Ever felt the weight of societal expectations and stereotypes, especially as they pertain to mental health? Our guest, Shawn W, founder and CEO of GVO House of VIBEZ , offers a fresh perspective on overcoming these challenges. His personal journey, from his tough upbringing in South Jamaican Queens to navigating the trauma of isolation during college, is a testament to resilience. Shawn bares it all, speaking candidly about his struggle with anxiety, the healing process, and how he emerged as a vocal advocate for mental health.
Shawn also touches on the complexity of relationships, the significance of setting personal boundaries, and the need to shatter stereotypes associated with masculinity. Hear how he found love on Facebook dating, and how this relationship has shaped his understanding of communication and connection. We delve into the topic of anxiety, the pressure to conform to traditional masculine stereotypes, and the mental toll it can take. Shawns story is a reminder that it's okay to be vulnerable and express emotions, and that our mental health is paramount.
Finally, we shift focus to the power of investing in oneself and the importance of promoting black businesses. Sean recounts his journey of starting his own clothing brand, drawing inspiration from his humble beginnings. As we close, we celebrate the Vibes Podcast community and share glimpses of what's ahead. This stirring episode is filled with nuggets of wisdom, hard-earned lessons, and an abundance of motivation. Dive in, and let Shawns story inspire you to challenge norms, pursue your passion, and embrace mental health.
“If you are a dope person looking to hop on VIB3Z or know someone really dope people send them our way!”
follow us on all social media
YouTube: VIB3Zpodcast
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Ever felt the weight of societal expectations and stereotypes, especially as they pertain to mental health? Our guest, Shawn W, founder and CEO of GVO House of VIBEZ , offers a fresh perspective on overcoming these challenges. His personal journey, from his tough upbringing in South Jamaican Queens to navigating the trauma of isolation during college, is a testament to resilience. Shawn bares it all, speaking candidly about his struggle with anxiety, the healing process, and how he emerged as a vocal advocate for mental health.
Shawn also touches on the complexity of relationships, the significance of setting personal boundaries, and the need to shatter stereotypes associated with masculinity. Hear how he found love on Facebook dating, and how this relationship has shaped his understanding of communication and connection. We delve into the topic of anxiety, the pressure to conform to traditional masculine stereotypes, and the mental toll it can take. Shawns story is a reminder that it's okay to be vulnerable and express emotions, and that our mental health is paramount.
Finally, we shift focus to the power of investing in oneself and the importance of promoting black businesses. Sean recounts his journey of starting his own clothing brand, drawing inspiration from his humble beginnings. As we close, we celebrate the Vibes Podcast community and share glimpses of what's ahead. This stirring episode is filled with nuggets of wisdom, hard-earned lessons, and an abundance of motivation. Dive in, and let Shawns story inspire you to challenge norms, pursue your passion, and embrace mental health.
“If you are a dope person looking to hop on VIB3Z or know someone really dope people send them our way!”
follow us on all social media
YouTube: VIB3Zpodcast
TikTok & instagram @vib3zpodcast
Listen, listen. This has been a oh where we at. We right here, all right. Hey everybody, this is another episode of the Vibes podcast. Man. It's your boy two, double king, your favorite Leo. We gonna say all things major. We got a man who you know, don't worry about that phone in the back. We got a man who kind of got our name but got his own thing going on. I'm gonna go ahead and let him introduce himself. Go ahead, brother.
Speaker 2:It was going on. Everybody, Sean Way here, originally from Queens, New York, Founder and CEO of Gavabs Only House of Vabs. Hey, listen listen.
Speaker 1:So, brother, you have been making waves. I've known about you for about a year, and some change. Now, what is it that you're passionate about? Is it the House of Vabs? You were telling me it was a clothing, and then it led into that so honestly.
Speaker 2:so what I'm passionate about is just mental of advocacy in the world. So I originally started out with the clothing brand in 2019.
Speaker 2:And, of course, I was just really just wanted to spark the interest of just having a conversation just about the problem you got going on. However, I thought I was at that time, clothes was doing this thing. However, you wanna expand, you wanna grow. So I was like all right, how can I tap into a bunch of people all at once, not necessarily giving them clothes, but giving them exposure to the brand. So then that's when I thought about House of Vabs and I'm like, all right, cool. Well, if I do like an entrepreneur event with a bunch of entrepreneurs who are either mental of advocates or doing things that's better in the community.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna bring them in.
Speaker 2:So we launched House of Vabs. So it's huge because it's for everybody Okay. So we have vendors, we have guest speakers, and then we also have panelists as well, and then we also have a DJ that has played music the whole time.
Speaker 1:So we're talking for a while. You say we, so it's a team. You started this. How does it go? Yes, I have a team.
Speaker 2:So, honestly, I'm gonna just tell you originally how it all started.
Speaker 1:Oh, we got time.
Speaker 2:I believe it was about 2017 or 2018. My man's keys hit me and a group of our friends up because he had a clothing man at the time. Now he wants to be a part of Okay. So we were like, all right, cool, we got a part of it, things in the workout. And then at that point, we always entrepreneurs, we had the entrepreneur mindset and I was an SGA at the time at Delaware State University. So, oh, why? Yeah? So I tried to implement a mental hope day while I was there. They didn't allow it to happen. I don't know why, but that redirected me to launch a Gavabra's. Only Now, when I launched GVO, I was thinking like yo, who can I bring on to my team? And then it just hit me. I'm like yo, we got the whole squad that we had before. Come on, it was a no-branning and all of them are close friends. He's Dante Loms. Everybody plays a specific role. Dante.
Speaker 2:He's in charge of the marketing team, then we got Loms. He's like the photographer Media the keys when he operates, hosting and so forth for House of Object.
Speaker 1:So it sounds like to me you didn't do it the traditional way where people just start and they be like damn, I got to do X, y, z, all of it by myself. You came in with it and we had him.
Speaker 2:But I mean, ultimately it went that way because you still got to learn before you tell other people to do certain things. So I did start out that way, but it was much easier because I was doing it with them. So we all had our specific plays. When it came to oh, let's maybe get an LLC or something like that, one person might have did something, another person might have did something, we might have not been knowledgeable in regards to like we're doing this the right way, but we all messed up together and we all learned together.
Speaker 1:Well, you say you started this for mental health. Man, as I'm going to say it out here, have you battled with mental health?
Speaker 2:Yes, OK, when did it start. So honestly, it was always there. I think it kind of started in middle school.
Speaker 2:Ok, I think that was really the roughest years of my life because I grew up in South Jamaican Queens and I also grew up in a Caribbean household Shit. So I'm the only one out of six siblings who was actually born in America. So my upbringing was totally different. But you're the youngest, I'm the youngest, yeah, so I'm going to school and my friends and everybody. They got the nice clothes, they got all the stuff. I'm wearing my brother's clothes, I'm wearing shirts that's all the way down to my knees. I'm wearing hot top, black Air Forces oh you was like damn it.
Speaker 2:I was. I'm telling you, like if they talk about somebody that looked like, oh you know, messing with him, like I was that person acting all over my face. I was mad, but honestly I was like I was really. I was really depressed at the time because I just, I just knew that it was a lot better out there for many other people. You know, I wasn't jealous or anything like that, I just knew that it was a better situation for a lot of other folks and the anxiety really started to come from, I believe myself, me at high school. I got robbed in front of my house, so I was in my way to school that morning. It was the only morning that my mom didn't watch me go to the bus stop. She was sick, I think. They put traffic cones at the end of the block so no cars came down because it was the one way I'm walking. I'm walking to the bus stop door slam, I turn around, I get pistol-wet. Wow.
Speaker 1:So I'm on the floor and I get on the floor and I'm like yo, what do you want?
Speaker 2:Like I'm broke, so I'm like either way, you ain't getting no money, Right, but luckily I had $15 on me that day. That was the most money. I ever went to school with you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying Everything played a part this day.
Speaker 2:Yo, I had the most money. I had a Blackberry cell phone. I was good.
Speaker 1:First of all, you had a Blackberry. A Blackberry Well, that's some change. What you was running the business.
