Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Dear America, where your voice matters and every
vote counts. Join us as we explore the power of
black and brown communities in shaping our future.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's time to make your mark and be heard.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Welcome to Dear America with Chanelle Barnes. Today, we are
honored to have with us Hakim Mullraine, a distinguished entertainment
attorney and visionary entrepreneur. As the founder of the Mulraine
Firm in the Bronx Born Media LLC, Hakim has been
over a decade navigating the complex world of entertainment business
(00:38):
and intellectual property law. Hakim, thank you so much for
being with us.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes, and the audience doesn't notice.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
But right before we got on the show, Hakim said,
I don't normally do this, but I decided to do
it today. So we thank you so much for joining us.
I want to jump right in. Hakim, as a Bronxborn
entertainment attorney now running your own firm and production company,
can you take us back to the beginning of your journey.
(01:08):
What inspired you to pursue entertainment law.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It was funny when I had gotten out of college.
My first job was working for New York City. I
was working for the city as a police investigator, and
I was working with a guy, an older guy who
used to be a musician, and he said, my son
(01:32):
is famous. You probably know my son. He works with
jay Z. Who is your son? And he says, oh,
it's DJ Clu. DJ Clu is my son, And I said, yeah, okay,
And so he started to tell me more about his
son and what they were doing than his son came
(01:53):
down to visit his lawyer. We were in the Wall
Street location at that point and just kind of got
so heard some of the stories about just sort of
the challenges that entertainers have with finding representation, especially people
who are from a disadvantaged background. So for me, at
(02:15):
that point, I saw the opportunity that that was one
of the areas where certain groups were being underserved, and
I felt that I would have something to add to that.
I left the city the next year and went to
law school.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
So amazing, amazing, and growing up in the Bronx where
you were, you had some early experiences that shaped your
understanding of representation in the industry. Can you talk to
us a little bit about what that looked like over time.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Sure. What's funny is I started in the managing space.
Started in the managing space even when I was in
law school. I had a management company, and at the
time I wasn't known and I was trying to figure
out sort of the best way to make it in
the business. So I represented people who played Division III basketball,
(03:07):
Division three. Most people know, they don't get scholarships, they
don't get a lot of attention, but the opportunities for
them to go overseas were pretty plentiful. So a lot
of what I did was in the management cyders, press kids,
putting together highlight videos and things like that. A lot
of those things are a lot easier now than it
(03:28):
was back then. I'm talking about in the nineties. It's
a lot easier to do now than it was to
do then. You could do it home, but it was
a lot harder to do that, and then sort of
making the relationships with the different teams and some of
the summer leagues and things like that, and really just
trying to make a pitch for your client. And so
(03:49):
I did that with athletes. While I was in law school,
I was part of something called a copyright and publishing clinic,
and it allowed us to actually take on clients as
students student attorneys under the supervision of an attorney. So
the attorney who ran the clinic was also an author.
She had put out six books by that point, so
(04:11):
most of the clients who came through that program, who
came to us for assistance were authors. So at that
point we were able to, while in law school, negotiate
publishing agreements with some of the major publishing companies. On
behalf of our clients, and most of the clients were
people who had been successful independently publishing their books. Now
(04:32):
the big publishing companies were coming after them because they
felt that, you know, they could add something to what
they were doing. So we handled things like that book contracts,
handled a lot of copyright issues, a lot of trademark issues.
People who were incarcerated, some of them have been in
(04:53):
there and they've created different things, or they own certain
kinds of IP, and they were in.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
A position with mister can you said IP, Can you
specify what IP.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Is for us? For those who are listening and learning.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Sure, IP is essentially intellectual property. If you're talking about
anything from music to movies, pretty much any authors who
are writing books. Pretty much everything theater projects when you're
talking about putting together all of that falls into that
pretty which falls into that space of intellectual property. Also,
(05:30):
inventions falls into the intellectual property space as well. Chemicals
and things like that. That's a lot of those on
the patent side of intellectual property. My area of expertise
is generally copyrighting trademark issues. Also deal with some trade
secret issues as well, but on the patent side, that's
(05:53):
more the scientific side. You're talking about chemicals, You're talking
about different things like that, which is generally not my area.
And you actually have to be specially barred to be
a patent urtant. Yes, another bar on top of the
bar that you already had.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yes, it's funny. I've had so many people come and
you're like, I need a lawyer. And what you realize
as soon as you need a lawyer is that there
are so many different lawyers that specialize in so many
different practices, and you have to be thoughtful about who
you're pursuing. Now you've mentioned that you're a dealmaker. How
is your background and cultural perspective influence how you approach
(06:31):
dealmaking in an industry that hasn't always been inclusive.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Right well for me and I feel this is kind
of across the board. No matter who you're representing, you
have to find out what people's goals are, and your
deals should be structured so based on what their goals are.
Perfect example is in representing authors authors. If you're talking
(06:57):
about an author who is I've worked with authors who
are also pastors. Pastors travel, they speak to various congregations,
and the people who are go to those them hear
them speak also by their books. So the past or
(07:18):
author who's front facing with his client base, who actually
purchases books, you require a different deal from a publishing company.
That's somebody who doesn't do any public speaking, who's not
front facing with their client base. Your deal is completely
different and a big part of in book publishing. Just
(07:39):
an example of free books, the free books that you
get from the publishing company. After you sign a publishing deal,
you get a certain number. As you request more, more
goes up. But if you're front facing with your client base,
you need a different deal than the person who doesn't travel,
doesn't speak to their clients, or people who purchase what
(08:00):
they do at all. It's a different kind of deal.
