For The Content Creators Out There...

I was like, hell no again, dead as I was. I was dead too when you said it, right, but I could foresee what social media was gonna be. So want no credit. I guess you'd be no one knowing I do being dead as hey. I'm Cadine and we're the Ellison. You may know us from posting funny videos without boys and of reading each other publicly as a form of therapy. Wait, I'm making meet therapy most days. Oh and one more important thing to mention, we're married, Yes, sir,

we are. We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of life's most taboo topics. Things most folks don't want to talk about through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead ass is a term that we say every day where we say dead as we're actually saying facts one, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We're about to take Philow talk to a whole new level. Dead ask starts now. I went for

an audition on the TV show. I'm not going out the TV show, right, but um, of course I get I get the sides and it's for inmates, alright, something like damn inmate number seven. Okay. So then I walk in for the audition and there's two roles they're reading for and one role is for inmate number seven and the other role is for doctor. All of the people that were auditioning for doctor were Asian and white. All of the people who were auditioning for Innate number seven

were black and brown. And it was just like, you know what, I don't want to do this no more. And I came home and he's like, how to go and I was just like remembered. I was like, oh, this is cool show, Like what are you gonna do? And it was like what first of all, And as an actor sometimes you just get tired, you know, like I had. I had two lines and the line was, bitch, what that's my towel? It's not. It's like I didn't

really have to prepare for that. And right right, you know what I'm saying, how many ways can you inflict you that, you know what? That's my towel, that's my towel. How does that work? I'm not knocking those roles because those roles and needed on television, but I was just tired of playing those roles and I just decided to say, you know what, babe, I want to show them my comedic style. I want to show them my ability to write, and I feel like I want to share our story.

So I'm going to create a sitcom. And at the time, Instagram was only fifteen seconds and you was like what devout? I was like, trust me, and those two situations birth the social sitcom. Social sitcom known is I need to get back? Surety yum near for you. Anytime you need real good, listen to me in your world. Believe nothing to make a man feel better than a woman when you went to cry, will not be down for whatever. There's a few things that's forever, my lady. We can

make war a make baby. When I was nothing. He made a brother feel like he was something. That's why I'm with you till his day. Boom no front. Yeah, so you already know that the karaoke song today, although I suck trying to sing Mary's part. First of all, you can't everybody just sing Mary like you gave. Mary gave a value. That's that's the point of karaoke, the good,

the bad, and the bad. So for today's show, we're talking social media with the journey has been like for us and what it really means to put our lives on full display. And later on in the show, joining us, we have Eric Dickens, he's the creator and writer of the show Makeup and break Up, And also we have two of the cast members are also going to join the show and tell us exactly what we have to

look forward to. But I picked that song because of the words you know all I need, Yes, and where we were in our life when I decided to say we're going to start this in social media. We were at a point in our lives where there was a bunch of things going on simultaneously where we felt like, you know, what enough is enough? We need to now find a way to gain control and autonomy over our lives.

To take a step out on a limb and see if it's gonna This is gonna work, because, to be quite honest, when we first talked about this whole social media thing, they were friends who were just like, y'all are doing too much. There were people who mentored you in the acting field that were like, you don't want to put yourself out There is just a dad doing regular things every day because no one's gonna want to see that. They're not going to value you credit you

as an actor. We had family who was like, you're sharing too much of your lives. Why would you guys want to do that giving people a lens into your personal life? How dare you? Nobody saw it? But if you if you don't know, Right now, i'm smiling, I will tell you why I'm smiling. Right. This is gonna sound crazy, right, but there is a delusional quality that all successful people have right speak on it because they

can see things that other people can't see. Right. So, for example, when I'm talking to my kids that I mentor and they're telling me what they want to accomplish and stuff like that, if you tell me something that somebody else is I got an idea, coach de vow and they tell me, and I've heard it before, I'm just like, that's that's not an idea, that's what people

are doing. So when I was telling people, and I remember going through this journey when I just retired from the league and I was telling friends and family that I wanted to do TV. We have friends who are just like, you want to act. You have friends that asked you how long you're gonna let THEO do this? How long is he going to be doing this whole acting thing? Like, what's what's that about? I have family and I was just like, Oh, you're gonna do acting next, okay,

first starving actor and all of this. And what happens is people people say that that's hate. That's not hate. That's not hate. People are not supposed to see your vision. If everybody around you can see your vision, that means that they're gonna start trying to do what you're doing. Then it gets crowded in that lane, right, I don't

want nobody to see my vision. So when I told people what I was doing, and it was just like, yeah, I don't see it right right, and it was to the point where it started to kind of scare me a little bit, but in a good way. And then speaking to my manager recent there are our manager recently, she was like, Cadein, if your dreams are not scaring you to the point that you're that you are right now, then what's the point, Like why are we doing? And it was like a nervous scare. But I was like,

you know what, I'm a rock out with devout. I rocked out with him through the NFL that came and went. We started all over again. We had Jackson, we rocked out with starting the gym. Remember when I started Elite Prototype Athletics. I came back to Brooklyn right me and my brother. I said, I'm gonna do sports performance in Brooklyn. Everybody in Brooklyn's like, that ain't gonna work. We ended up having our own space at Aviator Sports and Recreation Center.

