February 27, 2025 • 28 mins
What if a dark past could lead to a bright future? Justin Yapp's story is proof that redemption is possible. Growing up in a small town, the allure of a rebellious lifestyle led him down a path of addiction and crime. At the tender age of twelve, he found himself experimenting with alcohol, which fueled a dangerous journey into more problematic substances. Faced with severe consequences, including a lengthy stay in county jail, Justin encountered a profound realization: he wanted change.
This episode captures the raw emotion of his experiences, from battling addiction to seeking forgiveness and finding his purpose. Justin shares pivotal moments, including his determination to pursue a career in video production after prison. His story resonates with anyone facing challenges or seeking a second chance.
Join us as we explore themes of personal responsibility, transformation, and the power of mentorship. Justin emphasizes the significance of surrounding oneself with supportive individuals and the hard work necessary to forge a new path. His journey is not only about overcoming personal demons but also about advocating for systemic changes needed in society to support those with criminal backgrounds.
Discover how life can flourish after adversity and how everyone can aid in reforming the narrative surrounding addiction and reintegration into society. Let Justin’s story inspire you to believe in the possibility of change. Tune in, share your thoughts, and let's engage in meaningful discussions about the power of resilience and redemption!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everybody.
(00:00):
This is your host D-Star herewith.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Justin Yap of the Apography Media.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's going on, man?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Not much, man.
Thanks for having me.
D Appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Eh, I do what I can.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, it's a fun little show you got and I just
love the stories that you canshare and kind of relate to.
You know there's people you canrelate to and hopefully I can
relate to some people and, youknow, give some perspective on
things.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Absolutely so.
For the people that don't knowyou, can you tell us a little
bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, I've been in the video production industry
now for 18 years.
Owned my own business for 12.
A lot of self-taught stuff,especially with business, the
nuances that go into it, salesmaking, deals, networking, that
kind of stuff Something that youdon't necessarily get taught
very well in school but that youlearn quickly when you're
(00:48):
actually in the grind of things.
I got a family of two kids wifelive in Sun Prairie.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, so where are you from?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Lodi, wisconsin, a little town called Lodi, out by
Lake Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So how was life growing up in Lodi?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a great little quaint town, plenty of stuff to
do in the summertime.
Wintertime it's back thenanyways Not much to do other
than get into trouble.
Being a small town that wedidn't have like a rec center or
a lot of extracurriculumactivities, unless you were like
(01:25):
a sports nut athlete, which Iam definitely not.
Therefore, there was a void youknow, that got to get filled
somehow right.
Mischief and mayhem was whatkind of filled the void.
High school, I'd say, wasprobably your average life, you
know, mom dad.
Yeah, mom and dad both in thepicture.
Then they do get divorced lateron, when I'm in my 20s.
But growing up, yeah, I had apretty straightforward situation
.
My parents were kind of broke.
(01:46):
They didn't have a lot of money, but I played sports.
Growing up I did wrestling,football, boating, swimming,
living on a lake.
You get a lot of thatopportunity.
So normal childhood for a while.
But then when you get to thehigh school stage and you're a
teenager and your hormones aregoing through, you're going
(02:11):
through puberty and whatever,you know whatever, and there's
not much to do.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I got out of sports, got into drugs, got into.
I had very bad priorities setfor myself as a young, young
person, yeah.
So you know what I hear a lotis kids and people say I was
hanging around the wrong crowd.
You know, I got mixed up withthe wrong crowd, I need to
change my circle.
But you know what's crazy isnobody ever says take
responsibility for my actionsand say, hey, I was the person
(02:34):
that was the bad influence.
You know, like I was the leaderof my little crew and I was
kind of pushing everybody to docrazy stuff all the time.
Was that you, or were you likemore following the crowd?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'd say a bit of both .
Right, it depends on whichpeople were in the crowd at the
time, right, like the older kids, the seniors and stuff.
When I was a freshman I wasn'tleading them, but in their
absence, and it was more of mypeers, my direct peers, that
were my age, absolutely there'dbe times I'd be leading the
charge for, say, like let's goscore something, you know, like
let's go find some stuff, yeah,but it was kind of one of those
(03:09):
just snowball effects.
We just fed off each other'sscumbagness, I guess you know,
just not achieving much and notaspiring to do much other than
where's the next high?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
yeah, you know.
So what was your firstexperience with drugs, and was
it your decision?
Well, of course it's yourdecision.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But were you peer pressured into it, or is it
something that you were curiousabout?
What led you down that path?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I'd say alcohol led me down to that path.
I first drank at age 12.
We were so one of my buddy,rusty.
You know we grew up just downthe road from each other.
His parents split up at anearly age.
His mom was a partier like fromhell man.
Like you know, here we areyoung kids and she'd be having
like house parties at.
(03:59):
You know, at the house with uswitnessing all this stuff,
people would be doing all kindsof drugs, street drugs.
We were being exposed to thisat very young ages and we're
like, wow, this looks likeyou're having a good time.
You know these adults arelaughing and having a good time.
We should try some of that,right.
And so me and Rusty wouldalways be sneaking things and
going in and like trying tostart off with the alcohol.
(04:20):
Then it went to the weed andthen, you know, cocaine pills
and all that other stuff lateron.
But uh, it started with alcoholyeah, I'd say that's more of the
gateway than weed is you thinkso?
Absolutely yeah for you.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Like you know, that was your slippery slope I'd say
so.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I think for most, though, because alcohol is so
much more relatively available,I never looked at weed as the
gateway.
For me, anyways, it was becausealcohol led to weed, and you
know, those two aren't that bad.
Cocaine can't be bad rightRight, heroin can't be bad Right
.
So that was the mindset I had.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I was like You're in high school, and now you're.
Would you consider yourself afull-blown drug addict at this
time or?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh yeah, by freshman year I was I was already doing
coke and harder drugs.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So you're a full blown addict at this time.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Are you going to school or?
Oh yeah, I mean I got to put onthe appearance, right, going
back to my parents too, likethey had good intentions, you
know, very, very loving,positive family, good, good
family values.
But my mom went to school, hadher own kind of business going
to and gave my sisters moreattention growing up because
they were in cheerleading andother stuff and then my dad
worked two jobs to help pay thebill.
So I just had a lot ofunsupervised time growing up
from that age 12 to, you know,teenage years, not by their
(05:36):
choice, right, like they weredoing what they could.
So I just me being a parent nowI look at that I'm like damn,
they effed up pretty big withthat right Me being a parent now
I look at that I'm like damn,they effed up pretty big with
that right, like that was one oftheir big—and they admit it
Like we definitely neglected youas far as attention goes.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So are you the baby?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
No, I'm the firstborn .
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Wow, usually it's not like that.
