Beyond the Mic: Friendship, Business and Invisible Illness

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M m m.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
M hm.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
R axweededed ern her Street U m m m m

(00:41):
m m m mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Thank you for tuning in to another wonderful episode of
Lucas hast On Face Podcast where we talk about real life,
real struggles and the power behind Lucas and beyond. I'm
your host, Savannah Birds, and we have our special guests.
My dear friend, my manager is the biggest in the
Midwest TV our network podcast and mister Antonio Lucky in

(01:46):
the building today are.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
The largest podcasting network in the Midwest. Not you said podcast,
but no, I.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Did not say that. Running back, y'all see this one.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Make sure y'all go back when y'all go in the
comments sections say whether or not she said podcasts or
podcast network. Let's get these engagements. So this is this
is this is why, this is why we're doing this.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
This is why we're doing this episode. Okay, behave.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
If we go through, we go through a big baby.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
So we will be discussing behind the mic friendship business
while dealing with in a visible illness.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I felt that it was very important to cover this
topic due to the fact of a lot of people
that get into business, go into oh, this is just
business or this is just how I want it ran
when they don't realize you have to have a certain
type of relationship with your business partner and that is

(02:55):
going to grow into family, friends, close friends.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Just like you know, it's gonna be your everyday person.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
But you have to create boundaries and high respect levels
and none of that ego and stuff that's driven. So
I felt the need that this was very, very important
to cover this topic. So before we get started, for
the people that do not know who Antonio luck it is.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
You did your homework on me. Oh, Stephus's same me,
she said she did her homework.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
For people that do not know who you are, can
you share a little bit about who you are and
what inspired you to start TDR Network and the Man
Up Project.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Okay, all right, so for those who don't know, I
started TDR network about fifteen years ago. The whole purpose
of really starting TDR Network was I needed an outlet.
During the timeframe of when TDR was still just being
an infant, I lost not one, not two, but three

(03:59):
jobs in a matter of literally sixty days, okay, downsizing
on one, availability on another, and the last one still
this is an at will state, So to lose three
jobs simultaneously, I ended up also kind of almost losing
my house at the same time. So I fell into

(04:20):
a heavy, heavy, heavy state of depression during this particular timeframe,
and literally I needed an outlet. And one of the
biggest things that I realized is as men, we often
or not are not allowed to be openly able to
express how we feel about anything. Whenever something happens, they
always tell you to man up. They tell you, look,

(04:42):
you know, well, whatever it is, put your emotion to
the side and man up, but not realizing that sometimes
we do need that voice in that outlet to be
able to go ahead and say, look, I'm going through
something here right now, I'm mentally drained, I'm physically drained,
trying to live up to the standards of what society
says that the man is supposed to be, and the
provider all of these things was beating down on me,

(05:04):
which made me go into a heavy state of depression.
Luckily for me, my friends realized that I was not
being the tone that they were known for me to be,
so they forced me to be outside, They forced me
to social life, They forced me to do all these
different things, but even during all of that, no one
ever sat down and asked me, how are you doing.
So during this timeframe, me and my brother wand one

(05:27):
half of the Death Fresh Show, we used to just
go to local events and just pick with people. We
used to take a camera and take a little microphone
and we would just interview people on the spot right
then and there, just start picking with people. And it
slowly started making me realize that a lot of people
just want to be heard. They just want to have
a voice, They just want to be able to say

(05:48):
some things. So from that moment on, TDR was born.
I created a network where I can allow people to
have a voice and to be able to say what
they want to say. But over time, when Internet radio
transition to podcasting, I also transition what the purpose of
TDR was. And not only do I want to give

(06:08):
you a voice, but I want to give you a
purpose behind your voice. So not only are you going
to be able to sit down and have a conversation
about grief, about depression, about relationship, about comic books, about
having an invisible illness, but we're gonna go ahead and
figure out how can we make your voice be heard
by everybody else. How are we going to take your
message and grow it past just simply talking to your

(06:30):
friends on the couch for sure. And while doing all
of that, I also came in contact with several men
throughout the network who was like, I love what you're doing,
but I want someone to hear me. And then all
of a sudden, the man of project was born. So
through the Manu Project, our goal is to once again
let those men be heard. Let those men have that

(06:52):
opportunity to be out there and speak and say how
they feel. Give them the resources, give them a connection. Hell,
it can be a one on one setting, it can
be a group's whatever you need in regards to being
able to deal with everyday life and get through it.
That's our goal with the man Up Project. So we
want you to man up, but we also want you
to know that manning up doesn't mean that you don't

(07:13):
you can't feel.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
At the same time, Okay, that was a lot, so
I want you to aspect that. No, that's good. No, I'm
not saying it's a lot as in you saying too much.
But that was a lot, like as in being dope.
So let me just go back a little bit. I'm first,
I'm going to hit up on a man project. So
for those that do not know, the next meaning for
the manup project is this Friday the twenty six from

(07:37):
six thirty pm to eight pm, and it's going to
be at TDR Studios. Yes, you can go to his page,
go to my page. It's all on social so please
do come see if you like it, you know, see
if you want to be a part of it, or
if it's some information that you can pass along to
someone else that.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
May so, whether you got a brother, son, sister, husband, father, dad, like,
go to your dad, go to any e mail person
in your life and ask them how they do it.
I guarantee you if their answer is I'm cool, I'm fine,
I'm okay, that's not really how they're feeling. A lot
of us men have a habit of just saying I'm fine,

(08:16):
but we nowhere near it. So I want them to
be able to come in and say you fine, okay,
Well what kind of fine are you? Let's figure out
what's really going on. Let's open up and let's express
how you really feel. And at the end of the day,
we want to make it a safe space where you
can say whatever. If your girl getting on your nerve,
you can come here and tell us that you know,
we don't care, whatever, whatever.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
So that brings me back into the beginning of the stage,
just when you were saying, man just want to be heard.
So now me personal personal experience. Right, I've heard that
men want to be heard, right, not directly to me,
but I've heard that statement before. Now do that really
just falls on the man or the people that's around him,
because it's twofolds, right, because some people, some men say, oh,

(09:01):
I'm a man, I'm supposed to and it's just like
you creating all of that monstrous, this drama in your
own head when somebody is truly asking you, how are
you doing, how are you feeling?

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Come talk to me.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
And because whoever, however you were raised, you got that mentality,
that mindset to where I'm a man, I'm not gonna
talk about my feelings, whereas in too, I speak for
myself my son. I never ever told my son to
man up, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (09:32):
I do.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I always felt like a kid should have a wasice period, right,
you know what I'm saying with their respectable lines.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
I got crucified for that.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
But at the end of the day, like, I'm who
I am, and this is what I believe in, and
this is why so many kids go through what they
go through. So I just wanted you to kind of
answer that, like, so, is it just the people that's
around the man saying man up? Or is it really
the men in their head what they think a man
should look like because society told us what a man
should look like, or told them what a man should
look like, and they don't express it because they feel

(10:05):
or they feel vinerable.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
So okay, that first of all, that's that's a that's
a glamorous conversation right there. I love that time right there.
Let's put a pin in that one, okay. Okay for
those who know, you know, it's actually both believe it
or not, one creates the other. Okay. A lot of
a lot of men this day and age who do
think like that. Whereas and when I'm a man up,

(10:27):
I gotta do this, I gotta do that. It was
taught to them from somebody, somebody in their life did that.
They probably seen Granddad who's just always been a grinder.
There was dad who's always been in a hustle mentality.
There is always somebody who says, lest you gotta get
up and get that. And then the second part is yes,
it's also the environment. I can sit here and I
can literally be in the state of depression. I could

(10:49):
be under bed, and I can be like, I don't
know where I'm gonna get this next paycheck from. And
I got twenty seven thousand bills to pay, and I
got this class, and I got the girls, and my
friends can be like, bro, shif the fuck up and
man up. Bro, get up here and do what you
gotta do. Get out here and get this paper. You
got the skills. So it comes from both. Now you

(11:09):
do have some who use it as an excuse. Okay,
you have a lot of them who use it as
an excuse because they were taught it as an excuse.
It was taught to them as a negative reason why
you have to man up and not looking at it
as a positive way. Because I know, for me, if
something happens, I'll shut down for a minute, I'll stop.

