people there and I've seen nobody's selling artwork.
And that's when the light bulb went off and said,
this is a void that I can feel. I'm going
to start attending these um these conventions, in these these seminars,
in these events, and I'm a you know, present my
art to the barber community and tel that industry and
(08:25):
I started to grow the confidence and to know how
to just operate, you know, my art in certain areas,
and that helped me. That helped me with my transition.
I mean, I love that vision of just being able
to see, hey, there's something missing out of this market.
I have something that these this community might like, let
me try it. And you know, I think that's like
some of the beauties of like entrepreneurship. You're just trying
(08:47):
things to see what works, what sticks, and you know
you've definitely found the lane and you went with it. Yeah, absolutely,
absolutely paid all. So, how did you know when you
were ready to transition full time, leave the barbering world
behind and go strictly into earning a living um off
of selling your art. The funny thing is, you know
(09:10):
it was I want to say it was it was
God like Honestly, I don't think that's the only answer.
It is the only answer. It was just a very
um it was a very interesting time for me and
my family at that moment. And like I said, I
was I've accomplished a lot at the age to thirty
(09:31):
as a barber, but it was barbering wasn't something that
I saw myself doing when I got older, you know,
sixty seventy. You know, it's like, how am I still
gonna be able to you know, physically stand up and cut?
You know, twelve hour days. That's not all for my life.
And you know when you when you know, when coming
out of that nine year and then you hit your thirties,
(09:55):
it's like you have this you know, it hits me
eureka moment where he was like, man it, okay, what's
my life gonna look like from here on? Because now
I feel like an adult adult, like a real adult.
And um, I think it was just a jumbalaya of
just so many different events and feelings and thoughts that
(10:16):
just kind of gave me the confidence to say, okay,
let's do let's try. Yeah. UM, I want to come
back and touch on your heart. But I just want
to ask one last question. You know, one thing you
when you talk about barbering, you talk about it as
a profession. Um. I want to because I think there's
so many people and the money moves audience that are barbers,
their beauticians. They're you know, making earling a living, but
(10:38):
it really is a profession. You also talk about going
to conferences and um, you know, competing in conferences for
awards and stuff. Talk about how people need to have
this mindset of looking at barbering as a profession. Um,
and just little things that they can do to sort
of increase their game in in barbering and beauty. Oh yeah, absolutely, Um,
(11:02):
the barbering world. It's funny enough because the hair industry,
you know, not just barbering, because barbing is a very
small set here. This is a multibillion dollar industry. You know,
it's huge, and we people of color make up a
huge part of that. We spend our dollars hard in
(11:23):
that area and that industry. So I you know, I
really love how you approach It's like, this is a profession.
This isn't just what I do to make money. I'm
not just casually cutting hair. Like your approach to it
was like very distinctly a profession. Oh yeah absolutely, and
um for a lot of young barbers for you know,
hairstyles out there that are um kind of shot bound.
(11:46):
You know, the world of of of the hair industry
and the opportunities to you know, expand um, you know,
your financial kind of life, you know, resume, It's it's
out there and it's unfortunate that you know, us uh
us that you know, consume so much with the hair products,
(12:07):
and within the hair industry, there's not enough on the
other side that's treated the products. And so when I
started to go to the conventions, you know in in Atlanta, Brona,
Bonner Brothers, you know what I mean, or it's huge
or premier down in Orlando, or um you know, it's
another one really big in New York at the Jacob
(12:28):
Jackett's time. It's literally tens of thousands of vendors there
telling all types of hair products and tools and capes
and you name it. And it's not a lot of
black and brown vendors that are there. So what I
would encourage is get into the product space because number one,
(12:51):
number one, what I learned early on is that no
matter how good you are, there are only still a
certain amount of hours in the day that you can
actually perform that service. There are only an amount of
people within that that day that you can service. So
why not get into the product business where that you
can have a a tribe, true and tested product that
(13:15):
can sell throughout all times of day, all times of
the day, all times of the night, and it'll just continuously,
you know, gain traction and and and and provide the
financial freedom that you know allows you to spend more
time with your family. I love that other things because
that was one of the big things with me is
(13:35):
that I was I shot bound and I wasn't I
was missing critical moments with my my wife or my
kids Saturdays. It took me over twelve years to experience
what a Saturday, regular civilian happens. Of course, you can't
take a Saturday off as a barber. That's like prime time.
That's prime time. Wow. No, I really appreciate that perspective
(13:57):
and sharing it because I think, you know, people really
have to let no matter what business you're in, you
have to, you know, build the business with the foresight
of building something that is a brand, recognizing you're limited
by how many hours you can cut hair, and creating
multiple and alternate streams of income, whether it's products, you know,
whether it's you know, having other chairs behind you. But
(14:18):
that's a really great perspective. Okay. I also have a
question like these hair cutting competitions, So when you go
to a conference and you're like winning a hair cutting competition,
did that help you succeed in business, or like what
does that do for the brand in the business. Absolutely,
And the funny thing is the funny thing is my
real lass name is not Styles. A lot of people
think it's Styles. Um Touch. Styles is actually my barber
(14:40):
name that I just transferred over into the our community,
and a lot of people started calling me Chuch Styles
because I did so many different styles haircuts. Literally, I
could probably put your face in the back of somebody's head.
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's how you still win a lot
of positions within an hour. I think it was like
(15:04):
an hour, hour and a half time. I would perform
like a nice cut, you know, um, you know from
what people can see front of you, but then in
the back I would do complete portraits of Michael Jordan's
or Caesar from Planet of the Apes or uh, Floyd
Mayweather I did that, Lebron James, I did that um
and it ended up it ended up branting me a
(15:25):
spot on UM, a competition show hosted by sed you
the entertainer that was on CW. Uh you know that's
kind of like, yeah, I'm gonna have to talk to
my man because he has not had my face on
the back of his heads. So like what are we
really doing. I mean, you know, all those all those
(15:46):
little winds, all those little winds. It goes into the
success story of at the end of the day, the brand,
which is you. You know, you can you can create
all these other brands that kind of lived as a
as a as its own entity. But at the end
of the day, you are your own brand and you
are your brandy. They want to see you in and
(16:08):
they're here to champion you. So all those little ways
in my past life, if the barber have carried over
and they're seeing me do incredible things and the you
know it all helps, it definitely definitely helps with the support.
