#22 Bernadette Giacomazzo: An Editor, Writer, Publicist. Follow Your Dreams, They Will Come True

[0:00] welcome and thank you so much for uh
[0:02] coming on this podcast um
[0:04] what i try to do is last question around
[0:07] your journey and then later part of the
[0:09] interview we we talk about what's your
[0:11] goal setting method time management
[0:13] method your message to the audience and
[0:15] things like that
[0:16] okay that's fine you're doing multiple
[0:19] things at the same time your writer you
[0:21] your marketer your seo i was amazed to
[0:24] see that you have been published
[0:27] so many places like wall people
[0:30] daily mail us
[0:32] weekly and you already yeah
[0:35] definitely you know i've had a lot over
[0:37] the years and it's not just in
[0:40] on the internet but also in print as
[0:43] well um so it's definitely uh it's been
[0:48] a journey that's for sure i'll tell you
[0:50] that much
[0:51] and it hasn't always been an easy one
[0:53] and
[0:54] it isn't meant to be easy i don't think
[0:57] but i think that um the most important
[0:59] thing to know about my journey is that
[1:02] it's one that i wanted to take i knew
[1:04] that i um
[1:07] it was not going to be easy i knew that
[1:09] i was going to face challenges i knew
[1:12] that
[1:13] i was going to have to make a lot of
[1:14] sacrifices that maybe i didn't
[1:16] necessarily want to make
[1:19] in the beginning
[1:20] but one that i knew that if i wanted to
[1:22] achieve certain goals i would have to
[1:24] make
[1:25] and so
[1:26] that that's exactly what i did i um
[1:30] accepted that that would be part of the
[1:32] um
[1:34] that that would be part of the deal
[1:36] um there's always you know the good and
[1:38] the bad in any part of the deal
[1:40] and part of the deal was the sacrifices
[1:43] and the commitment that i would have to
[1:44] make and at the end of the day i just
[1:46] felt it was worth it
[1:48] and
[1:50] that's what i think i want to convey the
[1:51] most
[1:52] none of it was ever easy
[1:55] none of it was ever just given to me
[1:58] it was everything that i ever worked for
[2:02] was
[2:04] what i earned
[2:06] and
[2:06] um
[2:08] that that's what i really hope
[2:10] especially to convey
[2:11] to women
[2:13] that um you're gonna you're gonna come
[2:15] up against some challenges you're gonna
[2:16] meet some challenges
[2:18] but as long as you keep your eyes on the
[2:20] prize and you keep your focus on the
[2:21] goal
[2:22] you'll be okay
[2:24] in terms of marketing i need to be clear
[2:27] that i'm not
[2:28] a hardcore marketer
[2:31] per se
[2:32] i'm not someone who works in um
[2:36] what we consider marketing what i do
[2:39] with seo is is all about website growth
[2:43] um and i do it for a company that i've
[2:45] written for for now over a year called
[2:48] um the parent company is blabbity but
[2:50] they have other
[2:51] uh properties such as afrotech shadow
[2:54] and act 2190
[2:57] uh and blabbity news itself as well as
[2:59] travel noir and really for me it's all
[3:01] about understanding what what the growth
[3:03] is and what it is that it does and
[3:05] that's you could say that that's my
[3:06] full-time job so it's very still much
[3:08] connected to writing
[3:10] um
[3:11] i'm also a freelance writer and you know
[3:14] as you mentioned i have my outlet i have
[3:17] my you know publications and other
[3:18] outlets and
[3:20] you know i'm i'm very pleased with that
[3:21] and certainly i have no shortage of
[3:24] of credentials to that to that effect so
[3:27] the reason most people connect to me
[3:28] obviously is because
[3:30] they want their clients to be featured
[3:33] um in one of the outlets that's the
[3:35] reason most people get in touch with me
[3:37] and i i wish i could accommodate
[3:39] everybody or more people than i
[3:40] currently do
[3:42] let's let's put it that way um
[3:45] but why else should you connect to me um
[3:47] you should connect to me if you need
[3:49] your
[3:50] uh website to have to experience growth
[3:52] you should connect to me if
[3:55] you need to understand how growth
[3:57] marketing works or really just how to do
[4:00] so organically without so much the focus
[4:03] on
[4:04] um
[4:05] growth per se in other words
