Yusuf Muhammad On Managing Desi Banks and Building a Creative Career

Episode Transcript
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Jennifer Logue (00:10):
Hello everyone and welcome to Creative Space, a
podcast where we explore, learnand grow in creativity together
.
I'm your host, jennifer Logue,and today we're continuing our
fan favorite series.
This is the fourth episode inthe countdown to the season
three premiere on October 20th,and I am beyond excited to share

(00:31):
today's conversation with you,with Yousef Muhammad, aka
Veteran Freshman.
Youi is an entrepreneur, eventcurator and artist manager whose
work has spanned across musicfestivals, branded experiences
and so much more.
At the time of this interview,yui was managing comedian and

(00:51):
actor Desi Banks, but his storygoes way beyond that.
In this episode, we dive deepinto Yui's journey, his creative
philosophy and the lessons he'slearned along the way.
So, without further ado, here'sthe interview.
Hello everyone, and welcome toanother episode of Creative
Space, a podcast where weexplore, learn and grow in

(01:14):
creativity together.
I'm your host, jennifer Logue,and today we have the pleasure
of chatting with Yusuf Muhammad,aka Veteran Freshman, an
entrepreneur, event curator,talent buyer and manager who's
worked around the globe on musicfestivals, branded experiences
and much, much more.

(01:34):
He's also an artist manager andcurrently manages the super
talented comedian and actor,desi Banks.
Welcome to Creative Space, yui.

Yusuf Muhammad (01:44):
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Thank you for having me.
Really excited to be here.

Oh my gosh, it's an honor to have you on this
show, and I'm thinking back.
How did we first meet?
Was it Rock on Philly TV backin the day?

Yeah, yeah, you're talking about a time.
I mean, this was close toalmost 10 years ago, most likely
.

Oh my gosh.

We were talking yeah, we were talking 20,
probably that 2013, 2014, 2015time, maybe even a little
earlier.
But yeah, I believe that's howwe met.
I believe you were doingjournalism in Philadelphia.
I was doing a lot of differentevents.
I don't know if someoneconnected us I'm not sure if you

(02:30):
came to one of my events, but Ido remember that once we did
connect, we were connected.
I do remember that, like it was, it was instant.
You know, we were connected andthat was it.
We were friends.

Yeah, cause you were always putting on events in
Philly and, you know, justmaking an impact on the city and
it was a pleasure to writeabout and you know.

I appreciate it.
I told you I kept a lot ofthose writings.
They still are there.
You know keepsakes of mine I itreminds me of a time that I
didn't realize.
When you know it's so much,time really does fly.
So it helps to have thosereminders of some of the things

(03:11):
that you've done and some of theplaces you've been and you know
some of the, some of the impactthat you've had and I'm
extremely appreciative of a lotof the things that I was able to
do in Philly.
And I told, I used to tellpeople all the time that you
know Philly was, philly wasschool and the world was my
graduation.

You know what I'm saying, so I was able to
kind of graduate into the world.

But Philly was definitely my school.

For people who aren't familiar with you and
your work.
Let's go way back, yeah let'sgo.
I know where you're fromoriginally, but for everyone
else listening, where are youfrom originally?

So I am originally born and raised in
Philadelphia, pennsylvania.
I was raised in southwestPhiladelphia and I also have
family ties all over Philly, soWest Philly, north Philly but
where I was really spent theinitial kind of younger years of

(04:11):
my life was in SouthwestPhiladelphia.
My mother was from New York, myfather was from Philadelphia
and my mother she did do a goodjob of giving me the balance of
New York and Philly, you know,as I was growing up, but a large
majority of my time was spentin Philadelphia and learning and

(04:34):
experiencing Philly in the 80sand 90s.
That was my upbringing and itwas.
It was great.
It was a different city.
It was a different city.
It was a different time.
You know it was um I, you knowI used to grow up you don't
really know where you're from.

(04:57):
It's like there's a, there's apoint where you become conscious
of where you're from right butI remember watching, like this
tom hanks movie when I was likea kid and I was like that looks
like Philadelphia, that lookslike downtown Philly.
And I remember watching likeRocky and I was like wait, that
looks like Philly.
And then I think I was watchingum, I even think they may have

(05:17):
filmed some of um.
There was a film with EddieMurphy I think it was called
trading places.

Oh, I love that movie.

They did Philadelphia as well.
So, growing up, you know, I Iknew that I was from somewhere
that was special because I wouldsee it on my TV screen, I would
see it in movies, you know, and, and that was a it was, you
know, when I, as I grew up, andI was watching you know, the
BETs, and I was watching youknow the MTVs, and I was just

(05:45):
watching the kind of world ofmusic I realized very quickly
that Philly held a special placethere.
There was a lot of, I alwayswould see Philadelphia.
Philadelphia was a place thatartists were coming to.
So, yeah, it was an interesting, very, very interesting
upbringing.
But yep, that's, that's where Igrew up.
I grew up in southwest Philly.

Cool.
What did you want to be as akid, do you remember?

So as a kid, I think you know, I think we may
have spoken this in the past,but you know I had a very
interesting childhood,specifically from an educational
perspective, like I was, youknow I was a, you know, dare I
say I was, I was a prettyadvanced kid, um, and so, uh, I
was in the first grade, I think.

(06:29):
I, you know, I think they wentto go put me in like preschool
and kindergarten, but I was likesurpassed that so I went
directly into, like the firstgrade, like five, like I was six

(06:57):
years old, in first grade, inthe first grade, um, and it
wasn't, oh my gosh, me throughlife formulas and systems, and I
think once you realize, or youunderstand formulas and systems,
just in life in general, itjust makes navigating that much
easier.
That's all it is.
It's just, it's the control,all the neat delete to life.
You know what I mean.
It's, it's the, it's the shiftinto to life, it's the, it's the

(07:20):
wow, you're blowing my mindright now, I mean you knew this
from like the first grade.
So from when I was a kid, yeah,that was just my thing, I would,
I was just a system person.
It was, hmm, you know, Iremember that one of the
earliest videos of me, uh, likehome home recordings of me, um,
they gave, you know, they usedto give us, like you know, he
had plate spools and I removedthe screen door.

(07:43):
I don't know how, but I tookthe screen door like off the
thing and my dad, my dad's onvideo.
He's like, oh, that'sinteresting.
He's like, um, are you going toput it back?
And I basically, like I was likeas a kid, I like retraced my
steps and was able to put thedoor back, you know, the bottom
of the door back.
I was probably like I had to belike five or six years old, but

(08:07):
very early my dad recognizedthat and was like, hmm, and so,
education wise I think that'spart of the question you asked
me but education wise, I startedoff, you know, very, very young
and worked my way up and youknow, eventually, you know the
story goes that I, you know, Iwent to college at, uh, at 14

(08:30):
years old, um wow, I didn't knowthat about you.
Yeah, it's crazy, I just found,I just found the uh certificate
for it and I had been lookingfor it for a very long time,
cause you know, you know youtell people that sometimes they
believe you.
Sometimes, yeah, okay, right.
But yeah, I actually just foundthe certificate and you look at

(08:53):
the date and you look at it andit's like Yousef is the
youngest honoree to like entercollege at like 14 years old.

Incredible.

Signed by the senator at the time.

So yeah, and you went to the Art Institute of
Philadelphia.

Yes, so I was saying all that.
That's what I was talking about.
Education, there you go,Reminded me.
I was saying all that to say,like when I was younger,
originally, I was able to.
I think it's part of the reasonwhy I was able to like use

(09:30):
social media so well when itfirst came around and like get
this large following and, likeyou know, I just knew how to use
it in a different way isbecause I literally watched the
internet be born like literallylike I remember when see like
dvds, like when those first thefirst ones, like when they first

(09:53):
.
I remember us being at like a.
We were at like this party andthis guy was like, um, I have
this new thing, it's called advd and he's like you know, he
puts it into like this playerand everybody was like
surrounding the TV.
But I remember that moment.
But I remember when, like youknow when.
I remember when wifi was justyou know, being used.

(10:15):
I remember when social media Iwas on Facebook way before most
of my peers because I was 14years old, incredible, so
Facebook was only for collegekids at a certain time.
So I was on a lot of thesethings very, very early.
So my first love was intoelectronics.

