DESTORM POWER - That's Not A Sandwich?!

get one of these when you're broke. You have to actually start making money, which I decided to do in life, and then I decided to get me a podcast from So this is why I shoot all of the music and all the podcasts and videos. If we walk over here inside this door, if I showed you what was in here, I'd had to kill you. So over and here if you want here. This was a garage, but I decided to turn this into the set of the Retro Show. It's really beautiful. I'm shooting my new series

Everything Wretch. Well everything eighties, nineties and two thousand's happened on the Retro Show set. Now, most people they use this room as a garage, but fun that every room in your house has to be usable space. This is my illustrious UH Trophy and slash metal case by the way. Today, actually I got two new nominations for UM the Streaming Awards. The Streaming Awards is the biggest awards show for any type of digital content. I just got two new nominations.

That's kind of dope. I got four streams. I've been nominated ever since. Streaming has actually used to look like this, y'all. They was shaped like bubble gum rappers, but they're not like that. This is my Emmy nomination. That's my YouTube when I hit a million back in twenty eleven. Now as we come into here, this is all my dining area, all the artwork I did that art piece right there, that's my artwork. And as we swing around, as I swing around here, this is my kitchen. And this is

where we're gonna actually shoot eating while broke. And this actually kitchen right here. This is actually an amazing in kitchen. I need to do something with it. Now let me swing on around this way. You have my living room area right here. This area is used a lot. I don't know how big this TV is. I think it's like, I just say, give me a TV that's bigger than me. And I think they they successfully pulled that off, because when you broke, you don't get none of this stuff.

So you get all the ship that you want when you actually become somebody. And I said, if I'm longer than the TV, I don't want it. This is the biggest selfie mirror in the world right here, by the way. I figured. I just grabbed one of these and put my hands and I don't even like taking pictures. I just had it because I got a lot of female friends and girls like taking picture, so I got it for them. I don't use it. Actually, nine in the house I don't use, by the way. So we're gonna

go upstairs. This is artwork right here by my boy Don Benjamin. Right here you get the artwork on the wall. This piece of artwork was done by me. Piece of artwork on that room, my friendly am Viva the artwork. We don't say master bedroom anymore because black lives matter and we don't have masters anymore. So this is the premier bedroom. I decided that I was gonna put a share and end the leer in the bedroom, which was

pretty cool. I like colors. Designed it all myself. I like the black and white effect that we brought to the room. I think it's really cool. And and this is my closet. It's it's a walk in closet because growing up, I think my closet stopped about here, but now I can actually walk back about twenty ft to actually have a closet with some some good space. Don't get a big closet because it's actually I don't even use a lot of the things in here, A lot of shoes and stuff like, I just don't use it.

I got my affirmations, my twelve month ago affirmations on the on the wall. I gotta get five million in the bank or my Facebook accounts see my family and friends more because I don't see them much. I gotta sell two projects. I gotta released four new songs. I gotta reinvest in crypto. I got a lot of things that I have to do. Uh, let me see there's anything on here that's believable. I gotta get my podcast

to a hundred thousand. I gotta direct four projects. And I gotta win an Emmy Award because I only have a nomination there. So that's that's my actual goals on the window as we work our way to this bathroom here. This bathroom right here is the only bathroom place in my house that has color. So I decided to make it every color in the rainbow without saying gay. I love gay, but I didn't want it to be gay. I wanted to be like colorful, you know what I'm saying.

And this is what I came up with. When I put every color in this bathroom right here, I thought it was pretty damn cool. Then across adjacent to this, right across from there, you have the theater. So if you step into the theater room, uh, you gotta have a theater. So I decided to make this just in case I want to make some premiers or something. So I put a theater upstairs with a couple of shows that I did on the walls there. I thought that

was pretty cool. This is a really important room because this room right here is every prop that we pretty much use. I gotta needify it. But we have everything from choir outfits to ban outfits. We have every mask you can think of, every color wig that you can think of, every hat, every top, we have cop outfits. We have tactical wear. We have skeletons, everything that you need for any type of comedy sketch that we collected over the years. We put them all into this this

this closet right here. So that's basically I don't go to party city anymore. I just go into this closet if I need something for a sketch. I think I'm gonna expand a little more when I get a chance. And uh, thanks for coming to my Oh one more thing. When you get a house, you've gotta have a book that you can pull that leads you into a club room. Right, so this is my uh I like to call this the boom Boom room, and this is where we have the pole and the things that go down. Whenever you

get a home of your own. Yeah, so you gotta have a bone bone room. I don't even know you had this. I can't believe this a theater, a secret room, and all I do is push weights in your backyard. I would have been brought you upstairs. I don't even use the rooms in here. I told you I only use temper Center the house. We only watched two movies in there. I definitely don't use the boom boom room unless someone wants to come in and spend on the poe.