Fast forward another three years, I'm part ownership over gym. Shout out to Brooklyn Athletic Club. Your visions have to be big if you want to do something different and great, Absolutely they have to be big. They have to be and you coming home from the league, you could not have come back like been this small guy from Brooklyn making it to the league, coming back to Brooklyn and not pouring back into the community that birthew So it

was it was necessary to build this business. Business it was and I was like, you know, a devout if you want to build this business, I'm a whole of family down. I just want went back to back and I was working, and you know, we gave the story about us, you know, hustling with each other and me working in retail, trying to sustain things while you were

getting your business off the ground. And that was all in the plan to be able to give ourselves the full flexibility and freedom that we needed to then be creatives and have the time to invest and not have to worry about chasing the dollar. And that led us to social media because I was looking at all of the great people that I inspired to be like. I looked at I looked at who inspired I aspired to

be like. I looked at of course, jay Z, I'm from Brooklyn, right, he got passed over by so many record labels, so he started Rockefeller and now look, you know, you look at I'm out of boxer, but you look at Floyd Mayweather took his whole boxing career in his hands and is now one of the greatest boxers of all time. People can stay with they want to say about him, but his business acumen is unmatched. You know,

he's a billionaire. Um. You look at Tyler Perry, you look at Ray Uh, you look at Uh, you look at Kevin Hart. All of these people traveled on a role that nobody else was traveling ones and said I'm going to do it this way and made it happen. So for me, social media was a way for me to tell my story because I like to write. You know, I've been writing scripts and I've been writing stories forever. He literally has been so like he literally watched movies

and watch it with such a different eye. That's when I knew you were really serious about acting. Was when we'd go to the movies, because we used to go so frequently when we were younger, but we had time. We were like in the movie every week. And the way Devout would look and watch a movie and then critique the movie and break it down, or he would just foresee things happening. I was just like, Wow, this guy really is serious about this whole acting situation. I

love storytelling. Yes, so it only made sense when so for media became a thing for us to really take control over it. And the thing that I love that to say that we have both come up with is that, you know, we did not let social media happen to us.

We happen to social media. When you have the control over your content, when you're able to really put together and construct your own narrative, then you really can just put out what you want to put out and you don't have to rely on anybody else to tell your story. The story comes out more authentic, it's more organic in the moment, and it's really what we didn't foresee becoming a thing becoming a thing. We were really just putting

our family and ourselves out there. And I say that loosely because you know, I've gotten backlash from some family members or we've heard people saying like, why would you share so much of your life? Share so much of your life? Let's really dissect it and break it down. You know, there's three sixty five days in a year, twenty four hours in a day. If I'm sharing a one minute video every day, that's like less than one percent of my entire life of my day. So how

much am I really sharing? Not much? Not much. However, I think that there is um a greatness in being being able to make people feel as if they're so invested in, so drawn in by a minute, that's sixty seconds that we construct where people feel they can relate to it well, they can engage, they can share. You

know why. It's because now if you look at our page, you can watch a full two and a half years of what's going on in our life through sixty second clips and create a story of who the ellis Is are. And that's the that's what I wanted to create with this social sitcom. I wanted to create a platform where people can see our style of art and we can have control over it. So that's the why. Now, as an artist, if you're a painter, right, what do artists paint? Right?

Inspire them things that are in their lives. If you're a rapper, what do you your life? Right? Sing you sing about life events. If you're a writer or a creator, you write and create about your life. There's some important to me then my family. So for me, it was easy content for me to script around, to create content that people I feel that I feel like I was

missing because super passionate. I'm super passionate about family, I'm super passionate about legacy building, I'm super passionate about entrepreneurship, and um, I'm also super passionate about how we are represented in these stories that we tell, you know, so so often. Growing up in the eighties and the nineties, a lot of the stories be told were the classic hood stories. You know, boys in the hood, menace of society, shout out to John Singleton, Um, these stories show black

people in one way, you know. And I always wondered when I was growing up, because I grew up in Flatbush in Brooklyn, and people would ask me that didn't live in Brooklyn, who saw movies from Brooklyn, like they watched Juice, and they were just like, that's how it is on the time. You have to be shooting up each other all the time. Or what I thought about l A. I thought about l A. What I thought was menace to society and boys in the hood. So if I ever go to l A, I might get shot.

And I'm a young kid, you know, I'm a young kid. I'm like, what about the young middle class families who are thriving, living different type of lives, you know, And and I was like, you know what, I want to create a story around those type of families. And I was like, family, you you came from a strong middle class family. I came from a strong middle class family. Your family is from the West Indies. And we talked about this. They have a completely different viewpoint of what

America is than the Black American family. So I'm like, that's actually dope that we can talk about the culture situation that we are going on here. Yeah, and not to mention like funny should just be happening in our house every day, every single day. There's something funny that happens. And I think it's even just like the relationship we have where we don't take ourselves too seriously, but we can constantly joke on each other and we find the

humor in parenting. We find the humor and relationships and in marriage, and we're able to even now at this point, speak about things that maybe not so fun and find a humorous twist on it, but at least its sparkes conversation. Even the greatest the people who are at the highest of the mountain, you look at Bradley Cooper, right, he wrote I think he wrote and directed this last film that he did that was nominated, The star was born right And when they asked him, when they asked him,

what made you? What made you get to this and he wanted to do he said, I was tired of waiting for people to write the role that I wanted to do. Right here is and we always talk about racist country, here is a white male who was at the pinnacle. He's already been nominated and want to Oscar I believe, And even still he is like, yo, I don't want to wait. I want to do it myself.