So this makes a lot of sense. Now, Chuck Styles
one point oh was creating art on the back of heads.
Now Chuck Styles two point oh is creating art. Because
(16:28):
I was like, wow, this is really an amazing transition.
But it's just your medium has changed. Yeah, yeah, that's it.
So let's talk about the art behind you. So now
you've been painting all along. You know, making it in
this world as an artist is really really difficult. But
I think a lot of that speaks to brand and marketing.
And so you already had like one leg in and
(16:49):
that you had an audience that was coming to you
for your talents and styles. You'd already branched out into
you know, selling art through unexpected places, I would say
it conferences and barbershops. How is it now, you know,
being a full time artist, and can you tell our
audience how you go about structuring this as a business
as well, because it's not you know, I think oftentimes
(17:12):
when people think about artists, they just think of some
guy that's just painting on a whimsy. And you know,
there's no business to it. But if you want to eat,
you gotta have a business. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
know it was it was funny. What Like I said,
one thing, one thing that the barbering community um allowed
me to, uh just kind of have a clear eye
(17:34):
view on is knowing who your audience is. You know.
So when I was still a barber and I was
doing art specifically barber theme, it was it was like
literally kids in a candy shop because I spoke their language,
the art resonated with them in barbershops and here salons
were just heating it up. So when I when I
(17:56):
transitioned from being a barber to a full time artist,
you know, I have. I have a few other themes
that aren't necessarily what you see behind me, because it
took me a while to find my art voice. But
then once I figure out, you know, who I was
and who I wanted to represent and what my art
wanted to represent, I said, you know what I want
to do primarily black art that just like amplifies you know,
(18:17):
the black voice and gives people confidence and pide and
who they are and who we are. And knowing your
audience is like eighty percent battle. It's it's literally it's
eighty if you can if you can provide value to
a community of people and you're like there with them,
that that solves a lot of uh, you know, struggling artists, myths,
(18:41):
and I think a lot of a lot of young
artists they just want to do what's fool with training
and you know, and it's it's just an audience for that.
But that audience is very fickle because they're onto the
next thing that's hot, you know what I mean. Um,
But that that helped out a lot is just knowing
who my audience is. Another thing that I what I
tend to do is um, I look, you know, the
(19:04):
saying um, Uh, if you want to be wealthy, that
you need seven streams of m I look at each
of my art pieces as um a way to create
seven streams. So if I create one artwork, that one artwork,
the original is one stream, princes is a second stream,
merchandise is the third stream. UM, any type of other
(19:27):
you know, UM, whether I want to do licensing, licensing
is a is another stream. So it's artists must understand that.
You know, when you create an asset, that asset can
be broken down at a multiple different streams because some
people might love your artwork in different mediums and if
you're able to supply them that medium, then that can
(19:47):
create a whole different you know, a whole different tab
on your website for Okay, so explain to me too.
So you do original works, you do prints, you do urch,
you do all sort of bins of your art. Have
you decided is one more lucrative than the other? Yes? Absolutely? UM,
(20:09):
so I used to do. I used to uh putting
events in art shows down in Miami for art bobs
on weekend. Our boss is really big, really competitive. I
I've been there several times this year. I came and
left not with art, but a maicron, so that purpose
(20:31):
my my my first few times there, I think I
think I went under the guise of, Okay, this is
the super Bowl of art. Everybody feels like artwork, right.
I think the illusion that I told a lot of
young artists now the illusion of art Bossom, was that
you're gonna go down there with your artwork and you're
(20:52):
gonna make a hundred thousand dollars selling your artwork, right,
And that's the dream. The reality is. I love that
you said that's the dream. The reality is. The reality
is when I was down there on year three and
I was you know, I post my own events and
(21:13):
so I bring other artists on with me, and you know,
we share space. When I realized by year three was
that the art that I was trying to sell at
the time, I couldn't even afford it, right. So I'm like, man,
I'm I'm trying to sell artwork for like thirty thousand dollars.
I can't even afford my own artwork. And then I
(21:35):
realized the macharity of people that are down there to
enjoy art bossle are like me there in a four
thirty thou dollar art pieces. So that's the that's the
reality that the majority of the people out of eighty
thousand people that come down to Miami to experience art bossle,
I want to say, those people are just regular people
(21:57):
that are they're support and and and look at art.
So what I said is, Okay, I want to service.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to restructure
my art business and not necessarily drive the focus on
the original artwork, but I'll provide high quality campus prints
for a fraction of the cars. So and I think
(22:19):
this also speaks to the strategy of getting your name
out there, you know, and people like people want to know,
they're like who styles check stiles is art checktiles up
because they see it and then someone else can go
buy it. And you know, I think in our community
that's really huge because a lot of the people that
go to art Boss they're learning, you know, they're learning
about art. They're trying to figure out how to get
(22:41):
into art, what is great art? And so here you're
you're flooding the market. You're not flooding the market, but
you're providing something in a larger market pool. Yes, no, no,
to your point, absolutely, that's exactly how I thought and
I know it was it was, it was it was
difficult cool to explain to other artists or other people
(23:03):
that kind of had this stigma of oh, well, if
you do prints, isn't that going to devalue your work?
And I'm like, well, my work really doesn't have any
value of people don't know who I am. I have
to increase the demand first, and in order to decrease
the demand, gotta get out there, you know. So that
was the first run of you know, just going down
(23:24):
to art Boss and providing just canvas prints to people
and people said, I can get that like three I said, yes, absolutely,
and we will ship it to you so you don't
even have to worry about taking it back, which I
love that. Yes, absolutely, and we will ship it to you.
Piece of art and it's art. And I think this
is the thing, Like there's this misnomer about the art
world that it has to be you know, super expensive,
(23:46):
and but sometimes like art is just meant to be enjoyed.