You want to spend on the boat? No, I'm good, I'm good, But I want you to cook something to eat and tell us some of this behind the scenes of how you acquired all this. So why can you know? Maybe howse sit sometimes? Come on, you should have said it to that camera camera. Welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. Today we decided to step outside of the podcast studio and into someone's house. Whose house they

Storm Power's House, entrepreneurs, social media mogul. Here we are about to eat probably one of the brokest dishes of the season. So the broker the dish, probably the better the story. So the question is, day Storm, what are you gonna have us eating today? I'm gonna have us eating syrup soudes. Now, there's a science to the syrup sundwich. It has two ingredients. So you have your bread. This is for you, thank you, This is for me than we in the hood now right, yeah, and a mansion

in the hood we share and you have your syrup. Okay, that's it. So do you want me to make yeah? Make one? Okay, this is how you make a syrup sundwich here I thought we would need. How you're done, Damn, I'm very impressed with your that's it. So now you just folded. I'll make me one bone like that, and you you do, you do this angle? You can. But what I do is I just take it and I just you folded a half. We don't get two pieces of bread. No, because you have family. Family has to

eat too. Don't be standy. So you take it, you fold it in a half. Yeah, and then and then you eat it. Yeah, you eat it from the back because you've got to save the ends for dinner. Is this real? You save the ends for dinner? Yeah, well you can just you can just feel them off. Some people just like to put its pretty good because the ends are different. They have a different flavor to them, you know. So you pick the edges and that's like

a totally different meal. Maybe if the middle is too sweet, maybe you use it to like soften the blow up the sweetness. No, because you just take the sweetness. I mean, look how the food comber. So therefore you don't have to worry about eating in the next day. Oh my god, that's a lot. I don't even I can't believe you just to eat this. It's crazy. I'm sorry. I don't know if it's just too much syrup, but I'm surprised you made it to live. So that's where didn't this

dish come from? Like what happened? What was going on at the time when you guys were consuming dinner ends? I think I think what happens is you run out of food. So that's where it starts. Know what? Um So we ran out of food and my mother knew someone who worked at the super market. At most supermarkets around the country, what they do with the bread that they don't usually throw it out, So because she had to connect, they would throw the bread out behind the supermarket.

So we would just go and get the left over bread and then the certain we could just get that from McDonald's. We could get that from you know, KFC or any place. You know they have little surf packets. So do you take the serve package with the with the leftover bread, You've got something ill storm you were seriously that broke obviously, I mean, yeah, you know, how do you come from syrup sandwiches to please? Can I move in with you? It sounds amazing. This is just

for the set a lot. It was just a lot of work, a lot of a lot of faith, a lot of work. And I had a plan hit it all in my head. You had a plan. But in that environment, sitting there with your siblings, how many siblings did you have? I have seven siblings, so there's eight of us, and so was my mother. The eight of us, my two cousins. My cousin had a child, so it's about thirteen of us in one So one loaf of

bread last, one meal. I would assume dinner, we grab a couple of loaves and if he was lucky to get some bagels bagels last, because they thinker you get the bagels, bagels more dents. So if you get if you get the bagels, good for two days. What I love about your story is the fact that I can honestly say I was never this broke, and the fact that in your house, I'm assuming, did you guys see yourselves as poor or broke? No, it was cool and it was cool. We didn't. I think I think it's

about who your parents is, right. My mother and never let us realized we were broke, because she would go to the drift stores and get us like a little puzzles and things to keep us busy while she would work in things. So we would have little odd jobs here and there, and she just kept us busy with what we did. So we never even thought about it being broke until someone like you brought it up there and this was the del I'm sorry, this was this is the new pancake dinner. Um, so what was the

last time you eat this day? Um, it's been years. I haven't had I haven't had bread in in years. I don't need bread or right or any of that. Definitely don't need to serve classified. This is unhealthy. This is very unhealthy. I don't I don't need that all kind of Once you learn about nutrition, you don't touch this stuff. But back then you have to survive. You eat. I take a whole load of I had to. So when you're eating this, you're saying you knew you always