Speaker 2:No, no, listen, the Blackberry wasn't working. I was trying to stunt. I'm telling you, I was going through it. So I tried to stunt. So they took everything, bro. They took the $15, they took the Blackberry. Then they ran up, then they took the keys and ran to my crib. So they thinking that they ran in your crib, they ran in my crib, they thought it was. So they started asking me if I had an older brother. So my older brother was in the crib at the time.
Speaker 1:Did they know you?
Speaker 2:No, bro, I don't know these people from pulling the wall bro. So they ran to my crib. They went to my brother's room, knocked on his door. They're like yo come out.
Speaker 1:So then he's like yo who is it?
Speaker 2:So my robbery is done. I'm telling you. So he telling my brother, he coming to me, he coming to me in the living room, he's like yo tell him to open the door before I shoot you. I'm like, listen, so now I don't know what's going on because my brother's he was outside. You know what I'm saying, I'm hooping, so I really don't know what's up. So I'm like yo just open the door. So they say, you know, you open the door, they start tussling or whatnot. My niece is just born, so she's in there.
Speaker 1:It was just like Everybody was in the house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I'm the one just sitting there at the gunpoint the whole time. My mom's came downstairs they tell my mom, yo shut the fuck up. I'm like, if I can curse her, fuck it.
Speaker 1:Yo, you curse, he's like shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, and she got quiet.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying I'm shook, and she keep asking me oh, you ought to police, et cetera. They see, you know, they told the dude I went to my brother's room to come out and bring him out here too. So they brought my brother out to see if it wasn't him.
Speaker 2:It wasn't him. So I got my ass whipped. I got my face kicked in with ACG boots, black joints, black joints, bro, like right here. No, no, no, I'm lying, because he kicked me right here, because I was laying down. He kicked me so they was looking for somebody. They was looking for somebody. He said somebody stole money from him or stole his clothes. I'm like that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:This is the most organized robbery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bro, then they brought me to the precinct. What are you casing me?
Speaker 1:What happened to the New York shit? Not snitching you, mind I brought.
Speaker 2:I promise you, I ain't saying nothing. I ain't saying nothing, I ain't even see him. I ain't even see him because they had photos. They had photos of other dudes or whatnot, but the dudes had masks on.
Speaker 1:I can't tell oh yeah, it was like, that is yeah, I don't know who the hell it is or whatnot.
Speaker 2:But then we tell them we gotta move. But another thing we Caribbean, so we don't got much resources to be on somebody. All right, let me sell a home, dude. So we had to stay there. So now, every time I leave the crib, paranoid, I'm paranoid. Bro, I used to play basketball at Lincoln Park. You from New York, like shit, yeah from.
Speaker 2:Lincoln Park or whatnot. So we used to be hooping from sun up to sun down. So when I'm coming home we don't really got street lights like that on my block. So the first I'm going to say quarter of my block is straight, it's pitch black, bro. I'll be walking around, I'll be walking in circles. Make it sure there ain't nobody around me.
Speaker 2:And it's like to even live like. That was kind of crazy. So as time gradually went on, I decided I'm just going to go to college, I'm leaving New York, I'm not coming back at all whatsoever, because that's really where all my trauma.
Speaker 1:But this will happen when you was in what ninth grade?
Speaker 2:This happened my sophomore year.
Speaker 1:So you kept this for the years, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was like maybe another two years and then I went to Del State. I was there for my whole freshman year. Then I came back to New York. I went to SUNY College out of Westbury and then trauma started happening again. I don't know what it is, it's just the New York air now for me. You know what I mean. It's just a lot. I'll be going back just to visit everybody or whatnot, but it's just a lot of trauma there.
Speaker 1:When you said the trauma came back when you went, when you was in college. What happened? Who just felt that feeling again?
Speaker 2:So, for one, I'm in a new environment. I don't know anybody. Two, I wasn't supposed to go to college. My mom, she, wanted me to go get a job, so I just knew that I didn't want to stay in New York. So that was my only way to get in out All my friends from high school I was hooping with they was going to college, whether it was for hooping or for academics. So I'm like yo, I'm leaving too. Everybody else getting out, yeah. So I'm like I'm leaving too. So when I left and I went to Del State, it was cool and all my mom was there. Some of my friends from high school was there too. So I felt comfortable for a little bit. But now, when your mom's leave and everybody else leave, you got your friends, but your friends is doing their own thing or whatnot, and you from New.
Speaker 1:York people looking at you or whatnot like you want to fight, so I felt alone, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I wasn't really making friends with my freshman, besides my roommate at the time. I wasn't really making friends so I felt alone, but things was just not on the upright so I actually tried to commit suicide. My freshman year my grandmother passed away and I was the only one in my family who wasn't able to make it to the funeral in Jamaica. You was in school and I was in school and they hit it for me for about two weeks. Would you close your grandma?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was closed I was one of her favorite grandkids. So it was tough for me at the time. So I tried to commit suicide and actually stopped myself from doing it at the time and at that point I knew I needed help. So when I went back home I actually went to therapy and I was like yo, this therapist don't not care about me, yeah. So I was like, nah, I'm not, I'm dipping, I'm not even staying here, and that was my first time actually in therapy and it felt good to talk about the issues. But it was also still there because it wasn't a dialogue. It was like I'm just talking to a brick wall kind of thing. But ultimately I went back to those states and I went to this event it was called. It was a love event, called it's Stance for Loving Ourselves Virtuously and Embracingly. So I went there and that was the first time I actually heard other people speak about their mental health problems that they were going through.
Speaker 1:So I'm like OK.
Speaker 2:So I stood up for the first time and actually spoke in front of a room in front of mad people and I felt so good and I just felt so much weight lifted off my shoulders. And then that's when I started advocating and that's when I was like when I get into HGA I'm going to try to implement a mental health day.
Speaker 2:And then I ended up getting into office. And that was even a struggle for me as well, because if I ain't, when I was not going back to school, he said I put everything in it. I put everything Because I did four years of school already, because I transferred out and I came back, so I technically already did four years. So my fifth year I didn't really have no money Financially. It was cooked, parent plus loans cooked. So it was like how am I going to pay to go to school? So in order for me to go to school, for free.
Speaker 2:I had to win, so I worked my ass off. I worked my ass off. One Ended up being in school for free that last year and I had the time of my life, man. At that point things started going up, on up for me, because I joined a fraternity At the time.
Speaker 2:I'm part of five-bedded, significant fraternity incorporated. Oh why so? Yeah, so at that time my resources started to open up. I started getting help, we get jobs. I started having more people to talk to. I started realizing that some of my long brothers they probably was going through worse than I was going through and they kind of made me realize all right, you know what, bro, you're going through a lot and some things you can't control, but when you understand that, when you're around these people, this is good energy, this is genuine energy, it's good. And that's where the good vibes only came from, because that's how I'm able to kind of go every single day, because I'm around, so that's where the mental hope, the mental community came from, where House of Vives is, like you, just trying to disperse our energy amongst other people who have good vibes. Only, you know what I'm saying you never know who you're around, who you can save, bro. That's a fact.
Speaker 1:How many brothers?
Speaker 2:you got Blood brothers or alarm brothers, blood brothers, blood brothers. So I have four. I have four blood brothers my oldest, oldest one on my mom's side. He passed away when I was like two or three. And then my other brother on my dad's side, my only other sibling on my dad's side he passed away in 2019. That one was hard too.
Speaker 1:He got killed in LA or whatnot.
Speaker 2:He got murdered by his own friend or whatnot. So but alive right now. I got two blood brothers.
Speaker 1:You were saying, when that situation happened with your grandmother that you wanted to kill yourself. Before you started having those mental personal conversations with yourself, did you talk to your brothers, talk to your mom, or you self-isolated?
Speaker 2:I was self-isolated. Why so Korean?
Speaker 1:parents don't understand mental health.
Speaker 2:They don't.
Speaker 1:It's not the first time I've heard this.
Speaker 2:They don't understand it and it's kind of it's a disconnect. When you grow up in the US, what you know is what you see your friends do, what you adapt to what you see on TV. What they know is when they grew up from. My mom came in. My mom came to America when she was 36.
