SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome everyone to the Blurred Spectrum Podcast, melanated solstice black business bonus content. All of our black business owners had so much to pour out to our different listeners, to all of our followers, that we wanted to give you a second opportunity to get some of that that wealth, that that richness that could potentially help you in the future. So check out this bonus content and uh let us know what you think about it. Um, so you know, I actually have a question kind of geared towards all three uh uh businesses. Um and you know, uh there have been many um uh stars, celebrities, um, artists, um, musicians, different people who you know have different uh uh views on life, right? Uh so let's an example I'll use is uh Michael B. Jordan. So Michael B. Jordan is into you know Naruto, he's into certain anime um and games. So he created with a partnership with I don't want to get it wrong, but a partnership with a high uh a high-level brand to create a uh a line, similar, not similar, but you know, kind of the way GERD clothing does, where you incorporate anime and uh different characters into your clothing. He did that with a brand, a mixed brand. So uh the question is all three of you, all three of you, your businesses have found a way to do it to create your individual styles, your individual individual ways of promoting um nerdship, promoting melanin, promoting uh blurred, promoting people without having to affix yourself or attach yourself to a higher level business. I I I have an idea of why he did it. Primarily, it's because of you know, visibility, you know, they're already in malls already and money, you write their clothing. Um, uh, you know, I know that's a reason, but you're you're finding ways to do it without there. And you and you're and as uh uh um uh Miss KD Khadija was saying, you know, uh people are people are taking notice, people are stopping and they're staring and they're acknowledging it. You know, people are you know opening Otaku Noir boxes and and feeling the the the attachment to the conventions. People are looking at GERD clothing and they're saying, man, these are the things that I've always wanted to have in a shirt and pants and joggers and jackets. So how what how do you feel, or what do you think is the difference between what he did or what a lot of the artists do and what you're doing? What is that difference? Any one of you can answer, of course.

SPEAKER_08 2:45

I'll go first. Um I would say the difference for me between those. Well, I don't know everyone else's story, but my story is is just personal, to be honest. It's personal, it's aggravating, it's frustrating. I feel I don't just I'm not only wanting to feel for myself, I want to feel for my community as well. Um for me, I'm a lover of words. So words are my thing. Um, I like visions and pictures as well, but words are my thing. So I try to implement what I would say and what I would do, and because people come to me for advice and for words and all that other stuff. So, like, I'm like, how can I still incorporate that main um public speaking and empowerment, speaking of myself into um something that I won't probably be able to talk on all the time? It'll just be able to be on there. You get what I'm saying? But for me, it was just more so personal. Um, trying to give my community more empowerment and use my own personal brand and what I personally do to expand that out.

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Okay. Um uh Indra, did you have an answer for that?

SPEAKER_09 4:00

Can I start off by saying Mike B. Jordan's line is garbage?

SPEAKER_03 4:04

I mean, we I mean, I wasn't I agree wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

I didn't want to say nothing because Susie be trying to censor me, but yes, it was trash. I was I saw that. I was like, Michael, who's gonna pay $200 for that? Who?

SPEAKER_09 4:14

It ain't and again, no representation. So is Megan's, yeah, no representation.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Megan's Megan's was not the best, but I don't blame her for that. I blame whoever put that together.

SPEAKER_08 4:26

And a lot of times I still love you, Megan.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

You're the Aquarian goddess that I that I need.

SPEAKER_08 4:32

You're right. Right. Now here now here's the thing. There could have been very different avenues for that path. But it went down the rainbow avenue. But we're gonna move past this.

SPEAKER_09 4:49

And here's my thing though, with that, I feel like we still get no representation. You guys are standing, they're standing behind these lines that have no representation of us and say, oh, we like these things, but we're gonna wear other people on us. And that was the opportunity for them to take to say, okay, I want all the characters to be black, you know, I want them to look like us. If I'm gonna be wearing a shirt, I'm gonna be representing a shirt with characters on it that I like, I would like the characters to look like us. So for me, I feel like us our group doing what we're doing. We we have a totally different lane because we're gonna have the eyes of people who uh are able to say, okay, this is different. This is, yeah, it's the you know, it's the references, but it's us, you know, having that ability to say we have something of our own, whether it's in a clothing line, is in uh whatever product is a very important thing because we have a lack of ownership within everything and a lot of things in our society, our community. And we need to start being able to have that ownership. And I I literally every day I get up and do and you know work in my business, I literally I'm like, I want to show us. That's my first thing going into it. So again, Michael B. Jordan is lying is trash. You can say that I said you didn't have to repeat it. Look, if Michael B wants to smoke, I tell him about him. So but I really wish that it went another way with it. Um, I understand that they want to make money like everybody else, but something somebody told me was um you can't die with that, you can't take that with you. And setting on who you are and what you represent, and being able to look at every day, wake up every day and look at yourself in the mirror and say, you know, be comfortable with that person is a very important thing to me. So that's what I think about when I go into designing and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I agree. If you're gonna go in, go go hard or go home.

SPEAKER_09 6:39

Yeah, great opportunity to do it.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Uh on top of the RD, do you have an answer for that question?