Usually the firstborn, you know, is like the golden child.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I was a black sheep by teenage years.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, but you know, all this stuff kind of
snowballed into another right,like lack of supervision as I'm
growing up so I have opportunityto hang out with some of these
not-so-good-of kids, right,right that my parents would have
said, no, don't hang out with.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Right, had they known ?
Had they known right, had theybeen paying attention, had they
gave you the level of care thatyou require, that we all require
.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, for sure.
So then you go to these kids'houses where their parents,
they're their kids' best friends, right?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They're like oh, oh, I know the type.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, I was like yeah , it's cool to be friendly to
your parents, but your parentsare supposed to be your parents.
They're supposed to bring someboundaries to the situation, not
be your best friend and try tolike appease you.
And people like Rusty weregiven the opportunity to do
whatever they want right Withtheir parents' knowledge.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I grew up with a lot of kids that had relationships
like that with their parents.
So basically it would be theycould pretty much do whatever
they want besides not go toschool.
So as long as they went toschool, they could drink, they
could smoke, they could havegirls, they could have parties
they could like, and then thattransfer to their friends too,
(07:12):
so they could do it and theirfriends could do it too.
You know, so like we would allwant to go to this house because
we know we could get their momto buy us alcohol, we could get
their mom to, you know, take usto drive us here and drop us off
and come pick us back up.
And you know what I'm saying.
It was like a friend, like not,there was no parenting, like
(07:32):
there's no guidelines, you know,like okay, that's off limits.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, everything's wide open just go raid their stash
too.
Yeah, because you know, oh,dad's out of town, let's go.
Let's go up to his bedroom andgrab an eighth quick.
And then we got into stealingtoo, because all of us being
from broke families and stuffRusty lived across from a
trailer park and so at nightwe'd sneak out and go raid all
(07:57):
the trailer parks, like coolersand outside bars.
So that's how we'd supplyourselves with alcohol at a
young age.
This is at 12 and 13.
We're doing this, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, and that just snowballed.
You know, that kind of behavior, that kind of mindset just got
worse.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So what led you to getting in trouble with the law?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, you know, like I said, snowballing into it, I
started breaking and enteringinto summer cottages on Lake
Wisconsin.
You know, illinois.
People would have properties uphere.
We'd target them.
We'd know that they wouldn't behome, you know, during the
winter months, and so we wouldhave the place to ourselves.
To.
You know, just take our timeand mostly the electronics, you
know that kind of stuff you'retaking that you can sell quickly
(08:37):
on the street to get money tobuy the next eight ball or
whatever it is that we're tryingto get.
And that's kind of whatsnowballed into a really really
bad decision-making path that Iwas on.
And so eventually the lawcatches up, right, people start
noticing things, start to bemore aware because this is
(08:59):
happening.
And then somebody in our crewgot pinched, spilled the beans,
set me up to kind of come out ofthe house one day, called me up
and said hey, you want to gosmoke?
It was like 10 o'clock at night.
Never would call me this lateanyways.
So I thought something was kindof off-putting.
But me being a drug addict, oh,I can get high right now.
Yeah, let's do it.
So I wasn't really going withmy gut.
Something wasn't right with thephone call.
(09:27):
So she picked me up.
We went down the down the street, by about a block, turns left
and then starts to pull over.
I'm like what are you doing?
She's like there's cops.
I'm like what?
And then the cherries andberries came on right, so she
was responding before they wereeven pulling her over.
I'm like, dude, what are youwhat?
What's going on here?
I'm like I.
I was very confused.
They came around the car to myside of the door and said mr
(09:47):
apkin, please step out.
I said why?
What's going on?
You know, I got, we haven'tdone nothing wrong.
And then they're like well, wehave reason to believe that
you've been a part of, uh, youknow, a theft robbery string of
robberies blah blah.
Let's take a look at your shoes,and that shoe looks like a
match.
They arrested me for you knowthe, for questioning.
They put me into the hole andthen from there they just
(10:10):
presented all their evidence onthe spot there and I was like,
okay, you know an awful lot andso, not coming from a you know,
a privileged family, I had toget a public defender.
His advice to me was to make aplea deal and blah, blah, blah
and gave me piss, poor advice.
And so I copped the stuff thatthey knew about because they had
evidence against me and thiswas my lawyer's advice.
And so I'm like, yeah, that wasme.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And ended up going to the county jail for 13 months.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Wow 13 months, huh yeah, and just enough where they
wouldn't send me to prison.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They kept me in county jail, which is worse,
which is worse, Way worse.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Back then in the 90s and 2000s, there was an old
saying you come on vacation,leave on probation.
That's true in Columbia County,and so they kept me in the damn
county jail and I got eightyears probation off of that too.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
What was your experience in jail for all of
that time?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It was rough man.
So it was around Christmas whenI first got arrested.
So I sat that before mysentencing, you know.
So I was in the county jail fora while, locked up, before I
even got my sentencing.
That was through Christmas.
And then by the time I gotsentenced I had another you know
year to serve and that wasthrough another Christmas.
So, like Christmas Day was whatreally hit and was looking
(11:22):
around, I'm just like justabsolute despicable people
around me, you know, like mostpeople I would see come and go
multiple times, I'm just likethis is the life that they have
set for themselves, right, thisis what they know.
They don't seem to mind it, Iguess, like you know, they keep
coming back.
And that's when I had theepiphany.
(11:43):
I'm like I don't want to havethis ever happen again.
Like this sucks.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What was your aha moment?
Christmas day, the second.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Christmas Day, the second Christmas, yes.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The second Christmas.
You're like this is the secondChristmas.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
This is the second Christmas.
I'm missing out.
Merry Christmas right.
This is the life I have set formyself.
If I continue down this path,or death right, or getting shot
by somebody for breaking it yeah, breaking it to the hell you
get out, then what?
I have a new opportunity aheadof me, right?
So I'm like I'm presented witha crossroads.
(12:16):
I go back to doing what I know,but at this point I'm now a
year clean, right like I wentthrough all my withdrawals in
jail.
You know, the worst of the it'salready passed me, right?
All that that's what made jaileven worse.
Right for the two, two monthsI'm just detoxing and going
through all this stuff.
So that way I'm like, well, I'mnot going to go back to using
(12:36):
again, like that'd be stupid.
So you kind of get a goodperspective on who cares.
Who's been there, right, andyour worst time who showed up?
Right?
Obviously family.
And I had a few friends thatstill believed in me, like one
of my teachers like to this dayI love her so much, ms Dalton.
So I had to graduate highschool while in jail because
that was my senior year.
I got arrested and I wouldn'thave been able to do it without
(13:01):
her.
She brought me my homeworkevery.
Friday to the jail.
Wow, yeah, cause she believedin me, shout out to her man.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
That's serious Cause.