So the deal has to be structured based on what
your goals are, how you conduct your business, and that's
just across the board in any kind of business. So
I try to find out what there, what are their
goals and and and what's important to them, and negotiate
the deal based on that, because what's important to you
(08:21):
and a deal may not maybe nothing to the person
that you're actually negotiating with. Okay, that's what you want, right.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And I feel like we've seen so much of that,
you know, if we look at Tony Braxton's story, for example,
and other stories of other people in entertainment who came
in and they thought that they were getting something, but
ultimately they wind up getting something entirely different. And so
having people like you on the front lines of this
(08:51):
truly matters. In your decade of experience as an entertainment attorney,
what are some of the most significant changes you've written
regarding the opportunities for black and brown creators.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Sure, I would say I would say this is probably
the best time than any to venture into an entertainment
IP type project, mainly because the opportunities for you to
create is easier just because of all the technology but
the opportunity to market it, to promote it, to already
(09:29):
sort of reach out and sort of create your own
fan base. All of that is a benefit to even
people who don't have the resources to spend a lot
of money on creating content. The technology has kind of
allowed people to do that a lot cheap. Not only that,
you have an opportunity to get your friends to tell
(09:52):
a friend and relatives to tell their friends. You can
kind of build an audience. So this is the best
time now to be creative. And what you then do
after you've created your content and you've brought in your audience,
you are now in a driving seat to go into
(10:13):
a distribution company, to go into a record company and say,
I have a million followers, a million people listen to
my music. What are you going to do for me? Right?
So this is the best time, better than any time
that and I've been, you know, dealing with this business
(10:35):
since the nineties. This is the best time. The drawback
to what's happened the industry now is if you haven't
done the work, if you haven't found an audience, if
you haven't sort of created a social media presence, and
you don't have a following then it becomes difficult for
them to want to even hear you, because that's now
(10:56):
the first question they ask. What's the social media? Like?
Are they selling music now? Are people buying it?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
They're doing shows? How many people show up when they
know that they're in town? Now? All these things matter, yes,
because it's just about audience.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
And what about for you as an entertainment lawyer, is
this has this become one of the best times for
you that you've seen From starting this work in the
nineties to now doing this work now.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
My goal has always been to educate artists about their opportunity,
and I feel in the current error where everyone has
become obsessed with mobiles, I think now people are thinking
in terms of the business side of things. I really
felt earlier on when I work with people. I've had
(11:51):
so many clients, some of whom are very successful, some
whom are starting off in the business, who said, just
do what you do. You don't have to explain this,
just do what you do. And now I think people
more so are in the mindset of I want to
understand how this works. And I say to people, you
want to understand how this works because in the future
(12:13):
if you are not in a position to hire and
it jurnay, you'll have an understanding of how this business works,
how to actually negotiate your contracts. I have sometimes when
people will come to come to me for an analysis
of contract. Some of them, if you will, already signed
the contract, but now they don't know what it means.
I don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
If people are using GPT, let me be.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Right right sign, they didn't know what it means. So
now they've come back to me to find out what
does this actually say? What do I need to do
in order to be successful? And one of the things
that I try to do is I put together sort
of a contract analysis uh form for them where I
sort of write what's in there, what's not in there
(13:01):
that should be in there, and some of the things
that they need to think about as far as how
the language sounds, absolutely how it can be interpreted if
you end up in court. And so I try to
do that for people. My whole thing is to make
sure that people haven't understanding what they're getting themselves into,
just so they don't say, hey, I didn't know you know,
(13:24):
I didn't I didn't know anything. Yeah, So I try
to make sure that people are educated.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And for those just tuning in, this is the Dear
America Show with Chanel Barnes and we are tuning in
right now with Hakeem mulraine entertainment lawyer.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Just can you share a story.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
About a particular deal or project where your unique perspective
as a black entertainment lawyer made a crucial difference in
that outcome.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Sure, it's funny. I was actually speaking with someone about
this recently over the weekend. I actually was working with
a production company that had a slate of films that
they were trying to get finance, and they brought me on.
And it's a process of going through the different projects,
(14:15):
who is going to be involved with director's talent, things
like that, pitching it to the different financing opportunities that
presented itself. One of the things that I said to them,
if if the goal is to have projects that are
successful in an international market, you might want to diversify,
(14:39):
not just talent, subject matter things like you want to
diversify just in order to grab the broader audience. And
the product person who owns that production company, he said
to me, you mean, do we need more black guys?
You think we just need more black guys, And I said, no,
(15:00):
that's not what I'm saying. What I said, you need
to divers thought we were going into a deal with
the Chinese company, maybe you want to have some Asian actors,
Maybe you want to bring on some Asian assistant directors,
just to have a broader perspective and sort of be
(15:22):
able to put you in a better position to capture
that international ark. And I don't. I think people are
not seeing that, and it's becomes as I speak with
different companies, it becomes a lesson in you really need
to think bigger about this and broader about how you
reach out to people, about how to connect with people,
(15:44):
and some of that can be done through diversity.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Hikim.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I love that advocacy around that, especially in a world
where we're seeing so many shifts in DEI. Having you
be on the front lines of that advocacy is mission critical.