(10:35):
That was my first love.
My first love was the world ofelectronics.
I wanted to do anything in thatspace and as life kind of kept
going forward.
My second, my second love,which became kind of like one of
my more passions and I'm stillvery passionate about it, was
films and filmmaking.
I believe that the ability tojust take an idea or a concept

(10:57):
and turn it into a movie orcinema or a story was just
really really intriguing to meand from very young I remember I
would always watch like themaking of.
I loved watching the scenes ofhow films were made.
I don't think a lot of kidstoday don't know that that used

(11:20):
to be.
A part of the rollout for themovie was that they would show
you the behind the scenes onentertainment tonight and weekly
, like they would do theseinterviews.
They'd be on set and they'd beinterviewing the actors and
they'd be like this movie comesout, you know, at the end of the
year, but we're over here.
You know there's explosionsgoing on, you know, going off in
the back, in the back, you know, and I was captivated by that.

(11:41):
I just loved everything aboutyou.
You know the behind the scenesagain, formalists, you know, and
strategy and how you build itout.
You know it was intriguing tome.
So, yeah, I ended up.
I was.
I remember it like it wasyesterday.
I was in my apartment at thetime.
I was working at a place calledPenn Children's Center.

(12:01):
I was a, I was a, I was aassistant.
I was an assistant like teacher.
I was like an assistant teacher, like tutor there.
And I saw a commercial ontelevision that said you know,

(12:22):
do you want to be a filmmaker,you know, do you want to make
movies, you should go to the ArtInstitute of Philadelphia.
I never heard of the ArtInstitute, ever.
And being, as you know, asdetermined as I was at that age,
I still am now.
But being as determined as Iwas at that age, I just called
the number.

Nice.

And I was like, hey, you know, I would like to
go to college, you know.
And she was like, oh, okay,well, you know, have you been
before?
And I was like, yeah, I went tocommunity.
And so this woman that I endedup speaking to I mean talk about
just the universe, but thatperson that I ended up speaking
to, um, she ended up literallyjust helping me throughout the
whole process.
Wow, and helped me.
Yeah, she was from that firstconversation on the phone.

(13:09):
She was like I'm going to helpyou get into the school and she
helped me get into the schooland it was great.
And from there it just my lifechanged.

Yeah, who are your biggest film inspirations?

So some of my biggest film inspirations off
the top is um, is spike lee forsure.
So yeah, somebody who, fromvery, very young I watched all
of his films, studied his filmsum, I believe his name is wes
anderson.
Um, I wanted to say his name iswes anderson.
Just because of his extremelyunique style of storytelling has

(13:43):
just always been incrediblyunique to me and I feel like he
makes funny movies forintelligent people.
Like he makes movies that likeanybody, no matter what you find
funny he makes, he makes filmsthat speak to everybody.
So, big fan of Wes Anderson.
Sorry, my daughter just walkedin on me as we were talking,
right?

now, I love it.
I tried my best.

I thought I could find some actual free time
to do this, but it's just yeah.
Unfortunately it's not workingout as good as I wanted it to,
but you can battle with me.
Hopefully you can battle withme.

That's a slice of life.
It's a slice of life of abeautiful life.

So you know, yes , yes, which is great, though,
like I had a lot of time tomyself, so now I, now I have to,
now I get to share it withthese, uh, these blessings, so
it's awesome.

Yeah, um.
So how did you transition tothe to the event side of
entertainment, from film, andyou're doing photography too, I
think entertainment from filmand you're doing photography too
, I think yes.

So all right, I can tell this story.
I'll try not to be toolong-winded.
So I am at the Art Institute.
Very quickly, I realized thatthere was a couple of things
that all happened at one time.
So I get to the Art Instituteand one thing that my dad used
to always tell me was that whenyou go somewhere, he used to say
make friends with all the olderpeople.

(15:10):
That was a that was anintentional.
Goal was that if you gosomewhere, don't try to impress
the people at your age.
They have no power.
Impress the people who whoactually have power and can
actually help you as you aremotivated and as you have ideas,

(15:32):
the people that are your age.
They'll come as you continue toextend, but don't pursue that.
He's always I don't know why,but that was his thing he's like
don't pursue that, pursuewisdom.
Basically, that was the lessonthat my dad, you know, uh,
instilled in me and I and Iwould say my dad like he,
definitely that was something heput in me.
He used to say make friendswith everybody who's older.

(15:53):
You know, they are the onesthat are going to be able to
actually look out for you.
So I was very intentional aboutthat.
I was friends with thefinancial aid department.
I was friends with thecounselors.
I was friends with thefinancial aid department.
I was friends with thecounselors.

I was friends with the president of the school
.

And it was very simple.
I would, before I would go tomy classes in the morning, I had
like set up a route that Iwould take.
I would walk through the school, I would walk through the
financial aid area.
I would say hello, good morning.
I hope you have a good daytoday.
Oh, it's so good to see you,man.
I hope you're good man.
I hope your kids are great man,I hope everything's fine with
you.
It was like you know.

(16:28):
I was basically saying I waslike you know how was you?
You know how's your kids?
Then I walk through the studentaffairs area.
I say hello to the young ladywho was like the security.
You know, like the secretaryperson, I say hello to security.
I'd go in and say what's up tothe president.
Hey president, you know, great,great seeing you man.
You know, I appreciate good toknow you and I just would keep

(16:48):
moving, doing that over and overand over again.
Eventually they recognized me.
They were like who is this kidLike that just keeps us walking
through here and he's alwaysasking us questions and he's
always very jovial and he'salways asking us how our day is.
So one day, you know, just fromdoing that, I asked the woman
who was working at the desk.

(17:09):
I was always coming here andtalk to her and I was a new
student, so they wanted to benice and help me.
I just ask her.
I say you know, do you all everneed help here?
Let me know if you do.
And she said, yeah, we do.
She said what do you do now?
I said, well, I currently haveanother part time job, you know,
with kids.
I said, well, I currently haveanother part-time job, you know,
with kids.
I said but you know, you know,just let me know if you ever
need help.
So she said, well, you know youshould come work in the office.

(17:29):
I said really.
She said, yeah, come work inthe office.
So I ended up working at thestudent affairs office part-time
.
So now I have the part-time jobin student affairs.
I have the part-time joboff-site at the University of
Penn, at this Penn Children'sCenter.
Sitting at that desk was thebest networking tool that I
could have.
I met everybody.

I met all the cool kids.

I met all the top leads of all of the
organizations.
I met any of the donors thatwould come and meet with the
president.
When they would come in theywould have to say, hey, yusef.
And I'd say, hey, how are you?
And I'm like my name is Yusefand he'd be like, oh, nice to
meet you.
And I'm like, well, what areyou doing?
And he'd be like, oh, I ownda-da-da-da-da-da and I'm here
to make a donation to the schoolGreat meeting to come into the

(18:27):
office.
So I would just meet them allthe time.
So I began networking that wayand eventually I met the person.
They recommended me to be an RA,okay.
So I said, okay, well, shoot,cool, I will be an RA.
I didn't know what an RA was,but again, I work with kids
already.
So I was like this is justworking with grown kids.
So I ended up leaving PennChildren and I ended up having a

(18:47):
part-time job in the studentaffairs.
I'm still going to school andI'm an RA now.
One of the things about beingan RA was that they said you had
to create one of the.
One of the rules was that youhad to create three events.
Three events per quarter foryour, for your, uh, for your
students.
And I immediately I don't knowwhy, but I was like, instead of

(19:15):
me creating the events for them,why don't I just go create the
events that they want?
I?

just go create the events that they want.

So I called a meeting and at the meeting they
started telling me the type ofevents that they wanted and I
said, oh, okay, cool, I got that, that's easy, that's great.
Okay, cool, I can do that.
But I couldn't figure out mythird event.
My third event, I could notfigure out.
My third event had to besomething that brought the
community together.
So I was like hmm.

So one thing as an RA you had to do was event
had to be something that broughtthe community together.

So I was like so one thing as an RA you had to
do was you had to do your roundsand you would go to your rounds
.
You go to every apartment justto make sure that they were, you
know, not doing crazy stuff.
Um, even though I was the mostlenient RA of all time, like of
all time, I did not.
I never told them.
I was always like I used to tellthem don't make me do my job.