had a plan. When did that plan hit you? I think the plan hit me when I um me and my brothers put it. We had a song that hit the radio in Baltimore, and we did in Bostibore. They have their own thing. They have club music. It's like DC has Gogol Music and Chicago has their own music. So we had made a song and it hit the

radio and I knew. My mother said, wow, if you even make it, heaven think it anyway, go to New York and then we do a little party and then I just packed up you know the clips that we all pitched in for, and I joke to New York. Um, it was scary, but I knew. I knew once I got because I knew this one. I was doing all these jobs. I was doing forty fifty drops with different DJs around the treat. This is when the internet was

like brand new. And then this dude he worked over and I think Bad Boy Records, and he was like, YEO want you to come out to New York And so I said, I believe them. So I kind of drove out to New York. I just took the drove. I drove to Harlem when I was like eighteen years old. I'm guessing you didn't have a lot of money. I don't have any money, So you drive there, you have enough to pay for gas. I had enough to pay for gas and um, so when I got there, UM,

there was this website called sublet dot com. So when sublet dot com, I was leasing out this crackheads bedroom. She was she was cracking and all, and she would lease out of bar room. But she had a pimp. So eventually I wasn't able to pay his rent. So the pimp came to the door and he kicked me out of her apartment. So then eventually I had to live in my car. So then from my car, I was and I was singing in the subway for money. So you know in New York, you know, you know,

I know the hustle. Yeah, So I was singing the subway and wrapping the subway so they would put money in my hat. So I and I would use that money to eat it too, paper gas because I needed heat, and the eating the car because the wintertime. Yeah, and winners in New York, you know. Joke. So did you ever apply at some point of Duscher measures? I always think this as a homeless person, like in New York, I'm like, yo, I'm gonna just try to go to

jail for the winter. Maybe, I don't know, because I had to be free so I could kind of so I could kind of like make moves, make move, make moves, so to make moves. So because I was working at Red Lobster as well. I was working at Red Lobster Times Square to fresciate it opened up because I had a job every I had thirty jobs, by the way, and and one of my jobs Red Lobster when I was in Maryland Baltimore, and they transferred my my job

over to New York. But I lost that job the first week I was there because I had braids in my hair and the management racist, yes, short and sweet, you were like, I'm not cutting my brains. Like no, I was. You know I couldn't. We all read the Bible. We can't cut your hair. That's your power. So I didn't cut my hair. And I lost my job at Red Lobster that year, and and um with my last check, I brought amp. I bought that microphone. I brought two outfits because you know, in New York you have to

look good. I brought the two outfits. I brought some tents for the windows of the car that I had, and what else on, and brought some CDs so I burned all my demos onto CDs. I tended the windows on my car myself. I brought the amp and the keyboard so I could sing in the subways. And I brought the two outfits so I could look good. So you were prepared. I was prepared. Oh and I paid my cellphone bill for two months because I say that if I don't do this in sixty days, my mom

was gonna kill me. So she would call me and I'm like, yeah, Mom would did it right now? I didn't know, did it? You just didn't want to stress her out. Didn't want stress her out because she had things to take care of. So I thought I was killing the New York. I was homeless, so I'm in New York singing in the subways and everything. Then one day I came home and my car was burned down. I guess had electrical fire or something like that. Everything

I owned was in that car. So eventually I had to actually live in the subway stations, and I had to do that for my forty five days or so. Damn that tough. At that point, did you at least think, mmmm, maybe it's something to go pack up and go back

to Baltimore. Yeah, I did. Um And and when I got to the moment where I thought I'd go back to Baltimore, I remember I had these bags around my feet and I was walking through the snow, and I was like, damn, I'm gonna call my brother and tell him I didn't make it in New York, even though I was lying to them the whole time. So when I went to make a telephone call to call my brother, I'm calling him up. And I remember when I'm singing

the subway, people give me their cards and stuff. So when I went to make the car, one of the cards that they gave me fall in the snow. I picked up the car and I'm like, should I call number on this card or should I or should I just call my brother? Said I'm I'm gonna calling number on the card. I'm already here. So I called him on the card and this Dominican girl answers the phone. It's like, oh my goodness, oh my girl, yo yo. My boss loves them always dope you. And I'm lying