SPEAKER_04 6:45

Um, I agree. Well, I mean, everyone's already said had said their piece about Michael B. Jordan and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go in uh any further on there. I appreciate it. I think there has been um missed opportunities. I don't know if it's the the people in the background for them as far as lawyers saying what they can and can't do with intellectual properties and stuff, but I think that's probably the beauty of our organizations here on this um on the Zoom is that we can fly underneath the radar. We're not at that point where they're not no crunchy roll and no main looking for us. Yep. Right, so we can we can get away with a lot more stuff. I'm not giving them a pass for what they put out there because I think you could have definitely with the money and cloud that you had, you didn't need to even make a Naruto uh inspired line. You could just say anime inspired, and then you can create your own stuff.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

So now you got you know, you create your own Michael B. Jordan-esque character, maybe then create it, uh branch that off with the book.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 7:44

Now you got your own line of apparel that goes with the uh book that you're gonna work on. I mean, we can sit here again and brain we can brainstorm uh about an entire universe of possibilities of what could happen. Um but I think with with what we're doing, um we have the the genetic DNA to be creative, to to make something out of nothing. Um that we aren't limited by the the red tape of oh, I can't do that because this is this. I see that I'm gonna keep pushing. I'm gonna I can't do it this way, I'm gonna do it a different way. I bring a different avenue to it, bringing a different flavor to it. And like you said, with people uh uh uh uh protesting uh or boycotting TikTok is the same thing. You know, it's like y'all want us to do, y'all want to uh live off our backs and enjoy the fruits of our labor. Well, you know, now you gotta catch up. We're putting a lot of work in, and when we come back uh from out of the shadows, from out of the boycotts and from whatever we're doing, y'all missed a lot. Yeah, and I didn't you're not y'all not on this inner circle of of doing what we do. But I mean that that's that's where we are with it. Um, I mean I've the taco noir isn't my first foray into uh entrepreneurial uh ship. Um like many of us, I well, like many of us, we didn't start out doing this. We didn't know we wasn't went didn't go to school for it. Um I however uh in my high school days, I mean I'm I guess I'm kind of aging myself. I don't know how old everyone's here, but back in the back in the early 90s when I was in high school, but um I went to school for economics and finance. That was literally the name of the school down in Wall Street in Manhattan. So I mean I I was taught early on how to do you know, buy low, sell high kind of stuff and and and work and enter it on Wall Street. So I understand the economic factors of certain things. So there's a lot of stuff that I want to do, but I look at the money first. Is it worth me doing that? Is it um cost-effective? And that sometimes to me is is my limitation on my creativity because I look at the dollars and cents first. Sometimes you gotta go into the red in order to make black later on, and that's some that's that's to me, for me anyway, maybe not for Kay and for everyone else here, that sometimes is my biggest limitation because I don't want to venture too far out of my comfort zone. I don't want to dip my toe too much in the red with the possibility of giving back in the black later on. I want to add, you know, again, if I want to add more to the box, but is that now gonna bring the cost of the box content to be more than what I'm paying out, what customers are paying me? Sometimes it's worth it because it could get you know more people in the future, but other times like uh I like that, but it's gonna be um I'm now I'm now giving these boxes away for free. Yeah, exactly. Um, but I mean that's that's where I I I personally stand on it. Um I think we have something really unique. I think the pandemic, I mean, albeit with the pandemic, a lot of negative things have happened, a lot of people have passed away, unfortunately. But I think it's also brought us uh as a community, as as people of color, brought us to a point where uh we can't rely on our normal employers to put money in our pockets. So we're now finding out ways to you know create our own businesses. Now we've seen I've seen on little people lady got laid off and she you know she created her own business cleaning apartments.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

So now she's doing that. Yeah, who knows if whenever we get back to normal, if she's gonna go back to her normal nine to five. She's she created her own business, she's now her own boss. Yeah, and you know, we can monetize blurred spectrum, and then we gotta go back to uh the nine of five. I'm just telling you somebody's language.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I mean you don't know that that's Succi's love language.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

I've been saying that for months. I was told uh you can't push people to become entrepreneurs, and I I I agree. Certain people have to find their own ways.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Yeah, you you can show these possibilities when initially the idea for the company for Takan Noah literally came to she sent me a DM, just like, oh, I wish we could go to the cons. And that was literally all she said. And I took it from there and and just started looking into the business structure of just making a subscription bond. So yeah, I kind of forced this on her, but I blame her because she's the one who gave me the idea. But um, so I guess you can force people to become entrepreneurs, just gotta show them there's money to be made.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

I I'm in agreement that you can do it, uh, but I have literally one, two, three, maybe four people on this on this podcast panel who dropped ideas.

SPEAKER_10 12:41

So you definitely just gave him way too much ammo.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

You absolutely did. Like uh so before he before he talks further, like I I I I I I Domo, I wish I could save you right now, but I can only speak for myself. Um I am on my way slowly but surely. So there's that. So I am saving myself from being thrown under the bus.

SPEAKER_10 13:09

So you're gonna mean I need to save myself too. So give me so Jacob probably has been pushing me for years. Like, I'll just most of the things that I do to me are like hobbies, so it came to a point where it was like, I don't know if I want my hobby to become my business because at the time I was working the nine to five and taking care of my kids. So it was just like that's my relief from working the nine to five. So um, I mean, I just registered my business name before we moved. We had just moved from North Carolina actually to Virginia. So I just registered my business name, and then we're trying to get stuff set up so I can go ahead and make my shirts and everything else. But you know, it's a process and it's getting there between Jacob and my mother. Like they're constantly in my ear.