(20:05):
That's what I used to say tothem.
So, trying to wrap this storyup, but it's just a unique way
that I fell into this world.
So all of this is simultaneous.
At the same time that I'm doingthis community event and I'm
doing my rounds, and I walk intoevery dorm, I'm seeing art

(20:29):
pieces that are phenomenal, like, I'm seeing stuff, I'm seeing
art, I'm seeing fashion designsand I'm like who made this, who
did this?
And they're like I did.
And I'm like well, are you?
Are you like like, what is thisfor?
Like, are you selling it?
And they're like this is just aproject.
I just got bored one day and Ijust painted this mural and I'm
like so I took that informationwith me.

(20:53):
Okay, that's one part of it.
The other part of it was I'm infilm school, and when you're in
film school, usually you haveto rent your equipment.
But I got to the point where Iwas like you know what?
I cannot keep running myequipment.
I have to own a camera.

I'm going to have to get a camera.

So at the same time, it just so happened that
technology is meeting me inschool at the same time and the
first DSLR camera dropped, whichwas called it, was like a Canon
TS1.
The DSLR.
It allowed you to shoot at highresolutions.
You can only shoot for a shortamount of time, but it allowed
you to kind of do these like oneminute clips and like the best

(21:29):
high resolution anyone had everseen before.
And at that same time I'm doingan RA.
I end up getting my own camerafrom a friend of mine.
He loaned me some bread.
Thank.
Shots to shouts to Akeel.
Akeel helped me get my owncamera from a friend of mine's
he loaned me some bread.
And shots to shouts to ikeel.
Ikeel helped me get my firstcamera.
I get my first camera and, um,I'm using this ra job to pay off

(21:52):
this camera.
So then I'm like, okay, I needto get money to like just fund
myself, to like live.
So I said, well, why don't Istart doing freelance with this
camera?
So I started doing freelancefilming and photography for
artists and some of theseartists are like big artists now
.

(22:12):
At the time they were not.
At the time they were just dopebuzzing artists from their
cities.
But I went on Facebook and Iput up there and I told them.
I said, listen, I will film youfor free If you just give me
the access.
So they would give me theaccess, I will go film for free.
I would then take that filmwork, bring it back to school,

(22:35):
get an A.
I would then you know.
So all of these things are allhappening at once.
All these things are happening.
I'm meeting different artists,music artists and people in the
film and photography world.
I'm getting access.
I'm getting relationshipsthrough the school.
I'm connecting with my students.
I have to do events and one dayI'm in my dorm room and I come

(22:59):
up with this event called WhoseArt Is this Anyway?
Whose Art Is this Anyway?
It was the first ever event Iever curated.
The rules to the event was thishow I promoted?
It was everything at the event.
No matter what the event, nomatter what it was, no matter
what medium it was.
You could only price it from $1to $20.

(23:21):
The reason why I did that was Iknew that it would sell.
Somebody's going to buy it andwhat I would tell them was you
set the price on the go.
So somebody comes up to you andthey ask you how much it is.
You now have to negotiate withthem, almost like a bartering
style, to be able to sell yourartwork and you have to talk to

(23:42):
them.
First event we did it wasactually pretty successful.
There was about 300 people thatcame and it was a mixture of
everything.
It was a mixture of art, it wasa mixture of music, it was a
mixture of a DJ, you had poetry,it was any medium that went
under the term art.
I actually still have theposter somewhere.

(24:02):
I wish I could find it.
I would pull it up and show you, but it's a hilarious, amazing.
It was like my first ever event.
So the second one was huge.
The second one, after thesuccess of the first, one word
started getting around.
Of the first one word startedgetting around, there's this art

(24:27):
show that's being thrown at theArt Institute downtown.
And at that point I had a lotof relationships.
I was just connecting withpeople.
I was telling all the differentorganizations in my school and
650 people showed up.
And I was like whoa, I'm like OK, like this is a lot of people,

(24:48):
and it was actually you knowwhat.
Let me circle, let me go back.
Memory makes you pat a littlebit.
It might have been 150 for thefirst event, 350 for the second
event, not 650.
It might have been 350 for thesecond event.
But this is where the kicker is.
This is where this is thereason why I got that at 650
number for the second event,like 350, 350 people came, but

(25:11):
like 650 people RSVP.
Oh, and this was the time backin back when Facebook, when
people RSVP, it meant they wereactually going on Facebook.

I remember those days.

It meant that they were actually going on
Facebook.
I remember those days.
It meant that they wereactually going, you know.
And so for the third one, therewas like 2000.
Rsu MPs, oh wow.
And the school was concernedbecause they were like there's
going to be like 650 people here.
Like that's way too manystrangers that you're bringing
to the school, right, like thishas started off as a school

(25:48):
event and now this is becomingsomething that, like people are
coming to, so they shut my eventdown.
They shut my event down.

All that publicity.

It was sad I had to put out this big thing.

I had to send a message to everybody.

I was devastated and so my career in concert
started from one Facebook postOut of my anger that my event
got shut down right due topolitics.
That's what I use.
I use the word politics rightBecause you know I was just a
student.
I didn't have any control overthe venue space.
I didn't have any control overyou know who attended, who
didn't attend.
I went on Facebook and I saidmy school just shut down my art
show.
I was expecting like 2000people and I'm like man, this is
like messed up.
I said I need to have my ownspace to throw my own events A

(26:53):
guy responded to that thread andhe said there's a spot called
the Blockley Wow that I amfriends with.
There's a guy named Chris overthere that I'm really friends
with.
You should let me introduce youto them.
He said I've heard about theart show.
You should let me introduce youto them.
And that was my career fromthere, from that moment, that
moment of the universe comingtogether of me being an RA of me

(27:15):
going to school for film andphoto of me meeting the specific
people that I've met duringthat time in Philadelphia who
are all superstars now.
I mean, these guys are all overthe industry, all over the
world right now.
That was the launch of VeteranFreshman and my career.
I remember, once I got thevenue, my goal was to throw a

(27:40):
birthday concert.
That was my goal.
I knew all these differentpeople, I was meeting all these
different artists throughout theyear and I wanted to throw a
birthday concert and I was likewhat can I name it?
And this is again me being thiskind of like, very like militant
kind of you know kid.
I named it.
I came up with veteran freshmenand the goal was to basically

(28:01):
say because I felt like peoplewere treating me as a freshman
but I used to say I have veteranrelationships.
So I was like I'm a veteranfreshman, like imagine the, you
know the person that is aveteran, you know, you know how
to do this, but you're infreshman circumstances.
I see and that was the wholeidea was that.

(28:22):
You know, I was like I want toshowcase veteran talent that
people know, but they might be afresh face to you, I see, know
if that rings.
And I was like, what isfreshman veteran?
I was explaining something like, yeah, you know, it's freshmen,

(28:46):
but they really better.
And they were like and then Ijust was like, well, what about
veteran freshmen?
And they were like, ah, that'sit.
That's the sound like that's itit sticks.
No, that's a nice ring to itthat was how my career started.

So sorry for that very long-winded answer,
but that is how my no, it's sofascinating to hear your story
and the way things happened.
Everything was so organic.

Yes, I am big on .
I paid attention to A making Bhappen, that makes C happen,
that makes D happen, that makesE happen, that makes F happen,
that makes G, that makes H.
I pay attention to that and Ithink more people should pay

(29:50):
attention to that.
It allows you to appreciate themoment, but next moment it's
only going to lead to something.
Next, it's either going to leadto you never doing it again, or
you're doing it better, oryou're doing it in a different
way or a different light, and sothat was a lesson that I
started learning very young andI used to, and so that was a
lesson that I started learningvery young and I used to.
You know, being a promoter is,it is it's like I'm trying to

(30:16):
figure out what you can describeit as.
Imagine, imagine you are.
It's the longest, it's, it's,it's an, it's a, it's an
everlasting checklist, rightMixed with the reality that

(30:40):
anything can happen and that youcan lose it all that anything
can happen and that you can loseit all and there's so many
factors that can lead to thatthat have nothing to do with you
.
There's the right before thedoor opens jitters, where
there's been shows where therewere two people standing outside

(31:01):
and the show ended up sellingout.
And then there's been showswhere there's a line outside and
the show ended up selling out.
And then there's been showswhere there's a line outside and
the show ended up taking a loss.
And then there are shows whereit's sold out but a water main
breaks and the entire show iscanceled and you have to rerun

(31:21):
everybody's ticket.