Speaker 1:So she was an older girl, she was already in her ways.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying so, it's like to kind of break somebody who's already in their ways is definitely different, so it was tough. Like my older brother, my middle brother, shout out to him he's one of the main person that I really speak to when I'm really dealing with a lot, because I've seen him make something out of nothing.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. Like I see him went from getting arrested to leaving home, going to I think he went upstate to Job Corps, got his GED, got right. He never came back, never came back. So he's he opened Albany right now doing his thing, like you know what I mean. And I went to college, I got my degree.
Speaker 1:He making more money than me it kind of works out like that you know what I'm saying, so it's like seeing somebody, seeing somebody like that was working.
Speaker 2:I think it's like you know I go there more the time, whatever it was.
Speaker 1:I got so right now when we were coming in here. You were talking to your lady at the time, right. Right yeah, when you going through these battles. Now, what is it cause? I always wanted to ask people that you know have mental health Are those events that just spark it, spark the anxiety of these starts, or is it just happens out of?
Speaker 2:nowhere Happens out of nowhere. Oh yeah, you like you, I could feel it coming on. It's just. It's just really just how you're about to approach, how you're about to approach on how to deal with it, right? So I'm gonna be completely transparent. Like I smoke and I just recently just started realizing that anytime I got the urge to smoke, it's my anxiety starting to kick up.
Speaker 1:It's like it's just going. Yeah, I started noticing stuff.
Speaker 2:I started kicking up and I'm like, I'm like damn, I don't want smoking to be something that's carrying on me for the rest of my life. You know what I'm saying. And so I'm now practicing on cutting back on it so I can stop it overall. Or you want to stop completely. I want to stop completely. You know what I'm saying. I want to heal. You know what I'm saying. I don't want to keep running the substance or anything like that to make sure I'm feeling good, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in general. What's your?
Speaker 2:advice? My advice is to honestly just cut back, challenge yourself. I think when you make a promise to yourself, it's something that you don't want to break.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's something that you don't want to break and you have to hold yourself accountable, because there's no way that you can hold anybody else in your life accountable if you know it ain't self-accountable.
Speaker 1:And that's a fact. So, knowing that you want to stop, what do you find yourself doing now, like, what's that thing you go to now when you have anxiety? Most people sex, liquor, weed. What is your thing?
Speaker 2:Oh, so me in general. Now I shoot, so I told you I started from a photography business, so I started that.
Speaker 1:Could you wait a minute Because you got like too much going on. Did you just like randomly like, oh, I'm gonna do photography, or you always had skills in photography?
Speaker 2:I always had skills with photography. I always know what I want something to look like. I'm a creative, like it's in my head, you know what I mean. So it's like if I could have something where I could capture the moment, I'm gonna capture it, you know. So that kind of heightens my anxiety as well, because even with GVO, like I'm gonna be honest, we have so much, so much that we even drop. Yet you know what I mean. I'm just being so patient. I'm not worried about oh, you've been off a full fight. No, I don't care about that. I'm waiting until the right time to drop shit, cause the slowest tanks move the the what was it?
Speaker 2:What did Rick Ross say? The slowest tanks? No, the biggest tanks move the slowest in the battles. You know what I mean? I'm not rushing to go nowhere. I'm not going nowhere. You know what I'm saying. So we here for the long term, so I'm just waiting. So when I think about GVO, I'm like damn, I want to drop something, I want to drop something, so I see somebody drop some fire. So I'm like dang that job was hard. I'm like we should drop something now.
Speaker 2:And it's like but it's like now we got to think about five years is all that. And now I'm thinking like cool, we're gonna pay for this, we're gonna pay for that. And my mind started going crazy.
Speaker 1:And then go right back to smoking you know what I'm saying, but what is it what you're just saying? Now, though, there is good anxiety and there is bad anxiety. What you're saying is good anxiety.
Speaker 2:You're like, you get anxious in a good way, so the anxious in a good way. So now and then also, so we take this back, because you just go by speaking with my lady, right. So we're a woman, we've all had our experiences with women. You know what I'm saying. We had the highs, we had the lows. You get relationships with people. You got the highs, you got the lows, and I feel like we've all endured certain types of trauma in relationships.
Speaker 2:So now, like even now, I have anxiety with my girls Like dang. This is just a good situation right now. I don't want neither one of us to mess this up.
Speaker 2:Because, this is it. You know what I mean. So it's like when you finally find a healthy situation, it's like you are now just hoping that nothing comes in between. You know what I mean. And now, like I said, you got to hold yourself accountable with a lot of things or whatnot. So you got the good and you got the bad. For sure, but I usually get bad or negative anxiety when I'm usually about to go home.
Speaker 1:It's going home that triggers you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going home. That triggers me a lot. It's definitely.
Speaker 1:How long you been with your lady.
Speaker 2:So we started actually dating around October, november. Well we 2023? No of 2022. Oh God, but we just officially got together in March. How?
Speaker 1:long you known her.
Speaker 2:I met her in October, that was the first time. Oh, so it's so crazy, bro. Oh my God. So this is around the time where me and my ex stopped doing each other and I had deleted like Facebook off my phone or all this stuff.
Speaker 1:So I ended up so you took a break.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I took a break from Facebook, so down on the Facebook. You know, sometimes, when it was apps, they don't allow you to sign in until you sign up for their inter app or whatever. So they had Facebook dating, so I signed up for it.
Speaker 1:Can y'all stop with this line? Tell everybody on.
Speaker 2:Facebook dating. But look though. But look though. So I went on it. I signed up for it, right? I didn't go on it for like two weeks, no right, I ain't going on it for like two weeks. So I go on Facebook and I'm looking for groups. I'm looking for my group message, Like the groups I'm in, and stuff like that. So as I click the settings button I see the dating thing. I have four notifications on this. So I go in there, I look and I'm like, oh, it's some of the AAP people on here and whatnot.
Speaker 2:So I see, so I'm exing everybody. So I see her, she got a nice little Delta jacket on. I'm like you peeped the fit first and I'm like, oh okay. So I clicked the check button Match. I said oh yeah.
Speaker 1:It's over.
Speaker 2:We had one mutual friend. We had one mutual friend at the time and that was a lady I would call Aunt Toni. Oh God Right, come to find out. Oh fuck, come to find out. That one mutual friend, my girl. She's from Atlanta, I'm from New York, I'm Georgia Girls, I got you Well, we met each other, yeah.
Speaker 1:And we met each other. Yeah, listen, they put me in a choke on many times.
Speaker 2:So I met her in DC. So crazy, right. But the one mutual friend we have is my childhood coach's wife best friend, like her mom and my Aunt Toni are best friends, oh shit. So I'm like this is like you can't make this up, but you're close, it's too close. So now you know, you got how moms call Aunt Toni. Who is this kid? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Well, I got the past because I'm a cool dude Like you. Know why you never know me.
Speaker 1:Man, you say you Caribbean. Right, there's a stigma about Caribbean men and African men. You already know.
Speaker 2:Are you? You fit this. No, I'm American. I was born here.
Speaker 1:I was born here.
Speaker 2:I was born here. I was born here.
Speaker 1:I was born here.
Speaker 2:I would not. I would have said, I would have said well, not me. He said hey, hey, man, I have boundaries. I wouldn't say controlling Come on brother.
Speaker 1:No, Come on brother.
Speaker 2:I'm so tired of throwing that little buzzword I'm dead, I'm about to Lord, I don't tell my girl what she can and can't with. Ok, no, I don't get into that. You feel what I'm saying? Like Kiki huh.
Speaker 1:He was violent.
Speaker 2:He was violent.
Speaker 1:But if you look over there, look look, she has some shit to say about that. Look, look, look.
Speaker 2:He was, he was. He was violent though he was, he should. But look though, so this is my take on it right, I feel like they didn't have a conversation. I feel like they wasn't even talking. They got something going on, Because, first of all, how you leave a, let her leave a house like that, and now you, on Twitter, talk about oh yeah, he must have didn't see it.