(11:30):
I'll be like, man, this is going wrong. The world
is in wood and shout out to you because you've
been one of the people who's done this with me.
And you'll sit there and you'll let me be like
it's gonna be okay, And then you'll be like, hey,
you ever thought about doing this? You know you can
do this right, or you can do that, and I'll
be like, you know what, You're right, I could do this,

(11:51):
I can do that, And next thing you know it,
my brain is on. I'm back in business mode. Whatever
that little moment of depression I had, I'm still there,
but now I've created an answer. This time, I'm no
longer worried about where I'm gonna get this next situation
or how I'm gonna get this taken care of. And
it turns around, it turns in two. Okay, if I
do this and this, I can do this, and if
I do this, if I move this, I go ahead. Literally,

(12:13):
it's both. So when you have a positive influence who
allows you to have your moments that you're in your feelings,
but then also checks on you to be like, Okay,
I understand you're down and you're depressed, but don't forget
you still can do this over here. Or hey, I
understand you lost your job, but remember you still got
a business to run, cause you know your business can

(12:33):
do abcd hmm. That's what manning up is. Manning up
is taking your feelings and realizing you can get through it,
but you just need a moment to process it. Women
can think on the fly like this. Men, we need
to process it for a minute and once we process it,
then we can be back on our grind like nothing.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
And just to let you in a little bit, all
women don't think like that. I've been around some that don't.
We can go on with this conversation.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
That's a glorious conversation.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
Day for a different day, for sure. So with that
being said, how did our friendship begin and what was
your first impression of me when starting working When we
started working together, So.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
It was a rainy Sunday morning, the ducks were walking across.
Now seriously shout out to Ken because you have actually
we've actually been in the same spaces a lot, but
we never realized we were in the same spaces. You
have often and not been on Kn's podcast as a
guest that I never really paid attention that you were there.

(13:39):
You've been to events I've been to, You've worked with
people we got. We got a lot of similar circles.
So it wasn't until the panel that we actually had
an opportunity to sit down, and just like Savannah has
always been, she came in one in business mode, and
I peeped it as I as I always do when
I'm in the rooms. The room, I observe everybody in

(14:01):
the room, and I basically calculate what their purpose is
going to be in this room. And I knew right
away you were going to be the idea person. You
were going to be the person like, look, this is
what we're talking about doing. This is a good way
to go about doing it. If you want to do this,
let's get ABCD together. And one of the things that
always sticks with me is you always said, let's make

(14:23):
sure paperwork is good before we do anything. Let's make
sure all these things are laid out before we do anything.
Let's make sure that we know exactly what our end
goal is so we can make sure what we need
to get and started correctly. Is there. Then you started
telling your story. I started hearing about the Loopis story,
and I'm like, Okay, my last girlfriend had Loopis, my

(14:44):
cousin got Loopis, this person got all these people got Loopis.
And you you actually telling your story. You got a niche.
You need to start a podcast, And that's exactly how
I told it to her, you need to start a podcast,
and I bullied her into doing her very first podcast.
Here we are, episode sixty six later. We're still doing
it because she listened. But yeah, we actually started pretty

(15:10):
aggressively on the business side, and we just never looked back.
We did no for sure.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
I mean, I think you for that. Like you said,
I'm always like that. A lot of people don't appreciate it.
I am very gressive when it comes to a lot
of things, but it's my demeanor asing like, yo, I'm
tuned in what we're doing because you can't bring and
this is the thing people don't understand, right, you can't
bring me in a business idea and think that you

(15:38):
can't cause I'm gonna question you to the point of
if you don't got your stuff together.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
You're not going to know how to answer me.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
And then I can't deal with you if you are
not willing to listen to me, if you want me
to be a part of something, because my name is
very important to me, it is you know so, and
people don't understand what it's like. If you wasn't in
this lane, then how do you know? No? That doesn't
mean that I don't have to be in a lane
that I know and about.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
I know how business is structured.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
And I give you I don't mean to cut you off,
but let me go ahead and give you your flowers
back real quickly. While you're doing that. The one thing
I like about you is you do your homework on everything.
There's never been an idea that me and you haven't
talked about where while you're sitting there with a client,
you're doing your homework on it. You will nurge. You
will know just as much, or at least, you will
know what the end goal of it is and how

(16:24):
it can benefit all those involved. Before me and you
have even sat down and had a full conversation about
why we hear and how we get there. And I
always give you credit in regard to that. Everything that
you do business wise has to make sense. And as
an entrepreneur, to have somebody on the other side that
I can work with that knows how to get where

(16:46):
we want to get at makes it so much easier
to work with you.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
Thank you. I appreciate that because we want.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
To like that's because we got to. That's a whole
other convers we have different communications style. I know that
question is down there somewhere.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Okay, so we gonna move on to friendship and personal connection. Okay,
what do you think keeps our friendship grounded despite all
the moving parts of business?

Speaker 1 (17:13):
You want to hear something funny? It's the simple fact. See,
she's so scared, I'm just gonna just jump out the
window on her. But I'm not. I'm actually gonna keep
your show professional, jump out the window on them on
the Death Fresh show. But no, But seriously, the thing
about what keeps us grounded is we we do learn.

(17:33):
We have learned how to separate the two. Yes, we
have had days where on the personal side from both
of us, I don't want to talk to you, you
don't want to talk to me. We need a break.
But that's never stopped. The text message about the next show,
that's never stopped, the conversation about the next event, that's
never stopped, about what classes we're signing up? Me and

(17:55):
you could literally be so mad at each other because
one person says something that the other person and like.
But you're still gonna get a message, Hey, are we
going to this event on Sunday? And we can sit
in the same room and be mad at each other
and still enjoying the event. That takes a lot of
emotional discipline on both parts to be able to realize

(18:15):
that even though our friendship right now is in an
angry spot, we can still do what we need to
do with business. And because we can still do what
we need to do with business, what ends up happening
is we start to repair the friendship. Yeah, for sure,
we start to see Okay, maybe I see it from
her point of view or you see it from my

(18:35):
point of view, and I understand, like, Okay, what's more
important being mad or getting back on the same page
so we can enjoy this event like we're supposed to.
And we are really good at correcting that, We are
really good at reparing any kind of conflicts. That it's
to the point right now where we kind of know

(18:56):
what each other's gonna think and do before we even
do it anymore.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, for sure, Like and I feel I feel the
exact same way, And I feel like how we operate
is how any relationshipship. I worry, whether it's a spouse,
a brother, or anything like that, because you should never
get so angry to someone that you're doing business with that,
you missing opportunities that you going in and people are
reading y'all the wrong way, that you're making a mess
of the room. You should never business should never ever

(19:22):
be operate on emotions, and you should never ever be
operated to where you're not going to give that thousand
percent that you normally give because you're feeling some type
of way. And I can honestly say that you have
not done that.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
No.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
Now, you may have did something.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
That got off my airs while I respoted right away.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
But you always made sure you took care of what
you need.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Let me and let's pause right there. Okay, So that's
one thing. That's one thing I also got to give Savannah,
which is why I feel like our friendship will never falter,
because the one thing I always tell everybody is let
me know how you feel in real time. I and
you know I tell you every time, even when you

(20:04):
hold on to it for a minute. And we finally
had that conversation, I always say, you know what, next time,
tell me in real time. Tell me in real time.
Tell me how you feel, tell me what it was,
tell me how you think about this. Tell me in
real time because I process in real time, and if
we had a project and we went somewhere I'll give
you a prime example, and to still keep the business.

(20:25):
I am very big on how you introduce me, not
just you, but just people in general. Right, And if
we're on the friendship level, friendship trumps anything else in
my world because I will give the house I live
in to someone I call a dear friend. I wouldn't
do that for a business partner. With the business partner,

(20:47):
there's boundaries that are already set. With a business partner,
there is has to be give and take. There has
to be a return on our investment in both ways.
When you're a business person, in my eyes, that's exactly
what it is. But when you my friend, you're more
than just that. I would rather have a great friend
I do business with than do business with a friend.
I'll let you unpack that later, Okay, okay. But so

(21:12):
when we would be in rooms and it's casual rooms
at that and you would introduce me as your manager
or your producer, it used to rub me the wrong
way and I'm like, so why is this more important
than that? Like I'm just like, are you minimalizing us
or whatnot? But then it was over time that I
started to learn that because your mind is always in

(21:35):
business mode, the title of the business trumps the friendship. Yes,
and it trumps So once we had that conversation and
we realized, like you didn't even you told me and
didn't even realize you had told this to me. But
when I unpacked it and realized, like, oh, being your
manager is more important because to be your manager is

(21:59):
to submit all responsibilities that you can. Now just like,
I don't want to worry about this, but I know
TONE got it. I don't have to question it. To me,
that's a job title. Anybody can be a manager. Not
anybody can be a friend. But in your mind, not
anybody can be a manager. That's a major role for sure.