Oh my gosh, and you just got to roll the punches
and just go through it.

I have so many stories of just you have to roll
with the punches.
You have to roll with thepunches.
I was at one show, and it wasan accident.
It was in Atlanta, the show washappening, everything was going
good, the venue, the club, wasone of these older clubs.
An ornament from the ceilingfell down, down hit the

(31:47):
performer in the head and whatshow was over?

he was okay oh show was over.
Oh god, I thought the show wasover.

No, not him no not him.

Oh god, I was like oh my gosh, the next time I
go on stage it'll be like no,no, the show was over.

He was fine, thankfully, you know he flew off
the stage.
He flew off the stage a couplefeet, but you know he was fine.
He was okay praise god funnything is he kept performing.
That was hilarious that he keptrapping, even on the ground
he's still rapping, that's themark of a professional, oh my
gosh, professional, amazing.

Um so what led you then to artist management?
Yes, you, you initially weremanaging distorted, the Philly
visual artist yes and then youmanage a few artists after that
a few bars after that.
Yes, we'll throw you to it.

Artist management was something that I
used to run away from via the.
I used to run away from it.
We're just going to use thatword.
You see that sometimes you gotto use a really intelligent word
, but your lips don't work withthat word that's me all the time
but for anyone who's listeningto it, I ran far away.
So I ran far away from fromartist management for a very

(33:07):
long time because I just didn'twant to be solely responsible
for the advancement of someoneelse's career.
I felt like that was just notthe way that it should work.
I, you know, and a lot of times, a lot of the the, a lot of
it's telling you is so crazybecause I'm not going to say her
name but there's one artistwho's buzzing, she's huge Now,

(33:28):
she's huge in Philly, and atthat time she used to ask me to
manager but I just was not ready.
I was not ready to be a managerat the time, you know, and I
was.
I really did feel like, youknow, management is something
that you should do.
You know when you, when you'reable to, you know when you, when
you're able to, you know whenyou, when you know how you know.
It's something that you shoulddo when you're, when you're
confident in your abilities.

(33:49):
It's just not something thatyou take for light because it
really is another person'scareer.
So Anya distorted and I referto her as Anya because that's
how I met her as Anya, you know,before I knew she was distorted
.
I was throwing a Cameron concertand at the time, used to sell

(34:14):
tickets by hand.
You would.
You would literally get a group, a stack of tickets and you
would put it on Facebook.
You would say hey, you caneither buy tickets online or you
can meet up with me and I'llsell you tickets as the promoter
.
So I sold a bunch of ticketsthat week.
We were trying to get togetherbut we finally found a day.
She pulls up on me and she'slike I'm you know.

(34:37):
She wanted to get two ticketsto Cameron.
I said, oh good, and it just sohappened that we struck up a
conversation.
Like we we had already knew ofeach other, but we kind of just
struck up a conversation andshe's like yo, I'm a big fan of
yours.
I'm like yo, I'm a big fan ofyours.
Like you know, tell me aboutyou know, kind of tell me about
yourself.
She's like oh well, you know,I'm an artist, my name is
Distorted.
I'm like, oh, that's dope.
Well, you know, you shoulddefinitely check me out.

(35:04):
She's like you know, currentlyI work with she also worked with
kids.
So she's like I work with kids.
And I said, where she said yeah, she said my art is a little,
you know, a little freaky.
So she's like I can't really,you know, I don't really show it
to the kids.
She's like because it's a veryunique style of art, she's like,
but it's very creative and Ifeel like it go places.
And I said, oh bet.
I said, well, you know, that'sreally really dope and it was
great meeting you.
And she said, yeah, it wasreally good meeting you.

(35:24):
And she said you know, the onlything I'm really missing right
now is I really need, like youknow, I really need like, a
manager.
And I'm like, oh well, you know, good luck with that.
I hope you, hope you find agood manager.
You know, god bless you.
You know, so we do the Cameronshow.
Cameron show was great.
She was there, but then I keptseeing her, we kept seeing each
other at places and every time Isaw her she would tell me you

(35:51):
need to manage me, you should bemy manager.
She's like why don't you justbe my manager?
And I'm like I don't want to bea manager.
I'm like look, I appreciatethat you think I am, but I'm a
promoter.
Like you know, I don't manage.
She said, no, I really believethat you could manage me.
So she would.
She would just constantly liketell me that she would text me,
she would see me at parties, shewould send messages to other

(36:13):
people.
She was very like adamant thatshe felt like I could be her
manager.
So one day, in like a fit oflike frustration, I was like you
know what, forget it, just comemeet me.
I was like come downtown today.
You can come down today, comedowntown and meet me.
And I said we will talk aboutpartnership.
I said I don't, I can't be amanager.

(36:34):
I said, but I can be yourbusiness partner.
So she came down and that day Ifeel like we met for like nine
hours.
By the time she left thatmeeting we had the entire year
planned out of everything wewanted to do with each other and
we went off.

(36:54):
We started doing art shows, westarted doing merch.
Her following started growingand getting bigger and bigger
and bigger.

Incredible.

We started doing um shows we put together
because I was in concert where Iput together an art show for us
.
So I said listen, let's do anart show.
That's part art show but also aconcert.
So we used to do these thingscalled art parties, where we
would go from city to city andwhoever was the popping artist
from there they would come andperform on her art show.
So you got the music community,you got the art community.
These shows are blowing up andwe did like a 12 city tour.

(37:32):
You know it's just in her asjust an independent kind of
artist and it was great and itwent very, very well.
You know, we did a lot ofphenomenal things together.
We're still in touch.
We still have, you know, greatfriendships.
Even the manager that she hasnow is a friend of mine.
He's someone that you know.
Once I stepped down as hermanagement, he ended up kind of

(37:53):
stepping in, and I don't saythat in a negative way, I just
say that even once you get to apoint where you feel like you
can't take them to that nextlevel, you automatically say
absolutely to whoever else wantsto step up and work with that
talent.
Oh for sure, and I handedeverything over.

(38:13):
I mean I didn't hold anythingback, Any connections,
relationships, anything.
He asked for any data.
I handed it right over becauseI wanted to still see her become
a success.
Because I wanted to still seeher become a success Between
Distorted and going into music.
I did manage a few musictalents but they were like hit
or misses and that's anotherthing.
A lot of managers we have hitor misses Before you get that

(38:40):
one client.
I use a perfect example DojaCat's current manager at one
point was a co-manager with mefor christian combs and which is
puff sun, you know I ended upmanaging.
I ended up managing puff sun.
It's a long story how I endedup getting that job, but once I
ended up getting that gig, theguy who is now currently doja

(39:01):
cat's manager at one point wassupposed to be my co-manager.
We both kind of left thatsituation and we moved on to,
you know, our next situations,but now he's managing Doja Cat.
You know what I'm saying and soand I say that as uh, as a as
an amazing, you know that's anamazing, amazing accomplishment
that you can go as you kind ofkeep moving forward.

(39:23):
So sometimes when it doesn'twork out, it doesn't necessarily
mean it's a negative.
It just means that you know youtwo weren't able to create
together and you just have tomove on to the next.
You know the next thing Usuallywhen you see people falling out
with their management and it'slike really negative, a lot of
times they didn't really startwith the purest intentions.
You know what I'm saying, um,and I think when you, when you

(39:46):
do have that relationship, thatdoes start with real intentions
of partnership, not this ideathat I'm your boss or that
you're my boss, but more so thisidea that you know you take
what you do well and I take whatI do well and let's just do
that together and let's just seewhat happens.

You do well and I take what I do well, and let's
just do that together and let'sjust see what happens.
Even your initial approach todistorted, making it a
partnership like just coming tothe table.
With that in mind, I mean, Ithink that just set a foundation
for success and because it's acollaboration, it's a creative
collaboration at the end of theday.