SPEAKER_06 14:07

Yeah, I I understand, I completely understand. It's um some people just naturally have that, I guess, entrepreneurship drive, so to speak. And my mom, she was trying to push me to get into business with Cosplay, and I'm like, no, uh, only because I'm just I'm not business savvy in that way. And also I can't see myself do a business because I can see myself be very, very tired emotionally uh to do it. And so you have to have the right mindset. Um I'm easily tired, um, emotionally tired all the time. So I know if I put myself in a business perspective, it'd probably fail because I'd be like, I want to do it. I'm tired. So, but I always commend the people that do push themselves uh to be um in a business, to create a business because it's not easy. You know, it's a lot to write on and you have to find the inner confidence to get up and say, I'm doing it. And um, you know, but not everybody has that either. I from one am not.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Same.

SPEAKER_06 15:10

It's just not gonna happen, you know. And I've I've had people push me for years, you should do this, you do this. I'm like, yeah, no, it's uh I'll watch y'all.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

I'll cheer off. To echo some of Sayonia's sentiments, like I've had that similar like cosplay conversation, but like, um, but I I know that for me, cosplay is one of those things that I do to relieve myself of like the the kind of existential terrors of everything else that I have to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Of having I love that.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Can you write that down?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Uh the existential terrors, yes, like you know, having to pay bills, having to go to work, having to worry about money coming in, having to worry about, you know, family problems, friendship problems, like all the like any anything that could potentially be a stressor, cosplay is one of those things that takes me away from all of those things and tying and tying like to not not to get too like Marxist into this, but to tie wage labor in some capacity to that would be exhausting for me. But um, I I can recognize that there is something that I am passionate about that I would like to, you know, monetize and turn into a business and so you know, stuff like that. But um, to kind of further the points that Santa was making about you know having that that drive to be able to get started or having that that mentality or even having that energy, which I think is the most important part. Because if you don't have the energy to do something, then it's gonna make it that much more difficult to do, um, especially if you have a lot of other things pulling at you, whether it be you know, kids, um, a job that's draining, a family that's draining, you know, and like just other responsibilities that could be really siphoning away from that kind of like mental and emotional economy that you have to, you know, manage internally. Um, my question for you for for everyone for all of our business owners here, what was the hardest part about getting started?

SPEAKER_03 17:01

I kind of want to see what um Miss D has to say about that because they mentioned before that you know you had a you had a job and then you I mean you weren't even I think you said you were a mechanical mechanical engineer? Yeah, and then you you know, and then you of course you had the kids, you you left lost or left your job, and then you had the kids, and then um uh D was work, uh no, Adrian was working. Um, so what um yeah, to follow up the question, what was the most difficult part?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

I think for a lot of people, but speaking for myself, I think the biggest obstacle to overcome is the fear of uncertainty because you don't know.

SPEAKER_10 17:42

Yeah, say that again.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

It's the it's the fear of uncertainty because as we talk about habits and we spoke before about how what we were taught, you know, we were taught to go get a job, we were taught to work our whole lives, unless we, you know, had someone in our family who um you know ran a business or was an entrepreneur. It's hard to think that you know, this is something that I can I can do. It is crazy because I was I was just I was talking to my mother this week and found out that like we have like a family beach house. Like it's not a family beach house, it's a family beach house. And I was like, and it was crazy because we were talking about going to Myrtle Beach, and I was telling him, I was like, yo, these people down in Myrtle Beach making good money, like Airbnb and their condos and properties at the beach. And my mom was like, Oh, yeah, we got a family beach house. No, I was like, where did this come from? Where did those family first of all? Where did it come from? What is I'm saying? It's a family beach house. So, you know, because so my grandmother had a brother who you know was in real estate. He oh and I know and I knew about his real estate. I knew he had hotels, he owned it, you know, owned a hotel in in DC, he had a lot of properties. All of my all of my my my grandmother and all of her siblings all had homes that were paid off because her brother, my my great uncle, was was he was into real estate. Um, the crazy thing about it is my most of my uncles didn't make it past middle school. Um, and they like have these really heavy entrepreneur mindsets. So, but my grandmother went and got a job, her sister went and got a job, her other baby sister went and got a job. My uncles, they were like, No, we we're gonna do X, Y, and Z. So it's just it's just overcoming that fear, along with you know, having these conversations. And if I had I not talked to my mother about this, I was like, How has it been so long we didn't know? I didn't know. I was like, maybe it was just me. So I'm calling my cousins, like, did you know?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Because that's not like saying, Oh, you want to get this? I got this, I got this in the back.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Like, I missed the memo. So it's the the the fear of the overcoming the fear of uncertainty, and then having these conversations, the dialogue, like learning, asking more questions. We talk about that stigma. My husband, he grew up in a household where, like, we would talk, you know, you don't question adults, and like that that cut off all questions. All questions, all questions, like you didn't stop me, but you know, any questions. Whereas I grew up in a family where my grandmother was like, she was just giving off information where I was like, Well, wait, let me ask you this. Well, what about this? You know, so I guess I didn't ask the right questions regarding this beach house, yeah. I was asking everything else.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