Speaker 1:He didn't see it, he didn't see it, he was like they didn't have a conversation.
Speaker 2:So that's my thought process. And he used the dress as a cover up because she was she was on usher. You know what I'm saying. I feel like he. I feel like if he would have just addressed the fact like, oh, why are you doing all of that? Da, da, da, da, you got, you, got us at home. Oh well, he could have probably been in the lead. You know what I'm saying. But when he went out to the dress, it was like, bro, you shot yourself in the foot, bro, anybody behind him saving you?
Speaker 1:Ain't no way, ain't no way. Black women are not coming to save you. So you say you got boundaries. Give me two of your hard boundaries, two of my hard boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man, do you remember that? Yeah, I don't care about that. So when it comes to Godfreynce, I just let it know I don't play that. You know what I'm saying. If you got Godfreynce, that's cool, but once I see something off or whatnot, i'ma address the issue. That's the one thing about me. I'ma address the issue.
Speaker 1:Do you address the issue right then and there, or you let it play out, I let it play out, I let it play out.
Speaker 2:I let it play out Because I got to see what's going on.
Speaker 1:Oh, you said.
Speaker 2:Rebo Okay, I got to see what's going on. If I see something funny going on or whatnot, that's crazy. No, we're going to address it right there and there. But if it's something like y'all having a conversation, y'all busting it up or what it case to me, I ain't about to come over there and be like which I was talking about. I ain't doing that Because I got female friends and we had the same type of conversation. We laughed it up all the time and I wouldn't want her to do that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So that's how I moved All right, you ain't escaping these two boundaries. Don't get me wrong though.
Speaker 2:I've had females in the past who was on something like no, no female friend, no, none of that I can't get with that one no bro.
Speaker 1:But, I can when you in love.
Speaker 2:It's a little different.
Speaker 1:See, look, whatever your woman name is, I'm trying to do that shit. I'm just being real.
Speaker 2:When you in love, bro, but you don't really want to disrespect who you are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. But at the same token, when I say you can't have female friends, of course I see people. I say what up, I give them hugs.
Speaker 1:You can't have female associates.
Speaker 2:Associates yeah, but like old-head told me that you can have associates. Yeah, but I can't be going to go hang out and chill and stuff like that, you know what I'm saying Like that's really about it, unless it's like a function.
Speaker 1:Okay, so would you say you're in love right now, for sure, so was it your first one.
Speaker 2:Nah, she's not my first one, but I'm definitely shooting and making my last, for sure.
Speaker 1:How do you know, speaking for the men, right now women want to know. How did you know? Because everybody say for men. We always say when you know, you know.
Speaker 2:Nah, in fact yo honestly, bro, it's like you, can't you can't picture what it'll look like without that person. You know what I'm saying. It sounds cliche, but it's obviously true. Conversations just flows Like too much. Sometimes you can't even get it. Get it you little fucking angel, you can't. I got all 32 off, nah, but you just feel it. I don't really feel like it's something that you can really explain. You just know. You know what I mean when I'm a Ronda everything out.
Speaker 2:Jigs out, you just have me to be around. I act like a kid. I act like a kid around me, we make little noises, little stuff like that. You know what I mean. You can't really find that Some of these females out here, bro, they mask, they macho, you know what I'm saying. Like she a feminine girl, like the first time we had a situation she saw the client and then I'm just like, then I call down, like yo just relax.
Speaker 1:And I call yeah, it took you out to your house.
Speaker 2:I'm like Dan, like she really like tapped into her femininity you know what I'm saying and it felt good, cause it's like the nurturing vibe starts to come in come to play. You know what I mean, and it just feels good to have somebody who, once you, like once you and shows it every single day. You know what I mean. It's just, it's just evident. You just got to match energy every single time.
Speaker 1:From what you was saying, you still got your pops in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here, right, here, right. You know what I'm saying, bro.
Speaker 1:This is a vile Bro. What you mean, what you mean, what you mean. Don't let that slide.
Speaker 2:So my, my, my dad, my dad is physically there, If, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Okay, just emotionally not there. Yeah, like I said, caribbean parents.
Speaker 2:Caribbean parents are just, it's different, just untapped when it comes to that stuff. You know what I'm saying. They look at it as you're just complaining about what he case and be. So he's there. You know what I mean. He's not the. He's not the best person in the world. I would not still love him to death. You know what I mean. But we just have our differences. We normally don't see out of eye what he case and be like and I'll just be having to tell him about him. So as as I got older I was, when I was younger, I used to choose him over my mom. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:But as I got older, I started to notice as we you know what's a memorable moment, one of the most memorable moments you got with your dad.
Speaker 2:I remember when I it was when I used to live on one one 26th Street in Queens. Okay, and if you're from Queens, y'all already know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah cause he said it and I was just like yup.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kim, you know, y'all know what Kim Chinese food stores at, right there next to the Domino's, right across the street from I think it's not St Anthony's, I believe right there, yup, in the post office. So one 26th Street sitting on his lap and he had me driving his, he had me driving his van. I remember that joint and he had his foot on the gas and he's making it seem like I was driving and he's like don't go too fast, don't go too fast. I'm like I remember that joint, like it was yesterday. We don't really got that much of good memory, so I can instantly pull up a good memory with me.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm sure. Well, you know, we always get questions from people. So Dominic wants to know. Dominic wants to know do you feel a pressure to conform to traditional masculine stereotypes, and how does it affect your mental wellbeing?
Speaker 2:Hell. No, I do not care. I don't care if bro, they be on the ground talking about oh men who know how to make hookah sassy. I do not. I haven't seen that. I don't not care, I'm gonna blow this hookah smoke in the school street. New Yorkers, love. If you're in New York and you're Dominican, you know, yeah, you know what I'm saying. Get looking. Yeah, I was like nah, but for real, like I know how to do everything. I know how to grill.
Speaker 2:I know how to change the tire. I know how to do all those specific things that women say men don't know how to do nowadays. So when you talking about oh men, sassy for blow, I'm gonna blow this hookah because I could fix your tire, you do can't. That's why you talking like that.
Speaker 1:Right now, right, speaking to this lady right here, and you so I feel like now everybody wants this male stereotype, right? And if you're an our age, you can only be talking about your grandfather and your parent which were 60s yeah, that's facts and 80s and below Right. So those men were different. The circumstances are different. He had the way of suiting to come to your house. We're not doing that. We're not doing that 95 degrees. Thanks.
Speaker 2:With the hat on with the, with the, with the little joint.
Speaker 1:No, so right now I feel like traditional men. They're still out here because that's just what they want to be, but there are different versions of men now. Some men can be sassy, just like if you're a gay man or whatever. You can be sassy, but when it's time to flip the switch, you're still a man, Not real talk, right? Do you like traditional women?
Speaker 2:And traditional women, you mean like I'm home cooked.
Speaker 1:It's whatever your word is I know I'm gonna be honest, bro. I just I just need a team player bro.
Speaker 2:Like that's, that's, that's. I don't bro, I don't yo. I'm gonna be honest with you, bro. A lot of people will be living off of this social media shit, that's if. I don't care about none of that, as long as it work, right, as long as it work. I need a team, I need a team work. You don't feel like cooking? I'll cook. If I don't know how to make it, I'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying? Door to ash.
Speaker 2:Bro, if you you can't throw the, you can't throw the garbage out, I'm gonna take the garbage out of you in case you, you know what I'm saying. Like I'm off the, I'm off to catch a fuller when he keeps me, you, I, I, I, I.
Speaker 2:I'm some pain thing it's a team thing, bro, and it's like people be making this seem like oh nah, you gotta do this, oh, the man gotta do this, the man gotta do that. No, no, the hell he don't. Or the women gotta do this no, the hell she don't. And just do it Like why y'all making everything so goddamn complicated bro?
Speaker 1:Because of the Instagrams man.
Speaker 2:That's because. That's because people don't have a monotony at home, bro, like people are not self aware, people are not realizing that yo, all of the stuff that I'm reading and I'm laughing with and I think that I cool, I'm laughing with this person, so that make me cool. So now I gotta live my life like that Cause that person accepts it. No, I don't care what he or she think Like, this is my life. If I died. If I died, he forget about me tomorrow.