And yes, you want to create add value and it
be an asset, you know, as it grows and evolves,
But sometimes it's just be getting in on the bottom floor,
having an eye learning these things and yes, for three
hundred dollars, you can have this piece of art and
I'm gonna ship it to you. People are gonna see
it and they're gonna be like, I would like one
of those, absolutely, I mean, and you know what, also,
(24:08):
you know would also kind of like helped me, um go,
because I was very much like an elitist for a
second where I was just like, I'm not doing prints. Yeah,
you know, but um it's to to to make six
figures as a as a as an artist, all on
your own terms, it's still a success. And when I
(24:29):
saw when I saw this young this young girl ets,
I think she was making like a hundred thousand dollars
a year. She was selling Beyonce quotes on like in
her own handwriting it slay girl and straight from Beyonce songs,
and she was clearing six figures. And I said, that's
(24:51):
that's the success story that so many people need to see. YEA,
that helped transition into just being able to provide um
in a different format and being comfortable with that. And
so yeah's your point. I mean, you got to educate
people and and I like that. I mean, I really
love that you even shared this young woman on Etsy,
(25:12):
just being like she was reselling handwritten beyond. There's a
market for everything, and you have to find your market. Listen,
not all of us are Barack and Michelle Obama. Who
can have some artists paint them portraits of themselves that's
gonna go tour like, that's not And you know what,
some everybody's art is different. Art is truly in the
eye of the beholder or the purchaser. So being able
(25:33):
to find your market, your marketplace is like I think
the key niche. Okay, I do, since your art is
behind us, I want to ask a couple of questions
because there's such a diverse array of different things that
you've created and painted, everything from a P and B
peanut butter and jelly sandwich too. I think that's ali
that isn't am I wrong? Yes? Okay? So what really
(25:56):
inspires you to create all these all this very different art? Um?
You know, I'm a big fan of music. My mother.
My mother was a musician, and I look at music
as a driving force to kind of like provide the
energy for my artwork. Um. I learned so much from
so many different industries and I look at my art
(26:18):
as the same way like a musical artist creates albums.
So in order for me to stay within a certain
like theme or color story, UM, I like to make collections.
And within that collection you can kind of tell like, okay,
this was this was during this year, during this period,
and that was during that period. Kind of like an album.
(26:41):
You know, when you when you go back and look
at like, you know, Michael Jackson's like bad album, it's
just oh, yeah, now I know all that's on that
album work, you know, yeah, yeah, like okay, you know,
I know exactly what songs are on that album. And
that's how I look at my artwork. So when you
see like the pimpleter and Jelly with the one order
shop any glass and then just wonder bread piece right here,
(27:04):
that was that was in the in the time here
where I was doing a lot of Miami artwork and
I was trying to cater to you know, to get
money Miami art. Um. But then if you look at
the pieces that are all my walls, a lot of
a lot of black faces, a lot of black storytelling. Um.
Have Hank Aaron behind me over here, ye have yeah, yeah, yeah.
(27:27):
This piece I'm working on right now, it's inspired by
my wife and my daughters that I'm working on right now.
So that piece in the background is incomplete, It's not
finished yet, yes, yes, yes, gosh, I'm already drawn to
it already, so I can't wait to see what that
looks like. Thank you, thank you. So as of right now,
I'm just still I'm just still in this moment of
(27:49):
bright colors that invoked emotion. Um. I want you know,
at the end of the day, I I believe in
my you know, my talent to my skill, but I
also understand that you know, when you when you create art,
you you want there to be an emotional collection, and
I think that's the most important. So I just want
to make sure that you know, no matter what I paint,
(28:11):
you know there's that emotional connection with the viewer, whether
it's the content or the colors or the composition or
you know those things. Okay, what are your thoughts, because
I know the world is changing. We're talking a lot
about digital art and f t art um and how
it can help artists actually like m authenticate the provenance
(28:32):
of a piece of art and you know, collect royalties
for years to come. Do you think this is something
that's here to stay or just a quick fad um
as it pertains to art in particular. Mhmm, tough question.
I don't know, that's a good question. That's a good
question because I haven't I haven't released any n f
T s as of yet. Um, I'm not in a
(28:54):
rush because it's still very very necessary making it like, oh,
this gotta get in there, you gotta get down. And
it's just like it took a long time for people
to even catch up to the Internet, you know what
I mean, Like you know what I mean, I remember,
you know, back when it was dial up and you yeah,
(29:17):
you know, and even before then, it was like the
Internet was out years before then. So right now n
f T s they're they're out. I do think that
they provide um another lane for you know, financial you know,
financial freedom. The thing, the thing that just kind of
scares me a little bit is that because it's from
(29:38):
the blockchain, and um, I mean obviously the people that
run these platforms are a lot smaller than you and
I I'm just worried about security measures. Security is a
big issue in that industry for sure. Yeah, so I'm
seeing like you know, X, the X amount of dollars
just was stolen in board eights, you know, the way
(30:00):
it's happening a lot. Yeah, So I do think that
there are there are positives to the n f T S.
I just still think that we are so far from
seeing what n f t s really can do in
a stable environment where you know, people can actually have
a plan and then that plan actually succeed, because right
(30:22):
now everybody's just selling it out. It's the wild wild West.
I admit, I follow the industry. I'm into it, but
it is certainly so early that it is the wild
wild West, right right, absolutely? Okay, So, last, but not least,
I want to dive into the piece of the conversation
where you're involved with TOPS for Projects seventy. Can you
tell us a little bit about that? Oh Man, Tops, Tops,
(30:46):
Uh just got finished scrapping up my tops project seventy
project where Tops were celebrating seventy years of providing cards
in the sports you know, uh, in the sports industry
and it's it's been incredible. And they chose fifty creatives
to generate twenty cards, twenty unique cards for their set.
(31:08):
And some of the creatives that were involved in the
project was Snoop dogg Um. Yeah, Snoop. I'm I'm surprised
he took on this job because he has like a
thousand jobs right now. He does have a thousand jobs jobs,
Snoop Dog Action Bronson was a part of this set. Um,
(31:28):
there's there's a lot of a lot of you know,
well known artists and creative Jett staple Um, you know,
DJ dj Ski. It's like some of the people that
were involved in this project. I was just humbled to say, like, wow,
I'm here and um the project just commenced and I
actually finished in the top five UM sellers, selling over
(31:51):
a million a million dollars worth of baseball cards with
fifty four thousand cards sold. Snoop love you look, but
I had to feel out of here, um and and
and yeah, it's just it's incredible to see that my
artwork is in a smaller format that will be hopefully
around past you know, my years on Earth, and you
(32:14):
know my grandkids, and you know they'll be able to
pick up these cards somewhere around the world and say, yo,
you know what I mean, my father, my grandfather did
that card, or you know, if this if it ends
up being worth you know, thousands or a hundred thousand
dollars because baseball car community is a whole, another whole,
(32:35):
another underground industry that is just like it's not a
lot of buss in it, but there's a lot of
money in it, but there's a lot of I mean,
you are on the cusp of being an n f
T artist. I can tell you got the collectible piece.