to her. I was like, well, if your boss let my demo telling me, you pull up on me right now, because I got these inter Music Universal records. I was lying, but I can tell by her enthusiasm that she was serious. So she said, no, no, let me put him on the phone, so she put Jonathan on the phone. He gets on the phone. He's like, Yo, day starm I love your ship man. What's you come on down to my my my joint? And I was like, yeah, I'll come down there right now. He was like, I'm going

to the Hamptons. And I was like, well, you know, I got these meetings over at Jake Records. I'm lying again. He was like, no, come down here right now. I didn't have money to get on the subway, so I jumped the turnstyle. I caught the train down to the Lower east Side. And when I get to his place, he plaques all over his walls and everything, and he's like, yo, man, I can get you drops on m t V, V, H Want and b TV. I can get you right for these arts. And I knew he was serious because

of the work that he had around. I was like, all right, look, gonna be honest with you, John, to look, I'm broke. I've been living on the street for like forty five days. Did you at least you know? On the course. So what I did like to shower in Macy's. So I would take a shower in Macy's and then how did you Because you wanted the sinks, you know, they got to sing, you know, you clean up or whatever. And then I would, you know, with a little bit

of money I made, sometimes I buy stuff. Well I just used the five thing of discount and just you know, get a couple of T shirts or whatever, and to do what I had to do to get new outfits so I look fresh. So he was like, no, you look good. I was like, no, I've been on the streets because you know, you gotta look good. So then I was like, ye, look, I'll be honest with you

if you can. If you cut me in check right now, I'll work for you and you get me off the streets or whatever, and I'll give you what you need. So he cut me in check, and eventually I went from my hostel to an apartment, to um Aloft to you know, working my way up. I started getting place in some beach one MTV and I worked over the Universal, went to Jay Records. From Jay, I went to Atlantic I met with in Houston and J Records and Jeff Finster. Yeah, so um wrote three songs that she never used. By

the way, Um, then I'm going to Atlantic Record. Did you at least get to hear them. I got to meet her and everything. Yeah, she said she started she I met her everything, you know. So um So then from there I went over to Atlantic Records, where I wrote for a few hours and ghost right over here for about two years. And then, um, I, uh, the music slow, so I slow down because back then you were a ghostwriter. So what I did was I all the while I was running track and things like that.

So I got my certifications from Prepostnado. I got my A C s M, I got my INN A s M. Nastities are physical personal training on certifications, so you're always hustling, Yeah, the personal trainer on the side, just in case the music wasn't selling. So then I started a boot camp in Brooklyn and I would train like fifties a hundred people in the park in Brooklyn Park. And I was working at the Crunch Fitness New York Sports Club. And I was just doing different jobs in New York so

that I can kind of build my empire. Wow, what's the craziest job you've ever had? Um? I was. I was a stripper for a while when I was in college and then but I would say the craziest job I was an escort. So that was crazy because the demolition, construction, telemarketing. Um, I had about thirty jobs. So I have to circle back to the escorting, Like what's the craziest escorting story?

Do you have one? Um? Yeah, So when I was an escort, Uh, it was a lot of It was a bunch of old, rich white women, right, and they didn't want to like can I curse? Curse? Okay, So they didn't want to suck you, right, They just wanted to kind of like just have company, right, I just want a good company. I didn't really sleep with the clients or whatever. And my pan was like this girl she was like nineteen or whatever, and she was like, you know she was a girl. Yeah, yeah, she was

making sure we worked. She's my friend. She was making sure that we have worked. So I went to this one woman's house and I guess she was about sixty, I don't know. And I was so I was young back then. She's like fifties, I guess, I don't know. She felt old. And when I when I got to her house, she um, she was like, he know, your outfits upstairs in the closet, And I was like, my outfits upstairs in the closet, so she was like yeah. So she was sitting there with her wine in her hands.

She's sitting back like this and ship. And I'm like, we even the outfits upstairs in the closet and then just like go upstairs in the in the closet in your office. So I ro was up to the top of stairs. She lived in this mansion of ship. So I got up to the top of the stairs and when I opened the closet or whatever, there was a panda outfit. So I had to wear a panda outfit with the it was so fucked up, So I had to wear a panta outfit with the mid section dog.