(22:21):
That's like two steps below a husband.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
I have to be able to trust you, and I
have to be able to allow you to do what
you're gonna do if even if I don't follow up,
if I have a flare up, I trust you enough
to make things get done. So to me, you you
have to be a certain person to be a manager.
To me, anybody can't be a manager.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
To me, they can't.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
I gotta know how your work ethics, I gotta know
I gotta know all it. I gotta know how we
go with each other. Like you, I don't want a
robotic manager.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Exactly when I when that light bulb turned on, you
knows we never have that conflict ever again because now
once learning your language, how you talking, what words matter
to you, it may be easier for me to match up.
It's like you speak in Spanish, I'm speaking English. Once
we figure out what word means the same thing, now
we can have a conversation. And that's that's one of

(23:09):
the things about our relationship that took a while for
us to get there. But it's there. It's seamless. Nobody
can ever unbeat it. So when you introduce me as
your manager first, I walking was like, yeah, I'm her manager.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Because you my everyday person.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know, if I don't talk to nobody else, I'm
talking to you exactly, You're my everyday person.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
So to me, that's very important and all of that.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
It's some of my friends that don't get access to
me the way that you get access to me.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
So and the crazy part is my friends, that's what
I am with them. See on the business side, schedule
it we'll talk during this timeframe. We got set aside.
So if you're one of my clients, there's a certain
time I talk to you. You can't call me at
eight o'clock in the afternoon afternue eight o'clock at night
and you just have a random conversation with me about

(23:57):
whatever it is. No, there's hours of operations you talk
to me during, whereas in my friends you, my friend
could be drunk one o'clock in the morning and be
on the phone saying the same thing five times over
and I'm just gonna be like, Okay, yeah, we ride
at down. Is that what you want me to say? Cool?
We riding that don that's it correlates different. But when

(24:20):
I realize that we're on the same page no matter what, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I remember exactly when that happened. How do you personally
balance valuability professionalism when working with a close friend?

Speaker 1 (24:35):
Okay, this is a double ed sort because everybody can't
do this. A lot of times when you go into
business with people, you want to go in with your friend,
you want to go in with your family, You want
to go in with somebody who you can have immediate
access to. Unfortunately, not everybody's built like you. Not saying
you in general but when you come up with an idea,

(24:56):
that's your baby, you have to make sure that the
other person on the other side of this partner that's
their baby too. Yeah, and a lot of times we
don't see that. A lot of times people will go
into business with their friends and one individual spends all
the money while the other individual enjoys the credibility. And
now you're like, we're we're not equally yoked on this,
and then the friendship ends and next thing you know it,

(25:17):
we're on social media. One person's blasting the other person
over two hundred dollar rental fees, you know, unprofessional. So
that can be difficult. But number one, you got to
know your friend. If they're your friends, you know your friends,
so you may know, like, as much as this person
has a great idea, and you know that the idea

(25:38):
could be major if you go ahead and you put
your party in there, but you gotta remember, maybe that
person not good with business. Because if a person is
not good with money in a personal life, they're not
gonna be good with money in a business life. Sure,
you gotta check the ethnics. What's your work ethnics. If
we got to be out here working on these ten
place until twelve o'clock at night. You can't be checking

(25:58):
out at eight o'clock because you want to go to eat. No,
we got shit to do. You better prop that phone
up and watch YouTube TV. You still got to keep
the grind. So if you got to understand how important
it is to you, and you got to find somebody
on the other side who finds it just as important,
and then you go from there. That's one thing I
always tell you, if there's anything else about Savannah is

(26:20):
when it comes to business, if you give her the
bug and it makes sense, she gonna ride it all
the way through because she wants to see the endgame.
And that's what made it easier for you because unlike
typical people, people become friends person then they go to business.
We started, we were in a completely different business doing
something completely different and we then idea came up. We

(26:44):
was like, look, we're on the same page with this,
let's make this happen. And that flourished and now we're
on other ideas and we got other businesses and we
got our own individual businesses. But we still need the
input of the other person because we know we understand it.
So when you want to go ahead and law to
your haircare brand. You didn't, just like I'm gonna go
talk to my homegirls because they love hair. No, you

(27:05):
can't to meet tone. This is what I want to do.
What do you think? How's look? What's his name? What
about this? But we bounce ideas off of it, and
I tell you that's your idea. You ain't gotta pay
me nothing because that's your dream. Meanwhile, S and a
coaching over here, let's go take care of that. We
gonna do that together. I'm working on my ebook. I
got your book together already. You good, Okay, we got

(27:27):
all this over here. You got that, we got everything
planned out already that we cannot talk for a whole
week and wake up and the business is still moving
for sure.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
That's not gonna happen though, But yeah, for sure, and
we can't because we get We walk in brands and
when they see me, because they know I messed with you,
they know what it is. They know what that is,
and the same thing with you.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
They know that if I'm doing something, whatever that S is,
they know is your s for sure.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
I love that. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Can you share a moment when our friends carry more weight?
Than the business side.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
You know what this tricky here. Okay, she's trying to
set me up real quickly. Okay, no, uh, every honestly,
are your friendship to me actually holds more weight than
the business. I'll give it a prime example. I had
a client. I had a client, and that particular client
had a situation going on. Unfortunately, that client, that situation

(28:32):
was a conflict of interest when it came to you.
Even though we got business stuff together. The one thing
that you've always told me is if it don't make dollars,
it don't make sense. So if it's if you can
still do business without it being a conflict, you'll normally
tell me. But this one right here, it was going
to be a conflict. And as much as I want
to do business with them, like they they had a

(28:52):
vision that I knew I could take it to the moon,
because of that conflict, I had to leave it where
it is. I had to literally sit there in a
meeting and tell them, look, because of that, either you
got to drop that, or we can't do business because
that conflicts with Savannah. And Savannah's my partner in all

(29:14):
aspects of business and in friendship, she comes first and
I hate to leave money on the table, but you
gotta make that decision or else I gotta make a decision.
And they made the decision. They made the decision. So
I did put you first in that situation, and it
is what it is. I don't regret it, because at

(29:36):
the end of the day, they're either gonna make the
changes and they're gonna be back, or they're gonna keep
doing what they're doing the way they're doing it.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Well, this is my first time no story, but that's
cool because I feel like as friends, sometimes you don't
need to come back to your friend and let them
know exactly what it is.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
You shut that down, you took care of it.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
It's okay. So I appreciate that and I and that's
what it's supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Like.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
You know, all money ain't good money. You know what
I'm saying. All money ain't good money. And when you
get the chasing.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
After a dollar, your business will fall right because it
takes a while to make those coins to fit the
way that it needs to be fit for the business
to be ran. So you go after your vision, you
do what you do best, and it will definitely come well.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
One of the things that I have to say about
the TDR brand is I brand. I really work hard
on the reputation of what it is. The one of
the biggest things I always put on TDR is it's
a safe space. So I don't never want anybody to
feel that when you walk through the doors of TDR
or you're on a project and it says TDR present

(30:43):
across the top of it, that you can't you can't
enjoy it simply because there's someone in the space who
you don't want to be in the space, there were
words or actions that were said publicly and it offended you,
or just simply for the fact that you just don't
feel safe because of ignorancy that happened recently. I don't

(31:04):
want that to go on in regard to it. Because
the way my business mind is, I can make a
dollar and a heartbeat. You can give me twenty five
cents and I'm gonna come out with two bucks. I
did it at work, so I know I can do it.
You give me a quarter, I can make two dollars.
So making money is not a big deal. But what
I do this for the people that are involved in it.