You know, it's interesting because my grandmother before she passed away, like she also I like I knew she like owned properties, like I know she like owned an apartment building and a complex, and I know because I have memories of going there with my dad and you know, collecting rent from tenants and you know, meeting people and helping cut the grass and take care of the place and stuff. Like, I remember these things, like I know, but like I it was never it was never something that anyone talked to me about outside of maintaining them and you know being a part of the process of you know going to these places and knowing that they exist, but like I never got that information that you got in your family, right? Like, I mean, I didn't find out about a secret house nowhere, but but like my grandmother, even well after retirement, you know, was still gaining income from these different from these like different kinds of places, and like no one ever really talked about those things. Like, and it's interesting that you say that you know you had an uncle who's in real estate. Like, I didn't buy my first car literally until 2019. And I've had I've had cars before, and I've never known a car note because I have a cousin, a second cousin, who's a mechanic. And so like he he would get cars left and right, and he could fix them up and take blah blah blah, take care of them. And like I've had like uh it's all my third car, but the first two cars I've had. I've never had to experience a car note. I've never had to like pick out car insurance, like and having to figure those things out on my own, you know, because like I said earlier, like things were just kind of provided, um, kind of set me back a little bit in in some very practical ways. But uh yeah, that's that's that's phenomenal. Like yeah, I but I definitely agree that kind of that like anxiety of getting started and you know overcoming those uncertainties is really a large part, especially for someone like me who like has a tendency to think of a lot of think of like multiple universes in which things can go wrong, like multiple timelines in which things can go wrong. Or like what am I what am I risking by doing right? Listen, timestone and tax just and like just thinking about um like what am I, what am I, the the the the time, the energy, the resources that I put in that I'm thinking about putting into this thing, what else could they be doing that would be more beneficial to me versus you know being able to put them into this thing that has the potential to flourish and grow? It's it's it's like you know, having a child, like you don't know what's about to happen, but you know that it's something you have to take care of. But because you're new at it and you you you like no one ever like fully taught you how to do it for real, for real. It's it's it's scary going in at first. So I mean, yeah, anyone else have any other answers to that question? Like, what was the scary part or the hardest part about getting started?

SPEAKER_05 23:23

I think another thing too. I think for a lot of people, I think when people think starting a business, I think that most people think like giving up everything.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Yeah, I you are I am guilty of that.

SPEAKER_05 23:37

I think I think for most people, you should probably start part-time, especially if it's something that you really like, you know, start doing it, learn it, um, and then get better at it. And then once you feel like you're good enough to, you know, I mean, you might not ever get to that point because I think you know, it's just like having kids, you like, oh yeah, I'm ready for kids, but you're you're never really ready to have kids, you just kind of do. Um, so I think it's the same thing with like going full-time in your business, you know, you're never really ready because you're always gonna have those fears. But I think for most people, if you're if you've been doing your business part-time for years and years and years, but two or three years, and then you've been making maybe matching your income, then that gives you more comfort to say, you know what, I can get rid of this other job, and then how much more time can I give to my business, and how much more money can I make?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Miss Killers, I saw you make that face. She was like, ooh. Indra, what about you?

SPEAKER_09 24:33

Um, for me, um, I my mom being when she was um a single parent, she always was a husband. She always had a business, she started, she was always doing something to generate um second form of income uh to help raise us. So being an entrepreneur was something I've always seen and I've always helped out behind the scenes with my mom. Um, but it was me myself. I was afraid of it for a while because I was I've never, I'm not a risk, I haven't been a risk taker for a large portion of my life. There are certain risks I have taken, but not not as far as my my income. I've always been safe because I've always been a worker bee. And I think a big thing for me that started uh my wills turning on entrepreneurship is um seeing working in the industry I work in now, I'm a subcontractor. So um I'm just there to do a job and go home. And at first my ideal set was, oh yeah, I'm gonna be with this company for a long time. And after being laid off quite a bit, I realized that was the nature of the company. And I then, you know, um having that stigma that I was already dealing with as a black woman, it was frustrating. It kind of hindered hindered a lot of opportunities for me just because of who I was. So at one point I just stopped, I was just like laid off for four months. And I was just like, you know what? I'm not gonna keep relying my income on just this. You know, this can't be the only thing. So I I've always been a person, I'm always doing side jobs. I had a refurnishing uh business, a furniture refurnishing business that was doing well, but I got scared and was like, I'm not doing this no more. So but this time I said, you know what, stick to something.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

I'm not gonna lie, it sounds like a lot.

SPEAKER_09 26:14

Yeah, it was a lot, man. I was refinishing furniture, like there were really nice designs and stuff. I just I was they were selling, but I just got to a point where it's just overwhelming and all that shipping and stuff, I was just like, I'm not gonna do it. So um I just decided to stick to something, and that was the biggest thing, me sticking to it and not getting scared and when things get hot and understanding that the growth is not going to be immediate. Yes, you may see other, you know, people out here doing the same, some of the similar things that you're doing, and you have to understand you have to have a budget for yourself with that and know what have an understanding of how the actual business works um and do a lot of research with that because you're gonna run into a couple people. I've ran into a couple of people who give me shoddy work, and I'm just like, we don't do that. So um just being able to go out there and take that chance was the biggest thing. I didn't want to fail. Um, I have a type A personality, I hate failure. Hey. So that that hinders me sometimes from taking those risks because I don't want the failure. But this is a risk I'm taking and I have to, it's pushing me more and all the love I'm getting, pushing me more to keep being inspired and keep going with it, and all those late nights and long hours are not are are worth it. So um I think a lot of people have that fear, like that, like um that D was saying, like D was saying, you know, um, so I think getting over that fear was the biggest thing. Once I got over that fear, I was I'm ready to go now. I'm ready to go. And that's after the first drop, I was like, okay, it's doing cool. Now let me go over my creative mind and let go, let me just run wild with this. And that's kind of what I did with this second drop.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

So and then oh, top of noir, did you Since you're the one who forced lazy girl nerd into this?

SPEAKER_07 28:04

I said you don't do it, and you never answer the question.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

I mean, I'm sure her answer would be I was forced. So yeah, what is your answer?