That to me is inspiring because if he already has all of the tools and the advantages and the privilege, he still is not sitting back and waiting and he's still writing and producing stuff. So so me little on me. If I want to get to that level and he's hustling like that, I need to get on that same hustle. Denzel does the same thing, Will Smith, the same thing. Look at look at Will's presence now on social media. This is this is like Will Smith, what I mean,

you understand what I'm saying. Look at the val he's about to cry. Yo, let me tell you something. You have no clue. You'll have no clue how much that man inspires me, not only as an actor, but as an entrepreneur, as a father, as a husband, as a creator, and as just an overall person and lover of people. Like he just understands people. Understand you. Guys have similarities in that really understand people and wants everybody to win, like he just wants everybody when he wants, he might

have a good time. I want to dive into a little bit more of the how for people because I want this to be insightful. Right, people always ask us about monetizing social media. Right, these two words brand consciousness. Okay, I'm gonna tell you why. There are people on social media who have millions of followers who can't make any money because their content is not digestible. Brands can't partner

with you to push your content. So you may have a million followers who like to watch you do funny stuff, but you can never really make any real money. And I think that's the part that people are missing. People

think that the brands come with the following. Doesn't come with the following, It comes with the engagement and it comes with the content because they're more importantly the content that the engagement, because you may have engagement for having, you know, doing come to your page and be like

they want to be entertained. The content piece is the most important part because there are people who have fifty followers who make a living like they work on Wall Street because they have great content and they have great brand partnerships. So if you don't, if you don't take anything else away from this, take away from this, if your content is not digestible and can't be seen by this demographic, eleven through and that eleven is the most important because I don't know if you know this, but

the most highest paid influencers on YouTube our childrenildren. Did you hear what I said? I said their children? Because this generation is driven by those phones and those tablets. The older people still watch TV, yes they watch TV, but the young people in the future, everything is done on the phone. So if you can captivate that young audience, you can make some money. Now, how you create your content,

the type of content you create, that's on you. I can't I can't tell you what's fascinating in your life or tell you how to write a story. But when it comes to this social media stuff, you have to understand that brand consciousness is important. What you post, how you post, when you post is very important, extremely important. And when thinking about content to a lot of people want to know, like how we are able to like

how do you come up with this funny stuff? It literally is situations that just happened in our household that we, if anything, have to just redo or reenact. Or We'll just be a random time We're walking down the block and I'll see devout hold this with you know, his his camera up and then next thing you know, it becomes a video and I'm posting on social media. Um. But I will say that, make sure your content is authentic and organic to whatever your message is or whatever

it is you're trying to do. Um and paying little attention to the comments per se. You know, we get the question a lot about how do you guys deal with people in your comments and what people have to say? And for the most part, yeah that I'm gonna I'm gonna how to put this out there. I can't say this enough. We have to stop over utilizing this word hate because someone disagrees with what you say or does it like your content doesn't make them a hater. It

does not warrant it as hate. It's not hate. They they're different thinkers. They may not think like you, but understand that they're on your page and they're commenting, so you're still engaging them if you If you continue to, you know, disrespect people or disengage people who who disagree with you, you're losing people who may share your content. And then you're taking the time to to then engage in back and forth with people who disagree with what you may have put out there. And what are you

doing now? You're wasting time, wasting energy engaging in these dialogues that go back and forth and back and forth in an entire thread when you could be thinking about the next video that you're gonna be posted. Anyone that takes the time to view your content, they're not a hater. They're a supporter, whether they like it or not. They may not like that video per se, but if they come back to another one, they may like the next one. So you can appreciate if someone doesn't the content, and

that's important for people to understand. With social media, Yes, and you can be selective in what you you engage into. That's also the great thing about it. You don't necessarily have to answer to everything you know. And we always say we would do a disservice to people who support and are positive and and and always are encouraging us and sharing our content and showing us so much love. We love and appreciate that so much because they are the reason why we even have a platform like this.

To begin with, Tip number one, do not focus on the comments that come with every video because every video is just a snapshot in time, and people are going to judge you on that snapshot in time. But if you know you have more content coming in this content prior, they'll learn more about you by watching your content. You don't have to defend yourself on every bit of content you put out exactly. That's a great ex exhausting as he there we go and not want to create content exactly,

it's a great tip. Tip number two, be authentic in whatever your content is and do not allow that to deter you from creating what organically you want to put out there. A lot of times people do not know what they want until you give it to them, So give it to them. What's the worst that could happen when you put yourself out there people don't like it. Oh well you will have your demographic of people that will cheer for you and root for you and once

some more. That's so true, So do it. That's any other tips, anything else that you wish somebody would have, schools you want before this whole social media game became a thing that you're just like, you know what, this is like very insightful. I think we gave people a lot to think about her and they were thinking about embarking on the whole social media journey or just how to deal with it now that you have content that people are putting out on a regular basis. I just say,

go do it. Don't be afraid, you can't be afraid, don't listen to the naysayers. And oh, last last, it doesn't happen overnight, so you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. And I've heard um to Rog p Henson say this, I heard Kevin Hart say this, It takes ten years to become an overnight celebrity to get ve been in the game forever, you know, And she's like, y'all just realized this, Like what comes out of nowhere? What you mean the hell up? Yeah, it takes time.