(31:25):
So if you if you feel like I can't come
to TDR because there's something going on. I can't go
to this event, I can't joy myself at this kickback
because these people are there. Then I have to figure
out why. Now, of course, I'm a businessman, so I'm
gonna try to compromise. I'm gonna trying to compromise as

(31:46):
much as possible. But when it comes down to it,
and I gotta choose my peoples over business nine times ten,
I'm gonna choose my people. Unless my people's wrong, I'm
gonna tell them about themselves. Tell you people about themselves.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Okay, do you think friendship can actually make business stronger?

Speaker 1 (32:05):
And if so, high ooh yes. So. One thing that
why a lot of people go into business with their
friends is because they want to be able to enjoy
those moments like when you succeed or you create something,
or you take something to the next level. You want
to have that moment where that joy and excitement of

(32:26):
you achieving this is celebrating by somebody who knows you
and know the level of importancy in regards to this.
I can go out here and I can have a
board member of a ton of people, and I can
be like I just bought a building, and some of
them might be happy, but then other ones will be like, Okay,
so how much is this gonna cost? What's this? What's that?
Some people are just gonna stay in that business mind.
But if I told you, look, I just bought a building. Literally,

(32:50):
I just bought a school. So with this school, I'm
gonna take this floor and do they take this floor
and do that, and you gonna be like, my nigga,
we gotta cool. I know this room over here gonna
be for me. I'm gonna do this. These are the
classes I want to teach you taking the vision, and
you've grown the vision with me because as my friend,
you knew what it took for me to get to

(33:10):
this school. Sure, you knew the nights where I couldn't
go out and I had to stay home three weeks straight.
You know I couldn't go to lunch. You know I
couldn't do this event. I shut everything down to make
this possible, and you were in the grind with me,
shutting it down. So for me to walk off with
this brand new building. And now you're seeing, Oh, I

(33:31):
know what you about to do. You know what I'm
about to do before the world knows what I'm about
to do. So if I own a school, oh baby girl,
let me know, it's gonna be way more than just
the school done. And you know this, and the fact
that seeing that happiness and that joy from your friend
makes it feel even more special. I give people an
example right now, were working on a project right now

(33:53):
for you, Okay, telling y'all October eighteenth. Y'all gotta see
this every single time I show you another step of it,
the way you light up as a business person, as
a web designer, as a content creator, I'm like, Okay,
that's the acceptance. Cool, I'm gonna keep going. But as

(34:13):
a friend to be like, look at the razzle dazzle,
look at this and be like, I know how the
fourth annual one was, So now that you see the fifth,
you loving it. Okay, I see where we're going. Okay,
now we're finna do this for the sixth. Oh you
wasn't supposed to see that, and now you geeked about
that because we were talking about it before. So now

(34:33):
you see it in person, and the way your face
light up and the way that joy comes out of
you and the way the glam girl shows up. It
makes whatever I'm doing in that moment hit ten times
harder because my friend is geeked.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Yeah, it's well, thank you, I am very excited. I'm
still excited.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
You still like.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
Bringing like Glamour's jewels out of me, as they say,
But no, like it's very important because that's your friends
to your visions. Right, you see my vision and you
understood my vision. Now that's some things that we have
to talk about, tweaking things right. But it's like, it's
not okay ever to go in business with somebody that
does not understand the vision or god to understand well

(35:14):
to compromise. It's never it's never okay to go on
Like we're both headstrong, both handstrong, we're both we're both
talking to them, we're both intuitive like we're we're both
those people.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
So for us.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
To not let our egos drive each other, it's so
important to me. This will always be an example of
whoever it is and I'm talking to that's letting the
ego drive their business versus the correct things drive the business,
because you're supposed to always do what's correct for the business,
not what's for you emotionally. The goal is to bring
in the funds and the people and all the all
of the things. Right, you only can play for so long,

(35:50):
and now you got to start eating off of it.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
You do. So that's one thing I also like about you,
is because even when we're just doing regular everyday conversation,
you actings from sometimes a completely different perspective than I
would ever think about looking at like. I joke about
the fact that we got two different communication styles, but
those two different communication styles also create two different listening styles. Yes,

(36:13):
and because of that, you may perceive something in a
way that makes me have to change how I present it.
And because I have to change how I present it,
it makes me have to look at it from a
different perspective because I got to make you understand what
I'm trying to say or the vision I'm trying to
put out. So now when I go out and I'm
pitching it to five hundred, five thousand, fifty million people,

(36:38):
I know how to talk to each one of y'all.
I know how to talk to the people who just
wants the numbers. I know how to talk to the
people who want the story. I know how to talk
to those who just let me remind you that there's
somebody in your family that got Loopis. So by joining
this community over here, not only are you being able
to learn more about Loopis, but you're helping yourself because

(36:59):
you're going to be able to help the ones you love.
Like literally, a conversation right there for a low, low
price of just signing up for forty seven seventy five
can get you all of these things. I'd literally just
talk to everybody in the room. And that's the behavior
of communication that I had to learn trying to learn
you because you don't always listen.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
I do listen.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
It's just like, like, stop the small talk. I want
to know what was going on here. It's important sometimes try.
But as for you, you know, I bring people in
your space and space and your place and spaces and
it's just like, and that's all that's that's you after that,
that's you after that.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
So the way we feed each other is totally different.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
I always tell people all I gotta do is get
Savannah in the room. Yeah, that's all we gotta do.
You get Savannah in the room, she gonna make it happen.
And watching you work has also caused me to do
the same thing. We know for real, we were just
at the Running Rebels Expo number twelve this past weekend. Yes,

(38:04):
you had tables set up in regards to it, So
as my as a friend. As a friend, I was like,
let me come and support my friend as your manager.
Make sure she got everything she needs. Let me make sure,
let me make sure she on time. Let me make
sure she set this up. Let me make sure she
don't put this out there. Because when I first walked in,
I was like, oh, this is a good but damn

(38:24):
and make sure I talk to everybody. Went straight to
your table. Take that off there, do that, move that
over there. Hey, we're gonna get that replace, We're gonna
do this. Okay, I'm gonna go walk around now. So
I put my manager hat on right away. I got
you together, which I'm still trying to figure out why
they can't make any move, but it's just a whole
nother story. But because I was gonna have to talk like, hey,
why y'all moving my girl around here? She needs to
be in one place, in one place only. But what

(38:46):
I did was from you, Hey, what do you know
about lupus? What do you know about the man Up Project?
Let me ask you a question. Do you got any
men in your life who you know, Sometimes you got
to worry about their mental health. Like it got to
the point where I'm I'm coming over here to talk
to bmo hair. It's about opening a business account. But
now I'm talking to hey, bro, how you feeling to day?
Let me tell you about the Man Up Project? Things

(39:07):
that I picked up from you because I've watched you.
We sitting here at Brownstone, we eat, we smoking a hookah.
It's somebody sitting next to you. You don't even know
them from a hole in the wall. Hey, let me
ask you what you know about Lupe? Can't you nigga
drinking peas? No? Like you should? So I was like, look,
what what? What? What is stopping me from being able
to talk about what I got going on? Because yes,

(39:30):
the minute you asked me, I got gaged down. Once
you asked me, hey you do podcasts? We already done
you signing up tomorrow anyway, So were good. But what's
making me let them know that? I know that? What
about the Man Up Project? What I love about the
Man Up Project is not only the message behind it,
but it's making me go back to that humble beginning

(39:50):
of learning how to present a business I love that.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Because people we we we are groomed, right, we're grown
our personality, our character, traits, our values, our morals. But
when we decide to grow up in life and brench off,
most people will never know who they are. I'm so
happy to say I know who I am as a person,
as an individual. So when you get to growing and

(40:16):
seeing other things and exploring the world, your views and
your values change, which is okay. It is it's supposed
to fit who you are today, you know what I mean.
So so many people are stuck. They never want to
change how they grew up, and it's okay to get
away from that. You are an individual person. So I
say that to say, even with business, it's like a masterpiece.
It's always created and then you got to recreate. You

(40:37):
always create, you got to recreate.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
So playing off of that, what people always ask me
is how is I How am I able to stay
in business for fifteen years? Right? Because podcasting is one
of probably the most volatile business you can get into
because one day somebody got something to say, the next
day they don't want to talk no more. Topics can change,
subjects can change, beaches can change the fact that me

(41:00):
and Wan been doing this for as long as we have.
I can tell you there's been many days where we like, bro,
I don't even want to pot no more, but we
still be doing it. You got a whole niche, you
got a whole business behind it, and I know for
a fact there'd be days be like, man, I just
want to stay home. I don't want to talk. I
don't want to talk to this person. I don't want
to do this interview. I don't want to go here.