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Her answer is like the the the bondage of being brought into that.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

Oh, I I would agree with Adrian as far as um that's my personal fear, is usually the not knowing what to expect, um, especially when starting a new business. But I I think also as we've been doing this only for not even a year, we we really didn't start doing um putting this into play until December of last year. But it's self-comparison between people within the same circle that you travel in. Um for example, I if I see someone else, they may not be doing a sub a subscription box. Someone else um that I'm working with or or I like on Instagram, they got more followers, they seem to be more active on social media, or they they seem to have more sales. Not I'm not uh rooting against them, it's just like, damn, how how why why are we not in that position? Why are we not uh able to do this? Or why we why is it because we have a different budget than them? Like you start to have self-doubt about yourself. Um, like you want to be able to do more, but you want to also be able to do it correctly, yeah, and not so much at the expense of uh well I can't have the lights on tonight because uh you gotta you know, especially as a as a small business, as a as a um self-proprietor, as a partnership, those come those your your home priorities should come first until even though this is a business, until for me anyway, until this business becomes self-susficial self-sustaining, able to either equal uh or or close to equal what I make in a nine to five, it's still a glorified hobby. Granted, it's gonna be a hobby I we have to pay taxes on, but well, I mean, if if if everything had to be laid on the table, my wife said, Look, this this can't you can't keep doing this, you can't but you can't keep putting books and stuff in boxes inside the house.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

You gotta live somewhere.

unknown 30:20

Right?

SPEAKER_04 30:20

I gotta get on Instagram and see a taco no, I ain't gonna be there no more. Oh god. So I mean, it's like you gotta uh it's for me, it's it was trying to balance home and work life. Try to figure out that you know, you you say wife, kids, uh home is important, but then there's some times where you gotta get online because you know, working with people in different time zones, collaborating with them, is that equal that cuts into your home life. Yeah, so you try to kind of figure out that balance. Um I think that's that to me is is probably the second biggest um hurdle to face outside of the uncertainty of what the future can hold for your business.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

I do have another question. I feel I'm so sorry, Suchi. I'm not trying to take over like this moderator position, but like I have a lot of questions. But um, so my next question. So something you touched on was like this kind of this latent perfectionism of wanting it to be exactly how you want it to be, like when you started up, because I know that's something that I personally struggled with and I had to like pull away from. Like I have this grander vision, but there's nothing wrong with starting small. Have have any of you like really had to wrestle with pulling back from the larger picture that you're aspiring to to start off, you know, maybe with the first brick and like, okay, let me sell this brick before I try and build a house to sell.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

Yeah, yeah. Oh uh Gary, Gary can uh definitely take the phone on that.

SPEAKER_09 31:45

Oh, I'm sorry, you I didn't have to go first.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

I thought you put the hand on that.

SPEAKER_09 31:49

Okay, but um I know I was like, I definitely deal with that. Um I see other I see other brands and I'm like, oh man, they they they're selling this, they're getting all this well, they're posting all this stuff, and and and then you hear them talk about other things and like oh there's so many haters. I'm like, dang, I even got one hater. I wanted a hater, I wanted to cry.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

I want somebody to be envious of me.

SPEAKER_09 32:14

But no, I had to look and honestly I uh sent one of the polling brand who's doing some of the same similar things I'm doing. I had to uh, you know, I sent them, hey, good work, man, you know, because um you're you're in a separate lane than I am. We're doing some similar things, but we're going about it two different ways. And that's something I had to think about is my success isn't based on somebody else's success.

SPEAKER_07 32:36

Right.

SPEAKER_09 32:36

And I have to stop doing thinking about that and stop looking at that because if I did, I'll be so obsessed with trying to be like them that I end up being them, and that's not what I want to be. I want to be me and see if people like that part. And yeah, so being me is a very important thing. And in order to do that, I had to kind of just stop looking at people, other people doing stuff. I wouldn't even mind, like, there's other brands who like ask me for a friend request, and I'm like, yeah, that's fine. I'm I'm not gonna be like, oh, you're another polling brand doing something else. I'm not gonna prove I'm not gonna accept it. But no, if we can all help each other, we're all gonna have something different, we're all gonna have something um one person may like and a person may not. So it's hard, but you gotta step out. You you can only do what you can do. And stepping aside from that, stepping away from what everybody else's um expectations are based on somebody else's, it's that's how standardized test standardized testing gives us, you know. Just because I'm not good at standardized testing, that doesn't mean it doesn't take into account from my 121 point IQ. Let's not do that. Let's not do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Put that number out there again for the people.

SPEAKER_09 33:45

I'm horrible at test, but I I can see here.

SPEAKER_10 33:50

You know, it's interesting that you just said that you're like willing to, you know, collab with other clothing brands and you all be friends. I think as a community, sometimes we come across that crab in a barrel effect where I don't want that person to go beyond me. So I'm not gonna try to pull you up with me. I'm gonna let you sink to the bottom. I know when I started like my hospitality career, um, just getting advice for how to laterally move into hotels. And it was like other black people that had been in the industry for a while, they were not willing to give advice, help, or anything. So it kind of like for me turned me away from you know, reaching out to other people who might be, you know, successful or your general manager here or whatever. I found it more so that either my white bosses, or I had another boss that I think he was like Middle Eastern, gave me more advice and more guidance than I got from people that looked like me.

SPEAKER_07 34:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_10 34:57

And I think the black business owners are like you and are able to, you know, give that advice or help pull you up or do whatever, even though you're still trying to kick your business off to where you want it to be. I think us as a community will go further and beyond, and then we can stop buying the HMs and the Forever 21s and whatever else.