Many of our listeners are aspiring creatives or entrepreneurs. What
are some of the most common legal pitfalls affecting black
(16:09):
and brown content creators and how can they protect themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I would say the biggest pitfall is not really have
an understanding of what your goals are your goals shouldn't
just be I want to do this project, I want
to get this done. You really have to think about
the long term trajectory of your career. And I hate
to say this, but this is the reality. We don't
(16:36):
get as many opportunities to mess up.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I seen the quiet whisper we don't right right.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So I was speaking with somebody who was working with
another filmmaker. He was coming up under another filmmaker, and
she had had fifteen twenty fifteen, around fifteen films that
didn't do well, didn't do well, and her sixteenth film
did extremely well, right, oscars for the leads over one
(17:09):
hundred million dollars. So now she's you know, she's become
Hollywood's Hollywood's baby. And I said to him when he
came to me with films after, I said, I don't
think this is the project you're doing. Is going to
go with? It's not gonna it's not gonna do well. Sure,
but again he's now out of the not in the
(17:29):
business anymore, because he tried to follow her example and
it didn't necessarily work out for him. As I said,
some people have more of an opportunity to make flops,
whereas we have less of an opportunity to We have
to prove ourselves and we have to have a certain
(17:51):
level of consistency in our success level, and that's a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Absolutely, you've been in the industry for so long. I'm
sure you know a time of other entertainment attorneys, those
who have been in it and those who may be
coming into it, what would your advice be about how
they should be thinking about advocating in order to change
the industry for the better.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I think I think my approach as far as making
sure that they're educated, they have an understanding of the industry,
of the business, and have an understanding of what their
goals are. You want to be in a You want
to have your client being in a position ten twenty
(18:37):
years later where if they're no longer in a business,
they're sterily able to generate revenue from what they did
in the past. Absolutely, that doesn't happen by accident. That
happens by thinking long term. So I think if I
think that the next generation of attorneys who are coming
up have to really work with their clients and sometimes
(19:00):
clients rejects, but they really have to think about sort
of the long term trajectory of this person's career alongside
of the advice that they give as far as the
options that that person has available to them, and really
think more about the big picture, especially if you want
to you want to continue to grow with that client.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Absolutely, let's talk a little bit about Bronx Born Media.
What gap in the industry did you identify that led
to creating this production and management company.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
So, Bronxborn was born out of I had a number
of in my area of expertise. I've worked with athletes,
I've worked with music clients. I've worked with authors, I've
worked in television film, I've worked with advertising companies and brands.
I've also worked in the tech space. Bronxwall was created
(19:54):
because I had a number of people coming to me
saying people were establishing a business who who had listened.
I already have an attorney to do my exit and
those for contracts. I need somebody to help me navigate
this business to sort of get this project going okay.
So that means that means I need you to be
able to reach out to talent and sort of convince
(20:15):
them that this is something that they should consider or
I need you to help me to put a room
of investors together, or who would consider a project like
this and have them seriously think about coming on board
is and financing this project, or distribution opportunities. What's the
best distribution opportunities? So bronx Borne was essentially born out
(20:36):
of that people who said, listen, I'm going to hire
you just to help me get this off the ground.
One of the things, if you've been in this business
long enough, no matter how successful someone is, no matter
how successful I've had clients with one oscars, no matter
how successful somebody is in this business, there is a
project that they have that they can't seem to get
off the ground.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
We know, we know that project, no matter how I
know that project.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Spielberg has projects that he can't for some reason or
another he can't even figure out how. Yeah, so how
do you how.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Do you manage your clients through that?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Because we all believe so deeply in our projects and
to not see it takes flight the way we thought
it would, you know, after the investment and everything else, Like,
how do you manage them through that? I?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Well, I think one of the barriers in helping people
oftentimes is that they're not open to new ideas. Sometimes
when you're created, you see things happening happening a certain way,
and when you said listen, these are some of the
things that you might want to consider in order to
get this going, they're like, Nope, I want to do
it this way. This is the way that I want
(21:52):
to do it. And I think sometimes that could be
the reason why they can't get it off the wround
because they're not seeing the big picture or see other options.
So that's what I would.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Say, Okay, it's good advice for all of us, me
including so your company assist content creators. As you stated
in the development, the packaging, and the pitching. How are
you specifically working, if at all, to amplify diverse voices
through your services.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I would say one of the things that I've tried
to do is to continue to work with people who
are started off in the business as well as established
creators and really try to bridge the gap between the two.
Sort of give them some information that I've learned from
(22:48):
work and with the more experienced people the people who
are coming up, but also try to bridge the gap
in that possibly, if need be, try to create the
relationship between the two share some information about what they
went through their different challenges, and for me, I think
that's where I try to help and that I'm really
(23:10):
trying to pass on information to the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And one of the challenges to that is some of
the younger generations see the business for what it is today.
They don't think about what the business was and where
it came from, and you have to think about it
in terms of, Okay, this is where we are now,
but this is what was happening and this is how
we reach this point. Having that bigger picture helps you
to kind of understand how this business evolves, and that again,
(23:39):
knowing how it has evolved and how it's evolved helps
you to have a longer lifespan in the business.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sure, So, can you talk about a moment when you
had to choose between your business interests and community impact
and how did you navigate that?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's hard. I don't think I ever, I don't ever
feel that I've ever compromised. I'll give you one. Something
came into my head and I didn't think about that.
But I think I think this is an example for
me where I felt that being a part of something
was I would compromise how I felt about my community,
(24:21):
and I think I very rarely post on Facebook, but
I posted this on Facebook because I was annoyed. I
don't pass judgment on content. The people determine what they
want to see. So if somebody comes to me with
a particular project and they need my assistance, I try
to help them. The only thing I'll say to them
(24:43):
whether or not I feel that I can't help them.
If I don't feel that I can help them, then
I'll say I don't want to waste your time and
I don't want you to waste mine. So I'm going
to pass on this. But there was a project that
came to me. This is many years ago. It was
fully packaged, known talent, talent that looked like us and
and very established in a business. But the subject matter
(25:05):
of the film was about guys using sort of a
pimp mentality in order to make a kid more popular
in school, using his their pimp ways to make a
kid be more popular in school. When these were successful
comedians who were for this, I said no, I didn't
(25:26):
want to be a part of it. I didn't want
to have anything to do with I didn't even want
my name associated with it, even though they were really
close to the finish line. I said, I don't want
to be a part of any pimp anything. I don't
want my name associated with anything. That's what they're like, Oh,
it's a comedy. They used their experience as a pimp
to make this guy in the suburbs a ladies man
(25:50):
in high school. No, No, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I didn't expect it.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah, And how do you see your work intersecting with
broader social justice movements and a push for for equity
across America.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I would say I would say probably is that Again,
my goal has been about educating people and sort of
assisting sort of the diverse voices, helping the diverse voices
get to the table. And I've always felt that if
I've done that, you know, then I've then I've done
my job. I've also tried to encourage more established folks
(26:38):
to think about that mindset as well, because there are
people who have been in the business who have done
really well and they really don't think about the community
what they do and how it impacts people. So I
really try to impress upon them, hey, these are some
things we need to kind of think about, kind of
(27:00):
opening the door and letting some of the young people
with diverse voice, not even just people who look like us, sure,
other groups. And entertainment like any other industry, it's an
international economy, right, and if you want to really have
a broad customer base, you really have to kind of
(27:24):
appeal to more than just you know yourself.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
So absolutely, for young black and brown professionals interested in entertainment,
law or production, just given the state of the nation
and where we are, what advice would you give them
about creating change from within the system?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I would say, try to speak to the people that
you work with, that you're around when you come in
contact with people, invite them to different events, community events,
just to sort of to let them know. And I
think can entertainment sometimes it's a it's a very small community.