Absolutely.
Managers are not miracleworkers.
You know, that's something Iused to always tell people, and
I really believe that Managersare not miracle workers, like,
we can't create out of thin air.
You know, we need to know thethings that you like in order to
bring the things that you liketo you.
You know we need to know thethings that you want to do in
order to be able to go out andhunt for those things and bring

(40:43):
them back to you.
But it has to be a partnershipand and and.
Yeah, you know, from there Iended up going into music.
I, you know, worked with Puffand I ended up, you know,
managing Christian Combs.
For two years I was a part ofhis management team, which was a
crazy, crazy experience.
I then ended up going over toJanelle Monae's team and

(41:04):
managing and well being on themanagement team for Jidenna, and
I was, you know, his day-to-daymanager as well.
And then the pandemic hit, so Ileft music and now I'm in
comedy.

Yeah, and we're going to talk about that a
little more.

Sorry if I fast forward it.
Oh no, oh no oh, no, it's fine.

Now you're managing desi banks, who's
hilarious and so talented.
Oh, my gosh, really funny guy,really funny guy I mean, I I
actually started following himbecause you were sharing his
stuff.
Wow, I'm just like, oh my god,he's so funny and so talented,
so I'm a big fan of this guy.

Yeah, he is so funny and so talented so I'm a
big fan now, really talented guy.

Yeah, so thank you for sharing his work.
Absolutely, but this isCreative Space.
Yes, I love asking thisquestion of everyone, because
everyone has a differentperspective on creativity.
But how do you definecreativity?

But how do you define creativity?
How I've described it, probablyover the last 10 years, is that
I tell people that your purposeis like a tree.
Your purpose is a tree, so yourpurpose is your center.
Your passions are the leavesand the branches that come from
that tree right.
Each leaf that hits the groundallows you to be able to create

(42:35):
something from that right.
It's almost like you're feedingthe earth, you're feeding the
soil, and so creativity, to me,has been something that it's
actually interesting that yousay that, because this is the
first time in my life that I'veactually wanted to teach this.
Yeah, I wanted to teach thisability to be able to create for

(42:56):
a living.
Yes, and I don't mean this tobe like too deep or anything,
but I genuinely believe that, ifyou go back in time, your
social capital was based off ofwhat you enjoy doing and what
you love doing.
The butcher whole family wasbutchers and they enjoyed
preparing and being butchers.

(43:17):
The sowers there was a schoolof that.
This was something that theywould teach their children,
their daughters, their sons,their grandsons.
There was a family of that.
The fishers they went and theyfished.
The people who wrote books andwere scribers that's what they
did and that was their rent forbeing on earth.
Their rent for being here waswhat they enjoy doing right,

(43:40):
what they enjoy creating right,what they enjoy creating Well,
mine, personally, is joy.
I enjoy creating joy for others.
I enjoy creating spaces wherepeople can have memorable
moments and memorableexperiences.
That is my payment.
My payment is that five to 10years later, I still get
messages, I still get emails, Istill get people to stop me in

(44:02):
the street telling me I met mywife at your party.
That was the best concert Iever went to.
No, it's a blessing to be ableto um, to be able to have
touched so many people and to beable to spread joy and to be
able to have people you knowgive me so many.
A lot of the memories that theypull from are from shows that
they went to or seeing artistsfor the first time.

(44:24):
Or you know, like I said,people telling me they met their
wife at my events.
Or you know people lifelongfriendships.
You know that I even have fromconcerts and music events, and
you know, music is somethingthat genuinely brings people
together, probably more thananything else on the planet as
well as, and so one of thethings that I like to just tell

(44:47):
people is the idea of doubt, isdisregarding or disrespecting
Like the only reason.
Okay, in order to doubtyourself, you have to already
know what you want to do, butyou don't believe that you can

(45:09):
do it.
That's a lot of people Doubt,but the root of doubt is that
you know what you want to do.
That's the root.
Okay, you can't have doubtwithout knowing what you.
The only reason why you doubtyourself is you're telling

(45:30):
yourself that you can't do it.

Cause you do know what you want to do.

You know what you want to do.
You know what you want to doyou know you want to write that
book, but you read it like youcan.

I just read the war of art by Steven Pressfield,
highly recommend.

Yeah.

Someone just recommended it to me.
Shout out to Sam Jones Awesome,basically, he has this concept
called creative resistance andit's you know he describes it as
like that barrier between usactually doing the thing we're
supposed to be doing.
Yes, like procrastination,doubtination, doubt, fear, all
those things.

(46:07):
It's creative resistance sorry,that's my dog oh, okay, um, but
all these inward things, theexcuses we make, doubt anything.
It keeps us from doing whatwe're supposed to be doing.
And he even believes itmanifests into like mental
health issues.
And you know, I know what Idon't create, but it's something

(46:29):
that I'm very passionate aboutbecause, yeah, it's, it's.

your blessings are yours.
For a reason, the things thatyou enjoy doing very much can be
your life.
Sorry about that.
Very much can be your life andyou know, I haven't worked a
nine to five since I was 23years old, 2030.
Wow, was that the last time thatI worked, you know, kind of a
standard nine to five, my nineto five now is just creating.

(47:07):
My nine to five Now is just,you know, coming up with an idea
, creating the system or theavenue to success.
And then, as long as I followthese systems that I've learned,
you know, through differentprocesses, through my wins and
through my losses and my lessonsI'm sorry, not losses through
my wins and my lessons, I'msorry, not losses through my
wins and my lessons.

(47:28):
I've now gotten to a space wherea lot of these things are
automatic.
So I say you know, creativityto me is a life source and it's
something that that is truecapitalism.
True capitalism is creativity.
Not money, not any.
Your true payment is being ableto do the things that you want

(47:48):
to create into this world andputting them out there and just
doing them and trying everything, trying everything that you can
, and not to get deep, but that,to me, that is how you
capitalize off of your existencehere.
That's how you capitalize offthe blessing of, of, of, of, of.
You know, being in this timethat you're in is that is to

(48:11):
create something.
So even this, you know, even ushaving this conversation, you
know, taking it from a conceptof wherever you were before the
first episode, and now we'resitting here having this
conversation.

Yes, it's the act of creation, like if I'm
called to do something, I haveto do it, even if I don't know
where it's going to go.
One person might hear this andit might change their
perspective completely.
You want to encourage them tomake something.
We just don't know how we fitinto the grander scheme of
things.

Absolutely, absolutely, so it's important.

Yeah, I just found it's easier to just go go
with it.

Yeah, you know again.
The root of doubt is that youalready know what you want to do
.

Yeah.

So remove the doubt, because you already know
that you want to do it.
Doubt is just, doubt is just.
You know, I used to always saya no just means I have to find a
different yes.

Ah, I love that.

That's all it means.
One person's no just means Ihave to find a different yes.

That's going on my wall.
I want to have a quote wallfrom these interviews.
All the wisdom that's awesome.

There's a yes out there, you just have to find
it.
There's the yes, you know oneone no just means you have to
find that other yes.
So that is you know.
To me that's you know.
Creativity is, you know again,you, you are the tree, you are
the root, you know, and thosedifferent leaves and branches
that you, that you build out,that's how you create and find

(49:41):
those different branches.
You know, don't feel like youjust have to be a one-stop shop,
you know, do all the differentthings that you want to do in
this lifetime.

Yeah, that's something else we'll touch on
too.
Well, you know what?
Let's bring it up now.
A conversation I've been havinga lot lately with some of my
artist friends is like you know,let's say you're an actor and a
musician from a managerperspective, being a jack of all
trades, master of none, like doyou think there's truth to that

(50:09):
?
But is it possible to likeenjoy your creativity, enjoy
your career and do it at a highlevel, even if you have these
different outlets?

I used to say I am a jack of all trades as long
as it's fun so as long as you'rehaving fun, you should do it.
Why talk yourself out ofsomething that is fun?
It's fun.
If you enjoy doing it and it'sfun, then do it you know what's
interesting jack of all trades,master of none.

(50:41):
For some reason does not applyto celebrities.

Interesting.