SPEAKER_09 35:18

Because I tell you this, I've talked to those companies about having some of my stuff in their stores, and and actually I have a story about um a company in Japan that sells urban streetwear. And I was like, oh, that'd be a good look. You know, they're out there in Japan. You know, I tried to see about them. So they would not even respond to me. They will look at it and not respond, but they're posting all these things that relate in in correlation to our culture. But you won't have a black owned business within your store. Same thing with these other companies that are not created, you know. There are companies that are not created by black people. They are what, you know, I've talked to them, they were like, Oh, yeah, cool. It'll be nice to have a black own, you know, cut line in our um store, but they'll never get back to you. They'll be like, Oh, well, you just don't fit. How did I not fit? This is everything that you guys sell in your store, buy everything, you know, all in one shirt. So I had to get away from even caring about even being in stores. I had to get away from caring about people, uh, people's uh proven approving of things of what I do because it's not um my line is not meant for the approval of the general population. My line is for the approval of the people on my demographic. And with that being said, I you have to step away. And this crabbing a bear mentality that we tend to have, I get frustrated with because I've I grew up in a pro-black revolutionary household. My mom was a revolutionary, so she was deep into loving who you are. She made us do that and helping our community. And to see so many people not wanting to do that because they're afraid of, oh, I'm the only one here. But it's like, why do you want to be the token? Wow. Why do you want to be a token? You know, I don't want to be a token. I want to make sure that they see enough representation of us that they say, all right, we're good. Hands up. What do you guys want? Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

So I definitely, I definitely agree. I think the only thing I want to slightly push back on is the kind of crab in the barrel thing. I I like to call it more of like the Disney effect. And the reason I call it that, we spoke about I call it the Disney effect because very early on in Walt Disney's career, when he there was a character that he created, um, and you know, went to Warner Brothers, and you know, it was super really super successful. A lot of money came in for it for it. And, you know, with after he tried to move on and use the character, he couldn't use it because Warner Brother owned all of the rights and all the licenses to it. So he didn't have control of his own property anymore. And so that was like the inception of how Disney became what it is today of owning so much to the point where they have like a stronghold, like a literal chokehold on so much like intellectual property. And I think that that's more so this kind of the symptom of a lot of what a lot of what Black business owners go through is this this this this ability, this uh desire to control something that they've created so they don't feel like it gets stolen by someone else. Um, and I think that's connected to a lot of different other like traumas we have as a community of like things being taken from us constantly, i.e. why black TikTokers are on strike right now.

SPEAKER_09 38:30

Support the black TikTokers. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Let's listen. And so like, and I think the the the unfortunate part is that that that anxiety, that fear, that trauma has worked its way into you know one another, where like we don't want other feel like other black people are stealing like our ideas and then you know capitalizing off of them and things like that. It's like, no, we the part of the reason we create and you know give birth to the intellectual properties that we have is so that we can continue to build more from those things. Like we want to, you know, we want to like we don't want to have a diaspora anymore. We want to fill in that gap. We want to give a fullness and breadth of uh like knowledge and experiences of our culture so we can have uh a fuller idea of what community looks like. Um so yeah, that's why I call it the Disney effect, because you know, nobody wants their shit stolen, but also um it there's a toxicity that comes with that at the same time that people have to be really wary of. Like it's valid to not want your things taken away from you. Like everyone wants their things, but at the same time, you have to recognize that you know knowledge is not oh uh um avatar the last airbender, um, Sokka and the Swordmaster said knowledge of the knowledge of the arts doesn't belong to one nation, it belongs to us all. And keeping that mentality moving forward is what we really, really need to make sure that we have that the the knowledge that we have of how to succeed, of how to start businesses, of you know, how to you know communicate with distributors or how to even become a distributor, um, how to like get more information about financial literacies and um how to build your wealth in these different ways. Like it's it's information that we all need. We all deserve it. Like it's not exclusive to any one class or um race or ethnicity of people, but specifically with our community, it's something that we've you know never really had like a chokehold on, so to speak. We've never had like a healthy, uh sustainable relationship with it in a way that we can see the consistency that we want to have as a people.

SPEAKER_09 40:24

And we can go back to the whole Black Wall Street thing. How did Black Wall Street how how were they able to succeed for so long? They they relied on each other to be able to do these things and they relied on giving each other knowledge about things and helping each other out to be able to succeed. The only thing that brought them down was it was the government and white supremacy. Okay, the government and white supremacy. That was the only thing that was able to take them out, and they had they had to come with an army in order to do that. So having that knowledge, being able to share that knowledge, my mom has always been that person. She'll she has knowledge she's willing to share it. She texts me every day with something new. I'm like, okay, ma'am, 15 messages an hour. Let's do this. 15 messages. I love you.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

I'm gonna start charging you.

SPEAKER_09 41:07

And that's how that's how we are able to grow, is being able to help each other up, coming along, you know, giving those who are trying to do the same thing within the same realm that knowledge of, hey, these are the mistakes I've made, you know. Um, this is how I did it. You can do it however you're going to do it, but this is how I did it, and this is how I was able to get to the point I'm at. And it's just a hard thing. It's like you have even if you have you have kids, you want to teach them these things. Why not think of it like that? You have this knowledge, why not give it to somebody who can benefit as well?

SPEAKER_01 41:39

So it's like, oh, this these people come up and have it so easy. That's the point. We want them to have it easier. We want some of them to avoid the problems and the things.