That's something that she didnot have to do.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Did not have to do it and, by all accounts, what is
what gave me more hope and gaveme more like light at the end of
the tunnel?
There is something worthfighting for or working towards.
Right, like she actuallybelieves in me.
Right, like she's telling methis by saying hey, here you go,
get this homework done.
I mean, granted, I'd have toread the textbooks.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
You have to do the work, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And I didn't have anybody to like.
Can you help answer thisquestion for me?
I had to figure it out all bymyself.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And then hand the work in, hoping that it was
passable.
So getting out, you know I hadthings to hope for.
I got my diploma.
I started to look into collegebecause I didn't know what else
opportunities I had.
I had a game plan for wantingto do photography at the time
and video.
So I knew I kind of wanted todo that because I always had a
passion for it and I had builtblueprints for a darkroom.
(13:57):
Because you got to remember,this is pre-digital age, this is
all analog stuff still, atleast that's what you know.
Digital is coming out, but itwas very new and expensive and
not well known to me beingincarcerated.
When I got out, I had ablueprint for to build a dark
room.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So when did you go to college?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Pretty much right away.
I had to find a job first.
You know which.
That's another thing, man beinga convicted felon.
People just look at you likewhy would I want to give you a
what?
No, I don't want you to be apart of my team, right?
So I don't know.
I don't know how our societyexpects people to better
themselves when you're not giventhe opportunity to do so.
And so I had to struggle andwork 10 times harder than the
(14:36):
average person to get the samelevel of respect and care and
jobs.
I had to beg for really badjobs, jobs that most people
don't want.
I had to beg for that stuff,and so I get it.
There's a problem that needs tobe addressed someday.
I mean, I guess that stuff, andso I get it.
You know, like there's aproblem that needs to be
addressed someday.
I mean I guess you can bepresent now as a convicted felon
.
So the whole convicted felonthing needs to be just tossed
(14:57):
out.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean now it's like really dude, you know I
can't get on a roof and you know, lay some shingles, because I
got a felony 10 years ago, comeon.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There were some employers that gave me the
chances, though, and I respectthem.
You know, mankey Enterprisesout of Lodi was my first job out
of the can that said you knowwhat, we're going to take a
chance on you and gave me a job,and it paid like crap at first,
but after putting in the timethey quickly realized that was a
good investment and they uppedmy pay.
(15:28):
By the time I left I was making18, 20 bucks an hour, and this
is back in early 2000s.
So that was a pretty good, somepretty good change.
You know, I made some goodmoney to save up, buy my first
camera, enroll into collegewhere I went to Madison Media
Institute.
I went there, graduated, got mydegree in video and motion
graphics.
So I got out of college andentrepreneurialism was kind of a
(15:50):
part of me, but I never like amI I inspired to be an
entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, your mom laid the foundation.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
She did for sure, yeah, but it was never like
something I'm like.
That was not my target, right.
I wanted to make movies.
I wanted to be like a produceror whatever, like you know, be a
Hollywood, whatever.
That was my more of myambitions starting out.
But, being the convicted felonthing, I was being passed up
repeatedly on opportunities.
Strictly from that, there wastimes I would have job
(16:18):
interviews, two of them, thethree coming in showing me
around the office, blah, blah,blah, introducing me to people,
giving them names like oh, thisis Justin, you're going to be
working with him.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Getting your hopes up .
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Getting my hopes up.
And then they're like you know,this is so great, we're so
lucky to have you.
The final thing is we've got todo a drug test and a background
check and we'll get youonboarded.
I'm like, all right, sweet.
Three weeks go by nothing.
I passed the drug test for ohhey, oh yeah.
(16:50):
Well, we just the person youknow.
Once you got him on the phone,you got him in a corner.
You're forcing something on him, right?
Oh well, we found somebody alittle bit more qualified than
you, and so we decided to gothat route and at that point I
was at my breaking point.
I'm like you showed me aroundthree times now the third time
you actually introduced me topeople and showed me the office
(17:11):
quote unquote where I'd beworking at.
Like you looked at mybackground and you don't want to
give me a job because I'm aconvicted felon.
No, that's not true.
I'm like you were not going tosay that, because that's illegal
for you to not hire me.
But that's why.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So it seems that it seems like things are going
really well for you and you'veovercome some obstacles and
you've made amends for those,and people are starting to see
that.
One of the ways that people arestarting to see that is you
were granted a pardon.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, I was, thankfully.
I mean, it was a long process.
I had started the applicationprocess in 2019 and then the
pandemic hit right and theneverything was shut down for a
while.
Stuff got lost in the mix.
I didn't know what was going tohappen.
You know, like I hadn't heardnothing.
And then in 2022 or 21,.
(17:58):
They started reviewing stuffagain.
But there was a backlog ofstuff.
I was like, oh, so I got anotification that the
application and all that stuffwas going to be reviewed.
I was like, all right, in 2023,I got another letter stating
that I had been accepted to beconsidered for a pardon.
They reviewed it.
They thought I'd be a goodcandidate.
(18:19):
So the next stage is that yougot to present yourself to a
board.
They used to do this in person,but since COVID they now do it
through Zoom and so and it's infront of like five or six peers
of the it's not just likegovernment people, it's other
like there was a pastor on therethere was a Community leaders.
Community leaders exactly?
(18:39):
Yup, there was five or six ofthem, and so I had to present my
case to them as well.
After they had read myapplication and all that stuff,
I had 10 letters ofrecommendations letters of
recommendations laid out.
You know the facts about why Ifelt like I was ready to.
I accepted responsibility formy actions as a kid.
I have moved on, I paid my debtand I felt like I should no
(19:01):
longer be held back by that.
Not that I necessarily want acorporate job, but I'm just like
.
I just don't want that.
No more.
Right, I want to be able to sayI'm a full-fledged citizen again
, and politics is something I'vebeen considering running for
anyways, and people have told meI would be good at it.
But well, until recently, mostpositions in politics you can't
(19:23):
hold if you're a convicted felon, I guess, other than presidency
.
But we're not going to go there.
So that was my biggest rebuttalfor why I wanted one.
It wasn't to own a gun ornothing like that.
I just focused on myprofessionalism, where I wanted
to go with it, and politicsbeing something that I was going
to be considering if I wasgranted this opportunity to do
(19:44):
One of my best achievements tothis day now, right Like doing a
180 in my life, flipping itaround and being recognized for
that.
So it was heartfelt, meaningfuland hopefully I can pay it back
forward someday with my inpolitics and help other people
like myself that weren't givenopportunities to get
opportunities like that.