(41:22):
There's this whole event going on right now that I
would rather be at. But I got it. So everybody
has their moments where they want to quit and they
want to call it a day in regard to that,
but I told people the reason why td A is
still around is because I'm always looking too evolve it.
I never wanted to be what the world wants it
to be. I always want to be something new and inventive.
When Internet radio thing, I was already looking at what

(41:45):
it's podcasting look like. When podcasting was strictly audio, I
was already making it visual. When it was visual where
people were recording it and watch it on YouTube, I
was making it live stream. I was making it interactive.
I was making it to be that it's whatever your
show is on TVR. It's just a little bit different

(42:05):
than what everybody else does. Now. It may not be
the cleanest, but it's different. It stood out most people
used to just have their screen and what their phone
camera was every single podcast, you know, to show you know,
how to get a hold of somebody. There was a
point in time where it was shit going on on
the screen. It would be little things coming across the screen.
It would be the comments sections showing up. It'll be

(42:28):
it was a wild time. But I was doing that
because it was making people look like, hey, what's just
going on on this video? And they oh, this is live,
Oh we can see what we're saying like, I kept
evolving it to the point where I also my next step,
Well it's a pause right now, but everybody already know
my next step is I'm turning podcasting into a radio station.

(42:50):
I'm evolving it from the simple fact that at four
o'clock in the afternoon, no matter what day it is,
you can listen to mine in my own every noon,
there's gonna be the breakfast sandwich. That's where Tommy Show
came from, because we were doing a mid day show
and Tommy was just having regular he was just potting.
It was the conversation first, the pot the music second.

(43:12):
So we didn't want to sell your music, We want
to sell the conversation. Yeah. So I'm always evolving it
and in business that's what you have to do. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
People, it's a lot of people that I hear that
say they dream jobs. Your dream job is you're gonna
not like your dream job. Your dream job is gonna
stretch you out. Your dream job is going to get
on your nerves. Your dream drive, you're not gonna want
to show up too. And that separates the people that
wants it versus only wanting a hobby because you're not

(43:46):
gonna always do what's right. Consistency is the key to everything.
And if if everybody can touch the glitter and a
glim everybody will have it.

Speaker 3 (43:54):
But it takes a struggle to get there.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
And I feel like God designed that for a reason
so you can be able to suspect, ain't at and
grab your abundance when you make it there to continue
to grow. But you know, sometimes people feel just not
in relationships, I fall out of love or it's not
there and it's like, well, remember what got you there?

Speaker 1 (44:11):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
You shouldn't have to have anybody to convince you of
something that you once loved. Surgeons don't want to show
up every day they make millionaires, don't want to perform
every day, you know what I'm saying, but they do
it until they get their breakthrough.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
And what kept me going and what still keeps me
going is.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
For one, I know what it feels like not to
have anybody to talk to or to understand me, or
to understand like the whole overall thing that I'm going through.
So when I see these messages from my supporters and
my warriors, that keeps me going because I'm not just
doing this for me, that's selfish, right, I'm doing this
for the world to understand that you can live healthy

(44:52):
with in invisible illnesses.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
These are the things that you have to do.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
And it's hard as to why everybody don't live well
with UPI's because you have to be consistent and your
whole overall lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
And that's why I say people like you are important.
That was literally almost probably fifty percent of what I
pitched to you to start your podcast. To begin with
and as you can see, every single day you got
new listeners, you got new followers. I was doing research
the other day, and you're the only active Loopis podcast
that is consistently recording in twenty twenty five. So most

(45:26):
of your podcasts that you see out here right now,
that's old material. Those are people who stop doing it.
Those are people who fell out of love of doing
it because a lot of them was doing it for themselves.
They were telling their story, they were talking about their things,
and after a while they started feeling like it was
becoming repetitive, so they didn't want to talk about it
no more. Whereas in you, you don't do it for you.

(45:47):
Your warriors had come on to the show almost every
last one of oh this is my first time being
on the podcast. That moment means something to them. They
got heard. There is somebody listening, whether that person listening
is just you and me or all the people who's
going back rewatching the replays or anything like that. You
just affected and changed somebody. You just had somebody on

(46:09):
your show. Was it last week two weeks ago where
because of your show, her brand blew up? Yeah? You
know what I'm saying. So these kind of impacts literally
every single day drives you the simple fact that somebody
in North Carolina who you ain't never seen before in
your life was affected by you. Okay, then you got

(46:30):
people all the way in California. You got people in
loopus groups who I'm just depressed. How am I supposed
to live well with lupus? When I tell you your
name shows up, they just tagging you left and right,
People asking you, People want to know what you're doing,
People signing up for your classes, people coming to your website,

(46:52):
people buying your wellness book. People are investing in what
you have to sit. You are no longer Savannah Burks girl.
You are Savannah Birks the brand. To a lot of them.
You are their advocate and that's what they listen for.
So at the end of the day, the only reason
why you not doing this no more is because God

(47:14):
took the ability from you, and that knowing you, then
you're just gonna be blogging Facebook somewhere in the community.
You're gonna be doing something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
They definitely keep me going, and I'm so there's there's
there's not a moment where I'm not proud of the
community because you guys, if you follow my store, you
understand what it took me to even get here. And
sometimes I don't be willing to do this, but I
think about you, guys, and I feel like I know

(47:47):
I have to show it for you guys, because it's important.
And don't get me wrong, it's so overwhelming, but I'm
so blessed to be overwhelmed with all of this work
because soon I will have a team that will be
able to manage all of the messages that I'm getting
with out of delays. So just work with me, you guys.
I am getting to everything. It just takes me a

(48:08):
little bit of time because my team is not that big.
But just know I'm seeing you and I'm going to
respond back to you, and we're evolving the brand too.
It's gonna be more more interaction.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
It's gonna start feeling a lot more personal in regards
to it, so you're not just only having conversation and
answering questions. We're gonna help you live well with lupis
for sure.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Let's move on to invisible illness awareness. How has my
loopers journey influenced the way you see partnership patients and productivity, productivity.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
All right, So my ex is gonna yell at me
for this answer. You actually taught me more about lupus
that makes me look at invisible illness as as a whole.
That has given me so much patience when dealing with people.
The one thing I also love about you is you
are a person of your word. So when you say

(49:08):
something is damn near law. Okay, So when you tell
me I'm not feeling well, my nervous system is doing this.
My back is this way, my shoulder is here. I
can't go outside in the sun without my big hat.
I need this blanket, I need this. You got to
put this tend up in the beginning, Yeah, where you

(49:29):
were probably a need ass girlfriend who I wasn't getting nothing,
no benefits from. Okay, this is a girlfriend who you
just got born into. Right. But over time, as we've
been doing these episodes, and I've been doing my research
or topics, because to build the episodes, we build them together.