Celebrities can do all types of random stuff
that they have no qualificationsfor whatsoever.
Oh, we've learned that I won'tget political on this Whatsoever
, they're just known by a lot ofpeople.
So, because a lot of peopleknow them, they just say, hey,

(51:14):
I'm going to start a watercompany and people are like,
where are you getting your waterfrom?
They don't even ask.
They don't even ask where youget the water from.
You just put your name on itand you have water.
You know what I mean.
And so if that rule applies tothem, then it applies to us as
well, that you can do every andanything that you want.
There's no rules anywhere,anyone who's telling you that
you can't do something assomebody that should not be
around you.
One of the greatest lessons Iever got was this is something I
still say to this day I was inI want to say we were in Arizona

(51:42):
and I was with Puff's son Itell this story, sometimes most
hilarious story and he was doingsomething.
He was doing something that wasvery like Puff Daddy.
She was doing something thatwas very like not even Puff
Daddy.
She was doing something thatwas very Christian, where he was
just being free.
And I said to him I said yo,man, come on, man, we can't do
this.
And he pulled me to the sideand he like grabbed like the

(52:05):
front of my shirt.
He was like stop speaking andcan't.
He was like stop speaking andcan't.
You can Stop speaking and can't.
We can do whatever we want todo.
And I said, ok, he's like now,if there's repercussions from
that, cool, but don't tell melike, don't even talk to me in

(52:26):
camp.
You know, we always can try.
This is a young 19-year-old kidteaching me this, you know.

Oh my gosh, but he told me that.

And that was a great lesson that I got from him
when I wrote it that day and Ikeep it with me.
I don't speak in camp anymore.
There's no such thing as camp.

I I'm not speaking in Canton anymore
either, and I'm learning it waylater.

It's a language that you don't want to speak in.
You, just you, just.
That's a language that youdon't even want to speak.
You just leave it alone.
You know there's no rules tolanguage.
There's no rules to this.
You can make up language,literally.
People understand this.
There's different dialects, youknow.
You go to the South there's acertain way that they speak.
You go to the West coastthere's a certain way to speak.
You go to Norway there's acertain way that they speak.

(53:05):
Everyone has their own form ofslang.
What is your slang?
What type of speech will youspeak into your life and speak
over your life?
You know, and so, speaking incan't, speaking in what you
don't think you can do, speakingin what you've seen other
people fail at, you know, andyou applying that to yourself,
those are things that you haveto remove from your you know.

(53:27):
Remove it, remove it from yourspirit, remove it from your mind
and just stop speaking at itand speak in can and speak in
will and speak in.
Try, you know, at least try.
And even if you you knowthere's some things.
It's funny that I said that nowI want to teach this.
In 2016, I did an event calledCurator Class.

Okay.

Now, almost 18 years later, I'm finally at the
space where I'm like I want toactually teach this.
So I reached out to like TempleUniversity and stuff you know,
and it's like something that.
I really want to teach.

Yeah.

But it's my older self speaking to my newer
self.
I did it back in the day.
I tried it once.
I was like man, I'll put itdown.
But because I did it, I havethe entire blueprint on how to
do it now.

Yes.

And I was able to just go back, pull it right
back up and start it.
So that's another thing.
Also, don't be afraid to, lateron in life, start something
that you might not have beenable to do earlier in life, you
know.
Don't think that because itfailed in 2003 or 2013, that it
can't work in 2023.

That's true.
You can always pick up aproject again.

That's something that I've learned to do, and I
enjoy that probably even morebecause it's like almost like
your old self is guiding yournew self, so it's pretty cool.

That is a great perspective to have.
It's not just because you closea chapter doesn't mean you
can't pick it back up again.
Absolutely, and you come at itwith more wisdom 100% and no
more can't talk.

So you can, you know you can pull it off.

And get rid of all the can'ts.
Yeah, no more can't talk, soyou can pull it off and get rid
of all the can'ts.
Yeah.

So how does creativity come into play in
your work as an artist managerand in events In management,
especially working with acomedian and an actor?
This has allowed me to tap backinto my love of film, my love
of directing, my love of comingup with creative ideas and skits

(55:31):
and sketches, and my love ofstructure, my love of you know
free creativity to be able to gointo any space, to be able to
go into this room that you're inright there and turn that into
a scene.
You know whether it's dramatic,whether it's action, whether
it's comedy, whether it'sromance, you know to be able to
take that room and tell a storywith it is incredible, and the

(55:56):
blessing that you know with himthat we have is it's a
partnership.
You know he allows me to bringto him the things that I enjoy
doing and, vice versa, thethings that he enjoys doing he
puts on my plate to help himkind of navigate, and so that's
how we work.
And we're going on our thirdyear and it's really been a
blessing, you know, working withhim and I'm really happy that

(56:17):
you know whether we continue towork together or not.
And I say that with all myclients because you never know
that our relationships are builtoff of just wanting to see each
other win.

Oh yeah.

And that is the ethos of like.
That's the core of how we worktogether On the event side.
It's the creativity there isendless.
The pandemic really kind ofshocked the system because it
was the first time since 2012that I couldn't do an event.

And I couldn't bring people together.

That I couldn't.
It was devastating.
I mean, it was devastating.
It was and I tell people allthe time, like my life, my
life's passion, is bringingpeople together.
Of like, I can't, you know,when you insert culture, you
remove color and in this countryspecifically and not again not

(57:25):
getting to do you because thisis a creativity talk but you're
taught that you know certainpeople, you can hang out with
certain people that you knowthey have this way and you allow
people to to, to to to see thatand be a part of that and have

(57:47):
fun with that on all mediums.
Um, it removes that.
It removes all of that type ofenergy and that's what I enjoy
doing.
That was probably the more ofthe reason why, you know, the
work that I did in Philadelphiawas so impactful to me was that
I knew I used to always, youknow it was more than just

(58:09):
coming, and just coming to ashow or a concert is that I
really wanted you to have anexperience.
You know I used to leave and Istill do it.
You know, after the show Iwould stand at the door and I
would thank people for comingand they didn't know who I was.
They used to think it was justsome random guy saying hey, get
home safe, get home safe, have agood night.

(58:30):
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you for coming.
I still do that, even now withDesi whenever I'm on a road with
him.
I say in the door and I thankpeople for coming.
Hey, thank y'all so much.
They have no idea who I am,just some random guy to tell
them thank you, but it's becauseI really appreciate being able
to be a part of those spacesthat bring people together.
So in the events world, youknow, the concert world, the

(58:50):
comedy world, if you notice thatmedium, that medium is joy and
that medium for me is bringingpeople together as long as those
two things are there, wherethere's going to be joyful
energy.
You know whether it's laughter,whether it's people singing
their favorite songs, nothingbetter to me than seeing a dad
with his daughter and the dad isliterally singing at the top of

(59:12):
his lungs and they have thatmoment.
Nothing better to me thanseeing a room full of you know
black, brown, you know white,anybody, all types of people of
different nationalities,different cultures in one room
laughing their hearts out.
Yes, that joke doesn't have anyrace on it.

(59:33):
That joke is just a joke,because life is hilarious.
Life is hilarious.
So those are the things that Ienjoy being a part of.
So I put creativity ineverything I do, even with my
children.
You know, my daughter was aladybug yesterday.
Oh she wouldn't be, cute my son.

(59:55):
We do something called hip hopclass, where he'll come in in
the morning and I will curatethe different music videos that
I want him to watch.
I let him watch everything fromJanet Jackson to Paula Abdul, to
MC Hammer, to, you know, tupac,to Biggie, to the Isley
Brothers, to Marvin Gaye, to theBeatles, to.
We just got out.

(01:00:15):
We just got to Led Zeppelin.
I gave them my top 10 LedZeppelin songs and they were in
here.
My son's going like this and mydaughter's going like that.
So you creativity, I feel likeyou know that's what I want to
teach my children.
I want to be able to teach themhow to create for a living, not
work for a living.
How to create for a living.

(01:00:39):
Whatever you enjoy doing,whatever you appreciate,
whatever you enjoy.
Turn that into your life.
Let that be your socialcurrency in this world.

Jennifer Logue (01:00:49):
It's a mindset, absolutely.

Yusuf Muhammad (01:00:51):
It's a mindset shift.

You know, absolutely.
I think there's generationaltraditions of working a certain
way.
You know, and you know some ofus break out of that.

Absolutely.