(20:04):
You know criminal reform issomething I want to focus on, uh
, in the future, so that'ssomething I will have on my back
burners as we move forward inlife.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So kind of tell us, uh, so tell us about your
business, like what kind ofproducts and services do you
offer and what are some of thenotable projects that you've
worked on and what are some ofthe things that you are most
proud?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
of.
I wish I could say you know I'mworking on feature films and
stuff like that.
Not the case.
It's corporate stuff, but it'simportant stuff, right?
People all have stories to tell, and so being a storyteller I'm
like this is an area I canfocus on.
It's not advertising per se,right.
I'm not just making a bunch ofin-your-face advertisements to
(20:45):
buy, buy, buy it's.
Who is the business, right?
Who are you?
Why does your audience andclientele care to work with you?
And so I try to find the coreson that and help bring that all
into a cohesive visualstorytelling video that
encapsulates what problems areyou solving for your clienteles,
(21:06):
and videos that people actuallywant to watch, versus something
that's in your face that youcan't skip for 10 seconds.
Typically.
Those are the kind of areas Ilook for organic type of
storytelling versus a typical ad.
I try to stay away from those.
I do do the ads sometimes, butmore storytelling Everyone's got
(21:28):
the story.
What is it, what's your?
Why?
I like to focus on those, andit can be from any size
corporation to small business,as long as the budget's there.
Nowadays I'm 12 years in now,so I'm pretty seasoned.
I'm happy to say I can helpanyone solve their media needs.
I might not be the oneproducing it for them, but I got
people that do you know arejust getting into the game,
(21:50):
they're just starting off and alot of times, you know, if it's
a smaller budget project, I'mhappy to like hand them off to
people that I know will still dothem right, that need the
attention, that need the work,that need to build a portfolio
up and then still help thissmall business out that couldn't
quite afford me but was able toafford something, and so that
(22:11):
to me is still a win right, Istill helped achieve that small
business's needs, even thoughI'm not the one telling the
story this time around, butconsulting I also do.
Consulting, I guess, would bewhat I'm trying to get at.
I'd say a notable projectrecently was for the Jim Lemon
Foundation, but my buddy Kyleit's one of his clients, but he
brought me on because he's moreof a photographer and we got to
(22:33):
tell the story about Jim who wastragically taken away from
pancreatic cancer.
It's one of those cancers thatis very hard to detect and when
you do get it, because it's sohard to detect, a lot of times
you're in the stage three orwhatever the later stages, which
is almost impossible to cure.
And so he was.
It went quick, it happened, youknow, he got diagnosed and then
(22:55):
, before you know it, he's gone.
And so his wife started thisfoundation to help bring
awareness to this cancer and tohelp fund research.
And so it was a very sadaffairs, right, like how do you
tell this person's story andstill, you know, come out at the
end with a call to action,right.
And so we built this beautifultearjerker video and I got to
(23:17):
watch an audience because theyplayed it at the gala cry at one
of my videos and at the endgive an ovation, like cheering
it on, and then helped raisethousands of dollars afterwards.
So to me that was reallytouching.
Knowing that I was able to bringout emotion like that, right,
because as storytellers we tryto bring out the emotions, right
(23:39):
.
That's a huge home run, in myopinion.
So, seeing that it was just mymost recent triumphs, to me it's
just like, wow, I did that, wedid that.
I mean, obviously, kyle was abig part of it as well, but I'm
mostly the editor, so it was mystorytelling and very proud of
that.
So that would be my more recentone, just because you get to
(24:03):
see your work and not you don'talways get to see your work with
an audience, live, audience,right, like a lot of times it's
just like on the internet andyou're like it's got a bunch of
likes, it's got some comments,but you don't get to see the
emotional reactions.
And that time I did and it wasgreat, it was very rewarding as
a content creator to see yourwork being appreciated and the
(24:25):
way it was right.
I had most people in there intears.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
That's awesome.
So what advice would you giveto people that are just starting
out, haven't quite took thatleap of cutting off their
part-time or full-time job andthey want to start their own
business.
Whatever that business may be,what advice would you give them
to move forward?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
A, have your plan well thought out.
Right, listen to all thenaysayers.
As far as feedback, right, soyou can kind of predict some of
the hurdles you might comeacross.
Ask the ones that are doing italready.
Well, like, try to set up aninterview with some of these
people that have a business inthat industry and just ask them,
like, what's been going well,what, what works for you, what
are some of the hurdles that youhave?
(25:10):
You know, like, doing yourresearch now, your
pre-production work, knowing allthat stuff prior to starting a
business, is going to be hugefor you because you're going to
have a better understanding ofwhat you're getting yourself
into, what kind of financiallimitations you might have, what
kind of startup costs.
And then building a network.
You're going to have peoplethat you can go to if you need
(25:30):
help on a project or whatever itis.
Because you interviewed withthem, you talked to them, you
might be able to reach out andget an extra hand.
And then renting equipmentversus buying off the bat.
No matter what industry you'rein, you don't need the most
expensive or whatever equipmentright now.
Go rent it first.
That way you're only havingexpense when you have a project
coming in versus trying to payoff something every month that
(25:53):
you can only pay off when youhave a project coming in, right?
So it's like to me, you're muchbetter off renting it to the
point where you have enoughcashflow coming in.
Then you're like all right, Ihave enough projects on the
hopper, I'm going to go buy thisnow because it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Absolutely so, coming from your background, getting
in trouble as a teenager.
If you could say something tothe youth today, what would it
be?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Any advice I can't imagine being a teenager
nowadays too.
You know you got so much moreto contend with as far as stress
levels.
You got online bullies and likesocial media.
It's like we didn't really haveto deal with that growing up.
So all I can say is put allthat noise aside and focus on
yourself.
What's good for you, what'swhat do you want to aspire to do
(26:38):
?
Right, and try to do it Like.
Don't.
Don't listen to the negativevibes that says it can't be done
, because in reality, anythingcan be done if you put your mind
to it.
It might not come as fast asyou'd like, it might not come
out exactly how you thought itwould, but something will come
out of it In due times.
It will pay off.
(26:58):
Hard work pays off.
Eventually it does.
I guarantee you that there'salways a light at the end of the
tunnel.
There's people that are willingto help.
Definitely, don't feelembarrassed to ask for help.
Sometimes we all need help.
I did.
If it wasn't for Ms Dalton, Idon't know.
Maybe I wouldn't have had thesame motivation while in jail to
do good.
(27:18):
Maybe I wouldn't have had thesame motivation while in jail to
do good.
You know she was one of thosepillars.
For me, especially in the earlyon stages, there's different
pillars I had throughout mycareer so far.
In college it's Tony Wood.
He was one of my instructors atMadison Media Institute, a
mentor of mine.
I'm still in contact with him.
We have dinners, we gomotorcycle riding together.
(27:40):
He helps out on my production.