Speaker 1:You talked much mental health earlier. Right, I see where you are in your life right now. When did you break out and come into this? Oh, I don't really care what other people think of me. See me, as as long as I'm good, I'm straight, bro, I ain't going to lie to you.
Speaker 2:That shit is free when you feel that it honestly took. I think it really. It hit a switch in my head. When was it? Cause it was definitely before I started working at this job. It had to be towards the end of summer of last year, and if summer of last year, I'm 28. Okay, so yeah, end of summer of last year, I just hit a different mode, I think. Matter of fact, I'm lying to you. It was after House of Ours Okay, my first house of Ours. And cause I'm going to be honest, like a lot of people, a lot of people I thought would show up didn't show up friends, family, whoever, you know what I mean and it was still a great event. I had fun, it was successful, people learned. I got a lot of feedback after we grew. Right now, we had a second one to share and it even was even bigger, and I was like yo, I don't need half the people.
Speaker 2:I thought I needed you ain't that, Bro, and it's like in most of these people's opinions or critiques, I was taking the heart, I was taking personal. I'm like, bro, I'm him Like. You can't tell me nothing and some people may not like it, but it's like my confidence shouldn't be offending your insecurities. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Difference confidence and cocky. Well, I don't talk like this normally. This is probably the first time to hear me talk like this Talk. I'm going to be honest. So it's like for me, ultimately, it's like I'm going to do what I got to do regardless. So, where I came from, from going to school with 75 cents- in my pocket.
Speaker 1:You remember the shit To the dollars in my pocket.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. When I had a walk in the puddle with hot top ear forces where my socks got wet or whatnot, bro. So where I'm at now, bro, you can't tell me nothing. You can't tell me nothing at all. Like I'm doing everything I'm doing, I would know mommy or daddy money. Like I'm living. You know what I'm saying To me I'm successful. You know what I'm saying To me I'm successful.
Speaker 1:That's what matters, though, cause I think everybody looks at it from a financial gain. Yeah, I don't know what success is you can have money and not be successful. Dope boys got money Right.
Speaker 2:Bro, I go back home sometimes. Sometimes I remember it was I think it was early 20,. No, it was 2021. Was it 2021? Yeah, 2021. I went back home. I went after my leashes up when I was living in Delaware. I went back home for like maybe about a week and they knew everything I was doing, from my clothing brand.
Speaker 1:That's if you're good.
Speaker 2:Other entrepreneur endeavors and I'm like it felt good, but I was like yeah, watch it, what's going on.
Speaker 2:But that's when I realized, like it don't matter where you at, like if you're doing something, good bro, they gonna see it. And that's when I just kept going. I kept the fire rolling, you know what I mean? I just I just tried to decide to channel my energy everywhere else when I got anxiety. I'm gonna get up, I'm gonna figure, I'm gonna try to figure out something to do. You know what I'm saying? I'm kinda hiding it down. And then I realized the buzzword, mental health.
Speaker 1:I feel as though, as kids fuck, yeah, we experience anxiety and all of those things now and I feel like now, yeah, mental health is real. I feel like everybody uses that as like a crutch. Now Like, okay, mental health is real, but are you using that as a crutch or you really just a fucked up? They did a fucked up thing.
Speaker 2:See. See, with some people, bro, they have. So what I say is you have some people who really have mental health issues, right, I'm gonna say, who have fucked up coping ways, that that it's not healthy. That's the people you call toxic. You know what I'm saying? It's I got this quote to know and not fix is to really not care. So you know what you're doing is fucking somebody else up Because more than likely they're probably communicating with you about it and you're just not fixing it out at all. You know what I mean. So some people use it as a crutch or not, just to kind of get over, or maybe on a job or whatever the case may be. But for the most part, I think that people who do actually do messed up things. They might be mentally unstable, but it might just be a person. But it takes time to really tell what type of person that really is, you know so yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you think women we're gonna say black women, but whoever this applies to, right? Do you feel like it's hard for men to come out and express? Hey, I don't like this. Hey, I'm feeling this way. What you doing, I don't like.
Speaker 2:Hell yes. Bro, women are so quick to call you integral. You're insecure Because I'm setting a boundary.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean, because I'm setting a boundary.
Speaker 2:Because I'm telling you something that I don't like my woman to do. That's whatever you can leave me If that's the case, but don't call me insecure, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Because you have boundaries, you don't want me to fucking do it Exactly. You know what I'm?
Speaker 2:saying. So I'm not gonna call you insecure because you don't want me looking at asses on the timeline all the damn time. You know what I'm saying. It's like you know what I'm saying. It's like no, it's not. It's about self-respect, it's about respecting me, all right, cool. Well, don't do that thing, because it's all about respecting me, but not it's insecure. So I think when it really comes down to communicating feelings, I don't feel men are more receptive to how women feel than women are receptive to men, and that plays a huge plague in the black community. Sometimes Most people I haven't gone a lot, it's so sensitive, but I feel like things I notice as a mental advocate. I look at relationships and all these things. It's like certain men are just too tired to deal with certain things. They don't want to keep communicating their issues because they don't see the change.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm not gonna keep doing it.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna keep doing it, so they leave, you know. And then what most women do play the victim. Oh, he did this, oh he did that. Oh, what did you do? I didn't do nothing, I just turned in. I no, what did you really do, you know?
Speaker 1:what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:The man know what you really did, and that's another thing too A lot of people won't go to the man and really ask the man what really happened, because most men are really logical, they think logically. They're gonna tell you.
Speaker 1:And that's how I thought. Though, because we're so logical, we're not how you feel. I've said this and I can say I'm a victim of this, a woman that somebody I'm dealing with will tell me how they feel. Right, I hear you, but logically, it's X, y and Z how you feel is valid, and I hate when they be like you're invalidating my feelings. No, I'm just speaking to you logically. Right right right that, hey, this shit don't make sense. Oh, it's making me sad. My mind is like, logically, this don't make fucking sense.
Speaker 1:So now, I even and you telling them that yes, because even I'm in a trick bag where I even gotta go throw my shit out the window and cater to your feelings, or I gotta stick with it and be like no, this is, this is fucking dumb. I'm gonna tell you it's dumb, so I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 2:I said I fucked up Right, right, okay, okay, okay, okay. Accountability, okay, yeah, because it's like, bro, certain women, bro, you have to make it to the way that it sounds good to them and it's going their way, but it's like you, kinda-.
Speaker 1:But is that manipulation?
Speaker 2:No, it's Bravo. Emotions are manipulation. Oh bro, women, sometimes women are wrong. They cry to get you to do what. So for them?
Speaker 1:they want you to do right, you gon' fucking conform. Exactly, you gon' conform.
Speaker 2:So it's like, either way, they use manipulation every day. It's like you got your own superpowers. You know what I'm saying, but just maneuver it. At the end of the day, you do it for both parties to win.
Speaker 1:When you put your stuff aside.
Speaker 2:That's it. Put your stuff aside. Just balance the scale a little bit. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Both parties, they both have it, yeah yeah, yeah, somebody might have lied a little bit, but I-.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the same way that you guys go to stuff, y'all might go to work, y'all might go out and something happened, y'all come back and complain and if you look, at it. You're doing the same thing that a woman do. I'm in baby. That's a fact.
Speaker 2:That's a fact you want your partner to stand and listen to you, understand, okay, he's feeling some fight for you and then, hey, you might just get a hug afterwards with some other stuff. You know what I'm saying? You don't know about it, but don't look at a woman when she's expressing herself like oh God, here we go again.
Speaker 1:Nah, facts, we all didn't hit the. Here we go again. I ain't going to lie bro.
Speaker 2:When she kind of be with my girl, she come to me now like about stuff that she may be doing a word or whatever the case may be, like I try to listen as best as I can. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I give solutions You're going to say. I try to listen as best I can.