You're just like you just need to tip the scale.
I'm sure next time we have you back here and
be like I just launched my whole collection. Were getting
there for sure, but sure, amazing, congratulations, that's a lot
(32:59):
of really great stuff that you have happening. We don't
have a lot of time left, but tell us what's
next for you. Do you have any great collaborations or
collections coming up? And of course where we can find
you on social media to buy some of these great pieces. Absolutely,
thank you. Um well, I just got finished. I just
got finished coming back from Cleveland for NBA All Star Weekend,
(33:21):
UM where I launched my collection UH and apparel with
a company called Damari Black owned owned by UM former
Philadelphia Eagles Malcolm Jenkins. So that's that's his line and
UM we successfully that are opening launched at sex fifth
Avenue in Cleveland over the weekend. That's huge. Yeah, really good,
(33:45):
really good turn out, really good reception. Um so that
just happened. And then I'll be out in Vegas to
celebrate Window Scott, which was the first African American race
car driver. I did some artwork that honors Window Scott.
Will be on every single NASCAR card in the in
the coverage and be on a big giant jumble to trying. Yeah,
(34:07):
so I'm excited for that. You know, I would have
never thought that I would have been doing artwork the NASCAR.
But I'm just glad that, um you know, here to
help tell our stories in unconventional ways. And just I
mean that's pretty like when you think about those unique
avenues black people doing art for NASCAR racers, like that's
pretty impressive. And I think that matters so much like
(34:27):
when we talk about and I've heard you talk about representation,
you know, being an artist and looking up as a
kid and just being like, oh I can do that
because he did that. He did that, Like that's pretty impressive.
So congrats and kudos, thank you so much, Thank you
so much. And you know, last and not least, you
know you can find You can find my artwork at
www dot art, Chuck styles dot com or on all
(34:50):
social media at Chuck Styles too, at that at Chuck
Styles Too. S s at the end, Well, money Movers,
we are out of time for today, but you heard
the man. You heard where to follow him? So make
sure you check him out, support his art um and
thank you again, check Stiles for being with us today.
You have dropped so many gems. We're just appreciative your time,
love the work that you're doing. Thank you, Greenwich, I'll Greenwood,
(35:13):
I'm always hearing your family. Let's let's keep educating. Let's
keep educating. Oh, thank you so much. All right, money Movers,
that's all the time we have for today. But if
we have helped you make your money move, please make
sure to let us know by sending us alike, sharing
the knowledge on your social media, and or leave us
a review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure to tune
in Monday to Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves
(35:35):
podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you two can have
the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank
you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If
you want more or a recap of this episode. Please
go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check out
the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I
(35:57):
heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcasts on I heart Radio, visit the i
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your
podcasts from.
Hey Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey money Movers, Welcome
back to Money Moves. I'm your host, Hannya Sam and
(00:22):
welcome again to Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to
give you the keys to the Kingdom of financial stability,
wealth and abundance. Today's guest has been an artist since
he was six years old, then broke off into entrepreneurship
and became one of the best barbers in the Philadelphia area.
And now he's continuing to follow his childhood passion and
dream and living the life as an artist. Welcome to
(00:45):
the podcast. How are you today? It's so good to
have you here, Chuck Styles, I thank you, thank you
so so much for having me. It's a pleasure, big
fan of Greenwood and the platform that you know you are.
You guys are doing and creating to just you know,
spark conversation about um financial literacy within the black community.
(01:07):
So thank you for having me. Well, we're so happy
to have you here, and we really like to delve
into the trajectory of success in the lifestyles of people
from all different industries, from creatives to artists, musicians to
entrepreneurs and startup and technology. So really excited because your
art speaks for itself. We are all staring at it
right now and you've got some amazing works behind you.
(01:29):
But I want to rewind to the beginning. Tell us
about little Chuck Styles growing up in Philadelphia, um, and
sort of I want to dive into you know, how
you were raised in terms of looking at money, making
money moves, saving money, investing. Like, people come with a
lot of different stories about how they were introduced to
this at a young age. Yeah, man, were little Chuck Styles. Um.
(01:53):
I actually grew up in a small stuburb like right
outstide of West Philly, UM in Landsdowne. UM. Big big family, UM,
six other brothers and sisters. So we were like we
were like the Black Brady Bunch in in the in
the in the community. UM. Low income but you know,
a lot of love, a lot of a lot of
(02:14):
fun um. And you know, when you're a kid, you
don't realize that you're poor, you know what I mean?
And the order and then you started realizing like, oh
I did have a lot of syrup syre, which is
you know, growing up. So I guess, um, just growing up.
You know, my mom worked hard, my stepfather worked hard,
and we you know, we made it work. Um, but
(02:36):
I did. I did pay atttention to how we lived
as a family, especially when I got to a teenager,
when I started to see, like, you know, our roof
was falling apart, and there was water that was coming in.
And you know, every every night when it rained, I
would have to stay up, you know, get like hours
of sleep because I had to empty the trash cans
(02:57):
fill it up with water. So it a little things
like that started started. You know, I'm sparking the interest
to you know, UM, want to make money and when
financially I get older. UM and my uncle who owned
barbershops in uh In, Germans in the German talent section
of Philadelphia. That's what piqued my interests of being a barber.
(03:21):
So I tried the I tried the college route, and
I tried the corporate nine the five route. Um, but
I ended up you know, pursuing my barbering passion right
out of high school and being a young man trying
to you know, get out of your mom's basement. Um,
I was you know, buying my own car and you know,
(03:43):
funding my own lifestyle at like nineteen twenty years old
and stuff. I kind of jumped right out into the
world of like making money. And because barbering is you know,
fast money. Um, I learned a lot of good things
as a barber, but a lot of bad habits as
a barber. I didn't didn't know about chances, I didn't
know about retirement plans. I didn't thank you for speaking
(04:05):
the truth, you know, because these are a lot of
things that people stumbling, like you said, they're making some
fast money, they think they're doing good, but the infrastructure
behind it nobody taught them to do. In barbering, like
there's so many people in our community who have barbershops,
but there's a business side of it that you know,
you don't talk about in the barbershop. Absolutely, absolutely so.