So like my dick's out and I'm just like staying just like dancing in front of her, you know what I'm saying, Like, and she's just sitting up there and just enjoying it, like, yeah, my husband doesn't have one. And then she was just like, man, it was like it was a it was a thing. Was that like one of your last escort sessions? No? No, I think my last one was after this woman blindfolded me. And then so I see her at the door and she puts a blindfold on me. I turned around and what

backwards into her house and ship. She lays down, ladies me down on the bed and she starts reading me like children's stories and ship. Oh yeah, I think that would. I was. I was. I was, really, you know, So how do you go from all these experiences and hitting these little bomps side hustling and still saying, Okay, I'm gonna keep going. Motivation? You know, Like, I think what motivated me was seeing what my mother went through, and I'm like, if she could take care of like twelve

people and she didn't complain once. I never seen someone ever not complained like this woman. And she loved life. She would just have fun. Well, we're gonna have fun. All of us is gonna go out. She never was like, oh my god, the bills are not paid and we were moving. I went to five elementary schools, four middle schools, to high schools, so you gotta think we were getting evicted so much growing up. I mean, I never knew. I dropped down to school in ninth grade. I didn't

even finish high school. I didn't do champ leven twelve. I went back to go to college when I got my g D and I got a free ride because I was a sprinter. But I did never even finished high school, don't even I don't even did prom or anything. But she we were getting evicted the whole time, and we thought that we would just move into a better place. She's like, we moving again. Yeah, yeah, We're like, oh,

we moving again. She made it a moment instead of making it the opposite, because most people will take that experience and be like, oh man, we're getting kicked out. She's like, we get to go and get some new walls to draw one because every time when we get a new place, I draw mirrors on the wall. I was an artist, like all the paintings in my house. I did most of the paintings, and like that one, the one behind us, these paintings I did. My mother knew that I loved art, and she just sit here

just drawing the walls. We're gonna be out here in a few months anyway. So I would draw murals on the walls, and eventually that paid off because by time I was sixteen seventeen years old, I would get a few hundred bucks, maybe a thousand bucks here and there to actually draw in churches and the mosques and synagogues, to draw like you know, the Last Supper and things on walls and things so all that kind of like just growing up. She would keep us busy and active

with what we did. So we never like we would build forts and you know like mahm, I we get no furnaces like brought sheets, just built forts, you know, so we would do she would. She was just clever. She was the perfect like mother. You know. So I always do life. I just feel like I'm gonna figure

it out. I don't care what goes wrong. I'm gonna look at what goes right and then I'm gonna figure out how to make it work, you know, no matter who I'm with, whether I mean, I've injured myself this that another, And I remember when I broke my knee and the doctor told me, he said, you'll never even walk properly again. And you've seen me. You work out with me, I'm jumping out, spreading, dunking basketballs out with you. I don't let you know. So when she she was,

she had that same attitude. And although she didn't have the business mind behind it like I do have, she had the attitude that lets you know that I'm we're going to be unstoppable, you know, and I think that's very important. So now you've been around as an entrepreneur and a social media mogal forever, it seems I feel like every time a new platform comes out, you're like so versatile. You literally, I, for lack of better word, I feel like birth millionaires, like everyone in your circle,

you played a tremendous role in their success. So my question is is how are you able to keep keep transitioning every time something new new happens them? So, I know I'm getting older, you know what I'm saying, I'm them at forty, So like what so, what what I'm gonna do is I find new people, new talent, and then they're going to keep your name a lot, you know what I'm saying. It's almost like the Gospel and people continue to talk about Jesus, Jesus gonna be main Jesus,

you know. So I look at it like that. Every time I find someone new that's talented, I don't want to be your manager. I don't want to be your agent. If we're cool and we get along, I'm your friend and it's a real friendship. You know what I'm saying. I don't want anything from you and return. I already know that if you I culdate a real friendship and I made more millionaires than a lot of the like Jay Z said, right, that's just what it is. So tons of millionaires. And what I do is if they're

my friends. People going to have interviews with these successful people, They're gonna sit at eating while broke and they're going I was like, damn, you were like, yeah, how did you get your start? They're like, oh yeah, they storm helping me out. You know, he was the first thing that kind of helped me get it to it. So they keep my name alive. And at the end of the day, if you're managing someone taking right, I can't

afford their rates anymore. Man technically I could, but I'm not gonna pay them hundreds of thousand dollars post right. They're going to post about it for free. If I come out with a food company, if I come out with a clothing brand, if I come out with new music, all my friends that have helped becomes a scessible. They're

going to show love because I showed them love. Now, how are you able to like when you look at how many platforms do you transition from you went from YouTube, started my space, YouTube to YouTube ye ye to Instagram TikTok, But you remain I would like to say, in the world of like boxing, it would be like you remain undefeated. You're always at the top. How are you able to transition and choose the platform? I think I think what it is is a lot of people don't realize that

there's a different audience on every platform. And although I'm not the biggest on any platform, um one of the best on every platform, if that makes sense. And you're the most consistent, and I try to stay consistent, right because on every platform there's a different audience. Like my YouTube audience don't even know that I do. They know me for my music, they don't even know that do comedy sketches. I'll do comedy like this is terrible, you know. Yeah,