(49:50):
So you'll be like, hey, I want to talk about
lupis and music. Okay, let's make this happen. What what
do you want to do? What's the object? Who's the person?
Let's talk about this let's do the research. As I'm
researching the guests and researching the topics, I'm learning more
about it, and I'm seeing and hearing how so many
different people are dealing with it that I became a

(50:11):
lot gentler with you, okay, because who you talking to
is your phrase, But it's damn sure was in my
mind a lot like this girl, like you know, I'm
gonna throw her. If I can throw her, I would.
But over time, as I got to learn like no tone,

(50:31):
she got lupus. And the reason why I say my
ex is gonna be mad at me about this conversation
was she would do the same things and I would think,
you just playing, You're just making excuse, you're just being needy,
you're doing winy, you don't want to do the stuff
that you're supposed to do. You're not handling your business
as a person, and now you want me to carry
your load plus my load. And I wasn't for to

(50:54):
do that. So even though that wasn't the reason why
we broke up, it definitely costs a lot of unnecessary
in the relationship. And had I known you back then,
I definitely would have been a lot gentler with her
and I would have understood her situation a lot more.
And because of that, I'm starting to notice that I
know more people with lupus than I did, just like

(51:15):
I know too many damn levers. I know a lot
of people with lupus, and that's why I threw the
shot real quick. But because of that, i'd listen to
them and just like how you like we said about
your show, how people feel hurt when someone says, hey,
what do you know about lupus? And I run it
down to them, I was like, oh, oh you know, no, okay,

(51:38):
you want to you know what, I'm not the best
person for this. Let me go ahead and give it
to Savannah. Here. This is where you can reach her
at is lh NF twenty twenty on. All the things
go ahead and I tag you up. This the person
you want to talk to, like me and my mom
rest in peace. Prior to before she passed, she was

(52:00):
watching one of your episodes. I don't even remember what
the episode was, but she was watching one of your
episodes and she was like, you know, you know your
mama had loopis. I'm like, no, she didn't, cause I'm
like in my head, like I've been around my mama
all her life, like she did not have any signs
of lupis. But then I just like, tone, you don't
know what signs are. It's different than everybody. It's like, okay,

(52:22):
step back. I listened. So while I'm sitting here talking
to the lady from Loopus of America and she's sitting
here talking and all of a sudden, rhumatory artritis came
up in my head. I was like, damn, subyn to
talk about that all the time, and that was usually
one or two go to there, Damn mama did have lupus.
Because now I'm correlating the behaviors of some of the

(52:43):
things that she went through and some of the symptoms
and some of the things, and in fact, it in
the rheumato her offritis, which is another invisible illness. And
I'm going down the list and I'm like, Damn, mama
did have lupus. My grandmother had lupus. I knew nothing
about it. Now, taking consideration, this is a year old woman,
so Lord knows if anybody knew what lupus was at

(53:04):
the time, but she found out about it, and a
lot of things that remind me of my grandmother about you.
I can see how. And I'm not saying it's because
of the LOOPIS, but I'm starting to see a lot
like no, Mama used to do that. Okay, damn Mama

(53:25):
had LOOPIS and now it just it keeps rolling in
my head. So because of that, I'm a lot gentler
with people. I don't care what you say that your
illness is whether you have sickle cell down syndrome five
of my algorithmatorios writer sl Lee, you know, neurobysy, whatever
you have. I'm listening now.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Yeah, That's why I always telling people. People ask me like, well,
how is your child, I'm like, well, you tell me
how my show was, or they be asking me and
I'm like, well, you go read it, because I feel
like some people don't understand it unless they read it.
Don't ask me unless I'm presenting it. But I need
for you to go and you come back to me
and tell of your understanding of it. Just like you
said you had an ex with loops and you never

(54:06):
understood because you never took out the time to educate yourself.
Now where you're educating with me for somebody that I haven't,
It's like you have a whole different outlook on it.
I do so apologize, So I just tell people like,
go read it yourself and then you can come back
to me and let me know.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
Like it's to the point. And just to tie back
into the friendship, I can tell when your loop is
affecting you on screen, like I can tell the episodes
where you're you're going through something and your body is
bothering you, or your nerves are off, or your neck
is hurting because of this, or we just got done
having an event, and I can tell how your skin

(54:43):
is a little bit irritated in regards. So I can
spot all those things now. And because of that, I
can look, I can go back to episode eight months
ago and it'll be like, right there, your shoulder was
bothering you that day.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Yeah, And then it's good for you to be about
what's wrong. You don't sit there around your people that's
supposed to love you. Should be very vocal. If they
don't understand, they don't understand, But you should be very
vocal around people around you because you may need some help,
may or may not, but at least say they know
they know before working with me, how much did you
know about lupis or invisible illness in general.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Okay, so five of my algia I knew a lot
about because I had a show here on the network
called Black Girl with Fibro, So kind of just like
how often or not you talk about living well with
lupis in regards to your show, she often not talked
about navigating with fibro, so I had a little a
little bit of understanding of that in regards to it.

(55:42):
Then when you look at people with sickle cell, sickle
cell is probably the most known invisible illness that most
people talk about, because there's always somebody famous that suffers
from sickle cell in regards to it. But as I
just said in the story before, when it came to
loopis ya just making it up? It's how I looked
at it. That's how everybody looked at it. They don't understand,

(56:06):
and because it affects everybody differently, Like my sister Mimi
has lupus, the host of Postally Awkward, and I got
to remind myself she has lupus, because nothing about how
she navigates an everyday life, even while she's pregnant right now,
shows any sign that lupus has ever been there. So

(56:27):
if Mimi was supposed to be my representation of what
loopus looked like, y'all, Nigga's lying is what would be
in my head. But then you turn around and you
look at let's say Anita, one of your guests that
you had on your show, who she's constantly battling with it.
Often like I think, for a brief moment of time,

(56:48):
she was more in the hospital than she was out
the hospital for a moment in time. If she was
my first representation of what it looked like, I'd be like, ooh,
I never want to have that. But that's not always
the case for everybody, because then you look at you,
which is the whole reason why your organization is called
what it is is you don't look like you have
loopis for sure, so what is it supposed to look like?

(57:12):
This is the reason why it's called invisible. So I've
had interactions with so many people with lupus and so
many different aspects, but because everybody's is different and I
didn't have the knowledge to kind of be sympathetic to it,
I really didn't care about it.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Education is key. You want to read some of those
comments on.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
The screen, I'll try, because I ain't.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
Got my DJ. Hey DJ, that's my DJ, he said,
and I set up.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Thank you, my god. Bro. You know, like I say,
I'm always trying to evolve me. But this one right here,
she gotta she gotta have her own little glamor, her
glamorous look to her things. So this is this is
kind of thing right there. I think somebody just gave
us hearts. On the other one, I gotta get up
to move the mouse. People, y'all gotta forgive me. I'm
used to being over there. So there's a lot of
stuff going on here that I can't do. And then

(58:01):
I can't see that's Walter.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah, I remember he was out with us family. Oh yeah,
hey what thank you for tuning in.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
But oh no, thank you opportuning in. We got our
regulars that always show up. We got people live on
TikTok with us today listening to this beautiful conversation. Uh,
you're dope, Well thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
It takes it takes a team to make somebody well,
I know I'm dope, but to you know, bring the
dopeness into the organization and the community and have people
look at us like, y'all really dope.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
It takes the team for us to be done.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
A question for you, I ain't done.

Speaker 3 (58:38):
Do you see this what I'm saying? I have a friend?

Speaker 1 (58:40):
What do you want?

Speaker 3 (58:41):
What's your question?

Speaker 1 (58:42):
What made you want to work with me? Because I
came to you with the idea of starting a podcast.
But what made you say let's do this?

Speaker 3 (58:49):
Because it made sense?

Speaker 2 (58:50):
Okay, and I can understand it, and I could see
it and go and I can see a whole lot
of other host of things. And I did my research
on YouTube, so hold the trust was there.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
I hope you did their research because I'm research.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Because I'm not. You know a lot of people. It's
very red.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
It's only a hand few of people that can just
tell me what to do, and I listen. But I
know the people that can tell me what to do.
I know they have my best interests at heart.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
So I've watched people try to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
That made me seem like I'm just a competitive president.
You know what they talking about.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
You're not a compatitive person. But those people who know
Savannah know Savannah, and she's gonna let you know how
she feels, and she does it out of love. She
just can be aggressive with it. I still love her.
Thought So let me ask you this question. From the
minute we first initially sat down and started having a
conversation about business to where we are today, have I
brung any of your dreams that you want to to fruition?

(59:48):
And are there any things that we started that we
should have did that we kind of dropped that you
wish we would pick back up.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
Yes, So what I envisioned, you definitely did it the
things that I wanted. You definitely presented it with the
nice amount of time. Sure how it looked in my mind,
you brought it to light.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
So I like that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
I like how if I say.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Something, you listen to me to the point where it's
like you get it right on the first time. Yes,
in the beginning we had our kind of like no,
go back and do this, and go back and do this,
but you you knew where you were going. You were
driving in the right direction. Now it's just like, oh, okay,
let me just read it. You know what I'm saying, Like, Okay,
it looks good, let me just let me just read.