So barbering barbering, um is the area of my life
(04:29):
that I contribute so much to like the artists that
I am now, especially when it comes to business because
through barbering and being a successful barbera, I learned how
to market myself, um, you know, in in in large
convention areas and and um selling products and selling yourself
things like that. UM. But it took me to jump
(04:50):
out and take the sleep of faith as a full
time artist, where I had to relearn or or unlearned
a lot of bad habits, Like I said, ability, the
credit um, looking at retirement uh, plans and and things
like that. UM. So I learned how to be more
financially responsible with the money that I was making once
(05:11):
I started taking my art career a lot more serious.
But those two careers go hand in hand because barber
and taught me how to make the money and running
an art business taught me how to manage the money. Wow,
I like it. So how many how many years were
you working as full time barbering and how many shops
did you own? UM in the Philly area. Uh. Well,
(05:34):
I want to say that I I started. I started
cutting when I was about like in eighth grade, you know,
but professionally, professionally I would say, from the age of
nineteen to the age of thirty. So over ten years
of my life was dedicated to just you know, being
a barber. UM. I didn't own any shops. I was
(05:55):
fortunate enough to really work with some um, some really
talented UM business savvy you know barber shop owners that
I I you know, owe a lot to just as
far as my government as a young man and you
know the business side. But um, but yeah, that was
that was about ten ten eleven years of my life
(06:16):
to the barbering. The barbering arts is what I call it,
the barbering arts. And so when did you begin to
transition into actually creating art? Behind us? There's like some
incredible art and I'm wondering when you took the lead
to follow that full time? Uh well, art is one
(06:36):
of those things that I've done since I was a kid.
But I never wanted to be an artist because I
never saw any role models, um, depicted on television or
you know, in media that looked like me that was
a successful artist. So, you know, growing up as a
young black kid and you know in the community, I
wanted to play basketball or do all these other things
(06:57):
except follow the gift that God aid me. Um. And
it's because I didn't see any leadership with with UM.
When I turned when I turned thirty, UM, that's when
I took the leap of faith and said, I'm I'm
I've accomplished a lot as a barber and I'm still
young enough to try something else and be great at
(07:20):
that too. So I took that leap of faith at
thirty with the support of my wife and my family
that kind of just let me have that time to
figure it out. Um But but like I said, it's
so much. I learned so much in the barber industry
that it was and I remember this moment. I used
to do a lot of hair compet to barber competitions
(07:41):
where I would cut hair for you know, trophies and
prizes and things like that. And while I was at
these convention centers of ten thousand people, I would look
at the boots, and the boots all were the same.
It was like a cookie cutter kind of like repetition. Yeah,
there were some there were the products that were selling
(08:01):
all these things, and nobody was selling artwork. I've seen
thousands of people there and I've seen nobody's selling artwork.
And that's when the light bulb went off and said,
this is a void that I can feel. I'm going
to start attending these um these conventions, in these these seminars,
in these events, and I'm a you know, present my
art to the barber community and tel that industry and
(08:25):
I started to grow the confidence and to know how
to just operate, you know, my art in certain areas,
and that helped me. That helped me with my transition.
I mean, I love that vision of just being able
to see, hey, there's something missing out of this market.
I have something that these this community might like, let
me try it. And you know, I think that's like
some of the beauties of like entrepreneurship. You're just trying
(08:47):
things to see what works, what sticks, and you know
you've definitely found the lane and you went with it. Yeah, absolutely,
absolutely paid all. So, how did you know when you
were ready to transition full time, leave the barbering world
behind and go strictly into earning a living um off
of selling your art. The funny thing is, you know
(09:10):
it was I want to say it was it was
God like Honestly, I don't think that's the only answer.
It is the only answer. It was just a very
um it was a very interesting time for me and
my family at that moment. And like I said, I
was I've accomplished a lot at the age to thirty
(09:31):
as a barber, but it was barbering wasn't something that
I saw myself doing when I got older, you know,
sixty seventy. You know, it's like, how am I still
gonna be able to you know, physically stand up and cut?
You know, twelve hour days. That's not all for my life.
And you know when you when you know, when coming
out of that nine year and then you hit your thirties,
(09:55):
it's like you have this you know, it hits me
eureka moment where he was like, man it, okay, what's
my life gonna look like from here on? Because now
I feel like an adult adult, like a real adult.
And um, I think it was just a jumbalaya of
just so many different events and feelings and thoughts that
(10:16):
just kind of gave me the confidence to say, okay,
let's do let's try. Yeah. UM, I want to come
back and touch on your heart. But I just want
to ask one last question. You know, one thing you
when you talk about barbering, you talk about it as
a profession. Um. I want to because I think there's
so many people and the money moves audience that are barbers,
their beauticians. They're you know, making earling a living, but
(10:38):
it really is a profession. You also talk about going
to conferences and um, you know, competing in conferences for
awards and stuff. Talk about how people need to have
this mindset of looking at barbering as a profession. Um,
and just little things that they can do to sort
of increase their game in in barbering and beauty. Oh yeah, absolutely, Um,
(11:02):
the barbering world. It's funny enough because the hair industry,
you know, not just barbering, because barbing is a very
small set here. This is a multibillion dollar industry. You know,
it's huge, and we people of color make up a
huge part of that. We spend our dollars hard in
(11:23):
that area and that industry. So I you know, I
really love how you approach It's like, this is a profession.
This isn't just what I do to make money. I'm
not just casually cutting hair. Like your approach to it
was like very distinctly a profession. Oh yeah absolutely, and
um for a lot of young barbers for you know,
hairstyles out there that are um kind of shot bound.