(28:05):
So I say, really try to talk to people, have
them think about not only the work that they're doing,
but how their work impacts people who look like them,
the people around them. Right. So that's what I've tried
to do, and I would say I would hope that
the younger generation would do that as well as that
(28:26):
they not just see it as this is just about me.
I'm going to get here and I'm going to do this,
and it's got to be about opening the door and
allowing people who have been disadvantages in the past, disadvantage
to the past, to be able to tell our stories
as well.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yes, and.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think if they're able to do that, then then
if that happens, then I think it will be successful.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely, hikeem.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I think our audience would love to hear about the
upcoming projects or initiatives that we should be key being
an eye out one.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Well as far as i'm It's funny because one of
the reasons why I don't do this, I'm in a
pretty niche area. And I would say ninety five percent
of the clients that come to me already have a
deal on the table and they just need somebody to
negotiate in their favor or they need somebody to put
(29:22):
an agreement together on their behalf. The other five percent
of clients I get are people who are in various
stages of a particular project, so they may need talent,
they may need distribution, they may need financing. So I'm
a very niche side of the market. So oftentimes stuff
that I do, I'm the guy that you're like, oh wow,
(29:44):
he was connected to this. I didn't even know that.
I didn't even know he worked on this or that this.
And it's because I try to make sure that you know,
as an attorney, the client's information stays confidential unless they
choose to let that information out, and some people are
very free with it. Is something in that. It's funny
(30:07):
when I sometimes I'll get calls and people are like,
wait a minute, you know that person. How do you
know them? And I'll be like, oh, well, yeah, I've
worked that person in the past. But I try to
I'm in a space where I try to keep a
lot of the information confidential, just because it's an turn
you have to do that. But I've written articles. I
(30:27):
have some articles out there that if people you know,
get a chance, I know some of them are on LinkedIn.
One of them was when a screenwriter needs an entertainment Attorney.
I also wrote an article about managers and how vital
a good manager is. Sure, just because I don't think
(30:49):
people realize the difference and importance between agents and managers.
And there's been a number of articles where people said, hey,
my agent through this project away and they found it
and they somehow the person got the script to them
and they said, this is exactly what I was looking for. Yes,
(31:11):
And I'm like, when you deal with agents, agents are
just thinking. And the agents are not bad, right, but
their whole job is how much money are you paying
for the talent that I represent? And I've worked with agents,
I have great relationships with agents. The problem is that
I don't think people realize this. If you your agent
(31:35):
has a project that is going to pay you a
million dollars that is a crappy, awful film that nobody's
gonna remember. Sure, but he has an Oscar worthy part
that's going to pay you one hundred and fifty thousand.
Which one do you think the agent is going to say?
Should probably do not because the agent is bad, but
(31:56):
because at the end of the day, the agent is
a good agent is and determined based on how much
work did they give you, how much money did you make?
That's their lot.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But you have a different lot that protects a different
set of interest.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right. Your manager is thinking about the long term trajectory
of your career because oftentimes the Oscar winning role, oftentimes
the role I want you to ask or didn't pay
a whole lot, but it allowed you to show off
your acting chops.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Now, this is a good point.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I'm wondering which that's I mean, it's a phenomenal point
that I hope our listeners are holding on to. Is
there any other final piece of wisdom about the profession,
about what our listeners should be thinking about, any final
piece of wisdom that you would want to bestow to
the listeners of Dear America With Chanel.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Barnes, I would say the biggest thing is to be
true to yourself as far as what you want to do,
what you willing to do. And I think one of
the bigger lessons I've learned is that just because different
people look like you, that doesn't mean they're going to
welcome you. And some people say, well, i'll get in
(33:15):
there and I look like this person, so they're going
to welcome me with open arms. That's not necessarily the case,
especially if they see you as competition, So be mindful
of that and just focus on the work and be
able to create relationships. Relationships are extremely important in this business,
(33:39):
and just continue on your journey.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Amazing, Hakm, thank you so much for taking the time
to join us, and thank you so much for deciding
to take this interview. As you mentioned earlier, you don't
really take interviews like this. We appreciate your wisdom and
tell our listeners where they can find you if they
need your support and or your mental worship.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Sure the Moull Rain Firm. It's located in White Planes,
New York. Feel free to you know. I'm online. I'm
actually in between fixing updating my website. My website was older.
I gotta bring it up to me doing that. But
I'm located in White Planes, New York. You can email me.
(34:22):
I'm on social media. I'm on LinkedIn in, so definitely
feel free to reach out to me. If you have
one or two questions, I'm definitely free to If I
can help you or assist you, I'm definitely available to
do that. And if you need some legal assistance, I'm
definitely available for that as well. But it's been a
(34:43):
pleasure and thank you for.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Considering me absolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Thank you all so much for listening into Dear America
with Chanelle Barnes, where we are showcasing real people and
real stories.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Tune in next time. Bye. This has been a a project.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Ready and a Freedom Studios production to learn more and
effect change. Log Onto project readyenjy dot org, or listen
anytime on all major podcast carriers.