Still, you, there was differentpillars throughout my stages
that got me to the next stage,the next level of
professionalism and motivation.
So finding that for yourself isa big part of that.
If you're in the trouble rightnow, I know it's easier to say
(28:01):
but get yourself out, find newfriends.
Let them go to the wayside.
They're no good for you.
If you're using drugs with themall the time you got to move on
, you can't hang out with them.
They're not going to take youanywhere but down.
That's the first step Newcircle of friends.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Absolutely Well, justin man.
We really really appreciate youcoming by the podcast man.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Absolutely.
I appreciate you.
What's up everybody.
(00:00):
This is your host D-Star herewith.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Justin Yap of the Apography Media.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's going on, man?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Not much, man.
Thanks for having me.
D Appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Eh, I do what I can.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, it's a fun little show you got and I just
love the stories that you canshare and kind of relate to.
You know there's people you canrelate to and hopefully I can
relate to some people and, youknow, give some perspective on
things.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Absolutely so.
For the people that don't knowyou, can you tell us a little
bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, I've been in the video production industry
now for 18 years.
Owned my own business for 12.
A lot of self-taught stuff,especially with business, the
nuances that go into it, salesmaking, deals, networking, that
kind of stuff Something that youdon't necessarily get taught
very well in school but that youlearn quickly when you're
(00:48):
actually in the grind of things.
I got a family of two kids wifelive in Sun Prairie.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, so where are you from?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Lodi, wisconsin, a little town called Lodi, out by
Lake Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
So how was life growing up in Lodi?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's a great little quaint town, plenty of stuff to
do in the summertime.
Wintertime it's back thenanyways Not much to do other
than get into trouble.
Being a small town that wedidn't have like a rec center or
a lot of extracurriculumactivities, unless you were like
(01:25):
a sports nut athlete, which Iam definitely not.
Therefore, there was a void youknow, that got to get filled
somehow right.
Mischief and mayhem was whatkind of filled the void.
High school, I'd say, wasprobably your average life, you
know, mom dad.
Yeah, mom and dad both in thepicture.
Then they do get divorced lateron, when I'm in my 20s.
But growing up, yeah, I had apretty straightforward situation
.
My parents were kind of broke.
(01:46):
They didn't have a lot of money, but I played sports.
Growing up I did wrestling,football, boating, swimming,
living on a lake.
You get a lot of thatopportunity.
So normal childhood for a while.
But then when you get to thehigh school stage and you're a
teenager and your hormones aregoing through, you're going
(02:11):
through puberty and whatever,you know whatever, and there's
not much to do.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
I got out of sports, got into drugs, got into.
I had very bad priorities setfor myself as a young, young
person, yeah.
So you know what I hear a lotis kids and people say I was
hanging around the wrong crowd.
You know, I got mixed up withthe wrong crowd, I need to
change my circle.
But you know what's crazy isnobody ever says take
responsibility for my actionsand say, hey, I was the person
(02:34):
that was the bad influence.
You know, like I was the leaderof my little crew and I was
kind of pushing everybody to docrazy stuff all the time.
Was that you, or were you likemore following the crowd?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I'd say a bit of both .
Right, it depends on whichpeople were in the crowd at the
time, right, like the older kids, the seniors and stuff.
When I was a freshman I wasn'tleading them, but in their
absence, and it was more of mypeers, my direct peers, that
were my age, absolutely there'dbe times I'd be leading the
charge for, say, like let's goscore something, you know, like
let's go find some stuff, yeah,but it was kind of one of those
(03:09):
just snowball effects.
We just fed off each other'sscumbagness, I guess you know,
just not achieving much and notaspiring to do much other than
where's the next high?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
yeah, you know.
So what was your firstexperience with drugs, and was
it your decision?
Well, of course it's yourdecision.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But were you peer pressured into it, or is it
something that you were curiousabout?
What led you down that path?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
I'd say alcohol led me down to that path.
I first drank at age 12.
We were so one of my buddy,rusty.
You know we grew up just downthe road from each other.
His parents split up at anearly age.
His mom was a partier like fromhell man.
Like you know, here we areyoung kids and she'd be having
like house parties at.
(03:59):
You know, at the house with uswitnessing all this stuff,
people would be doing all kindsof drugs, street drugs.
We were being exposed to thisat very young ages and we're
like, wow, this looks likeyou're having a good time.
You know these adults arelaughing and having a good time.
We should try some of that,right.
And so me and Rusty wouldalways be sneaking things and
going in and like trying tostart off with the alcohol.
(04:20):
Then it went to the weed andthen, you know, cocaine pills
and all that other stuff lateron.
But uh, it started with alcoholyeah, I'd say that's more of the
gateway than weed is you thinkso?
Absolutely yeah for you.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Like you know, that was your slippery slope I'd say
so.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I think for most, though, because alcohol is so
much more relatively available,I never looked at weed as the
gateway.
For me, anyways, it was becausealcohol led to weed, and you
know, those two aren't that bad.
Cocaine can't be bad rightRight, heroin can't be bad Right
.
So that was the mindset I had.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I was like You're in high school, and now you're.
Would you consider yourself afull-blown drug addict at this
time or?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh yeah, by freshman year I was I was already doing
coke and harder drugs.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So you're a full blown addict at this time.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Are you going to school or?
Oh yeah, I mean I got to put onthe appearance, right, going
back to my parents too, likethey had good intentions, you
know, very, very loving,positive family, good, good
family values.
But my mom went to school, hadher own kind of business going
to and gave my sisters moreattention growing up because
they were in cheerleading andother stuff and then my dad
worked two jobs to help pay thebill.
So I just had a lot ofunsupervised time growing up
from that age 12 to, you know,teenage years, not by their
(05:36):
choice, right, like they weredoing what they could.
So I just me being a parent nowI look at that I'm like damn,
they effed up pretty big withthat right Me being a parent now
I look at that I'm like damn,they effed up pretty big with
that right, like that was one oftheir big—and they admit it
Like we definitely neglected youas far as attention goes.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
So are you the baby?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
No, I'm the firstborn .
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Wow, usually it's not like that.
Usually the firstborn, you know, is like the golden child.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I was a black sheep by teenage years.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, but you know, all this stuff kind of
snowballed into another right,like lack of supervision as I'm
growing up so I have opportunityto hang out with some of these
not-so-good-of kids, right,right that my parents would have
said, no, don't hang out with.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Right, had they known ?
Had they known right, had theybeen paying attention, had they
gave you the level of care thatyou require, that we all require
.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, for sure.
So then you go to these kids'houses where their parents,
they're their kids' best friends, right?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They're like oh, oh, I know the type.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, I was like yeah , it's cool to be friendly to
your parents, but your parentsare supposed to be your parents.