It takes time, people, And there's a tip I can give you. It takes time. Just be consistent, love what you do, love what you do, and find somebody that loves it with you, that can push you when the times gets Because if I didn't have this woman right here, this is no, no bullshit. It's easier for me to do what I do when I can wake up and I know I got a partner that can help filling the gaps at the things I'm not good at. Like

I said, I can't, I'm not organized. Right now, we're sitting at the table and everyone signed it, autographs and signatures all over the table. My brain is like this table. There's a bunch of stuff all over in his brain. Her brain is like a foul cabinet, like she can just go right in there and just pull something out and bound. So, you know, find someone I can help you with this journey. And social media? Right baby? Do you like social media? I have a love hate relationship

for social media. You didn't always like you didn't always like it. I didn't. I didn't very apprehensive at first, didn't see the vision, didn't have the force that I did have the foresight though, that you would grow into your head. So be glad that I had first always sending shots. You're sending shots and I can't send it back back. Okay, why so your little minions can come at me. I don't want your little minions coming at me. I don't want them. But I'm glad that you do.

Somebody who elseo at foresight when it comes to social media? This is Mr Eric Dickens. Now first and foremost. Let me give you guys a little story. When I was just doing the dad thing on social media and me and my wife, um, I have reached out to one of my homeboys, Camel. Camel I think has spoke to Eric about possibly doing some stuff on the show that he had on social media. Right, So Eric hit me up and I was like, yo, I gotta role for you. It's only one scene, right, So I was like, it's

a web series, it's one scene. I'm with it. So then Eric was just like, I cool, come to We chopped it up. We talked for about what was about three months after doing that one, seeing about stuff you wanted to do and that it gave me some more opportunities and it grew into a full fledged relationship. Now, my man, Eric dick Is is is here. So for those of you who have not seen Makeup to break Up,

it's a series about relationships and all the dynamics. Basically, you have a couple who are goals on the outside looking in, but girl decides to leave the relationship and when she realizes the grass ain't always greener, girl decides that she wants that old thing Max. But the guy is now in a new relationship and has to figure out where he jones now. Eric, first of all, tell

us a little bit about yourself. Eric Um, native of Philadelphia, just turned thirty five, work in digital as cells is the nine and five and the other five and nine is creating um kind intent. So that's where I'm at right now with it. Well, that's first of all, I didn't even know you had like a full time job job. You do this on the side, well side, talk a little bit about that, because a lot of people don't understand that you have to have capital to be able

to do your art. So what is that like, you know, having a nine to five and still being able to create content. Um, it's dope, because I mean, you don't really have to struggle. You just have to learn how to budget. When I was in an undergrad I did TV production and like all the camera equipment we use was crazy expensive. Fast forward eighteen years later, you can make a movie or anything on your phone. You know what.

The budget is a little bit different where you can actually afford to create content on your own as opposed to, you know, wait for somebody to back your project. Now you can just go out there and do it yourself. Um. So that's been the good part about it as far as funding. Um, I tell everybody just create a goal, you know what I mean. Set your goal. If you

can't get investors, you gotta back it yourself. Um. Just put a little bit of money away moroughly, and then once you finally reach your goal, you can go forth with your project. How did you come up with this concept? Tell us a little bit about the show and how did you even come up with the idea? Oh? Interesting? So, as a kid, like most men, my inspiration like I felt like I looked up to the movie Boomeranghy. So

my goal was to get to New York by any means. Necessarily, I wanted to work directly in television, but the hours was crazy. So I figured, like I said, if I go over to the digital side or like the corporate side, I could do a nine if I collect that money and do my own things. So that's kind of what I did. Um funny thing I end up working in

as Cells, which Marcus Graham did in the movie. So throughout my twenties, like just dating in hallm and just going to Brooklyn and dating it was crazy, like you would literally spend so much money going out on dates with multiple women just based on your life, not my life, just my exclosely based on some of the situations that I had, but a lot of my friends by Sunday morning, it's kind of like how much money did I spend while my way up outside of my apartment? Like the

stories you were here on Monday would be crazy. So I was like, what if I put all this into one show and like to see how we're kind of like, um paying out but a lot of stuff is like fabricated, but you know, yeah yeah yeah, But like sometimes my friends be watching and be like, yo, that that scenario

content familiar, Like we're not naming anything. So but no, it's great because I think that's what makes the show so relatable for people who are watching, and there's some invested in the characters because they probably all know somebody who's been in one of those characters positions before them themselves, and they say stuff like, now, that was my friend. I'll do that all the time. I'll do that on

this podcast. My friends knowing that should be me. I know, I'm gonna look out for you when your friends don't be you. I'm worried about it. Don't be be your minions. They roll up on me in the street. Matter of fact, it was with Eric when we when I was shooting this was for another project. We went on me and the other the female lead, went into the bar because y'all was setting up the lights outside. So we were like, yo, we're gonna run lines while we're at the bar so

that when we go outside we're ready. So me and her at the bar running lines. Shortly walks up right on me. I know your wife, that's not her. I'm like, first of all, it's made. Yeah, we just telling I'm like, that's mad, rude. You don't even know who this could be. This could be a client, this could be someone who I'm working with. And she was like she gave you three whole boys and then she was gone, she was going to take a picture. All that. You have a