I've been doing this for years, bro. So when I realized that years ago, I said, they're not coming out of YouTube, the people on Instagram and not leaving Instagram, Well, lazy, then I'm going to leave that platform. So I said, well, then I'm just gonna have to grow in every platform. So I'll just make sure I grow on Facebook. I'll make sure I grow in Instagram and make sure I'll

grow on YouTube. And sometimes I'll just cross reference and just put the same content on some But for the most part, I try to say, what's the best thing I need to do for YouTube, what's the best thing I need to do for Facebook, What's the best thing I need to do for Instagram? Because they're different worlds. My YouTube content is not like my Instagram content because YouTube is more of a cold following the people that really like involved. Instagram is more like universal, you just

have everybody there. Facebook is like more family oriented, right, It's like that's the people's from back in school and everything. So you once you learn who the audience is, you make the content for the audience. And how are you able to depict that? Like, say, for instance, let's choose Vine. Okay, how are you able You you killed Vine, and I know there's an amazing backstory that you know, I want

everybody to hear about, um, but you killed line. But how are you able to pinpoint that audience and cultivate an amazing elite group of talented individuals. But I think for me it was it was high schoolers, juniors and seniors will are the people who decide what's the dope. I don't care what anyone says. That's because you have to understand freshman and sophomores want to be like juniors and seniors once. Once you're finished being a senior in high school, you go to college and life hits you.

You have to get a job, you have to do that, you have to do the other. When you're in middle school, you still trying to figure it out. Elementary school doesn't really count, and once you've grown, you don't really count. You're just doing what's hot. But when you're a junior and you're senior in high school, that's the moment of life when everything is just cool. You just don't want it because it's fucking cool. You don't care, You don't

really have too many responsibilities. You do, but you don't. Right. So I've seen what the juniors and seniors on. When Vine came out, I was like, you know at the time, and I was like, oh my god, Like the kids are really on you know that. You know, they're on this app not just because it's popular, but because it's cool. They just love using it. So whenever they're doing I'm like all right, I gotta kind of like get involved

and see what they're on. Yeah. So I would say that juniors and seniors to me are tricky audience because unlike elementaries kids that just buy into whatever Elmo, whatever you put in front of them, middle schoolers that are still trying to figure it out, and then everybody else that's looking up to the junior and seniors, juniors and seniors kind of know their power and they're like, don't try to sell me this. I'm gonna find the crack

in the covie and the jay Z under the rock in. Yeah, they're like the Nike, Like Nike always signed someone before they propped there like oh right before you pop, here's this check you know the end. I feel like, how are you able to say this is the platform that the juniors and seniors are going to buy into? Do you wait like a couple of weeks? Because you're on it, you you kind of can feel it, especially if you've

been doing something for a while. I think one thing that I've been blessed with is the knock to know of someone's still. I really feel when I see talent and a lot of people like we don't see no talent. How do you see talent that person? I don't know. I just whether And it's not just the talent to sing or rapid dance or have a specific skill set. It's the talent the most I feel the hardest talent

in the world is keeping people's attention. So like if you look at the Kardashians, for example, I think they're very talented because a lot of people can't keep people's attention for a decade just people watching you. You know what I'm saying, that's very difficult to do. Not a lot of people might say, oh my god, they don't do nothing. Yes they do. They got millions of people just watching you. You know how hard is they have?