Welcome to Dear America, where your voice matters and every
vote counts. Join us as we explore the power of
black and brown communities in shaping our future.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's time to make your mark and be heard.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Welcome to Dear America with Chanelle Barnes. Today, we are
honored to have with us Hakim Mullraine, a distinguished entertainment
attorney and visionary entrepreneur. As the founder of the Mulraine
Firm in the Bronx Born Media LLC, Hakim has been
over a decade navigating the complex world of entertainment business
(00:38):
and intellectual property law. Hakim, thank you so much for
being with us.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yes, and the audience doesn't notice.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
But right before we got on the show, Hakim said,
I don't normally do this, but I decided to do
it today. So we thank you so much for joining us.
I want to jump right in. Hakim, as a Bronxborn
entertainment attorney now running your own firm and production company,
can you take us back to the beginning of your journey.
(01:08):
What inspired you to pursue entertainment law.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It was funny when I had gotten out of college.
My first job was working for New York City. I
was working for the city as a police investigator, and
I was working with a guy, an older guy who
used to be a musician, and he said, my son
(01:32):
is famous. You probably know my son. He works with
jay Z. Who is your son? And he says, oh,
it's DJ Clu. DJ Clu is my son, And I said, yeah, okay,
And so he started to tell me more about his
son and what they were doing than his son came
(01:53):
down to visit his lawyer. We were in the Wall
Street location at that point and just kind of got
so heard some of the stories about just sort of
the challenges that entertainers have with finding representation, especially people
who are from a disadvantaged background. So for me, at
(02:15):
that point, I saw the opportunity that that was one
of the areas where certain groups were being underserved, and
I felt that I would have something to add to that.
I left the city the next year and went to
law school.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
So amazing, amazing, and growing up in the Bronx where
you were, you had some early experiences that shaped your
understanding of representation in the industry. Can you talk to
us a little bit about what that looked like over time.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Sure. What's funny is I started in the managing space.
Started in the managing space even when I was in
law school. I had a management company, and at the
time I wasn't known and I was trying to figure
out sort of the best way to make it in
the business. So I represented people who played Division III basketball,
(03:07):
Division three. Most people know, they don't get scholarships, they
don't get a lot of attention, but the opportunities for
them to go overseas were pretty plentiful. So a lot
of what I did was in the management cyders, press kids,
putting together highlight videos and things like that. A lot
of those things are a lot easier now than it
(03:28):
was back then. I'm talking about in the nineties. It's
a lot easier to do now than it was to
do then. You could do it home, but it was
a lot harder to do that, and then sort of
making the relationships with the different teams and some of
the summer leagues and things like that, and really just
trying to make a pitch for your client. And so
(03:49):
I did that with athletes. While I was in law school,
I was part of something called a copyright and publishing clinic,
and it allowed us to actually take on clients as
students student attorneys under the supervision of an attorney. So
the attorney who ran the clinic was also an author.
She had put out six books by that point, so
(04:11):
most of the clients who came through that program, who
came to us for assistance were authors. So at that
point we were able to, while in law school, negotiate
publishing agreements with some of the major publishing companies. On
behalf of our clients, and most of the clients were
people who had been successful independently publishing their books. Now
(04:32):
the big publishing companies were coming after them because they
felt that, you know, they could add something to what
they were doing. So we handled things like that book contracts,
handled a lot of copyright issues, a lot of trademark issues.
People who were incarcerated, some of them have been in
(04:53):
there and they've created different things, or they own certain
kinds of IP, and they were in.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
A position with mister can you said IP, Can you
specify what IP.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Is for us? For those who are listening and learning.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Sure, IP is essentially intellectual property. If you're talking about
anything from music to movies, pretty much any authors who
are writing books. Pretty much everything theater projects when you're
talking about putting together all of that falls into that
pretty which falls into that space of intellectual property. Also,
(05:30):
inventions falls into the intellectual property space as well. Chemicals
and things like that. That's a lot of those on
the patent side of intellectual property. My area of expertise
is generally copyrighting trademark issues. Also deal with some trade
secret issues as well, but on the patent side, that's
(05:53):
more the scientific side. You're talking about chemicals, You're talking
about different things like that, which is generally not my area.
And you actually have to be specially barred to be
a patent urtant. Yes, another bar on top of the
bar that you already had.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yes, it's funny. I've had so many people come and
you're like, I need a lawyer. And what you realize
as soon as you need a lawyer is that there
are so many different lawyers that specialize in so many
different practices, and you have to be thoughtful about who
you're pursuing. Now you've mentioned that you're a dealmaker. How
is your background and cultural perspective influence how you approach
(06:31):
dealmaking in an industry that hasn't always been inclusive.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Right well for me and I feel this is kind
of across the board. No matter who you're representing, you
have to find out what people's goals are, and your
deals should be structured so based on what their goals are.
Perfect example is in representing authors authors. If you're talking
(06:57):
about an author who is I've worked with authors who
are also pastors. Pastors travel, they speak to various congregations,
and the people who are go to those them hear
them speak also by their books. So the past or
(07:18):
author who's front facing with his client base, who actually
purchases books, you require a different deal from a publishing company.
That's somebody who doesn't do any public speaking, who's not
front facing with their client base. Your deal is completely
different and a big part of in book publishing. Just
(07:39):
an example of free books, the free books that you
get from the publishing company. After you sign a publishing deal,
you get a certain number. As you request more, more
goes up. But if you're front facing with your client base,
you need a different deal than the person who doesn't travel,
doesn't speak to their clients, or people who purchase what
(08:00):
they do at all. It's a different kind of deal.