And change.
Change the narrative for yourfamily, for future generations.
You know.

And I hope that, with all of the incredible
things that I've been able to doin my life I mean one day I
said I was like you know, if Iever did a podcast, I would.
It would be a.
It would be a crazy storiespodcast, because no one will
believe some of the things thatI've seen.
No one.
No one would believe some ofthe rooms that I've been in.

(01:01:32):
But that's the joy of being acreative is because the
celebrity of it all doesn't, itdoesn't impact you as much of as
much as the reality of it all.
That wow, just because I amdoing what I love, I'm in this

(01:01:57):
room right now.

Yeah.

That is the celebrity, that is what you
celebrate, you know it's notnecessarily the people you know.
I think that's why I've beenable to work and be trusted by
and have really good, strongrelationships with a lot of the
like quote unquote celebritiesor people that I've worked with
or that I've known is because ofthat, is because you know as
much as I'm in that world, I'mnot out of it and I stay

(01:02:21):
grounded and it's not fake.
Like I can, I'm okay with beingin the room and only having a
hundred dollars in my pocket.
I'm totally fine, because guesswhat?
I'm totally fine Because guesswhat I'm going to eat all this
free rich food in here and enjoyit and take some of it home.
Oh my gosh, I'm going to take acouple of cakes home and put

(01:02:41):
that in my pocket and take ithome and eat it in an Uber.
You know what I'm saying?
Like I have no shame.
Okay, I'm going to take my waterbottle, fill it up with some of
that rich wine and say okayeverybody, you know, but like I
am, you know, with love, youknow, but, but I say that to say
like I don't have that Ithere's.
The celebration to me is, youknow, is the creativity.
The celebration to me is seeingpeople win and being able to

(01:03:03):
put people on and connect otherfolks and and and and.
Just that joy, you know, that'sreally important to me.
So, you know, I'm thinkingabout getting back into music
management.
It's something that it's a bugthat's been in me.
You know, I still love musicand it's something that I've
been thinking about getting backinto.
And I and I have a talent, Ihave somebody that I have my eye
on.

I have a young lady.

actually, it'll be my first time kind of going
back and managing a young lady,but there's a young lady that I
have my eye on and she's reallytalented and I'm excited to see
what we can do together.

Oh, that's exciting.
Oh my gosh, you'll have to keepme posted when you're ready to
announce, absolutely.
So what's the greatestchallenge you've faced in your
career so far?

So what's the greatest challenge you've faced
in your career?
So far, I have an associate'sdegree in parenthood.
I'm only a few years in, not inmy bachelor's degree, I'm not
in my doctorate, I'm not in mymaster's or anything.

(01:04:19):
But the one thing that has beenthe most challenging now for me
currently is time managementand balance has been the most
challenging thing for me.
I'm sure it is something that alot of parents go through and a
lot of parents experience,especially when you're like at
the prime of your career.
You know you don't and we lostthose two years in the pandemic,

(01:04:43):
so it's like which.
We're kind of still goingthrough.
So I, you kind of go intohyperdrive because you don't
want to, you don't feel like youwant to lose it again, right?
So finding that balance hasprobably been the most
challenging thing for me as aparent of being able to find.
You know, just just thatbalance of time just to be able

(01:05:07):
to spend time with them.
You know just just that balanceof time just to be able to
spend time with them.
I miss them as soon as I leavethe door, as soon as I walk out
the door.
I miss them.
I'm only thinking about themwhen I'm on the plane.
You know you don't have wifiand all I'm doing is looking at
them from babies to to now.
Every single time I can't likepeople have caught me on the
plane and I've been like they.
Like you know, I've had fellowdads be like.

(01:05:29):
You know I do this thing.
You know what I'm saying.
It's literally scrolling.
You know what I mean, becauseyou just miss them so much.
So that's that's what it's been.
As far as being a parent isyeah, it goes back to time
Wanting to do everything, justwanting to do.

(01:05:58):
At this point in my lifethere's so many things that I
want to do.
It's just having the time toactually be able to execute and
pull them off.

Yes, I hear you there when I looked at my goal
list.

It was funny.
I put my goal list up everyyear and when I put my goal list
up this year it was like 15things in there.
I'm like come on y'all.
And of course I tried to do allof them in like the first five
days of the year.
And then I'm looking at today'sdate it's the 16th day of the

(01:06:31):
year.
It's like calm down, you have300 more days to go.
You know what I'm saying?
There's no reason to rush.
There's no reason to rush.
So that's kind of where I'm atnow, where I'm at a place where,
you know, I said this year ismy jordan year.
I'm not rushing the shot, I'mtaking my time with it.
I don't care if it's only twoseconds left on the clock.
I know my skill level, I who Iam, I know the championships
that I've had, I know the ringsthat I've had.
I know I can be in the hall offame.

(01:06:52):
You know my own hall of fame.
So there's no, there's no rushon taking that shot.
I can take my time, I can drillup the court and I can get into
the right position, have theright timing and be able to
execute oops, sorry and be ableto execute, and that's kind of
just where I'm at now.
I'm at that space of.
You know, challenges are more,so you know they're like

(01:07:19):
Self-imposed with like havingall the goals and stuff.
I think, I think something thatyou know, a lot of us have to do
better of is just givingourselves grace.
Yes, oh, it froze a little bit,sorry, but giving ourselves
grace, I think, is probably oneof the key things that I think a
lot of us need to do, and,especially as creatives, I think

(01:07:41):
it's probably the core, andit's really, really important
for us to do is just take abreather sometime, calm down,
realize that you know you gotthis.
You know, even if you don't gotit today or tomorrow, and
you'll be fine, and we um, welive under different rules than
the majority of other people do.

(01:08:02):
You know, bills are bills.
They're going to always bethere.
You know, but when you, whenyou, when you put stresses and
things onto it, you really yourealize every time it just
doesn't, it just doesn't work,it doesn't it just it doesn't
help it, you know.
And so I think, giving yourselfthat grace.
You know grace will always leadto coins, you know it'll always

(01:08:24):
lead to to success.
So I think that that's you know.
I think that's the challenge.
The challenge is finding,finding, you know, making sure
that you give yourself moregrace, and finding that time,
that balance with time.

Yeah, just like staying in peace, no matter
what's going on around you.

Absolutely.

You know, yeah.
So what advice do you have foraspiring creators who want to
make a living out of this, whowant to create for a living?

So three part.
Three part answer to thatquestion.
So the first, the first thingI'm going to say is go into your
phone.
I'm going to say is go intoyour phone, right?
Or, and I want you to take fromA to Z on your phone, take a

(01:09:23):
day or two and write downdifferent people that you know
what they do and where you knowthem from On paper.
I want you to be able to seeand look at the network that you
have.
Just look at your network,right.
The second thing that I wantyou to do is I want you to write
down your goals, no matter howbig they are, no matter how
small they are.
Write your goals down, and youcan write them down in keyword

(01:09:45):
form.
Keyword form, for me, is alwaysthe best way to create because
it doesn't force you to flushout all of your creativity at
once right.
It allows you to be able to justsay I want to paint.
You don't have to talk aboutwhat you want to paint, you just
want to paint, so you put downpaint.
I want to ride bikes?
Okay, Just write down I want toride bikes.

(01:10:05):
You know, you write it down ina keyword form.
And then the third thing I wantyou to do is I want you to take
time to really look at yournetwork, look at the things that
you want to do and go have funand go create.

Cool.

A lot of times 99% of the time a lot of the
answers to the things that wewant to do are already right
there.
There are already things thatwe know.
There are already people thatwe know.
There are already things thatare in our universe.
There are already places thatwe've been, there are already
experiences that we've had, andsometimes we need to see it in
order to be able to move on it.

(01:10:41):
Google is your best friend.
Youtube University does exist.
YouTube university does exist.
Free education does exist.
It's right out there.
There's information is there.
We live in a time now whereanything you want to do if right
now I wanted to learn how tomake a light bulb, I can go on
YouTube, type in how to make alight bulb and I can go make

(01:11:04):
light bulbs, and there's noreason why I can't, there's no
reason why that I, that Ishouldn't.
There's no reason why youshouldn't.
It should be a goal of yours topush yourself, not even push
yourself to walk yourself intoyour success.
It should be a goal of yours to, to, to and I know you're

(01:11:27):
probably picking up my toddler,yelling and screaming in the
background.