(11:46):
You know, the world of of of the hair industry
and the opportunities to you know, expand um, you know,
your financial kind of life, you know, resume, It's it's
out there and it's unfortunate that you know, us uh
us that you know, consume so much with the hair products,
(12:07):
and within the hair industry, there's not enough on the
other side that's treated the products. And so when I
started to go to the conventions, you know in in Atlanta, Brona,
Bonner Brothers, you know what I mean, or it's huge
or premier down in Orlando, or um you know, it's
another one really big in New York at the Jacob
(12:28):
Jackett's time. It's literally tens of thousands of vendors there
telling all types of hair products and tools and capes
and you name it. And it's not a lot of
black and brown vendors that are there. So what I
would encourage is get into the product space because number one,
(12:51):
number one, what I learned early on is that no
matter how good you are, there are only still a
certain amount of hours in the day that you can
actually perform that service. There are only an amount of
people within that that day that you can service. So
why not get into the product business where that you
can have a a tribe, true and tested product that
(13:15):
can sell throughout all times of day, all times of
the day, all times of the night, and it'll just continuously,
you know, gain traction and and and and provide the
financial freedom that you know allows you to spend more
time with your family. I love that other things because
that was one of the big things with me is
(13:35):
that I was I shot bound and I wasn't I
was missing critical moments with my my wife or my
kids Saturdays. It took me over twelve years to experience
what a Saturday, regular civilian happens. Of course, you can't
take a Saturday off as a barber. That's like prime time.
That's prime time. Wow. No, I really appreciate that perspective
(13:57):
and sharing it because I think, you know, people really
have to let no matter what business you're in, you
have to, you know, build the business with the foresight
of building something that is a brand, recognizing you're limited
by how many hours you can cut hair, and creating
multiple and alternate streams of income, whether it's products, you know,
whether it's you know, having other chairs behind you. But
(14:18):
that's a really great perspective. Okay. I also have a
question like these hair cutting competitions, So when you go
to a conference and you're like winning a hair cutting competition,
did that help you succeed in business, or like what
does that do for the brand in the business. Absolutely,
And the funny thing is the funny thing is my
real lass name is not Styles. A lot of people
think it's Styles. Um Touch. Styles is actually my barber
(14:40):
name that I just transferred over into the our community,
and a lot of people started calling me Chuch Styles
because I did so many different styles haircuts. Literally, I
could probably put your face in the back of somebody's head.
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's how you still win a lot
of positions within an hour. I think it was like
(15:04):
an hour, hour and a half time. I would perform
like a nice cut, you know, um, you know from
what people can see front of you, but then in
the back I would do complete portraits of Michael Jordan's
or Caesar from Planet of the Apes or uh, Floyd
Mayweather I did that, Lebron James, I did that um
and it ended up it ended up branting me a
(15:25):
spot on UM, a competition show hosted by sed you
the entertainer that was on CW. Uh you know that's
kind of like, yeah, I'm gonna have to talk to
my man because he has not had my face on
the back of his heads. So like what are we
really doing. I mean, you know, all those all those
(15:46):
little winds, all those little winds. It goes into the
success story of at the end of the day, the brand,
which is you. You know, you can you can create
all these other brands that kind of lived as a
as a as its own entity. But at the end
of the day, you are your own brand and you
are your brandy. They want to see you in and
(16:08):
they're here to champion you. So all those little ways
in my past life, if the barber have carried over
and they're seeing me do incredible things and the you
know it all helps, it definitely definitely helps with the support.
So this makes a lot of sense. Now, Chuck Styles
one point oh was creating art on the back of heads.
Now Chuck Styles two point oh is creating art. Because
(16:28):
I was like, wow, this is really an amazing transition.
But it's just your medium has changed. Yeah, yeah, that's it.
So let's talk about the art behind you. So now
you've been painting all along. You know, making it in
this world as an artist is really really difficult. But
I think a lot of that speaks to brand and marketing.
And so you already had like one leg in and
(16:49):
that you had an audience that was coming to you
for your talents and styles. You'd already branched out into
you know, selling art through unexpected places, I would say
it conferences and barbershops. How is it now, you know,
being a full time artist, and can you tell our
audience how you go about structuring this as a business
as well, because it's not you know, I think oftentimes
(17:12):
when people think about artists, they just think of some
guy that's just painting on a whimsy. And you know,
there's no business to it. But if you want to eat,
you gotta have a business. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
know it was it was funny. What Like I said,
one thing, one thing that the barbering community um allowed
me to, uh just kind of have a clear eye
(17:34):
view on is knowing who your audience is. You know.
So when I was still a barber and I was
doing art specifically barber theme, it was it was like
literally kids in a candy shop because I spoke their language,
the art resonated with them in barbershops and here salons
were just heating it up. So when I when I
(17:56):
transitioned from being a barber to a full time artist,
you know, I have. I have a few other themes
that aren't necessarily what you see behind me, because it
took me a while to find my art voice. But
then once I figure out, you know, who I was
and who I wanted to represent and what my art
wanted to represent, I said, you know what I want
to do primarily black art that just like amplifies you know,
(18:17):
the black voice and gives people confidence and pide and
who they are and who we are. And knowing your
audience is like eighty percent battle. It's it's literally it's
eighty if you can if you can provide value to
a community of people and you're like there with them,
that that solves a lot of uh, you know, struggling artists, myths,
(18:41):
and I think a lot of a lot of young
artists they just want to do what's fool with training
and you know, and it's it's just an audience for that.
But that audience is very fickle because they're onto the
next thing that's hot, you know what I mean. Um,
But that that helped out a lot is just knowing
who my audience is. Another thing that I what I
tend to do is um, I look, you know, the
(19:04):
saying um, Uh, if you want to be wealthy, that
you need seven streams of m I look at each
of my art pieces as um a way to create
seven streams. So if I create one artwork, that one artwork,
the original is one stream, princes is a second stream,
merchandise is the third stream. UM, any type of other
(19:27):
you know, UM, whether I want to do licensing, licensing
is a is another stream. So it's artists must understand that.
You know, when you create an asset, that asset can
be broken down at a multiple different streams because some
people might love your artwork in different mediums and if
you're able to supply them that medium, then that can
(19:47):
create a whole different you know, a whole different tab
on your website for Okay, so explain to me too.