SPEAKER_09 41:47

We haven't had it easy for centuries. Why why can't we have uh our own time to have it easy at some point, you know, to be able to grow our own uh generational wealth. We're seeing everybody else being able to do that, and every time we try to do it, it's like something, one thing or another is stopping us from being able to get to that point. And it's a frustrating thing to step back and be like, Come on, y'all, let's get this together. We have to get it within our community so we can as a stronghold fight and stand against what's happening in a general against us, you know, against so I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 42:23

I'm gonna stop pretending to be the moderator.

SPEAKER_10 42:26

Uh-uh. Do you remember when um the riot first broke out when George Floyd and it was this black lady that got on the got on the news and was talking about the history of Black Wall Street because she was saying that, you know, defending the people who were burning stuff down. And I was like, she was like, in retrospect, it doesn't belong to us. None of it does. You burnt down what we built ourselves because you felt threatened. So it's like if everybody in our community gets through our gets, you know, gets that part of their brain turning. And if you think about it, if we actually came together and created, you know, new age Black Wall Street or got on the right path, they they probably would feel threatened again, but we would have known how to deal with it together as one, you know, one community rather than everybody being so divided.

SPEAKER_09 43:15

Look, when y'all ready, I got the statistics, I got the numbers, Black Wall Street 2.0. I got the numbers. We can do this. It's it's it's doable.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

D, did you have an answer as well?

SPEAKER_02 43:28

No, I was gonna say first thing, uh tell your mama, add me to that text thread. Um I I I received knowledge. Whatever she add me to that thread. Uh, but but but I totally agree with with everybody's comments, but and not to defend, not to defend how people think, but we talk about where it goes generationally. Like I refer back to my grandfather and that generation and generation before him who lived through the depression. Like we just had this conversation. With my grandfather, the need to feel to hold on to everything. And they feel that way because they've had so much taken from them, so much taken away. And it's horrible the brainwashing for African Americans to feel like we have to hold on to so much and not share with each other. Granted, in those communities as well, they shared so much with each other and they brought so much, they brought each other up, they helped each other. When we talk about Black Wall Street, they supported each other so much. It's like, where did where was the ball dropped? Where the it the the you know communication, the information got crossed, where we feel as though we have to hold on and keep so much away from one another. So yeah, it is that is definitely a challenge that you know we have to overcome. That's why I say coming here and you know, sitting and listening for me, it was more so listening to y'all versus giving information out. Like whatever y'all have to share, like I I want to hear it. Um, and I appreciate this panel for that.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

And then uh Otaka Noir, did you have an answer to that question as well?

SPEAKER_04 45:12

Um Gerg Holding said, Adrian had said it. It's for me to repeat them, it's just we're just wasting there. I mean I had guys headed right out of the park. Um there's so much for us to do with so little time that we have on this planet. And I think that we have to continue pushing as as hard as we're pushing now as a people, not just uh singularly as myself as as a Papa Noir or as uh America, but if we come together, I know you don't like using a crab in the barrel mentality, and I don't want you to lose your Disney dollars. We want to get you those exclusive passes at Avengers campus, so we don't want to get too much. That's all we need. That's what I strive for. But um, I think I think what maybe what have transpired between us being like Black Wall Street back in the day, uh before all of us existed, and now is I think it's just more of a um it was more of a capitalist capitalistic society where everyone's trying to get theirs and not so much uh helping one another out. And it doesn't have to be physically of giving you a dollar, it's just more so just looking out for one another. Because even the communities have changed. You know, I guess I know my parents just said it no back in the day as them as a child, the entire community would raise them all. No, the parents in the neighborhood would keep eyes on the kids. Nowadays, this is some happy kid running by I don't know whose kid that is. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know all the people in my building. No, that's that's it's it's more so look out for oneself, look out for one's uh immediate family in a circle, as to just looking out for a community. And when you get those people, you know, they usually are branded as hoteps and all kinds of monikers, and it's like, oh uh they they I mean, granted, not everyone's the same, or you have someone who has ill intent, but for the most part, at the end of the day, we all just want to have uh people of color have an even foot even playing feel with those who have less melanin than us.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

I don't know how a better way to end that. Uh that was excellent.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Um we're gonna pass the collection plate around.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Just one, just one quick one quick go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

That's fine. We have Adrian with the benediction.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

The views the views of Adrian and Deanna Bobbitt are not necessarily the views of Prime America. Glory, there it is. Just giving my disclosure before we you must, you must, you must.

SPEAKER_03 47:41

Thank you. Um, yes, so uh I hope our listeners, those who may watch this on YouTube, um, anyone who um hears the sound of our voices, uh takes anything that our panelists, our guests have said today to heart and is able to uh get apparel, get insurance, get get boxes, uh learn more about themselves as potential entrepreneurs, uh, be able to push forward and take those risks, uh, be able to identify you know different things that may cause you to be apprehensive, you know, any of the above. I I hope that this episode has helped you to figure those things out and is able to just take you another step forward, even if it you know takes a little bit of time. Uh, but oh, he found the shirt. Jesus Christ. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_10 48:33

Let me see, let me see. I mean you see it. He's how he's that shirt.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

They don't have anymore. That's the only one.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

What size is that one? This is the wife shirt. This is my wife shirt. I can't give this away. Oh, I mean, you you should be all right.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

I played no games with nobody's wife.

SPEAKER_05 49:00

Don't anywho. Okay, but he won't. Right.