Oh no, I don't hear anything.
No, you're fine.

But I don't know what the listeners are.
But but that's having kids.

Slice of life.

Yes, yes, and it is a blessing.
You know, I think sometimespeople look at children is like
this negative thing.
No, it's not.
It really is a blessing.
You even your tone, you know.
Your tone may may sometimes bein frustration, but it's only
because, as adults, you know,for some reason we get to a
point where we feel like we stoplearning.
And you always learn, you know.

(01:12:02):
You never stop being a childrenof a child of knowledge.
You never stop that and that'sthe thing I want to teach my
kids is that, you know, we labelit as you know child, toddler,
teenage, adult, and we stop atadult as if that's it.
That's the last stage and, asany of us that are adults know,

(01:12:23):
you continue to learn.
So that's another thing I wantto tell those creatives, like
you know, as I kind of, like youknow, in that kind of three
part is never, just again, neverbe afraid to learn, you know.
Never be afraid to learn, neverbe afraid to continue to be a
child of your creativity andcontinue to, you know, to try
new things.
Your creativity is like a.

(01:12:44):
It's like a well, you know, andthe more that you pull from it,
the more you'll be able tosurvive, the more you'll be able
to create you know, you'regoing to be happy.
You know you'll be able to giveyourself that nourishment.
So continue to go into your.
Well, you know, don't don't.
Sometimes you get to go in andhide for a couple of days.

(01:13:05):
That's cool, we'll get back outand keep and keep digging, you
know what I'm saying so thatwould be my.
My advice to all creatives isyou know, do not stop creating.
You know, continue to followyour purpose and create from
your passions and you willalways see success, as long as

(01:13:28):
you're doing it.
You're successful.
Yes, that is so true.
Redefine what success means toyou.
That's something we have to do.
We have to redefine it.
Success is what you say.
It is not what anybody elsedoes.

Yes, exactly, setting your own goals, setting
your own parameters for whatsuccess is.

Success is success.
I remember for me, I used to beat the venue and I'd be
celebrating.
They'd be like know there wasonly 25 people here today and
I'm like that's amazing, 25people left their house.

Yes.

To come to some concert that I'm putting
together.
You know what I'm saying.
That used to make me so happy,so I think we have to redefine
what success is.

You know, I appreciate social media, but the
thing is, before social media,what were you comparing yourself
to?
Yes, that is so true, yui.
It can be hard, because you seeeveryone's highlight reel, you
know, but you don't see all thesacrifice, you know.
You don't see, maybe, themisses.
You know celebrating, I don'twant to say failure, I want to
say lessons, like you said.
I like what you said earlier,you have wins and you have

(01:14:29):
lessons.

That's, it Wins and lessons, wins and lessons.
Social media, I believe, was agood tool, but it did.
It heightened that, you know.
It heightened a lot of people'sability to not realize that.
Again, like you said, you'reonly seeing that, you're all.
All you're seeing is highlightreel.

Most people aren't showing you the highlight
reel.

Most people aren't showing you the losses.
Most people aren't showing youthe things that they're not
doing.
They're only showing you theresult.
They're not really alwaysshowing you the work.
So I always just tell peopleyou know, before ancient 2009,
uh, you know you didn't compareyourself to someone that you saw
.
You did it because you enjoydoing it and the people in your

(01:15:07):
circle knew about it and theysupported it and they loved it
because of that.
So continue to do that.
You know, as creatives, don'tpsych yourself into believing
that someone else's success hasto be yours.
Let your success be your ownand continue to pour into that.
Every success story that you'veheard, they all had to.

(01:15:28):
Every podcast had to start fromepisode one.
If you notice, most of the mostsuccessful podcasts Unless they
were already a celebrity, theyare in the ones now that got
like these crazy bags.
They're like in episode 300something.
Yes 200 something 500 something.

(01:15:49):
Yeah, maybe even more than thatyes, they've been at it for a
long time one okay, so don'tjust assume that you know
outside of, like I said, justbeing a celebrity it you have to
start at one.
There had to be the firstmcdonald, there had to be the
first McDonald's.
There had to be the firstWendy's there had to be.
You have to start at one.

(01:16:10):
So start at your one, you know,start at your one and make your
way up to your franchise.

And enjoy the process as you're going along,
you know.

Absolutely.

And just doing these interviews for me is so
fulfilling because I'm learninga lot and I know if I'm learning
, people listening are going tobe learning.
Someone's going to appreciateit and it's going to help them.

So but yeah, I hope so.
I mean, I hope that, hope Iwasn't too long-winded.
You know, I wanted to make surethat I spoke in detail, so I
hope I wasn't-.

No, it was all valuable information.
So, no, this was great.
And I do have one more question, though what's next for you,
yui?
I love your hashtag,yuistaybusy.

So next for me, yuistaybusy.
So next for me is, by the timethis probably airs, next for me
is, by the time this probablyairs, I will have my third child
.
Congratulations, oh my gosh,thank you.
So you know this will besomething that I play back to my
son when he's here, but babyLeo is on the way.
Continued success with DesiBanks is a big thing.

(01:17:23):
That's something I'm reallyexcited about is continuing to
work with him, continuing in thefestival and events world.
I created a festival virtuallycalled At the Crib Fest during
the pandemic that was prettysuccessful, and I do want to
bring that to life.
I want to bring that to aphysical entity.

(01:17:45):
So that's something that I wantto do.
I do want to get to creatingmore shows where I live, which
is in Las Vegas.
I used to back in the day, andI want to kind of really get
back into doing that.
And then I think, lastly, isyou know, like I said, I want to
teach this.
This is something that I wantto teach.
I feel like people need to knowthat you can also work.

(01:18:07):
You know, working a nine tofive is great, because it'll be
your first investor, yeah, but,and also we live in this world
where you just have to pay yourbills and you have to make sure
that you're taken care of, butoutside of that, your passions
and your purpose can be thingsthat can lead you to successes
that you've never even imagined,and I want to be able to teach

(01:18:27):
that to creatives.
And so, if I can hopefully puttogether this curriculum I've
never done it before, but I'mgoing on YouTube university to
find out how but put togetherthis curriculum, I want to teach
this to people.
I want to teach this curatorclass.
I want to teach people how todo everything that we talked
about, you know, in thisinterview today.
And yeah, I think those are thenext things for me.

(01:18:49):
You know, just continuing to toto do cool things, work with
great talent.
I do want to.
You know, there's some of thethings I want to do in my
management kind of career that Iwant to continue to work on and
and yeah, those are those aresome of the big things, but yeah
, I have some some really dopelessons coming with Desi Banks

(01:19:10):
this year.
I'm really excited for those tocome to fruition.
I'm really excited to meet mylittle guy, my newest little guy
to the tribe.
Oh little Leo, oh my gosh, somany he's going to have a lot of
fun with Ja and Zayla, his, hisolder brother and sister, and
I'm excited to uh excited to seehim oh well, yui, thank you so

(01:19:35):
much for taking the time toappear on creative space, for
dropping all this knowledge andum, yeah, this is such a great
episode.

and for more on Yui, you can follow him on
Instagram at YusufYui, whichI'll link down below in the show
notes.
What an incredible conversationwith Yui.
I love how he shared that theroot of doubt is that you
already know what you want to do.
That is such a powerfultakeaway.
Doubt exists only because, deepdown, we know our purpose and

(01:20:06):
we just need to push through tomake it happen.
As Yui said, creativity is thereal source of capital.
It's how we make an impact onthe world, and I hope you found
this episode as inspiring as Idid.
And, that being said, I wouldlove to know what resonated with
you.
You can do this by reaching outon social media at Jennifer

(01:20:27):
Logue.
You can do this by reaching outon social media at Jennifer
Logue, or?
Well?
Also, please leave a review forCreative Space on Apple
Podcasts or wherever you getyour podcasts.
Your support means so much andit helps other people discover
creative space, so go and leavea review.
That is all for this episode.
My name is Jennifer Logue.

(01:20:55):
Thanks for listening.

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Yusuf Muhammad On Managing Desi Banks and Building a Creative Career

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