So you do original works, you do prints, you do urch,
you do all sort of bins of your art. Have
you decided is one more lucrative than the other? Yes? Absolutely? UM,
(20:09):
so I used to do. I used to uh putting
events in art shows down in Miami for art bobs
on weekend. Our boss is really big, really competitive. I
I've been there several times this year. I came and
left not with art, but a maicron, so that purpose
(20:31):
my my my first few times there, I think I
think I went under the guise of, Okay, this is
the super Bowl of art. Everybody feels like artwork, right.
I think the illusion that I told a lot of
young artists now the illusion of art Bossom, was that
you're gonna go down there with your artwork and you're
(20:52):
gonna make a hundred thousand dollars selling your artwork, right,
And that's the dream. The reality is. I love that
you said that's the dream. The reality is. The reality
is when I was down there on year three and
I was you know, I post my own events and
(21:13):
so I bring other artists on with me, and you know,
we share space. When I realized by year three was
that the art that I was trying to sell at
the time, I couldn't even afford it, right. So I'm like, man,
I'm I'm trying to sell artwork for like thirty thousand dollars.
I can't even afford my own artwork. And then I
(21:35):
realized the macharity of people that are down there to
enjoy art bossle are like me there in a four
thirty thou dollar art pieces. So that's the that's the
reality that the majority of the people out of eighty
thousand people that come down to Miami to experience art bossle,
I want to say, those people are just regular people
(21:57):
that are they're support and and and look at art.
So what I said is, Okay, I want to service.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to restructure
my art business and not necessarily drive the focus on
the original artwork, but I'll provide high quality campus prints
for a fraction of the cars. So and I think
(22:19):
this also speaks to the strategy of getting your name
out there, you know, and people like people want to know,
they're like who styles check stiles is art checktiles up
because they see it and then someone else can go
buy it. And you know, I think in our community
that's really huge because a lot of the people that
go to art Boss they're learning, you know, they're learning
about art. They're trying to figure out how to get
(22:41):
into art, what is great art? And so here you're
you're flooding the market. You're not flooding the market, but
you're providing something in a larger market pool. Yes, no, no,
to your point, absolutely, that's exactly how I thought and
I know it was it was, it was it was
difficult cool to explain to other artists or other people
(23:03):
that kind of had this stigma of oh, well, if
you do prints, isn't that going to devalue your work?
And I'm like, well, my work really doesn't have any
value of people don't know who I am. I have
to increase the demand first, and in order to decrease
the demand, gotta get out there, you know. So that
was the first run of you know, just going down
(23:24):
to art Boss and providing just canvas prints to people
and people said, I can get that like three I said, yes, absolutely,
and we will ship it to you so you don't
even have to worry about taking it back, which I
love that. Yes, absolutely, and we will ship it to you.
Piece of art and it's art. And I think this
is the thing, Like there's this misnomer about the art
world that it has to be you know, super expensive,
(23:46):
and but sometimes like art is just meant to be enjoyed.
And yes, you want to create add value and it
be an asset, you know, as it grows and evolves,
But sometimes it's just be getting in on the bottom floor,
having an eye learning these things and yes, for three
hundred dollars, you can have this piece of art and
I'm gonna ship it to you. People are gonna see
it and they're gonna be like, I would like one
of those, absolutely, I mean, and you know what, also,
(24:08):
you know would also kind of like helped me, um go,
because I was very much like an elitist for a
second where I was just like, I'm not doing prints. Yeah,
you know, but um it's to to to make six
figures as a as a as an artist, all on
your own terms, it's still a success. And when I
(24:29):
saw when I saw this young this young girl ets,
I think she was making like a hundred thousand dollars
a year. She was selling Beyonce quotes on like in
her own handwriting it slay girl and straight from Beyonce songs,
and she was clearing six figures. And I said, that's
(24:51):
that's the success story that so many people need to see. YEA,
that helped transition into just being able to provide um
in a different format and being comfortable with that. And
so yeah's your point. I mean, you got to educate
people and and I like that. I mean, I really
love that you even shared this young woman on Etsy,
(25:12):
just being like she was reselling handwritten beyond. There's a
market for everything, and you have to find your market. Listen,
not all of us are Barack and Michelle Obama. Who
can have some artists paint them portraits of themselves that's
gonna go tour like, that's not And you know what,
some everybody's art is different. Art is truly in the
eye of the beholder or the purchaser. So being able
(25:33):
to find your market, your marketplace is like I think
the key niche. Okay, I do, since your art is
behind us, I want to ask a couple of questions
because there's such a diverse array of different things that
you've created and painted, everything from a P and B
peanut butter and jelly sandwich too. I think that's ali
that isn't am I wrong? Yes? Okay? So what really
(25:56):
inspires you to create all these all this very different art? Um?
You know, I'm a big fan of music. My mother.
My mother was a musician, and I look at music
as a driving force to kind of like provide the
energy for my artwork. Um. I learned so much from
so many different industries and I look at my art
(26:18):
as the same way like a musical artist creates albums.
So in order for me to stay within a certain
like theme or color story, UM, I like to make collections.
And within that collection you can kind of tell like, okay,
this was this was during this year, during this period,
and that was during that period. Kind of like an album.
(26:41):
You know, when you when you go back and look
at like, you know, Michael Jackson's like bad album, it's
just oh, yeah, now I know all that's on that
album work, you know, yeah, yeah, like okay, you know,
I know exactly what songs are on that album. And
that's how I look at my artwork. So when you
see like the pimpleter and Jelly with the one order
shop any glass and then just wonder bread piece right here,
(27:04):
that was that was in the in the time here
where I was doing a lot of Miami artwork and
I was trying to cater to you know, to get
money Miami art. Um. But then if you look at
the pieces that are all my walls, a lot of
a lot of black faces, a lot of black storytelling. Um.
Have Hank Aaron behind me over here, ye have yeah, yeah, yeah.
(27:27):
This piece I'm working on right now, it's inspired by
my wife and my daughters that I'm working on right now.
So that piece in the background is incomplete, It's not
finished yet, yes, yes, yes, gosh, I'm already drawn to
it already, so I can't wait to see what that
looks like. Thank you, thank you. So as of right now,
I'm just still I'm just still in this moment of
(27:49):
bright colors that invoked emotion. Um. I want you know,
at the end of the day, I I believe in
my you know, my talent to my skill, but I
also understand that you know, when you when you create art,
you you want there to be an emotional collection, and
I think that's the most important. So I just want
to make sure that you know, no matter what I paint,
(28:11):
you know there's that emotional connection with the viewer, whether
it's the content or the colors or the composition or
you know those things. Okay, what are your thoughts, because
I know the world is changing. We're talking a lot
about digital art and f t art um and how
it can help artists actually like m authenticate the provenance
(28:32):
of a piece of art and you know, collect royalties
for years to come. Do you think this is something
that's here to stay or just a quick fad um
as it pertains to art in particular. Mhmm, tough question.