They're supposed to bring someboundaries to the situation, not
be your best friend and try tolike appease you.
And people like Rusty weregiven the opportunity to do
whatever they want right Withtheir parents' knowledge.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I grew up with a lot of kids that had relationships
like that with their parents.
So basically it would be theycould pretty much do whatever
they want besides not go toschool.
So as long as they went toschool, they could drink, they
could smoke, they could havegirls, they could have parties
they could like, and then thattransfer to their friends too,
(07:12):
so they could do it and theirfriends could do it too.
You know, so like we would allwant to go to this house because
we know we could get their momto buy us alcohol, we could get
their mom to, you know, take usto drive us here and drop us off
and come pick us back up.
And you know what I'm saying.
It was like a friend, like not,there was no parenting, like
(07:32):
there's no guidelines, you know,like okay, that's off limits.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
No, everything's wide open just go raid their stash
too.
Yeah, because you know, oh,dad's out of town, let's go.
Let's go up to his bedroom andgrab an eighth quick.
And then we got into stealingtoo, because all of us being
from broke families and stuffRusty lived across from a
trailer park and so at nightwe'd sneak out and go raid all
(07:57):
the trailer parks, like coolersand outside bars.
So that's how we'd supplyourselves with alcohol at a
young age.
This is at 12 and 13.
We're doing this, you know.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, and that just snowballed.
You know, that kind of behavior, that kind of mindset just got
worse.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So what led you to getting in trouble with the law?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, you know, like I said, snowballing into it, I
started breaking and enteringinto summer cottages on Lake
Wisconsin.
You know, illinois.
People would have properties uphere.
We'd target them.
We'd know that they wouldn't behome, you know, during the
winter months, and so we wouldhave the place to ourselves.
To.
You know, just take our timeand mostly the electronics, you
know that kind of stuff you'retaking that you can sell quickly
(08:37):
on the street to get money tobuy the next eight ball or
whatever it is that we're tryingto get.
And that's kind of whatsnowballed into a really really
bad decision-making path that Iwas on.
And so eventually the lawcatches up, right, people start
noticing things, start to bemore aware because this is
(08:59):
happening.
And then somebody in our crewgot pinched, spilled the beans,
set me up to kind of come out ofthe house one day, called me up
and said hey, you want to gosmoke?
It was like 10 o'clock at night.
Never would call me this lateanyways.
So I thought something was kindof off-putting.
But me being a drug addict, oh,I can get high right now.
Yeah, let's do it.
So I wasn't really going withmy gut.
Something wasn't right with thephone call.
(09:27):
So she picked me up.
We went down the down the street, by about a block, turns left
and then starts to pull over.
I'm like what are you doing?
She's like there's cops.
I'm like what?
And then the cherries andberries came on right, so she
was responding before they wereeven pulling her over.
I'm like, dude, what are youwhat?
What's going on here?
I'm like I.
I was very confused.
They came around the car to myside of the door and said mr
(09:47):
apkin, please step out.
I said why?
What's going on?
You know, I got, we haven'tdone nothing wrong.
And then they're like well, wehave reason to believe that
you've been a part of, uh, youknow, a theft robbery string of
robberies blah blah.
Let's take a look at your shoes,and that shoe looks like a
match.
They arrested me for you knowthe, for questioning.
They put me into the hole andthen from there they just
(10:10):
presented all their evidence onthe spot there and I was like,
okay, you know an awful lot andso, not coming from a you know,
a privileged family, I had toget a public defender.
His advice to me was to make aplea deal and blah, blah, blah
and gave me piss, poor advice.
And so I copped the stuff thatthey knew about because they had
evidence against me and thiswas my lawyer's advice.
And so I'm like, yeah, that wasme.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And ended up going to the county jail for 13 months.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Wow 13 months, huh yeah, and just enough where they
wouldn't send me to prison.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
They kept me in county jail, which is worse,
which is worse, Way worse.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Back then in the 90s and 2000s, there was an old
saying you come on vacation,leave on probation.
That's true in Columbia County,and so they kept me in the damn
county jail and I got eightyears probation off of that too.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
What was your experience in jail for all of
that time?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It was rough man.
So it was around Christmas whenI first got arrested.
So I sat that before mysentencing, you know.
So I was in the county jail fora while, locked up, before I
even got my sentencing.
That was through Christmas.
And then by the time I gotsentenced I had another you know
year to serve and that wasthrough another Christmas.
So, like Christmas Day was whatreally hit and was looking
(11:22):
around, I'm just like justabsolute despicable people
around me, you know, like mostpeople I would see come and go
multiple times, I'm just likethis is the life that they have
set for themselves, right, thisis what they know.
They don't seem to mind it, Iguess, like you know, they keep
coming back.
And that's when I had theepiphany.
(11:43):
I'm like I don't want to havethis ever happen again.
Like this sucks.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What was your aha moment?
Christmas day, the second.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Christmas Day, the second Christmas, yes.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
The second Christmas.
You're like this is the secondChristmas.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
This is the second Christmas.
I'm missing out.
Merry Christmas right.
This is the life I have set formyself.
If I continue down this path,or death right, or getting shot
by somebody for breaking it yeah, breaking it to the hell you
get out, then what?
I have a new opportunity aheadof me, right?
So I'm like I'm presented witha crossroads.
(12:16):
I go back to doing what I know,but at this point I'm now a
year clean, right like I wentthrough all my withdrawals in
jail.
You know, the worst of the it'salready passed me, right?
All that that's what made jaileven worse.
Right for the two, two monthsI'm just detoxing and going
through all this stuff.
So that way I'm like, well, I'mnot going to go back to using
(12:36):
again, like that'd be stupid.
So you kind of get a goodperspective on who cares.
Who's been there, right, andyour worst time who showed up?
Right?
Obviously family.
And I had a few friends thatstill believed in me, like one
of my teachers like to this dayI love her so much, ms Dalton.
So I had to graduate highschool while in jail because
that was my senior year.
I got arrested and I wouldn'thave been able to do it without
(13:01):
her.
She brought me my homeworkevery.
Friday to the jail.
Wow, yeah, cause she believedin me, shout out to her man.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
That's serious Cause.
That's something that she didnot have to do.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Did not have to do it and, by all accounts, what is
what gave me more hope and gaveme more like light at the end of
the tunnel?
There is something worthfighting for or working towards.
Right, like she actuallybelieves in me.
Right, like she's telling methis by saying hey, here you go,
get this homework done.
I mean, granted, I'd have toread the textbooks.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
You have to do the work, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And I didn't have anybody to like.
Can you help answer thisquestion for me?
I had to figure it out all bymyself.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And then hand the work in, hoping that it was
passable.
So getting out, you know I hadthings to hope for.
I got my diploma.