SPEAKER_03 49:06

So uh we'll we'll see what we can do about those shirts. But outside of that, uh, we want to thank all of our all of our businesses, all of our panelists uh for being on this episode today. We were very excited to do the episode. Um, and now I'm even more elated that we've done it, all the information that has been shared uh between each other, uh, and then of course to our listeners. Uh I feel like this this episode itself is going to uh uh create a lot of synergies and create a lot of opportunities, not just for each other, but definitely for those who will benefit from what we do in the future. Uh so I'm I'm I'm thankful for all of us who are here and thankful what for what's uh going to happen in the future. But at the end of all of our episodes, as I always do, I give each and every one of those who are on the episode the opportunity to uh you know tell us how to reach you, tell us how you know those who are listening can uh reach out to you. Uh so I'll just go in order, starting with our panelists and then well, no, I'll end with our panelists. I'll start with the businesses, starting with GERD clothing. How can they reach you?

SPEAKER_09 50:10

All platforms at GERD Clothing, or you can go to my site again. And sale's going on right now, G-E-R-D clothing.com. Um, we're gonna be there. And again, you can see me at 1 p.m. today, uh Pacific Standard Time, three, what, four Eastern Standard Time. We're gonna be doing a live.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

So and in an hour, but this episode will go up on Wednesday, so we'll just make sure that we tell people.

SPEAKER_09 50:36

Make sure you tell everybody today.

SPEAKER_04 50:39

Uh Otaku Noir, Lazy Girl Nerd. Uh, our website, it's uh otaku noir.com. So o-t-a-k-u-n-o-i-r.com. Uh Instagram and TikTok. We are uh otaku noir, one word, so o-t-a-k-u-n-o-i-r. Uh we respond quickly to Instagram. We are on Facebook and Twitter. Uh Twitter is otaku underscore uh noir. So definitely you can sign in our DMs, we'll we'll uh answer all questions and comments there. Awesome sauce.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

I don't think you know how much it means to me that you say DMs and uh here you go.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

How can you be reached?

SPEAKER_05 51:21

Um well you can reach us by email, uh Adrian A-D-R-I-A-N that bobbit, B-O-B-B-I-T-T at Primerica.com. Um, I'm also on Instagram, Adrian underscore Bobbit underscore sink senior s r awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Um, and then also for Melanin's Paradise, uh, we had uh Miss K D, she had to step out. Uh, but to reach her, Melanin's Paradise uh uh collect uh Merelin's Paradise Collection.com or Marilyn's Paradise Collection, Melanin's Paradise Collection. I didn't want people to think I'd say Marilyn because that's not what I said, Melanin's Paradise.com, also on Instagram, Melanin's Paradise Collection, um, as well as Facebook. Um, and then of course, our panelists, our esteemed panelists, uh shampoo bracelets.

SPEAKER_10 52:13

You always do that when I was looking at something. You're welcome. Yeah, it's at shampoo bracelets on Instagram, at shammyb87 on Twitter, and I believe his Discord is shampoo bracelets as well.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

Uh, the black McCoy.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

You can find me at the black mccoy on uh Instagram and the black mccoy cosplay on Facebook. Please stay tuned. We have very interesting projects coming. Ms. W I P is going to be one for the black record books.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

Yes, quite Ms.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Skittles, uh Ms. Skittles, uh TR underscore cosplay on Instagram and Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 52:59

And then of course, uh Ms. Sayone Cosplay had to step out as well. Her socials are Sayone underscore cosplay. It's Sayone Cosplay on Instagram, Sayone underscore cosplay on Twitter. I hope. I don't know about Twitter, but uh she also has a she also has a TikTok. What'd you say, Miss Beatles?

SPEAKER_00 53:21

I said Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Oh, Facebook, sorry, not Twitter, Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

Yeah, Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 53:26

Also, if you wanted to reach out to me, it is Umbral Star Cade on all platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and uh on Discord to Chino Shogun. And then, of course, as a collective, if you maybe want to hear more about uh GERD clothing, more about Prime America, more about Otako Noir, more about Melana's Paradise, you can send a message to our mailbag at the blurred spectrum at umbral umbrellk.com, or you can reach out to our direct messages of the blurred spectrum on Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

That was abusive.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

I just want to check it and then blurred spectrum on Twitter. Once again, thank you all. Uh, thank you all for being on this panel. Thank you all for listening. Uh, we will have many, many, many more things during this Melanin Solstice. Uh, check out the calendar that is definitely gonna come soon, featuring some fantastic people. Uh, check out uh all the bomb drops that we did today of shirts and and jackets. Uh uh check out GERD clothing. Granted, this will be posted on Wednesday, but we're gonna talk about it on the day we recorded this.

SPEAKER_01 54:35

So wait, pause for those of you who uh can't see us right now. You don't see Suchino Shogun doing the birdman head rub as he's saying all of this.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Like I didn't even touch my head anyway.

SPEAKER_01 54:44

I said hand, the bird man hand rub.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

Oh sorry, okay. Um, yes, so uh GERD clothing is going live today. Uh one 4 p.m. Eastern, one 1 p.m. Pacific. Uh I said Pacific, right? I didn't say specific. Good. Okay, Pacific. Um also uh if you need any information about uh life insurance or investments, uh we can give you. We'll make sure to post Adrian and D's contact information on our Instagram and Facebook. And then if you want any motivational messages or apparel for Melanin's Paradise, we can give you, or we'll share uh uh their uh uh Instagram and their website on our social media as well. Other than that, thank you everyone for listening. And we will be back next week for another episode of the Blurred Spectrum and of course Melanin's I said Melanin's Paradise, melanated solstice. Thank you, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Bye, everybody bye.