(01:00:36):
But no, you brought everything and everything that I came
to you about. Even though we go back and forth
our trustional judgment, it's being what it's supposed to be
what was supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
I wouldn't want to do business with you. We can't
go back and forth.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Yeah, I won't know yes person, because you're going to
irritate me.

Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
No. No, And I say the same thing too. And
the reason why is because that's where createstivity comes into play.
At that is where new ideas can be formed. Because
if we're all just saying this is what I like, Okay,
I'm okay with that, I'm not going to give you
the effort because I feel like you're not giving me
the effort. I feel like you're just saying yes because
you're getting something that you want, but you're not getting

(01:01:17):
it the way you want. If you can't come back
and say, mmm, I like that purple, but I want
a different purple. It may be irritating, but I get
where you're going with it because now it makes me
have to look at it from a different color. So
now here's this color that I was gonna use. I
was like, but I like this color, you know what,
let me go make something else with this color. And
then next thing, you know what, a whole new design changed.

(01:01:40):
Because I remember when I first started making your marketing material.
I kept it purple, that master logo, I kept the
lettering simple. I just put the words up there. I
might throw your photo up there because I always loved
the cocoon one and that was it. Boom, put it
out there. You gotta show start it. Then I was like, hmm, nah,
you got this person on there, let's do this instead. Ooh,

(01:02:02):
we got a musician. Let's throw this in the background instead.
To the point whereas now is like I got people
who don't even know who made your marketing material praising
your marketing material while sitting right in front of me,
knowing I didn't know that I'm the one that did it.
And I love to hear that because you allow me
to be creatively free, and not everybody can do not

(01:02:24):
everybody does that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
And so yeah, you took the words out of my mom.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
I have to have some type of control created when
it comes to me, and you allow me to have that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:32):
So I allow you to have that because you're good
at what you do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
I'm not a person, you know, like just prime example,
if you go in and like, I want my nails
exactly like this, or I want my hair exactly like this.
If you didn't go to the person that created that hairstyle,
It's gonna be a little different. So I feel like
you have to let that person telling what you want,
let that person create it in their mind and they
way that they know how to create it, and then
you just go back and forth. But I haven't been

(01:02:58):
disappointed all especially with the new project that's coming. It's
literally blowing me away. So I'm excited for.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
All away because I push it to the limit. No,
the reason why I'm excited about it is because the
one thing about loopis has no face compared to any
other products I've ever had to work with, is you
have five years of consistent material that I can build

(01:03:26):
your idea off of. Like, it's not you just wanted
to make candles one day and you came up with
five different flavors because this was on sale on st No,
you legitimately have everything in alignment that everything makes sense
with the next sting. You keep your verbiage consistent across
the board, You keep your mission front and center in

(01:03:49):
regards to how you present everything, so it makes it
easier for me to understand what the goal is, what
the vision is. So once I put the platform together,
of this. What Lupas has no face means this is
what she's trying to do. Now let me put my
razzle dazzle on it. Now, let me it's like, mmm,
that course is cool, but I know her. She can

(01:04:12):
talk through thirty minutes of material and we still on
the intro. Let's flush this out. It's no longer a
one hour course. It's a three hour course. It's two
hour course. But if it's three hours, it's a four
week long course. If it's two hours, it's a six
week long course. Now in your head be like, I
don't want to talk to these people for this long.
But then you look at us like, I see what

(01:04:34):
you did here, I see where this is going. Okay,
now we can do this. Hey, I wanted to do this,
but I never thought about how to get there. And
now we're here. So now you'll be like, Savannah, go
put your brand on it, put your sprinkle on it,
and then you bring it back to me. What was
a six week course now an eight week course. Now

(01:04:54):
it's a three month seminar. Like now it's it grew
from a Hey, I just want to talk to you
about eating well too. Now we're gonna change your life.

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
I know you get the journey right now.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
We're in there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
Because I know, like you gotta grow with your business.
You know what I'm saying. I love the fact that
I seek myself grow from day one, from year one,
I want to say, and that's that's that's dope to me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
It is because I went back and I looked at
year one you and I'm just like, ooh, I don't
know who that is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Don't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
I don't know who that is. But this this butterfly
that's to me right now, that's not the same one
that was there year one.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
But listen, I was doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, believe it
or not. Because if you if you one thing I
always do, you're you just got done with your first year,
so you still got fresh material where you can remember
when you recorded this episode. But every once in a
while in April, I go back and I listen to
the very first episode of the Death Fresh Show. Okay,

(01:05:59):
what I listen to how the audio sounds. I listened to,
how the conversation was. I listened to how chaotic it is.
I listened to how many times I use profanity. I
listen to how Mimi changed the whole dynamic of the episode.
I do it every single year because it reminds me, like, Yo,
we're fifteen years later and now listen Death Fresh show

(01:06:19):
is still chaotic, it's still a mess, but there's so
much more structure there. There's so much better conversation there.
There's so much growth and not only the show itself,
but how we talk, what we talk about, how in
debt we are in regards to that. Even within your
sixty six episodes, you've done me and you just kind

(01:06:42):
of looked at your first episode.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Yeah, I feel like you always got to have an opener, middle,
and closer. I feel like that's the only way that
I will listen to a podcast, And it makes sense you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
I don't listen.

Speaker 3 (01:06:53):
I don't like listen to podcasts all over the place.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
That's just me. I don't like it. I don't like
too long of a podcast because I lose my interest.
It's something that I'm learning, But that's just me. That's
the podcaster that I.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Am, and that's the way the podcast world is where
you can find what you like.

Speaker 3 (01:07:07):
Yeah, for sure, everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
How do you balance showing compassion without making someone feel
like they're being pitied.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Sweet, short and simple, one oh easy. Your communication style
makes the biggest difference. I happen to work a nine
to five job where abrasiveness seems to be the only
way people listen. But there's those rare moments where you
have to put some compassion in it. You have to stop,

(01:07:38):
you have to speak to them in a way that
they feel hurt because this is a safe space. Every time,
and you do an episode after the episode, if life
is not life in we have a conversation about it
for sure. Okay, in that conversation, there's a little bit
of all that there. We like, this is the episode,

(01:07:58):
this is what I thought about it, this is what
you need to work on, this is what was good.
And then there's those ones like come here, you need
a hug and a forehead kiss because that episode kind
of kind of went a little deep there, And then
we would have a con this is what I loved
about it. This is where you improved, You did your
your thing here. This is where we got to get
back to and even get to the point where it

(01:08:19):
be like, well, what do you think about the episode?
It was one of your best episodes yet you said
that last week. Yeah, until this episode came out. Yeah,
like this one was the best one. So it's that
you gotta have empathy, you gotta have compassion. You got
to read the room and you could be honest but
not be an asshole.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
Yeah, because that's the only way your person is gone through.
So for sure I appreciate that too.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
For real, have there been moments where us to pivot
in our work together? And what did you learn from
the host moments?

Speaker 1 (01:08:52):
What? Okay? So Savannah M Burks, I don't know what
the M stand for. Where we're gonna put it right
there for now, I'm not gonna put your real initial.
But Savannah M Birks does not listen with her mind
is set on something. Okay. I love her for that.

(01:09:17):
But when Loopis is looping, I often tell her take
your ass home, rest, relax, get yourself together. No no, no, no no,
I gotta I gotta do this. I gotta go do
this now. I don't want to miss this. I gotta go,
you know, I gotta show what it at go home
because is loopid? Okay, Okay, I'm gonna I just don't

(01:09:41):
feel okay, I'm gonna go home. Text me when you
get home, because that's what I do for my friends.
Let me know you made it home safely. She'll text
me home. I open up my phone the next day.
It's a small little video a Savannah at the place
that she was supposed to stay home from. I just

(01:10:01):
I couldn't stay home. I just had to. I just
was just there for an hour. How do you feel?
I feel like my body hands on my head up.
What were you supposed to do? I know you said
go home, but I had to.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Support is very important for me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
I have tried, I do try my best to support
all of my friends, and I told you people that's
doing things.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
But sometimes so this is.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
A friend in me talking to the friend in you. Okay,
there are sometimes where the people who love you and
support you, Yeah, for sure know you. They know your flairs,
they know your loopis, they know your intentions, they know
your heart. So if you want to show up and support,

(01:10:47):
you can easily text them the girl. I want to
come out, but I think I'm having a loopus flare
up right now. And you know what they're gonna say, girl,
It's okay. We can get together next week. We can
show up at Brown. He can do that I.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Know that is true, but you know, it's just people
be wanting to see you and I and I know that,
so that's you know, But I did slow down. I
have slowed down a lot. But I've been watching my friends.
I've been watching y'all. Y'all been doing y'all thing for sure,
So I'm gonna start back popping out supporting again.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
And we're not mad at you. It's a youthing, and
I know that, and I'm it's to the point where
I get it that I don't even get upset no more.
I just I've gotten to the point as your friend.
When I know you, you're you're supposed to be going
home to have a flare up. I would rather you
text me. It's a tone, don't be mad at me.