People just want to see what you do. And that's a talent in itself, and they did it for a long time, but forever, you know what I'm saying. Little here, No, it'swhere, right, His ass on Instagram is asked, on YouTube, there's asked, there's free ass on porn hub, right, So it can't be just the ask right, So it's it's more than that to be able to keep people's attention. So I see that in people and I'm like, Wow, this person can keep my attention because I have a very very

short attentions. Man, if someone keeps my attention, I'm like, oh my god, then they have it. They have it. And then if you have an ability to come along with it, whether you sing or dance or wrapper or speak or anything, then you're just doubling it down on on. You're going to be a star, you know, And that's that's what it is. So I know we got a wrap up scene. Okay, I have to hit you with this when it comes to vine, Okay, I want to

hear the rise in the fall. Now we're friends. I've heard you know some of the behind the scenes when it came to buying, but I would love it if you could share how one misstep on UND's behalf took down an entire platform. So we're vying um. One thing that we did was I was I was, I was before, I was before the times. When it comes to short form comedy and sketches, I was doing short form sketches on YouTube, like really short form, and no one wanted to accept it. It was like this is whack. No

one wants to do this, Get out of here. And I remember my company failed and we lost millions of dollars. I mean, we did. The companies just flopped and I was like, wow, like what am I going to do? But I had already had a lot of people looking up to me, like you know, it's like this is what you know we looked up to you. You have.

A company was called Forefront TV like Batch, and we had like you know, the whole squad was good and Page Kennedy and all the all of the guys are mostly the black and brown creators who that you see today or on the internet. But I was the president of the company and I kind of felt like I failed them. One day, I think I saw Kevin Hart on on Vine and he wasn't doing comedy sketches or anything, but it was an app that people would do short selfies to let you know where they were. Type down,

Hey guys, I'm out here this way man. I was like, yo, suppose we do a sketch in six seconds on the platform. I said that everybody would watch it and and it'll be something that's different for the world. So I remember me Batch, my boy Kane and Small Shepherd. We did the first actually sketch online and it went super viral, like world start picked it up. Whole bunch of other places pick it up, but we did like a sketch. So then we called ourselves viners, which wasn't a phrase yet.

It was like your way out here vining with the l A Viners. So then Detroit got involved in New York and um, you know, Philly and Florida, and then it became vining became a thing that we kind of created. So we started vinding and then from there the problem was as we grew on Vine, we have millions and millions and millions of fans. Remember even Badget Broke Againness world record for the most followers of Againness gave him a black or something right. And then what happened was

I went to Karen over at Vine. That's funny, my name is Karen, and I said, uh, Karen, because on Vine, what happens if enough kids flag your content, it automatically gets pulled down. So I emailed Karen. I said, Karen, we're the biggest viners in the world, and these kids are pulling down our content and then it's not inappropriate, it's appropriate content, but their haters pulling down our content. We just want an email from you guys. So that we can contact you and let you know, this is

our content getting pulled down. Can you put it back up? Because we lose our momentum and this is our job.

Companies are coming to us paying us six figures to post bones, maybe given a hundred thousand dollars for one vine just so they can have like a background in it, or companies like they would just pay you for what though, to create a six seconds to create a six second company, whether it was you know, bad just different companies that was big at the time, or just pay us like his fifty tho dollars give us six seconds, hundreds give

us six seconds. It was just one of those type of things, right And at this point they didn't want to give us that, and we said, we also want one more thing. We want to be the link out to our other accounts or whether me, YouTube, Facebook or whatever. They said no. So I was like, well, we are the you know, the people are coming to watch us with the reason that the after lives. She said, you're the one percent. There's nine percent of people using our platform,

and you are the one percent. We're not going to do that for you. I said, well, I suppose I told the one percent to walk. Well, then what are you gonna do? Well, you tell the one can sit to walk? We still go, oh, all right, bitch, I'm gonna call the one percent. So I called up you know, by a hundred of the top creators in the world Vine at the time, and I said, oh, We're not gonna do this no more. Let's go and walk and go over Instagram. I got fifteen seconds anyway, So we dipped.

And when we dipped, I think the company got fifteen seconds anyways. Yeah, so when we dipped, the company lost about sixty percent of their profit in the legend. Within a week, Vine crashed. I mean you been looking at it, Remember they lost couple hundred million dollars and they like fell off. So then Karen calls me up, Hey, thanks a high. Can I have a meeting with you guys? You know what I'm saying. So we probably met with Karen on at sixteen hundred Buying Street, which is where

a lot of the Viners stayed. Hilariously, um, and we set in the conference room myself with twenty other viners, and I told her in that day, I was like, look, you know, if we want to continue to use your platform, once, I want you pay everybody in the room, you know, a million dollars and I want two million dollars for for pain and soffer. So um uh. They agreed to pay all the viners in the room the money, and we were supposed to post two vines a week to

get the numbers back up. But someone in the room at the time told fifteen others about the deal, and those fifteen others wanted moneys too. But it's like, we don't have forty five million dollars. We got twenty, so they wasn't able to pay. So no one ever went back to mind and buying Die damn Karen. So at one point you didn't mention that like you were you you were a millionaire, you had success, and then at