little bit of a cult following. And I knew this when I was on Makeup to break Up and someone came into my comments was like, yo, Gavin, and I was like, I have a friend name Gavin. First, this is after the one scene that I did a summer ago. It was like, Yo, Gavin, I saw you and I was like, what are they talk And I was like, oh, make up and break up. So it's kind of dope to see how you're following kind of follow you guys, Well,

how did you get into doing it on YouTube? Because most people think, like you think, let me come up with a concept, let me put it in film festivals, let me people like myself. What what made you get to that point? I would say easter Y was a good inspiration to everybody who's up and coming. Um. You know a lot of people they have the pleasure going to film school UNC or you know, n y U and they basically having like a I don't want to say a blueprint, but they kind of have a direction.

And I feel like from my perspective, um, I didn't go to school for film school, so it's kind of like I had to figure out how to navigate it after seeing easter Rey do it. She kind of like put the blueprint out there for like other content creators, it's instant gratification. So, like you said, you can go to the comments and they'll tell you what you need to work on versus what you expand upon. So I think that YouTube was the best field just to grow, you know what I mean, your platform as far as

your viewership. So where did you know? It's funny you mentioned looking in the comments to see where you can get, you know, direction from. It's funny we had taken a different approach when it came to comments and stuff with us, though we're not doing full on productions, but it is

a production in our own the videos we do. And one thing to Valin I said is that we would look at the comments sometimes if we had the time, but we would never alter or change our art or our perspective or what is we want to put out based on what people say per se in the comments. Do you ever find like a tug of war with that where you're like, these people don't know what they're talking about in the comments or you actually tell you

about they have a point. Now I learned a valuable lesson, like I would say, just create your own structure, trying not to get feedback from comments, just get feedback from industry vets. Because I remember it was a big thing like people like, we want longer episodes, and I think we extended it one time, like twenty eight minutes, and I was like, this is way too long. That happened with We started with fifteen minute of logs and the numbers were crazy with the fifteen minute of logs. Then

we got to thirty eight minute laws. People we want more. But then I'm looking at the average duration of the laws and it was at like twelve minutes. And then I saw comments, was like, I love you guys, but I cannot watch third date minutes computers. I was like, see this wild. I shouldn't listen to people just going

with my heart, going with our know works. Yeah. I actually want to bring the cast in so we can talk about the project, because I know you have an announcement for us, but the project, this project has grown goods. So now we have the cats of Makeup and break Up in the house. Can you please introduce yourselves to us. Sure. Um, I am Nicolette Ellis and I portrayed Brooke. Hey, my name is Omar Salmon, and I play Blake. Alright, so let's go tell us about your characters, ladies, first to

star first, okay, star girl. Um, so I portrayed the character Brooke. Um, Brooke, Brooke has gone through a lot crazy, Yeah, you know, just a little bit. I adjusted her though, cannot judge your character, you know, but um, I think she's gone through a lot, especially with her I guess I can say that, right, um Blake, Um, that relationship really taught her about self love. I feel like because also her relationship um with someone else a married and

it got a little sticky. And so with that being said, I feel like Brooke went through this whole thing of like, Okay, you know what I'm gonna involve. I'm going to grow, I'm going to discover myself and I think in the new season you will see that. Yeah, Um, Omar Salmon and I played Blake. Yeah all right, yeah, let's dude, it's too funny, but yeah, I played Blake and Blake

I think it's just a guy. Um, he's time's gonna be a little naive, um, a little emotional, but at the end of the day, just good, hard to do, trying to find his way to navigate. Yeah, you know, he's just a regular human being. You know, dude's trying to make it and your women just be you know, Judge Bakes appreciate Blake's character a good guy. Why was

it important for you guys to portray these roles? Yeah, well, I'll just say as far as being a black actor, um, and typically we'll get a thug number two or he talked about this, You and I talked about this. Yeah, yeah, you know, it's it's the typical thing. Orum. If they do put us in anything, it's the army guy or the cop. Right. Um, that's the most that we'll get outside of real human beings. But um, we don't get people who are every day human beings just navigating through

life and trying to figure things out. Um. And I think with Blake, um, and I would think Brooke as well. We just got the chance, an opportunity to explore something real and bring it to life and allow people to see themselves on on on camera. That's what's up. What's up? Yeah, piggybacking off of that. UM, I agree. Um. I think as a black woman, you know, we are strong, um and a lot of people see us that way. But also we are human and so we do have emotions

that people don't realize that we have. And I know, like they always say, okay, um, they're saving the day the standard third, but it's also like, no, we we are human. We cry. We um. We we might save the day, but we also have heartbreaks, um, and we go through a lot. And um, I think it's very important that we show that we love ourselves. I think

sometimes we forget about that. And um, I think me even seeing it and portraying that character and seeing the characters that Eric has created, these dynamic characters, I feel like I can relate to a lot of them, even when it comes to the men and when they're going through their own heartbreaks. So I feel like, yeah, we're humans and you guys have been acting for how long? Oh man, it's over ten years? Because I gotta come over, Tennis. I got a serious question. Um. I started to No. Six. Um,