So the deal has to be structured based on what
your goals are, how you conduct your business, and that's
just across the board in any kind of business. So
I try to find out what there, what are their
goals and and and what's important to them, and negotiate
the deal based on that, because what's important to you
(08:21):
and a deal may not maybe nothing to the person
that you're actually negotiating with. Okay, that's what you want, right.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
And I feel like we've seen so much of that,
you know, if we look at Tony Braxton's story, for example,
and other stories of other people in entertainment who came
in and they thought that they were getting something, but
ultimately they wind up getting something entirely different. And so
having people like you on the front lines of this
(08:51):
truly matters. In your decade of experience as an entertainment attorney,
what are some of the most significant changes you've written
regarding the opportunities for black and brown creators.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Sure, I would say I would say this is probably
the best time than any to venture into an entertainment
IP type project, mainly because the opportunities for you to
create is easier just because of all the technology but
the opportunity to market it, to promote it, to already
(09:29):
sort of reach out and sort of create your own
fan base. All of that is a benefit to even
people who don't have the resources to spend a lot
of money on creating content. The technology has kind of
allowed people to do that a lot cheap. Not only that,
you have an opportunity to get your friends to tell
(09:52):
a friend and relatives to tell their friends. You can
kind of build an audience. So this is the best
time now to be creative. And what you then do
after you've created your content and you've brought in your audience,
you are now in a driving seat to go into
(10:13):
a distribution company, to go into a record company and say,
I have a million followers, a million people listen to
my music. What are you going to do for me? Right?
So this is the best time, better than any time
that and I've been, you know, dealing with this business
(10:35):
since the nineties. This is the best time. The drawback
to what's happened the industry now is if you haven't
done the work, if you haven't found an audience, if
you haven't sort of created a social media presence, and
you don't have a following then it becomes difficult for
them to want to even hear you, because that's now
(10:56):
the first question they ask. What's the social media? Like?
Are they selling music now? Are people buying it?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
They're doing shows? How many people show up when they
know that they're in town? Now? All these things matter, yes,
because it's just about audience.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
And what about for you as an entertainment lawyer, is
this has this become one of the best times for
you that you've seen From starting this work in the
nineties to now doing this work now.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
My goal has always been to educate artists about their opportunity,
and I feel in the current error where everyone has
become obsessed with mobiles, I think now people are thinking
in terms of the business side of things. I really
felt earlier on when I work with people. I've had
(11:51):
so many clients, some of whom are very successful, some
whom are starting off in the business, who said, just
do what you do. You don't have to explain this,
just do what you do. And now I think people
more so are in the mindset of I want to
understand how this works. And I say to people, you
want to understand how this works because in the future
(12:13):
if you are not in a position to hire and
it jurnay, you'll have an understanding of how this business works,
how to actually negotiate your contracts. I have sometimes when
people will come to come to me for an analysis
of contract. Some of them, if you will, already signed
the contract, but now they don't know what it means.
I don't understand that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
If people are using GPT, let me be.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Right right sign, they didn't know what it means. So
now they've come back to me to find out what
does this actually say? What do I need to do
in order to be successful? And one of the things
that I try to do is I put together sort
of a contract analysis uh form for them where I
sort of write what's in there, what's not in there
(13:01):
that should be in there, and some of the things
that they need to think about as far as how
the language sounds, absolutely how it can be interpreted if
you end up in court. And so I try to
do that for people. My whole thing is to make
sure that people haven't understanding what they're getting themselves into,
just so they don't say, hey, I didn't know you know,
(13:24):
I didn't I didn't know anything. Yeah, So I try
to make sure that people are educated.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And for those just tuning in, this is the Dear
America Show with Chanel Barnes and we are tuning in
right now with Hakeem mulraine entertainment lawyer.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Just can you share a story.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
About a particular deal or project where your unique perspective
as a black entertainment lawyer made a crucial difference in
that outcome.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Sure, it's funny. I was actually speaking with someone about
this recently over the weekend. I actually was working with
a production company that had a slate of films that
they were trying to get finance, and they brought me on.
And it's a process of going through the different projects,
(14:15):
who is going to be involved with director's talent, things
like that, pitching it to the different financing opportunities that
presented itself. One of the things that I said to them,
if if the goal is to have projects that are
successful in an international market, you might want to diversify,
(14:39):
not just talent, subject matter things like you want to
diversify just in order to grab the broader audience. And
the product person who owns that production company, he said
to me, you mean, do we need more black guys?
You think we just need more black guys, And I said, no,
(15:00):
that's not what I'm saying. What I said, you need
to divers thought we were going into a deal with
the Chinese company, maybe you want to have some Asian actors,
Maybe you want to bring on some Asian assistant directors,
just to have a broader perspective and sort of be
(15:22):
able to put you in a better position to capture
that international ark. And I don't. I think people are
not seeing that, and it's becomes as I speak with
different companies, it becomes a lesson in you really need
to think bigger about this and broader about how you
reach out to people, about how to connect with people,
(15:44):
and some of that can be done through diversity.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Hikim.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I love that advocacy around that, especially in a world
where we're seeing so many shifts in DEI. Having you
be on the front lines of that advocacy is mission critical.
Many of our listeners are aspiring creatives or entrepreneurs. What
are some of the most common legal pitfalls affecting black
(16:09):
and brown content creators and how can they protect themselves.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I would say the biggest pitfall is not really have
an understanding of what your goals are your goals shouldn't
just be I want to do this project, I want
to get this done. You really have to think about
the long term trajectory of your career. And I hate
to say this, but this is the reality. We don't
(16:36):
get as many opportunities to mess up.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
I seen the quiet whisper we don't right right.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So I was speaking with somebody who was working with
another filmmaker. He was coming up under another filmmaker, and
she had had fifteen twenty fifteen, around fifteen films that
didn't do well, didn't do well, and her sixteenth film
did extremely well, right, oscars for the leads over one
(17:09):
hundred million dollars. So now she's you know, she's become
Hollywood's Hollywood's baby. And I said to him when he
came to me with films after, I said, I don't
think this is the project you're doing. Is going to
go with? It's not gonna it's not gonna do well. Sure,
but again he's now out of the not in the
(17:29):
business anymore, because he tried to follow her example and
it didn't necessarily work out for him. As I said,
some people have more of an opportunity to make flops,
whereas we have less of an opportunity to We have
to prove ourselves and we have to have a certain
(17:51):
level of consistency in our success level, and that's a
lot of pressure.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Absolutely, you've been in the industry for so long. I'm
sure you know a time of other entertainment attorneys, those
who have been in it and those who may be
coming into it, what would your advice be about how
they should be thinking about advocating in order to change
the industry for the better.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I think I think my approach as far as making
sure that they're educated, they have an understanding of the industry,
of the business, and have an understanding of what their
goals are. You want to be in a You want
to have your client being in a position ten twenty
(18:37):
years later where if they're no longer in a business,
they're sterily able to generate revenue from what they did
in the past. Absolutely, that doesn't happen by accident. That
happens by thinking long term. So I think if I
think that the next generation of attorneys who are coming
up have to really work with their clients and sometimes
(19:00):
clients rejects, but they really have to think about sort
of the long term trajectory of this person's career alongside
of the advice that they give as far as the
options that that person has available to them, and really
think more about the big picture, especially if you want
to you want to continue to grow with that client.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Absolutely, let's talk a little bit about Bronx Born Media.