Speaker 2:I give solutions Because she be getting mad at me, sometimes because I be scrolling on my phone while I'm listening to other stuff You're not paying attention. I do be paying attention, but the only thing is, she know when I'm not fully there. But I be listening, though I hear what she got going on, but when I listen to her I literally just take. I listen to her voice and I figure out what mean parts of me. I'll have her to listen.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can recite the main parts and then I just let her know, like all right, cool. So, like what if you think this happened? Like, oh, do you think that I would have changed it? I'm asking you questions Because now I want to get everything out, Because I want to know, like what was your thought process in the moment? Like, if it went like this, how would you approach it? If it went like this, how would you approach it? All right, so what you about to do about it now, Like what are we about to do, type of thing, and I just have her talk about it.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I just keep the conversation going.
Speaker 2:I ain't about to just be on some like all right, it's going to be okay, because it's like she's still feeling some type of way about it, Like how the conversation until she decides to change the conversation. This, whatever I'm done talking about it, I was just. I was like, all right, dang.
Speaker 1:You were talking about boundaries. Is there a certain a such thing? I think his name was Jonah Hill and he has set a boundary, for his woman said hey, I don't want you wearing this, this, this, I don't want you hanging out with this person. This person, right Now, if a person sets set their boundary, can there be too extreme of a boundary? Because I'm telling you what I don't like? It's no such thing of I'm wrong because, I told you.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think this may be too extreme. I think there might be some too extreme.
Speaker 1:So, for example, if you meet somebody in the club.
Speaker 2:you can't tell them I don't ever want you in the club again. Like, think about it. That's what you meant about, okay. So yeah, you don't want them there anymore, but that was a lifestyle before they met you. If they want to continue that lifestyle, that's all so your lady got the same exact lifestyle.
Speaker 1:She had. What did?
Speaker 2:she meant to you oh shit, she was bro, she don't do too much bro.
Speaker 1:Oh, that shit don't count.
Speaker 2:And what I mean by she don't do too much. I mean, if she goes out, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:She parties, she hang with her friends and all that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But she is not the type of person where she's wearing revealing things and in the party you know she can ass-ass all out.
Speaker 1:No, she don't do that, Bro. I got a question when do you allow your woman to dress sexy?
Speaker 2:So she can go to the club and dress sexy. I mean, yeah, go some more. You know what I mean, like yeah that's okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you cool with that I'm cool with it.
Speaker 2:See, all right. So I ain't gonna lie to you. Like when I was younger I would say like maybe high school? Okay, I would not. I was probably more on that. You know what I mean Because my girl at the time she was yeah, you know how I go. Yeah, so at that time I was more on that. But in all reality I had to grow out of that, because it's really like bro didn't grow up to say I want to look like this.
Speaker 2:You know, what I mean. Or I want my body to shape like this, like nah, like you look good, like show it off. You know what I mean and I think what really comes into play, what really men tell a woman what to wear, what not to wear, really comes down to dang it just on my head. Them trusting them. So sometimes, so female I'm gonna apologize, it might be a little insecurity, but in all reality it might not trust me. You might think shorty, a little too easy. You know what I'm saying. You might think that she look good and a couple niggas might roll up on her. And now you know what I'm saying. You might be scared of that, but I think that was my fear too at the time. You know what I mean Like in high school With her. Now I don't have any of that.
Speaker 1:Fear, bro, For right now this is a two-part. I want to see which one I want to hit you with first. I see a lot of women say men are accessible easily by sex. Right, Right, Do you believe that is true? Because this is gonna lead into the second part.
Speaker 2:Alright, so this is crazy because I actually did research on this. So they basically said poor socioeconomic communities are more driven by sex. Explain I never heard this. So, for example, they said basically a lot of people who are on the low end right the economy they don't really have much to do. Think about it, the rich people they find out, they got business meetings.
Speaker 2:They got to go there they got to do this, they got to do that, they got to interview right. They like sex really. Not only majority of them is married, even if it is, they still got shit to do. Majority of them traveling. Majority of them married. They got families now, right Now. People in low socioeconomic environments, you know, they go to the nine of fives and come home Wake up tomorrow, go to the nine of fives, come home, mmm.
Speaker 2:Saturday hit the club, get drunk, come home. What else we got to do? Have sex Right. So it's like I think that and now also it's a mindset then, because not everybody in the low social economic environment is driven by sex. You know what I mean. But I think that when you build up self awareness right, then you also gain confidence about yourself. You start to understand and value yourself on a different type of level. Then you're not really much driven by sex. But we all came from low social economic environment, so at some point in our lives we was driven by sex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've never heard it like this before.
Speaker 2:Bro, it's like I'm telling you, even though I was a mental health advocate, I don't got no license, I ain't verified. You know, therapists probably like why they got this. Don't he have to talk about mental health, bro? I just try to do my research to gain a different understanding than what I know. A lot of times, knowledge changes the course of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, knowledge changes the course of a conversation.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. Like you tell somebody all right, cool, well, you do this to get your credits going up. You focus on this, watch this, and after you do that, you can go up off this little, up off that, that. That.
Speaker 1:You ain't getting no certs or nothing. You just have the knowledge. You just got the knowledge. That's the knowledge.
Speaker 2:And you straight, you know what I mean. Like, if some, let's say, for example, if one of these top entrepreneurs right now that do podcasts, if they came down and hosted something in a black community, some of them, some people might not come out. They might not have a plethora of people coming out. You know what I mean. But for those who do come out, I guarantee you you might find one or two hungry people in that crowd who definitely gonna take everything you say and apply it.
Speaker 1:That go off to what you were saying early before. I double back with. When you first started out with the house of vibes and everything like that, you didn't have the biggest turnout and I think a lot of people get hung up on oh damn so. And so ain't come out.
Speaker 1:I run into ringing for 300, 20 people came. I don't. I think that now you don't know who that one, two, three person was that was in that crowd. You don't know who they know. They can double back to you like, hey, I was at house of vibes dah, dah, dah, dah, and their audience is now gonna come support you now.
Speaker 2:Exactly exactly, so it's. I'm telling you bro like it's just crazy just to see growth. And when people see, it's because most of the times I'm gonna be honest I think that up in the Northern area it's really like a doggy dog world. It's like crabs in the bush.
Speaker 1:Oh, you going up North ain't, you.
Speaker 2:Nobody, nobody wanna see you do better than them. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And Cause they wanna see, they wanna be where you are.
Speaker 2:Exactly so I don't got no problem. I collaborate with you. You know what I'm saying so we're doing house of vibes. That's what it brought. So now we basically collabed. Is there's just a sponsor from? We just basically use GBOs where it's sponsored house of vibes Talking money and lost it.
Speaker 1:yeah, we lost it.
Speaker 2:So now, if vendors come through, we're gonna bring our community out, you bring your community out. And now everybody mixing the communities together. Now we got the black dollar rolling right. Everybody's happy, everybody's making money. You know what I'm saying? We good, so it's like it just feels good, bro. And then we in the initial we had our first partnership. We got Kentucky's shit, we got this shot to Zarena right, it's a non-alcoholic mixer, is well known in Caribbean. What, why not? Yeah, they came through-.
Speaker 2:What is a non-alcoholic mixer. It's a non-alcoholic mixer. So, basically, it's like juice. It's like juice, but you can mix it with any liquor. What's the weather? So is that oh, oh, oh. So it's a mixer. So it's a mixer, Just like this bottle right, and you got juice that can go exactly with it. Yup, you got, you can mix it with juice. You make mocktails with it. This shit, it sounds genius. So we serve mocktails at this last house of vibes? Yup, serve mocktails at all. That it was good.
Speaker 2:They juice fire. They had a drink. They had a drink called House of Vibes and they jumped with it. Fire, it was fire. Shout out to them. Now they real dope man. Shout out to Nigel Yates man, they're definitely doing anything over there. Man, I got that. I got to connect through my line, brother.
Speaker 2:He works Listen everybody up in the front say now I told you once I joined my front and I got to SCAM and my resources opened up, so I got that connection through my line brother and then we just grew a relationship from that point and it was up after that.