I decided to do it in No. Six and oh seven is when I actually started starting. Okay, so yeah, I suppose like twelve, I started twenty eleven. Okay, yeah, so it's about eight years. Yeah. And the reason why I asked that is because as actors, I remember at one point when I first started, it was like, oh, I don't want to be in a web series. I want to be an actor. I want to be on TV. I wanna be in movies. What changed in you, guys? And and this to you as well to ask a question,

what made it? You know what let me go to the internet. Yeah, see if I can put my talent. Was there like did you get tired of auditioning the traditional way or you know? Because I know that now a lot of people aren't necessarily always doing the traditional acting way where you submit a tape, where you go to an audition and you get a call back. People just putting their own content out now on this platform

for everyone to see. So yeah, at one point, did you realize, like, you know what, I'm going to go this unconventional route. Yeah? For me, Um, I don't. I never really looked at it as the internet, right. I just like good work. I like good scripts. So when Eric sent me the script, I just said, this is a good script, and I want to do it. I don't really look at it as um uh, the internet

exposure and things like that. Whatever's supposed to happen is going to happen regardless, right, as long as you do to work. So it didn't really bother me. I hate TV, but I love good work like TV. I hate TV. I hate TV. I love good you hate TV. I just think it's it's it's not a lot of space and not a lot of time. Everything is so pace driven. With film, you're able to sit there and dive and

take it time like that. Yes, so so watching it is everything just moves too fast that edits are really quick. I just don't like it. Um, but film I'm able to dive in. Uh. I feel like I'm a part of their world, you know what I mean. I always want to do film. But at the end of the day, um, I'm gonna do TV. Don't think I'm not gonna do TV. Right, I haven't done TV. But once he sent me the script, and I've worked with him before, but once he sent me the script, I was just so it. I would

loved it, and I said, let's rock. When you're coming up with the script and scenarios, I think That is a good thing because you know, I could look at their potential as far as actors, and I could say, well, let me give them an emotional scene or let me give them and see where they're driving a whole episode. Whereas you know, you could get booked on a big

time show and maybe have two lines. So you spent all these years are going to act in school, and you're not really getting to use it, you know what I mean said, you're trying to keep yourself busy to find other ways that you can use it, whether be theater anything. So I should always see their strong points on camera, and I would just okay, let me write this scene for them specifically so they can stretch their selves and so they can have something for their real um.

And that helped me become better as a writer as well, just to see how but they helped me a lot when I hit the beats or whatever, so I can understand like, okay, get and get out here, you know what I mean? Seen here, So it's perspective on it. I haven't heard that how the actor and then the director writer kind of had this interwoven relationship feeding off of each other. So you look at like Ryan Coogler and you look at Michael B. Jordan. They have a

good relationship because it's like, I know your style. Now you know what? Right? It makes sense. So now that you said you don't know where things are gonna go, tell us where things are going. Do you want to give us a little announcement about what's happening with Makeup to break Up? Yeah, we got some good news. Um, we've I think the deal would bet digital um on digital platforms and we are premiere Monday, June UM at

seven pm. That's what's ups, so you'll check it out. Also, my character Gavin has become a recurring character, saying maybe maybe not. You got a word for us, um, just a creator all the content creators out there. Um, don't let nobody tell you what you can't do, and just stick with it. You know. I started out doing short films first, and on the film festival circuit. UM a lot of times. You know, you look for instant gratification.

You might not get that, but just figure out, you know what I mean, which your passion is, and which you're strong your strong points all and just continue to do it, you know, I mean, And then at the end of the day, it'll work itself out like I started in like two thousand and nine and here we are ten years later, you know what I mean. So you can't just get discouraged and just quit. So that's the one thing I'll tell everybody and put your money

investing yourself. So what season are we in? Just in case for people are just new to it and don't know anything about makeup to break up? Tell them like where we are they should be looking at and can we still find it? Yeah? Give me all that good stuff. Season three. Season three is what's gonna be premier in June. You can check out season one and season to BT Digital. Just go to the YouTube platform. It's already there. Now kill down, Thanks every day. That's dope, all right, y'all.

This show is dope. Be sure to check it out and we're going to move into some listener letters right after we do some eggs. This for the record, there it is. Tiger Woods is one of our most inspiring sports icons. In his story, it comes with many chapters. I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior, but here it is the return to glory. This is All American, a new series from Stitcher hosted by me

Jordan Bell. You realize Tiger Wis doesn't know who he is best in the history of golf, no question in my mind. And this season, with the help of journalist Albert Chen, we're asking what if the story of Tiger Woods that the media has been telling, what if it's been completely wrong? All American Tiger is out now listen and Stitcher, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app. So now it is down to the favorite part baby, the listener letters. Because we love to hear from you all.

I'll we have two questions today that we're gonna talk about. See if we can give you guys, shed some light, give a little you know, tipping advice. How hard is it balancing the kids, your private life, like your own individual prod X and social media. You'll make it look so easy, and I know it can't be. So what's the game plan for that type of stuff? Well, you hit the nail on the head boot, It's sure easy. We don't got shipped together, Okay. Every day is a struggle.