What gap in the industry did you identify that led
to creating this production and management company.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
So, Bronxborn was born out of I had a number
of in my area of expertise. I've worked with athletes,
I've worked with music clients. I've worked with authors, I've
worked in television film, I've worked with advertising companies and brands.
I've also worked in the tech space. Bronxwall was created
(19:54):
because I had a number of people coming to me
saying people were establishing a business who who had listened.
I already have an attorney to do my exit and
those for contracts. I need somebody to help me navigate
this business to sort of get this project going okay.
So that means that means I need you to be
able to reach out to talent and sort of convince
(20:15):
them that this is something that they should consider or
I need you to help me to put a room
of investors together, or who would consider a project like
this and have them seriously think about coming on board
is and financing this project, or distribution opportunities. What's the
best distribution opportunities? So bronx Borne was essentially born out
(20:36):
of that people who said, listen, I'm going to hire
you just to help me get this off the ground.
One of the things, if you've been in this business
long enough, no matter how successful someone is, no matter
how successful I've had clients with one oscars, no matter
how successful somebody is in this business, there is a
project that they have that they can't seem to get
off the ground.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
We know, we know that project, no matter how I
know that project.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Spielberg has projects that he can't for some reason or
another he can't even figure out how. Yeah, so how
do you how.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Do you manage your clients through that?
Speaker 3 (21:14):
Because we all believe so deeply in our projects and
to not see it takes flight the way we thought
it would, you know, after the investment and everything else, Like,
how do you manage them through that? I?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Well, I think one of the barriers in helping people
oftentimes is that they're not open to new ideas. Sometimes
when you're created, you see things happening happening a certain way,
and when you said listen, these are some of the
things that you might want to consider in order to
get this going, they're like, Nope, I want to do
it this way. This is the way that I want
(21:52):
to do it. And I think sometimes that could be
the reason why they can't get it off the wround
because they're not seeing the big picture or see other options.
So that's what I would.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Say, Okay, it's good advice for all of us, me
including so your company assist content creators. As you stated
in the development, the packaging, and the pitching. How are
you specifically working, if at all, to amplify diverse voices
through your services.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I would say one of the things that I've tried
to do is to continue to work with people who
are started off in the business as well as established
creators and really try to bridge the gap between the two.
Sort of give them some information that I've learned from
(22:48):
work and with the more experienced people the people who
are coming up, but also try to bridge the gap
in that possibly, if need be, try to create the
relationship between the two share some information about what they
went through their different challenges, and for me, I think
that's where I try to help and that I'm really
(23:10):
trying to pass on information to the younger generation.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And one of the challenges to that is some of
the younger generations see the business for what it is today.
They don't think about what the business was and where
it came from, and you have to think about it
in terms of, Okay, this is where we are now,
but this is what was happening and this is how
we reach this point. Having that bigger picture helps you
to kind of understand how this business evolves, and that again,
(23:39):
knowing how it has evolved and how it's evolved helps
you to have a longer lifespan in the business.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Sure, So, can you talk about a moment when you
had to choose between your business interests and community impact
and how did you navigate that?
Speaker 1 (23:58):
That's hard. I don't think I ever, I don't ever
feel that I've ever compromised. I'll give you one. Something
came into my head and I didn't think about that.
But I think I think this is an example for
me where I felt that being a part of something
was I would compromise how I felt about my community,
(24:21):
and I think I very rarely post on Facebook, but
I posted this on Facebook because I was annoyed. I
don't pass judgment on content. The people determine what they
want to see. So if somebody comes to me with
a particular project and they need my assistance, I try
to help them. The only thing I'll say to them
(24:43):
whether or not I feel that I can't help them.
If I don't feel that I can help them, then
I'll say I don't want to waste your time and
I don't want you to waste mine. So I'm going
to pass on this. But there was a project that
came to me. This is many years ago. It was
fully packaged, known talent, talent that looked like us and
and very established in a business. But the subject matter
(25:05):
of the film was about guys using sort of a
pimp mentality in order to make a kid more popular
in school, using his their pimp ways to make a
kid be more popular in school. When these were successful
comedians who were for this, I said no, I didn't
(25:26):
want to be a part of it. I didn't want
to have anything to do with I didn't even want
my name associated with it, even though they were really
close to the finish line. I said, I don't want
to be a part of any pimp anything. I don't
want my name associated with anything. That's what they're like, Oh,
it's a comedy. They used their experience as a pimp
to make this guy in the suburbs a ladies man
(25:50):
in high school. No, No, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I didn't expect it.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Yeah, And how do you see your work intersecting with
broader social justice movements and a push for for equity
across America.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I would say I would say probably is that Again,
my goal has been about educating people and sort of
assisting sort of the diverse voices, helping the diverse voices
get to the table. And I've always felt that if
I've done that, you know, then I've then I've done
my job. I've also tried to encourage more established folks
(26:38):
to think about that mindset as well, because there are
people who have been in the business who have done
really well and they really don't think about the community
what they do and how it impacts people. So I
really try to impress upon them, hey, these are some
things we need to kind of think about, kind of
(27:00):
opening the door and letting some of the young people
with diverse voice, not even just people who look like us, sure,
other groups. And entertainment like any other industry, it's an
international economy, right, and if you want to really have
a broad customer base, you really have to kind of
(27:24):
appeal to more than just you know yourself.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
So absolutely, for young black and brown professionals interested in entertainment,
law or production, just given the state of the nation
and where we are, what advice would you give them
about creating change from within the system?