Speaker 1:Speaking of some fire shit, right, listen, if you have I don't know which camera you, so I'ma go ahead and pull this one out, right? So listen if you see the back, if you see the front man, my girl, morgan Wright, started her own children's book. Man, she got the mental health license therapies Listen for sensory deprivation. Man, listen, this woman has started her own brand. I was there probably a year and a half, two years ago, when she bought this idea to me and she was like Mark is, I wanna do this and I'm like she'd do it. And she started off with saying I don't know how I watched this woman go ahead, hustle these jars, hustle books, crayon, whatever she had out to Trump. Right, she went and made this happen, man, and I just wanna say go ahead and support this young therapist. Man, the Wright therapist is gonna get you right. And listen, listen, I don't even have to say it, right? This man did her first and this is how I found out.
Speaker 1:So mental health in the community is strong, man, it's no longer. You don't have the resources. Everybody has a phone. This device can make you money, can make you connections, it can get your mental health right. Man, check out the Wright therapist and we gonna go on back to you. Breva, listen, what would your younger self say to you right now?
Speaker 2:What would I say to my younger self?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We gonna be good. We gonna be good Because I be hearing some people say sometimes like, oh yeah, I'm gonna tell myself to go and pop that loom Bro. I'm gonna be honest with you. I wouldn't be who I am today without what I'm about to do.
Speaker 1:You know what?
Speaker 2:I'm saying Most people would just say I would have changed this, but you wouldn't be who you are right now. You don't think about that part. Yeah, it's like next thing you know, because you got yourself, you know you did something that you wanted to do, that you thought that would have been great for you and that could have possibly turned you to a terrible person. I mean because all your trials, your tribulations, your errors, your hodgelobes, that really builds you as a character. I mean people forget about that.
Speaker 1:They always think well, I'm just gonna add this to the life I got. You only got the life you got, because you didn't choose that route Exactly.
Speaker 2:That's literally like think about all these rappers right now like bro, if you look at the rappers that they signed, they're only going for rappers who literally have no other way.
Speaker 1:That's how you get fucked in these deals.
Speaker 2:You got out of jail. You ain't getting no six-figure job. Well, you could get a six-figure job, but you gotta work your ass off.
Speaker 1:I don't have any. There's no guarantees that shit might happen. I know you ain't gonna do it.
Speaker 2:So I know you're gonna make music, make me some money, right? You even look at let's even talk about basketball, right? I look at this comparison all the time. You got Kentucky, you got Duke right, those are tops right. So one of my high school teammates, tvu, was a freshman I think it was either my junior or senior Hami so he played. He went to Kentucky, right. He played for the. I think he's playing for the Pistons right. No, I think. Yeah, I think he's playing for the Pistons right.
Speaker 1:Shout out to you, Hami. Yeah, shout out to Hami.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, and then you look at, then you look at school, duke, right, hami from Left Fract, you know what I'm saying. We ain't we from Queens, we ain't grown up much. You know what I'm saying. We in the buildings, you know what I'm saying? Apartment, small apartments, or whatnot. And then you got Kentucky, took him. Then you got Duke, where it's like oh, now we want the rich kids, we want Jason Tatum, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:We want the AAU kids, yeah we want the AAU kids, we want the kids who came from. We got good backgrounds and all of these things you know. So, yeah, man. So it was like people got to understand when you get a chance, you get an opportunity. Sometimes it's really because of your story, the grind that you had to put in. You know what I mean and that's what you mean.
Speaker 1:Right now with all the businesses that you got right. You were telling me outside that your baby, though, is what Is my clothing brand?
Speaker 2:Number one for sure, bro I so like, and the reason why it's my baby bro. I grew up wearing my brother's clothes, bro. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Like I'm not the flashy type to be sitting there wearing designer. Yeah, you may see me rock a designer here, you might see me rock designer there or whatnot, but in all the north I fuck it with my clothing brand every day, bro, I'm wearing that.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about this earlier today when I went and checked out your clothing brand. I was sitting there and I was like yo all. If you look at the high end brands, middle end, low end, they all have something in common they're all just clothing brands. The value you put on it is the value you put on it.
Speaker 2:Yo.
Speaker 1:Because if you sold right now, right, your brand sold for, let's say, you sold a T-shirt for $600. You're now a high end clothing brand. Facts what the fuck? It's only the price. Like you can say that's dog shit. Stab a $500 ticket on it.
Speaker 2:You got that shit on though Shit. It's crazy. Oh my god. I'm glad you brought that up, bro, because it's like I feel like nowadays people I would say people are now kind of growing to invest in more into black businesses. But like generally, bro, I feel like the black community don't kind of realize like when we invest into ourselves, like that betters everything around us. Bro, like you got Supreme bro.
Speaker 2:Like I was when I bought these white ups when I bought these white ups it was on a goat right. I seen these white ups. It was 90. I looked at the Supreme white ups. All they had was a Supreme logo on it $110. $20 difference. Just for that on my sneaker, you got a gallery department.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure what they own it? I don't think they own it's black, right. So boom, I literally like the quality T-shirt. So T-shirts that I dropped I got in an acid wash. Same material, everything. Bro. I literally paid about $17 for that shirt just to buy it. The gallery in them they selling that for like $500, $600. And I'm like we got the same fucking shirts and I'm like I see a lot of people, a lot of my friends, rocking the shirt.
Speaker 2:I'm like I'm gonna keep promoting, though. You know what I'm saying. I know y'all ain't copy my job cause y'all feel like it ain't lit. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Everybody gonna be like oh it's cool. You, us as black individuals, don't understand, even though you know the high-end fashion brands might not like the black community, might not like selling to black people rappers, athletes, black people, people that's getting tax income checks, refund checks. You're pushing this brand because if you just sold it to white people, no, we pushed the culture.
Speaker 2:What y'all got on, oh all right, we gonna go we gonna go with that I be saying this all the time, bro. I take, I take, like I think I seen Lil Dirk walk for a mirror for the fashion show or whatnot, and I'm like, I'm like if Any of these artists I'm not even just dirt, I would not, but I got any of these artists decided that I are cool, I'm gonna take a black brand, I'm gonna take two, three black brands and I'm gonna just blow it up.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean overnight, overnight, you know, I'm saying you could forever be an ambassador for that brand you know I'm saying everything you do is gonna Could go in.
Speaker 1:The money is gonna.
Speaker 2:Money is gonna come now. What you now what you did was you built three big brands. Oh, well, now that might have the same pricing. You know I'm saying overall cuz you want to keep the clientele business. But all in all, it's the fact that you did something and now you're about to benefit from it as well. You get a whole contract with a black, with a black on company. I cool, we gonna. We won't operate like this. Shoot the only 10% blah. You run the show.
Speaker 2:You know I'm saying I just do gotta do what I gotta do for y'all, or what not, bro, that we would win. And I look at. I look at artists like I'm trying. I'm trying to get artists like a Like Rod wave to where my stuff. I'm trying to get a lot of these mental health art like a lot of a lot of these artists Speak about mental health in a music.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:You know I mean. So I'm trying to get them to start start. When I brand like I got Pinky Cole, she's CEO study vegan. I know that I got her. I got her sweatshirt talking shit. She went on live. She was like listen, I'm doing a business tour, send me a merch. This is my address.
Speaker 1:If I wear it.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna invite you out there, I ain't got the invite though but they flooded. She was wearing it and she and I say yeah, I got that joint pin on my page. Everything ATL, visit my show. I went to study vegan. I went there, bro, and a burger slap they burgers. They say hey, this is go crazy, I got the dancehall queen. You know how to get that I.
Speaker 1:Do people partner with you like? How well? How does that process?
Speaker 2:work. So most so, most of the times with. So when we speak about partnership, or when not more than likely, the partnership will go towards Like how survived because that's really like our event, our event business, you know, but clothing brand was, but they want to do a collab or anything like that. They'll just hit me up. If the ideas is like that, then it's cool. If we can match funds, then ideas, ideas, perfectly fine.
Speaker 1:He said we can met. You see the, the wordage change the match funds yeah we match. Where did you?