And I say that because literally every day is something different. Like I do have my moments where I envy the person that has like the nine to five and the consistent our commute in the morning and the hour commute at night, because at least you know what the hell

to expect. With Devil and I, things are liable to pop up like right now, Like he can literally get a phone call right now and be like, hey, we need to fly you down to Atlanta to do X Y Z, and I'm like what, and then that completely throws a wrench in the plan that we didn't even

have to begin with. So it's literally having to make sure that, of course the children are taken care of, so we the village like, yes, this would not happen in without those vital key people in our life who keep us on track, who love our children as if there are their their own children, who are always making sure that we're at ease, Like my mom will always say to me, I want to make sure that the children are so taken care of that you don't have

to ever worry if you're not with them. Honestly, I pray for her several times a day, my Dad several times a day, and all of our family who helps out, I mean literally brothers, sisters like that really just are invested in in our children and in our dreams, like they're they're invested in our dreams at this point, and we have to, like we have to tell us, tell people how blessed we are. Our families literally live five blocks away each other, her parents, my parents, and my brother.

So we have probably about eight to nine people who all live in a five block radius. So if we have to drop the kids somewhere, we dropped them and it's like, Okay, you have something to do. Hey Dad, can you pick them up from Jay's house? Okay, you got something to do that, Brian, can you pick Like we really literally a family for us to sit here and make it seem like we're super people and we handle everything just some of us, it is not that way.

We have an army behind us who really helps us, and then we have extended arts, aunts and uncles who live close to us. Parents, friends, yes, and then realistically trusting that village that that if something happens, they got our kids and each other. We wake up every morning, first thing we do leave each other's Okay, what's your plan for today? That's where you gotta be every morning, every single morn actually every night. We'll do that and then I have to do it again in the morning.

Because I don't be listening to what I'm saying half the time, so I have to reiterate what if you got them shorts or not? And listen to a thing you say, You're so easily distracted when you're ready, You're easily you're ready. You are easy distraction. You are very easy distraction. Like I'm not even gonna goodness, but yeah, we we we don't like the game plan changes every day and it literally is like a game time decision. A lot of the time. We communicate a lot, like

we have to. We have a group chat with our business manager, with our siblings, with her mom, right, so when something comes up, it's like a chain, but everybody knows where it was supposed to be and what's going to happen. So somebody always has the kids, and we always have each other. So we talk to each other like, YO, want me to go pick this, I'll go do this, I'll go pick that up. You worry about what you

have to worry about, Oh my goodness. And and like last night, for example, Devout had an audition to tape. So we're doing the self tape audition at home and I said, you know what, let's leave the babies at my mom's because even if they're up late, or they won't go to sleep or whatever the situation is, at least they're not gonna be making noise in the house,

so we can get your audition tape done. And then I'm in the middle of writing a keynote speech that I have to deliver on Saturday, and Jackson wants to stay up and watch the Golden State Warriors games. So we're trying to spend some quality time with simultaneously. It's just like and then we both look at you and say, did you check his homework? Damn? I was like, what does that math test? Again? And then he then he comes back he said, I got my math test. I said, oh,

you had it already. What you get? So we're like, Dan, we're parenting the ship out of these prepper for that one about poor Jackson. But he's great. You know, sometimes he's just like mom my, Dad, I missed you guys. You know what we're traveling because we've been going through that. Yes,

they they're tired of us leaving. And that's you know, as we start to grow as a business and as a brand, we're going to have to make some serious life decisions about where we live with our kids, what we want to do, and sometimes past like Kadina and I oftentimes passed on opportunities if it's not in alignment with what the children are doing and it's not going to be a detriment to us financially. It's like, yeah, you know what, we really don't need to do that.

Jackson got football practice, Cairo has to do this, we got potty training. Cats hasn't seen us in three days. He's been with your mom, Like, nah, let's chill and spend some time with the boys. So it's also knowing when to shut it down a parent, because that's the most important job you have on earth, is being a parent. Absolutely stuff yep, yep. So there you go in a nutshell. That help. If not, we've helped ourselves because now I know I got some ship I need to focus on. Yeah,

we're just trying to figure it out. We try to stay a flow girl. Yes, but um okay, here's the next listener letter question. Is there was such thing as curfew for married couples when hanging out with friends? Should his or her spouse come home at a decent hour when going out along to hang with his or her friends. M hm. I don't think this should be a set curfew per se, but a common decency as to when you're coming into the house that you share with your

spouse or your significant other. I mean, at least if you're in touch. I think that it's okay to be out a little bit late. But I don't. We don't ever put a stipulation on time where I'm like, devout, You've got to be back before the sun goes down, or before the street lights come on, or you know, before midnight. We don't. We we personally in our relationship don't put those kind of restrictions on each other. But

we are in constant communication. Though my communication tends to be bad sometimes, but I try to communicate and let you know, like you know, at least I'm en route to come home, or like how long I'll be out more or less. You know. It's funny. I'm really trying to sit and think about a time where we ever actually put a curfew, and I think, because we were dating so young and we're from New York, things are open until four am, it never seemed odd to be

out out late. It's very true, very true, you know, and so, to be honest, nor is a leniency there with us, just because of the culture around like New York nightlife. New York night life is is very different.

You know, you're out late, and to be honest, you're not getting to the club until like midnight, you know, three before twelve, So you get there, you know, and then you're in the club from twelve, Then the party don't really start jump into and then by the time you're done, and then you may go get something to eat after and you know, you're rolling around three thirty. So it's not uncommon for us, because you think about it,

you've been gone a total of maybe three hours. And I think I think that's more of a thing than anything else. Like we try to find time for each other, and in these busy, this busy lifestyle, we very really have time for each other. So there are times it's like, you're going out with your friends, can you at least be home in time so that we can spend some time. And that's that's not his thing or her thing. It's just all right, you're gonna spend time with your friends.