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I would say, try to speak to the people that
you work with, that you're around when you come in
contact with people, invite them to different events, community events,
just to sort of to let them know. And I
think can entertainment sometimes it's a it's a very small community.
(28:05):
So I say, really try to talk to people, have
them think about not only the work that they're doing,
but how their work impacts people who look like them,
the people around them. Right. So that's what I've tried
to do, and I would say I would hope that
the younger generation would do that as well as that
(28:26):
they not just see it as this is just about me.
I'm going to get here and I'm going to do this,
and it's got to be about opening the door and
allowing people who have been disadvantages in the past, disadvantage
to the past, to be able to tell our stories
as well.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yes, and.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I think if they're able to do that, then then
if that happens, then I think it will be successful.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Absolutely, hikeem.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
I think our audience would love to hear about the
upcoming projects or initiatives that we should be key being
an eye out one.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Well as far as i'm It's funny because one of
the reasons why I don't do this, I'm in a
pretty niche area. And I would say ninety five percent
of the clients that come to me already have a
deal on the table and they just need somebody to
negotiate in their favor or they need somebody to put
(29:22):
an agreement together on their behalf. The other five percent
of clients I get are people who are in various
stages of a particular project, so they may need talent,
they may need distribution, they may need financing. So I'm
a very niche side of the market. So oftentimes stuff
that I do, I'm the guy that you're like, oh wow,
(29:44):
he was connected to this. I didn't even know that.
I didn't even know he worked on this or that this.
And it's because I try to make sure that you know,
as an attorney, the client's information stays confidential unless they
choose to let that information out, and some people are
very free with it. Is something in that. It's funny
(30:07):
when I sometimes I'll get calls and people are like,
wait a minute, you know that person. How do you
know them? And I'll be like, oh, well, yeah, I've
worked that person in the past. But I try to
I'm in a space where I try to keep a
lot of the information confidential, just because it's an turn
you have to do that. But I've written articles. I
(30:27):
have some articles out there that if people you know,
get a chance, I know some of them are on LinkedIn.
One of them was when a screenwriter needs an entertainment Attorney.
I also wrote an article about managers and how vital
a good manager is. Sure, just because I don't think
(30:49):
people realize the difference and importance between agents and managers.
And there's been a number of articles where people said, hey,
my agent through this project away and they found it
and they somehow the person got the script to them
and they said, this is exactly what I was looking for. Yes,
(31:11):
And I'm like, when you deal with agents, agents are
just thinking. And the agents are not bad, right, but
their whole job is how much money are you paying
for the talent that I represent? And I've worked with agents,
I have great relationships with agents. The problem is that
I don't think people realize this. If you your agent
(31:35):
has a project that is going to pay you a
million dollars that is a crappy, awful film that nobody's
gonna remember. Sure, but he has an Oscar worthy part
that's going to pay you one hundred and fifty thousand.
Which one do you think the agent is going to say?
Should probably do not because the agent is bad, but
(31:56):
because at the end of the day, the agent is
a good agent is and determined based on how much
work did they give you, how much money did you make?
That's their lot.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
But you have a different lot that protects a different
set of interest.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Right. Your manager is thinking about the long term trajectory
of your career because oftentimes the Oscar winning role, oftentimes
the role I want you to ask or didn't pay
a whole lot, but it allowed you to show off
your acting chops.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Now, this is a good point.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I'm wondering which that's I mean, it's a phenomenal point
that I hope our listeners are holding on to. Is
there any other final piece of wisdom about the profession,
about what our listeners should be thinking about, any final
piece of wisdom that you would want to bestow to
the listeners of Dear America With Chanel.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Barnes, I would say the biggest thing is to be
true to yourself as far as what you want to do,
what you willing to do. And I think one of
the bigger lessons I've learned is that just because different
people look like you, that doesn't mean they're going to
welcome you. And some people say, well, i'll get in
(33:15):
there and I look like this person, so they're going
to welcome me with open arms. That's not necessarily the case,
especially if they see you as competition, So be mindful
of that and just focus on the work and be
able to create relationships. Relationships are extremely important in this business,
(33:39):
and just continue on your journey.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Amazing, Hakm, thank you so much for taking the time
to join us, and thank you so much for deciding
to take this interview. As you mentioned earlier, you don't
really take interviews like this. We appreciate your wisdom and
tell our listeners where they can find you if they
need your support and or your mental worship.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Sure the Moull Rain Firm. It's located in White Planes,
New York. Feel free to you know. I'm online. I'm
actually in between fixing updating my website. My website was older.
I gotta bring it up to me doing that. But
I'm located in White Planes, New York. You can email me.
(34:22):
I'm on social media. I'm on LinkedIn in, so definitely
feel free to reach out to me. If you have
one or two questions, I'm definitely free to If I
can help you or assist you, I'm definitely available to
do that. And if you need some legal assistance, I'm
definitely available for that as well. But it's been a
(34:43):
pleasure and thank you for.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Considering me absolutely.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Thank you all so much for listening into Dear America
with Chanelle Barnes, where we are showcasing real people and
real stories.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Tune in next time. Bye. This has been a a project.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Ready and a Freedom Studios production to learn more and
effect change. Log Onto project readyenjy dot org, or listen
anytime on all major podcast carriers.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!