I don't know, that's a good question. That's a good
question because I haven't I haven't released any n f
T s as of yet. Um, I'm not in a
(28:54):
rush because it's still very very necessary making it like, oh,
this gotta get in there, you gotta get down. And
it's just like it took a long time for people
to even catch up to the Internet, you know what
I mean, Like you know what I mean, I remember,
you know, back when it was dial up and you yeah,
(29:17):
you know, and even before then, it was like the
Internet was out years before then. So right now n
f T s they're they're out. I do think that
they provide um another lane for you know, financial you know,
financial freedom. The thing, the thing that just kind of
scares me a little bit is that because it's from
(29:38):
the blockchain, and um, I mean obviously the people that
run these platforms are a lot smaller than you and
I I'm just worried about security measures. Security is a
big issue in that industry for sure. Yeah, so I'm
seeing like you know, X, the X amount of dollars
just was stolen in board eights, you know, the way
(30:00):
it's happening a lot. Yeah, So I do think that
there are there are positives to the n f T S.
I just still think that we are so far from
seeing what n f t s really can do in
a stable environment where you know, people can actually have
a plan and then that plan actually succeed, because right
(30:22):
now everybody's just selling it out. It's the wild wild West.
I admit, I follow the industry. I'm into it, but
it is certainly so early that it is the wild
wild West, right right, absolutely? Okay, So, last, but not least,
I want to dive into the piece of the conversation
where you're involved with TOPS for Projects seventy. Can you
tell us a little bit about that? Oh Man, Tops, Tops,
(30:46):
Uh just got finished scrapping up my tops project seventy
project where Tops were celebrating seventy years of providing cards
in the sports you know, uh, in the sports industry
and it's it's been incredible. And they chose fifty creatives
to generate twenty cards, twenty unique cards for their set.
(31:08):
And some of the creatives that were involved in the
project was Snoop dogg Um. Yeah, Snoop. I'm I'm surprised
he took on this job because he has like a
thousand jobs right now. He does have a thousand jobs jobs,
Snoop Dog Action Bronson was a part of this set. Um,
(31:28):
there's there's a lot of a lot of you know,
well known artists and creative Jett staple Um, you know,
DJ dj Ski. It's like some of the people that
were involved in this project. I was just humbled to say, like, wow,
I'm here and um the project just commenced and I
actually finished in the top five UM sellers, selling over
(31:51):
a million a million dollars worth of baseball cards with
fifty four thousand cards sold. Snoop love you look, but
I had to feel out of here, um and and
and yeah, it's just it's incredible to see that my
artwork is in a smaller format that will be hopefully
around past you know, my years on Earth, and you
(32:14):
know my grandkids, and you know they'll be able to
pick up these cards somewhere around the world and say, yo,
you know what I mean, my father, my grandfather did
that card, or you know, if this if it ends
up being worth you know, thousands or a hundred thousand
dollars because baseball car community is a whole, another whole,
(32:35):
another underground industry that is just like it's not a
lot of buss in it, but there's a lot of
money in it, but there's a lot of I mean,
you are on the cusp of being an n f
T artist. I can tell you got the collectible piece.
You're just like you just need to tip the scale.
I'm sure next time we have you back here and
be like I just launched my whole collection. Were getting
there for sure, but sure, amazing, congratulations, that's a lot
(32:59):
of really great stuff that you have happening. We don't
have a lot of time left, but tell us what's
next for you. Do you have any great collaborations or
collections coming up? And of course where we can find
you on social media to buy some of these great pieces. Absolutely,
thank you. Um well, I just got finished. I just
got finished coming back from Cleveland for NBA All Star Weekend,
(33:21):
UM where I launched my collection UH and apparel with
a company called Damari Black owned owned by UM former
Philadelphia Eagles Malcolm Jenkins. So that's that's his line and
UM we successfully that are opening launched at sex fifth
Avenue in Cleveland over the weekend. That's huge. Yeah, really good,
(33:45):
really good turn out, really good reception. Um so that
just happened. And then I'll be out in Vegas to
celebrate Window Scott, which was the first African American race
car driver. I did some artwork that honors Window Scott.
Will be on every single NASCAR card in the in
the coverage and be on a big giant jumble to trying. Yeah,
(34:07):
so I'm excited for that. You know, I would have
never thought that I would have been doing artwork the NASCAR.
But I'm just glad that, um you know, here to
help tell our stories in unconventional ways. And just I
mean that's pretty like when you think about those unique
avenues black people doing art for NASCAR racers, like that's
pretty impressive. And I think that matters so much like
(34:27):
when we talk about and I've heard you talk about representation,
you know, being an artist and looking up as a
kid and just being like, oh I can do that
because he did that. He did that, Like that's pretty impressive.
So congrats and kudos, thank you so much, Thank you
so much. And you know, last and not least, you
know you can find You can find my artwork at
www dot art, Chuck styles dot com or on all
(34:50):
social media at Chuck Styles too, at that at Chuck
Styles Too. S s at the end, Well, money Movers,
we are out of time for today, but you heard
the man. You heard where to follow him? So make
sure you check him out, support his art um and
thank you again, check Stiles for being with us today.
You have dropped so many gems. We're just appreciative your time,
love the work that you're doing. Thank you, Greenwich, I'll Greenwood,
(35:13):
I'm always hearing your family. Let's let's keep educating. Let's
keep educating. Oh, thank you so much. All right, money Movers,
that's all the time we have for today. But if
we have helped you make your money move, please make
sure to let us know by sending us alike, sharing
the knowledge on your social media, and or leave us
a review on Apple Podcasts, and make sure to tune
in Monday to Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves
(35:35):
podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you two can have
the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank
you so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If
you want more or a recap of this episode. Please
go to the bank Greenwood dot com and check out
the Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an I
(35:57):
heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
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