I get it. But if we were supposed to spend time today, can you at least find time from right And it's just so hard right now when I think about it, because you know, the small group of solid friends that I have, they're so amazing and they're so understanding and they get it, and they all have their own lives too, and they're juggling a bunch of things. And that's the beauty and my friendships that I have, UM, is that they're able to know, like, Okay, Codeine is busy,

I am busy. There's no love loss if we can't see each other all the time or talk all the time, or if I take a while to get back to you via text, it's because I could barely text my husband back. You know. Things are yeah, because things are just crazy and I'm trying to do a thousand things at one time. Um. But the communication helps, you know, when you can let the person know that you know what I wanted. You know, I miss you and I want to see you and be home in at decent times.

This is what I wanted. Someone asked that question, which means in our mind we only exist in our relationship. It seems odd for someone to ask for a curfew. So for me, it just kind of was like, do do married people really put curfews on each other because when I think of curfew, I think about a mom or dad putting a curfew on a child, whereas you shouldn't be no, no, not not we of course with

with adults, you're definitely gonna get pushed back. But for me, it's like you put curfews on a child so that you can avoid them being out during a time when you know only bad things can happen, or you put a curfew on a child to where it's like I want to go to sleep, and I'm not going to sleep until you're in the house, so you need to be soundly until I know you're in this house and you're safe. So I kind of want to pose this question because I'm interested in knowing, you know, do other

couples put curfews on their marriage. Not that it's a bad thing, but I want to know, you know, what's the premise behind it and what's the reasoning behind it, because I'm like it really when I was sitting here thinking when you were talking about why would someone put

a curfew on their spouse? And I want to know because I'm has like a negative connotation you think about it even if you're say, you know, you're in trouble with the law and they put a curfew you can't be out past a certain time or something, or it's oppressive. It makes you feel like why are you trying to keep me in the box? And I have to be home at a certain time. So yeah, that's interesting to hit me in me and my DM send an email to dead ass Advice at gmail dot com and let

us know what you're throw perfect. I really want to know because this could be a topic for podcasts, because that really made me wonder, like thing people really put curfews, like oppressions within relationships or something like that, or a ways people feel oppressed in some relationships are oppressive. I mean, if you even the idea of marriage and where it started from was very oppressive. You know, women were considered property, right,

that's the only reason why marriage started. Women were considered property. So the idea of oppressive relationships, we're not that far removed from women being oppressed in this country where we can't acknowledge that there are still oppressive relationships. But I'm interested in knowing, you know, like what's you know, what's the mindset behind it? I'm interested and so yeah, definitely. If you guys want to be featured as one of our letters or if you have any feedback about curfew,

email us at dead as Advice at gmail dot com. Yes, that's D E A D A S S A D V I C E at gmail dot com. So what's your moment of truth about social media? Ah? My moment, There's so many truths because this is I feel like this is like our specialty, it is our livelihood, so this is like what we do. Um. So there's so many moments of truth that I can pull from this entire episode. Um, But I guess if I had to

just pinpoint one thing, it would be two. Continue to or if you haven't yet develop a thick skin when it comes to social media and your content, it's art. It's out to be subjective. People are going to feel some kind of way, and you, in turn cannot feel some kind of way. If somebody felt some kind of way, should be excited about it, exact agree. So take what could potentially be something negative or make you feel badly about and turn it around and be like, you know

what somebody felt away about this? They're engaged, they're talking, they're sharing they're sending it to their friend, they're tagging them, because ultimately that means that it sparked something in someone to then debate your topic and to give their feedback, and then you may potentially learn something, uh see learning something. You may potentially learn something that you didn't know before you willing that. My big takeaway is own your life.

Social media gave us an opportunity to create autonomy in our lives. We created a business where we can support our families but also share our art, control out narrative, and do what we want to do in this life. Because you have one innigable right on this earth when you're born, and that's to survive by any means necessary. And if you can use social media to survive and enjoy it, why you're surviving? Why not? And why the

social media way? Like, we don't know how long this is gonna because I mean, I think social media is going to continue to go grow and it's you know, but in terms of like you know, brands being conscious and being a part of the partnerships that we do now and just anything that's happening right now in this moment, if you can capitalize on it, do it while you can absolutely, absolutely and check this out. If you like what we're doing, be sure to follow us on social media.

That's I am de Val and Cadeine I am. I want to spell it out because you like to spell H A D double eight and it's a Nancy I am. On Instagram, you flip that, yeah. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to subscribe, rate, download the episode. Like I told you before, Tell your friends, tell your mama, tell you Auntie, tell everybody to listen to Dead as Dead as Dead Ass is a production of Stitcher. It's

produced by T Square, Stephanie Karaouke and Dinora Opinion. Our executive producer is Chris Manning, and we'd like to give a special thanks to our recording engineer Jared O'Connell, our sound designer Brendan Burns, and studio manager Ashley Warrent. We'll back. I'm Drew McCarry and I'm David Roth. We have a podcast going on right now as part of the stitchen Net.

We're called Substraction that's available everywhere. Get a podcast at Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, Go listen right now to the Distraction right now, it's out. Do it please