(01:11:41):
But I can't. I cannot not go support insert person
here because either one or two things is gonna happen.
Text me when you get there, let me know, you say,
text me when you get home, or all right, I'm
about to pull up because I know you already not
feeling good, So to put you in this environment without
knowing that nobody is keeping tabs on you in how

(01:12:05):
you are feeling and how your body is because you'll
hit you'll hit the hookah and you'll get your zone
and you'll lose all feeling and next thing you know,
the next day your hole spine. You can't get out
to bed, and we can't be having that because you
got you got a four thirty flight. You gotta catch.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
Man it flights me. We are gonna talk about that.
So it's said, what a vent?

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
What advice would you give to others who may be
supporting a business partnership or friends living within invisible illness?

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Believable? Yeah, at the end of the day, believe them,
Like I don't care what they say. Believe them because
until you are in their actual shoes and feeling with
their feelings, you can't understand it, Like a lot of
people don't understand. Like to have an illness that's typically

(01:13:01):
affects your nervous system, that's something that not everybody can experience.
You can bump your knees, and that feeling you get
from bumping your knee, you fill it in that moment.
But for somebody with an invisible illness like fibro or loopis,
that moment may resonate to the whole leg, to the
whole body, and it may be there for a while,

(01:13:23):
it may not go away. They could just be doing
regular everyday things, and now you have this whole feeling
of small little electric shocks under your skin that you
cannot scratch, constantly going on, and you can't stop it.
You can't take anything for it, you can't do anything,
and it sometimes can be immobilizing where you're in the

(01:13:46):
bed all day and there's nothing you can do about it.
You just have to accept the fact that you're stuck
in the bed that day, so you gotta figure out
work around. So if somebody was supposed to come out
that night and they tell you, hey, I can't make it.
I'm feeling well, believe them. Don't have a big deal
about it. Don't get mac she said she was gonna
come out, She'll never show up. No, just believe them.

(01:14:07):
Matter fact. If it's a friend that you cared dearly
about and she's comfortable with you being in her safe space,
pivot for sure, girl, were coming over and watching movies
at your house instead? What you want to watch home
alone again, even though it's July. We'll watch home alone.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
If you could leave our listeners with one message about
friendship business or resilience, So what would it be.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
You gotta treat every relationship like the same thing. Make
sure you're on the same common ground in regards for
the thought process. Communication is key. I know we say
communication is a key in relationship, but you got to
remember every single ship is a relationship. Your business ship,
your partnership, your friendship. All these ships sell off of communication.
There's no way that this ship can go from Africa

(01:14:55):
to America if they're not talking to anybody else in
the water. To avoid mistakes be happening, judge people based
off of what they do as well as what they say.
Because I can tell Savannah ABCD is going on this weekend,
if she has something going on, she's gonna tell you.

(01:15:16):
Hold on, wait a minute, what days are these again?
Don't get mad, girl, I just told you last week
we're doing this. No, just tell it to her again.
Brain fog is real, not just for lopers, because the
hell I haven't I got brain from hanging out with her.
Sometimes make me think I got loopers because see a
lot of stuff she'd be dealing with. I'll be like,
I just had that last week. But I also think

(01:15:37):
because we tether it, because we so tight. Things that
happened to her happened to me. I'll be knowing when
she'd be having a bad day, and I'd be all
the way in like Cleveland, and I be knowing, be
like I'm having a bad day, and I pick up
the phone and call her, what's going on with you?
And she'd be they doing this and my client won't
listen to Okay, that's why I'm having a bad day. Okay,
let's figure out what your situation is, because then my
day will clear up. But believe your friends. Trust your friends.

(01:16:00):
Learn to make safe spaces that you guys can communicate
about personal and business. And please try to avoid mixing
the two. One thing me and Savannah used to do
a lot. We don't need to do it as much
as we used to, but we would literally have to
break our messages up mid conversation so we understand what's
going where? Business? Did you take care of this? This

(01:16:21):
and that? Personal? I want to go such and such
after we record business. We took care of that. That's
already check the calendar. You should have got an email.
I also make sure I attach you this right here
dot dot dot personal. Look, I only got ABCD on
me right now, but we can swing in if you
want to. No big deal, dot dot dot. How are

(01:16:42):
you feeling? Period? Business? Personal? Business? This day is over what?
I hate it? Personal? My back is bothering me, and
I think such and such and I think I was
outside in the sun too long. Dot dot dot. Okay,
get sunscreened, do this, do that, Make sure you were
your bit cast, make sure you got your water. Business.

(01:17:05):
I didn't do it like. That's literally our that used
to be our conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
But we got we gotta hang of it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
We gotta hang of it now. It was like, are
we talking, We'll talk business first and then girl, let
me tell you about these people at work. And that's
literally how it is now. But yeah, you gotta create
those boundaries. I fucking love you for reintroducing the necessity
of boundaries because a lot of times, as friends who

(01:17:39):
are doing business, people don't know how to separate the two,
and more importantly, people don't know how to respect them,
and that causes an unnecessary conflict. It'd be like, I
give one great example for the listeners. Savannah and me,
we have a language impersonal, that we can play with
each other. We can talk with each other but when

(01:18:00):
we're out in public and it's a situation where Savannah
is in business mode, I have to cut all that off,
and I can only address her in a certain way,
and I can only talk to her in a certain way,
and I can only respond to her in a certain way.
And in the beginning I used to be like, who
the hell are you talking to you? Like that? Right?
But then when the light switch of the importancy of

(01:18:22):
management and the importancy of representation came into play, and
she like looked tone, I understand Woo's but I don't
like when you do this. I don't like with this
when I'm around these people. This is how And I'm like,
what box are you trying to put me in? Because
I'm not feeling it. But then it clicked in my head,
Savannah Birks, the brand is present right now, not glam

(01:18:45):
Girl Vanna. So when glam Girl Vanna is present, your
ore is a little bit different. Sure, so because of that,
you got to learn that. And the thing about you
is because you're always in business mode, Van of Burk's,
the brand is always present. You gotta earn glam girl. Sure.

(01:19:06):
So that means that I don't care how many friends
we have in common, ninety percent of them only sees
the brand of you. Yeah, for sure, okay, and I
have to learn that. Whereas in these same ninety friends,
these same group of friends, they see Ton before they
see Antonio. So I have to learn how to switch
those two. Yeah, I have to learn how to switch

(01:19:27):
those two when we're in these environments. And I have
to minimize certain conversations or wait until we have our
personal space in this business place to have those moments.
Once those moments have been had, and I got that, Okay,
I kind of mess with you right now out my system.
We back in Molde, we work in the room, you
over here, I'm over here, and before you know it,

(01:19:49):
we just got five new clients for sure. And then
we come back, get our playful moment, we joke, and
then we go back. I have to learn that with you.
I have to learn that. Well.

Speaker 3 (01:20:00):
So this was only supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
On show.

Speaker 2 (01:20:05):
It's only wanted to be one show, but we're gonna
have another show. So we're gonna do a part two.
Because we did not cover we did not cover growth
and legacy fund lighting questions, and we did not cover
business partnership dynamics. So I'm going to have you on
here for part two, so I don't know, maybe a conversation,

(01:20:29):
so we'll see who knows. But thank you so much
for being on the show. I really appreciate that this
is a dope conversation. You guys already know what time
it is. If you missed the live please go to
on face podcast like sharing, subscribe, you respond, or you comment,
we respond back until next time.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
See you later.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
I gotta get up to do this, producer and.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Guess at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Five

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