Speaker 2:Cuz, cuz, think about it, cuz some people might come to table blood, all right, cool, I got 2000, I got 2000 to put down. Well, I got, I don't, I don't got nothing. You know saying for the bread, but this is my idea, or what he casing me and it's like our cool. Well, how about you as this idea? I'm saying that's one and then two. It's like now, if I purchase it, all its profits mine. I can't give you no percentage because you ain't put no money down now if we go in 50, 50 now we can split the profit you're going off straight Exposure, but yeah that's.
Speaker 2:That's that's how I'm, that's how I maneuvered, that's how I think, most of all because it's like both parties got a win. Somebody gotta get, somebody gotta give something. If we both taking the risk of doing this, that's perfectly fine. But if it's just me taking a risk and more than likely oh hell. No, I'm ripping all the words yeah, I'm taking, I'm taking everything, but all in all, like we've had brands hit us up to, you know collab and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:We just haven't, possibly just haven't Followed through with it. We was going through like a rebranding at the end of 2021 or whatnot. So we wanted to actually get back out there first and go, because we had a different logo and everything beforehand and I'll revamp, because too much people had a teddy bear logo and I'm like bro, I'm tired.
Speaker 2:I even polo had a teddy. Yeah, bro, I'm like bro, I'm tired of people hitting me up talking about oh my, my cousin got this logo. It looks similar. My bro, all right, cool, we just gonna make it my secondary logo. He's gonna make it a detailed logo on my clothes. So if you look on the sweatshirts that we got the Bob sweatshirt I put it, I put the logo and brodered on on a sleeve solid color so you can barely see it. But when most people see it they get hyped up because he's like oh my god look at this, you want to know a secret.
Speaker 1:And everybody asked me this. And you are the person I tell them right, I can't do this. So everybody asked hey, wow, so I don't. You have merch. And every time they asked me, I say One reason, and one reason only. There is a person out here with a. Instagram page that is called house of vibes and as you sat here In my mind, I'm like, oh my god, you like shit. I got the vibe on the sleeve. I'm like Never in my fucking life.
Speaker 2:You could definitely do merch, though, like I feel like I feel like with the with the box, like I don't know if you did it Three intentionally, but that's fire, bro. You follow me saying it's it's so I feel like it's so much that you could do with just that with the Mikes at the local, bro, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:You see how the business mind the pivot it was easy, like you literally could do like a, like a the mic right here, you could do like the vibes and you can have like the three started up from the bottom of the mic. We go talk. You know I'm saying yeah. Get t-shirts, you get t-shirts, you get sweatpants. All that, bro, and I, I'm telling you, bro, my mind is.
Speaker 1:Moving like I was moving like I'm gonna smoke the weed out.
Speaker 2:Like I brought. Cut back. Like I said, I cut back on all that you know I'm saying so like so, like that's what I was doing, like beforehand, but I cut back on it a lot and I'm moving into the direction of not doing it at all. You know, I mean, so I Do it socially, so like if I like a friend. Yeah, it's like if I go hang out with friends now I'll smoke me, but I try my best not to do it when I buy myself now like I got like I take magnesium pills or whatnot to kind of calm, calm my anxiety down or whatnot.
Speaker 2:I used to really do it to go to sleep, because that's what my that's when I listen to smoke and go to sleep. You won't yeah, but I used to wake up from so groggy. You're still hot, exactly, and I gotta go. I gotta go to work and I gotta talk to kids up now I don't got time for that. So I take these sleeping gummies and I just I just be knocking out. I take it because sometimes I like being up. I might be up at like one o'clock, two o'clock.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a creative time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I take. So I take my gummies maybe around once something when I'm done doing everything I got to do some anxiety. You know, don't go crazy. And I'll just take those gummies I knock right up.
Speaker 1:Well, listen before we get out of here. Man, you spoke about the kids, your teacher.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we just skip that. Yeah, I'm a free. I'm a free science teacher.
Speaker 1:Oh shit Look.
Speaker 2:I was working. I was working at Sally man at the bank. I said you know I need a job. Y'all know both of them. Yeah, I hit my network. I was like yo listen, is your school hiring? They say yeah, so a long-term sub. And up here in Baltimore I was at Windsor Mill middle school as a long-term sub school.
Speaker 2:They liked me so much that they kept me with that class throughout the whole time as if I was as an official teacher, but of course you know traveling from PG all the way up I say boy, that's dry, far as hell it was 45 going down to 95.
Speaker 1:One accident you fucked over over.
Speaker 2:So I got tired of it. So then I applied to to kit. I started working.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love it. Okay, I love it, like just just the way that they are, with how they take care of the staff. Um, you know, the students that are there, students, you know I'm saying like they students, students, the students.
Speaker 2:you know they bad a talkative got attitudes or what not, but they're at the age when all that stuff is coming out and it's fun to see it, because I was like kid at a point and that was the time of my life where I was really struggling the most. So talking to them is like kind of like talking to myself. Right, you can understand exactly, so you know just influencing, just being in the career that influences all other careers, just makes me feel good. You know, I mean and they all hooked on. How Good vibes because I call it the good vibes classroom.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, he said I'm a sponsor, this shit. I'm well anywhere. I go and tell people man, this has been dope as hell. You are Exactly what. I do my research and hey, buddy, nobody has ever said anything bad about you ever. I was like so what's the bad shit? And it was like it ain't.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, I appreciate that bro, I'm gonna be honest, bro, I I try to. I try to do my best Towards everybody, like that's, that's, that's just me. In general, I try to be genuine even if, like, there's people who I could have, like, really had issues with. But I, bro, was good bro, how you, how you been. We may not be best buddies, we may not, you know, sit there, have and bust it up, have old conversation, but I'm gonna greet you, I'm gonna let you know I see you or whatnot. You know, and I think when people realize what, how I could have handled the situation, they realize I handled it in a totally different way. And that's what. That's what things come about, bro, I had, I had so much love tell about me, bro, I don't got time to even jump into it.
Speaker 1:The lives gonna subside when you happy with yourself. You don't like. I'm glad you got that off.
Speaker 2:Exactly because the people I'm a really worker in the future ain't the people that you talk to right now about? Oh, Nonsense, you know. So that's how I live. Well, where can people?
Speaker 1:find you.
Speaker 2:Yo, so I could find me on my personal instagram at classified s, cla, ssif, ieds underscore. Or you could follow my clothing brand, my baby, at gbo loc underscore. You can follow the mental health community that's behind house of ops. Um, that mean, that's behind good vibes at underscore house of the vibes Um, yeah. And then if y'all want to follow my photography pages and my bio or my personal page, he said all that, just say link in my bio.
Speaker 1:Listen, y'all gonna see all this man's pages. He got, he got a lot. They're gonna be. You gonna see it right here.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna just put all three of them. They're gonna be right here.
Speaker 1:Follow this man. Listen. Your kids might go to kip. You might, they might be in vibes university science.
Speaker 2:You never know, I'm gonna get them right, for sure.
Speaker 2:And and I and I don't be just teaching them about science, like before I start my class I always talk to them One, we do a quarter of the day, right? No, we do a riddle of the day. So I get them hyped up and everything like that. Oh my god, then we. Then we got a quote right. Just have them start thinking what does that quote mean to you? And then I actually tell them what the quote actually means. Give them life lessons with the quotes before we start, before we actually start a lesson throughout the day.
Speaker 1:So well, listen man, anything that you got going on I will sponsor be a part of he didn't gave me a goddamn logo. We're gonna make it happen. We're gonna work for sure, absolutely. I appreciate you for coming on, man.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you for having me man, yeah, man, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So listen, this has been another lovely episode of the vibes podcast. Man, all things major. Shout out to all the sponsors. Listen, listen, listen, looking at you, bubbles galore. Listen, the number one soul lady in the DMV that is DC, maryland and Virginia we got something coming. My guy behind his camera, chas Moody media, got something coming, can't say it yet. Well, we got something coming. So Appreciate y'all for checking out this episode, man. Appreciate you, brother, for coming all this way, this way, and listen, check us on the next one. Man, this has been another lovely episode of vibes parkas and we are out Peace.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir hey you're not done. We got stuff to do. Hi man, what's up?