one point you lost twice up twice. I remember. I mean one time I had like seven million dollars on my account and then I went down like seven seven thousand and things. What are you thinking at that time? Um? I was like, yo, I'm not as broke as I was when I was in New York, so I could get it back again. There was more money than I had. It's more money when I had when I was living in the subway. So I was like, I know the blueprint. I just gotta figure out and not make the same mistakes,

you know how like you fixing? A part of it was like, maybe this is my time to be broke because I've been. You weren't embarrassed, No, like I'm gonna go from living in the in the hills coach. I wasn't because I think what people have to realize is like when you look at success and becoming successful, you ask yourself, what's the worst thing that can happen if you take this chance? And the worst thing that can

happen is you go back to where you were. And I was already there, and your mom did make it seem painful, right, So I've already been here, So how can I be afraid of something that I've already seen? You know what I'm saying. It's like someone trying to shock you and you're surprised, and then they try to do it again. It's like, yeah, I don't know, You're gonna be right there, So I'm not shocked. I just got to figure out how to get around this obstacle

so that I can move forward. There's times when I go through financial problems like everyone does. You know I no matter what skill or level you are, you're going to see financial hardships because you have finance, you have the franchise tax board, you have the I R s, you have things you invest in that don't go well. Many invest because in order to continue to be successful, we have to make big investments and take big chances.

That's just what it is. You can't be safe. So at the time, if I'm taking a big chance and I invest a million dollars into something that it doesn't come through, It's like, oh, ship, Now what am I gonna do? Now? I gotta figure it out. I wasn't afraid, so closing out like what are some like pieces of advice or maybe some golden nuggets that either carried you through or that you would give to someone that doesn't get the opportunity to meet you and get your blessing

of support in person. I think the most important thing for most people's consistency. You have to be consistent because they're going to be people, friends, family, people in your life. They just don't believe in your dream. You just think just won't And the crazy your dream, the more successful

you'll be. There's times where where I dream big, but I didn't even drink big enough, Like when I got the Emmy nomination, for example, I remember standing in the CBS with What's Good and then he was like, yo, I said you I'm gonna get an Emmy nomination next year. He said, you don't even do TV content. I said, I'm gonna get it off the internet. He say really. I said yeah, we'll figure it out. And I got the nomination, and I punched myself because I didn't ask

for the actual win. I only asked for the nomination, which is what I got. So I think you have to ask for the biggest things in life, and when you ask for those things, they'll come to. You just have to figure out how to get there. Consistency is key. You have to believe it wholeheartedly yourself, because if you don't believe it and you're doubting yourself. I never put negative shit out into the atmosphere. I'm always it's scared. You can't. You can't get scared. Get scared. You can't.

But why because again, what's the worst thing that happened to And this is not that expensive goods on the episode. So consistency is key. And just finding your lane and stop and not doing what everyone else is doing. You know what I'm saying, Like, I know my lane. I could have went other routes once I got successful, but I said, why not to stay in my length? Yeah, you know, I love it. I love it. I think you're a blessing to this community. I think you're a

blessing to so many young people. Um, the fact that you take your time and I as a personal friend, you know, I come to your workouts. I'm always I'm always the last one putting behind. But the fact that you take time and you just you look past. You don't look at someone for their wallet or you know their background. You're just like, come as you are. And you, Joe Jackson, they asked a little bit, you know, Joe Jackson is sometimes you need that. So I need somebody

to kick your ass. At the end of the day. You're getting moving forward, ye aren't you. I mean you was fit at last time. I showed up rolling poly and walked away like thirty pounds later. Last time, I produced the whole baby, and now I'm small again thanks to you. Just work. I mean, I'm gonna cut you all every day. But what you're gonna call you on up showing up. Well, thank you so much for your time.

I appreciate you opening up your home, letting us tour your home, and hopefully, you know, one day with you out of town, you know, maybe I could house sit you never know, never know. Yeah, I think I'm gonna buy the house next door and then put a tunnel that leads front of the walk way over to that house. I hope to get there. I really hope all my subscribers can support share their meal on Eating Wall Broke at Eating Wall Broke and hopefully inspire me to somehow

figure out how to move next door. Insidational salves about him doing just the Cops. Thanks Karen. For more Eating Wall Broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect. Visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.