I started to look into collegebecause I didn't know what else
opportunities I had.
I had a game plan for wantingto do photography at the time
and video.
So I knew I kind of wanted todo that because I always had a
passion for it and I had builtblueprints for a darkroom.
(13:57):
Because you got to remember,this is pre-digital age, this is
all analog stuff still, atleast that's what you know.
Digital is coming out, but itwas very new and expensive and
not well known to me beingincarcerated.
When I got out, I had ablueprint for to build a dark
room.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So when did you go to college?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Pretty much right away.
I had to find a job first.
You know which.
That's another thing, man beinga convicted felon.
People just look at you likewhy would I want to give you a
what?
No, I don't want you to be apart of my team, right?
So I don't know.
I don't know how our societyexpects people to better
themselves when you're not giventhe opportunity to do so.
And so I had to struggle andwork 10 times harder than the
(14:36):
average person to get the samelevel of respect and care and
jobs.
I had to beg for really badjobs, jobs that most people
don't want.
I had to beg for that stuff,and so I get it.
There's a problem that needs tobe addressed someday.
I mean, I guess that stuff, andso I get it.
You know, like there's aproblem that needs to be
addressed someday.
I mean I guess you can bepresent now as a convicted felon
.
So the whole convicted felonthing needs to be just tossed
(14:57):
out.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean now it's like really dude, you know I
can't get on a roof and you know, lay some shingles, because I
got a felony 10 years ago, comeon.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
There were some employers that gave me the
chances, though, and I respectthem.
You know, mankey Enterprisesout of Lodi was my first job out
of the can that said you knowwhat, we're going to take a
chance on you and gave me a job,and it paid like crap at first,
but after putting in the timethey quickly realized that was a
good investment and they uppedmy pay.
(15:28):
By the time I left I was making18, 20 bucks an hour, and this
is back in early 2000s.
So that was a pretty good, somepretty good change.
You know, I made some goodmoney to save up, buy my first
camera, enroll into collegewhere I went to Madison Media
Institute.
I went there, graduated, got mydegree in video and motion
graphics.
So I got out of college andentrepreneurialism was kind of a
(15:50):
part of me, but I never like amI I inspired to be an
entrepreneur.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Well, your mom laid the foundation.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
She did for sure, yeah, but it was never like
something I'm like.
That was not my target, right.
I wanted to make movies.
I wanted to be like a produceror whatever, like you know, be a
Hollywood, whatever.
That was my more of myambitions starting out.
But, being the convicted felonthing, I was being passed up
repeatedly on opportunities.
Strictly from that, there wastimes I would have job
(16:18):
interviews, two of them, thethree coming in showing me
around the office, blah, blah,blah, introducing me to people,
giving them names like oh, thisis Justin, you're going to be
working with him.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Getting your hopes up .
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Getting my hopes up.
And then they're like you know,this is so great, we're so
lucky to have you.
The final thing is we've got todo a drug test and a background
check and we'll get youonboarded.
I'm like, all right, sweet.
Three weeks go by nothing.
I passed the drug test for ohhey, oh yeah.
(16:50):
Well, we just the person youknow.
Once you got him on the phone,you got him in a corner.
You're forcing something on him, right?
Oh well, we found somebody alittle bit more qualified than
you, and so we decided to gothat route and at that point I
was at my breaking point.
I'm like you showed me aroundthree times now the third time
you actually introduced me topeople and showed me the office
(17:11):
quote unquote where I'd beworking at.
Like you looked at mybackground and you don't want to
give me a job because I'm aconvicted felon.
No, that's not true.
I'm like you were not going tosay that, because that's illegal
for you to not hire me.
But that's why.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So it seems that it seems like things are going
really well for you and you'veovercome some obstacles and
you've made amends for those,and people are starting to see
that.
One of the ways that people arestarting to see that is you
were granted a pardon.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, I was, thankfully.
I mean, it was a long process.
I had started the applicationprocess in 2019 and then the
pandemic hit right and theneverything was shut down for a
while.
Stuff got lost in the mix.
I didn't know what was going tohappen.
You know, like I hadn't heardnothing.
And then in 2022 or 21,.
(17:58):
They started reviewing stuffagain.
But there was a backlog ofstuff.
I was like, oh, so I got anotification that the
application and all that stuffwas going to be reviewed.
I was like, all right, in 2023,I got another letter stating
that I had been accepted to beconsidered for a pardon.
They reviewed it.
They thought I'd be a goodcandidate.
(18:19):
So the next stage is that yougot to present yourself to a
board.
They used to do this in person,but since COVID they now do it
through Zoom and so and it's infront of like five or six peers
of the it's not just likegovernment people, it's other
like there was a pastor on therethere was a Community leaders.
Community leaders exactly?
(18:39):
Yup, there was five or six ofthem, and so I had to present my
case to them as well.
After they had read myapplication and all that stuff,
I had 10 letters ofrecommendations letters of
recommendations laid out.
You know the facts about why Ifelt like I was ready to.
I accepted responsibility formy actions as a kid.
I have moved on, I paid my debtand I felt like I should no
(19:01):
longer be held back by that.
Not that I necessarily want acorporate job, but I'm just like
.
I just don't want that.
No more.
Right, I want to be able to sayI'm a full-fledged citizen again
, and politics is something I'vebeen considering running for
anyways, and people have told meI would be good at it.
But well, until recently, mostpositions in politics you can't
(19:23):
hold if you're a convicted felon, I guess, other than presidency
.
But we're not going to go there.
So that was my biggest rebuttalfor why I wanted one.
It wasn't to own a gun ornothing like that.
I just focused on myprofessionalism, where I wanted
to go with it, and politicsbeing something that I was going
to be considering if I wasgranted this opportunity to do
(19:44):
One of my best achievements tothis day now, right Like doing a
180 in my life, flipping itaround and being recognized for
that.
So it was heartfelt, meaningfuland hopefully I can pay it back
forward someday with my inpolitics and help other people
like myself that weren't givenopportunities to get
opportunities like that.
(20:04):
You know criminal reform issomething I want to focus on, uh
, in the future, so that'ssomething I will have on my back
burners as we move forward inlife.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So kind of tell us, uh, so tell us about your
business, like what kind ofproducts and services do you
offer and what are some of thenotable projects that you've
worked on and what are some ofthe things that you are most
proud?
Speaker 2 (20:25):
of.
I wish I could say you know I'mworking on feature films and
stuff like that.
Not the case.
It's corporate stuff, but it'simportant stuff, right?
People all have stories to tell, and so being a storyteller I'm
like this is an area I canfocus on.
It's not advertising per se,right.
I'm not just making a bunch ofin-your-face advertisements to
(20:45):
buy, buy, buy it's.
Who is the business, right?
Who are you?
Why does your audience andclientele care to work with you?
And so I try to find the coreson that and help bring that all
into a cohesive visualstorytelling video that
encapsulates what problems areyou solving for your clienteles,
(21:06):
and videos that people actuallywant to watch, versus something
that's in your face that youcan't skip for 10 seconds.
Typically.
Those are the kind of areas Ilook for organic type of
storytelling versus a typical ad.
I try to stay away from those.
I do do the ads sometimes, butmore storytelling Everyone's got
(21:28):
the story.
What is it, what's your?
Why?
I like to focus on those, andit can be from any size
corporation to small business,as long as the budget's there.
Nowadays I'm 12 years in now,so I'm pretty seasoned.
I'm happy to say I can helpanyone solve their media needs.
I might not be the oneproducing it for them, but I got
people that do you know arejust getting into the game,
(21:50):
they're just starting off and alot of times, you know, if it's
a smaller budget project, I'mhappy to like hand them off to
people that I know will still dothem right, that need the
attention, that need the work,that need to build a portfolio
up and then still help thissmall business out that couldn't
quite afford me but was able toafford something, and so that
(22:11):
to me is still a win right, Istill helped achieve that small
business's needs, even thoughI'm not the one telling the
story this time around, butconsulting I also do.
Consulting, I guess, would bewhat I'm trying to get at.
I'd say a notable projectrecently was for the Jim Lemon
Foundation, but my buddy Kyleit's one of his clients, but he
brought me on because he's moreof a photographer and we got to
(22:33):
tell the story about Jim who wastragically taken away from
pancreatic cancer.
It's one of those cancers thatis very hard to detect and when
you do get it, because it's sohard to detect, a lot of times
you're in the stage three orwhatever the later stages, which
is almost impossible to cure.
And so he was.
It went quick, it happened, youknow, he got diagnosed and then
(22:55):
, before you know it, he's gone.
And so his wife started thisfoundation to help bring
awareness to this cancer and tohelp fund research.
And so it was a very sadaffairs, right, like how do you
tell this person's story andstill, you know, come out at the
end with a call to action,right.
And so we built this beautifultearjerker video and I got to
(23:17):
watch an audience because theyplayed it at the gala cry at one
of my videos and at the endgive an ovation, like cheering
it on, and then helped raisethousands of dollars afterwards.
So to me that was reallytouching.
Knowing that I was able to bringout emotion like that, right,
because as storytellers we tryto bring out the emotions, right
(23:39):
.
That's a huge home run, in myopinion.
So, seeing that it was just mymost recent triumphs, to me it's
just like, wow, I did that, wedid that.
I mean, obviously, kyle was abig part of it as well, but I'm
mostly the editor, so it was mystorytelling and very proud of
that.
So that would be my more recentone, just because you get to
(24:03):
see your work and not you don'talways get to see your work with
an audience, live, audience,right, like a lot of times it's
just like on the internet andyou're like it's got a bunch of
likes, it's got some comments,but you don't get to see the
emotional reactions.
And that time I did and it wasgreat, it was very rewarding as
a content creator to see yourwork being appreciated and the
(24:25):
way it was right.
I had most people in there intears.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
That's awesome.
So what advice would you giveto people that are just starting
out, haven't quite took thatleap of cutting off their
part-time or full-time job andthey want to start their own
business.
Whatever that business may be,what advice would you give them
to move forward?
Speaker 2 (24:48):
A, have your plan well thought out.
Right, listen to all thenaysayers.
As far as feedback, right, soyou can kind of predict some of
the hurdles you might comeacross.
Ask the ones that are doing italready.
Well, like, try to set up aninterview with some of these
people that have a business inthat industry and just ask them,
like, what's been going well,what, what works for you, what
are some of the hurdles that youhave?
(25:10):
You know, like, doing yourresearch now, your
pre-production work, knowing allthat stuff prior to starting a
business, is going to be hugefor you because you're going to
have a better understanding ofwhat you're getting yourself
into, what kind of financiallimitations you might have, what
kind of startup costs.
And then building a network.
You're going to have peoplethat you can go to if you need
(25:30):
help on a project or whatever itis.
Because you interviewed withthem, you talked to them, you
might be able to reach out andget an extra hand.
And then renting equipmentversus buying off the bat.
No matter what industry you'rein, you don't need the most
expensive or whatever equipmentright now.
Go rent it first.
That way you're only havingexpense when you have a project
coming in versus trying to payoff something every month that
(25:53):
you can only pay off when youhave a project coming in, right?
So it's like to me, you're muchbetter off renting it to the
point where you have enoughcashflow coming in.
Then you're like all right, Ihave enough projects on the
hopper, I'm going to go buy thisnow because it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Absolutely so, coming from your background, getting
in trouble as a teenager.
If you could say something tothe youth today, what would it
be?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Any advice I can't imagine being a teenager
nowadays too.
You know you got so much moreto contend with as far as stress
levels.
You got online bullies and likesocial media.
It's like we didn't really haveto deal with that growing up.
So all I can say is put allthat noise aside and focus on
yourself.
What's good for you, what'swhat do you want to aspire to do
(26:38):
?
Right, and try to do it Like.
Don't.
Don't listen to the negativevibes that says it can't be done
, because in reality, anythingcan be done if you put your mind
to it.
It might not come as fast asyou'd like, it might not come
out exactly how you thought itwould, but something will come
out of it In due times.
It will pay off.
(26:58):
Hard work pays off.
Eventually it does.
I guarantee you that there'salways a light at the end of the
tunnel.
There's people that are willingto help.
Definitely, don't feelembarrassed to ask for help.
Sometimes we all need help.
I did.
If it wasn't for Ms Dalton, Idon't know.
Maybe I wouldn't have had thesame motivation while in jail to
do good.
(27:18):
Maybe I wouldn't have had thesame motivation while in jail to
do good.
You know she was one of thosepillars.
For me, especially in the earlyon stages, there's different
pillars I had throughout mycareer so far.
In college it's Tony Wood.
He was one of my instructors atMadison Media Institute, a
mentor of mine.
I'm still in contact with him.
We have dinners, we gomotorcycle riding together.
(27:40):
He helps out on my production.
Still, you, there was differentpillars throughout my stages
that got me to the next stage,the next level of
professionalism and motivation.
So finding that for yourself isa big part of that.
If you're in the trouble rightnow, I know it's easier to say
(28:01):
but get yourself out, find newfriends.
Let them go to the wayside.
They're no good for you.
If you're using drugs with themall the time you got to move on
, you can't hang out with them.
They're not going to take youanywhere but down.
That's the first step Newcircle of friends.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Absolutely Well, justin man.
We really really appreciate youcoming by the podcast man.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Absolutely.
I appreciate you.
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