[4:08] if you do it naturally then
[4:11] the rest will follow and i try to convey
[4:13] that to people and it sounds very
[4:15] simplistic but really that is the be all
[4:18] in the end all of it um
[4:21] and so
[4:23] i think that that that's why people
[4:25] should connect me aside from all that i
[4:26] am a lot of fun to connect to and with
[4:29] um
[4:30] i you know certainly have
[4:32] no shortage of
[4:34] um resources available at my disposal i
[4:37] certainly have no shortage of
[4:41] um
[4:42] knowledge that i that i am happy to
[4:44] catalyze and share
[4:46] i certainly have no shortage of any of
[4:48] those sorts of things um
[4:51] so so that that's again why i encourage
[4:53] people to get in touch so they can learn
[4:55] more about how i can help their company
[4:57] achieve what it is they need and want to
[4:59] achieve
[5:01] and then uh is it the individual people
[5:03] or
[5:04] you work with the companies
[5:06] i i work strictly with companies over
[5:08] the years i've learned that um
[5:11] being a you know working solopreneurs
[5:13] while what you want to help
[5:15] there's just no room in their budget and
[5:17] i'm not the type of person to simply say
[5:19] let me let me take advantage of the
[5:21] money that you have or the limited
[5:23] finances and funds that you have
[5:25] um
[5:26] [Music]
[5:27] so no i strictly work with companies
[5:30] what you wanted to become when you was
[5:31] in high school this
[5:34] you know i i hey i really when i tell
[5:36] this to people that they laugh because
[5:38] it does sound very simplistic but it's
[5:40] the reality from the day that i could at
[5:44] least remember or i could talk i've
[5:46] always wanted to be a writer there was
[5:48] never any question about me doing
[5:50] anything else i never wanted to be
[5:53] uh an engineer a doctor or a lawyer or
[5:56] any of those sorts of things i wanted to
[5:59] write and i didn't care doing what i
[6:01] didn't care in what capacity i didn't
[6:03] care if i was writing on a cereal box i
[6:07] wanted to be a writer
[6:09] um
[6:10] and once i determined what that looked
[6:12] like for me which was to to to your
[6:15] point very much in high school then i
[6:18] made it my mission to
[6:20] fulfill that that um that goal in high
[6:23] school i won all sorts of awards from my
[6:25] writing i won a county wide award for my
[6:27] poetry i won my school's award for uh
[6:31] english and literature
[6:32] um and i continued it even throughout
[6:35] college and throughout grad school and
[6:37] even through my getting my phd
[6:39] uh my parents always wanted me to have
[6:41] those degrees to kind of fall back on in
[6:43] the event that the writing thing didn't
[6:45] work out so i did what i was supposed to
[6:47] do in that regard and i went all the way
[6:49] up to my phd
[6:50] but
[6:51] fortunately for myself and unfortunately
[6:53] for them i never really had any occasion
[6:55] to use it
[6:56] so um
[6:57] [Music]
[6:59] that's pretty much what i did throughout
[7:00] college i wrote for first my college
[7:02] newspaper and then i started writing for
[7:04] a lot of online publications and then it
[7:07] just blossomed the mushroom from there
[7:10] wow you have such a clarity at that age
[7:12] and then
[7:13] you continued with that that's amazing i
[7:16] appreciate that but it's also as to your
[7:19] point it's also very rare
[7:21] you know a lot of people
[7:23] they they do change
[7:25] for a lot of people you know they just
[7:26] happen upon the career as it comes along
[7:29] for other people
[7:30] they fall into it when everything else
[7:33] is filled for other people they you know
[7:35] they retire or they become stay-at-home
[7:37] moms or whatever and then they need it
[7:38] for
[7:39] the money purposes
[7:41] and um
[7:42] i i just am lucky i guess or that i
[7:46] never had to do any of that
[7:48] um
[7:49] it just was very much to me a thing that
[7:52] i i never thought of doing anything else
[7:55] and
[7:58] you know i was fortunate that it did
[7:59] work out
[8:00] that's that's really all i can say in
[8:02] that is the only thing i will say i was
[8:04] lucky in not my career path but the fact
[8:08] that it worked out the way i wanted it
[8:09] to because not a lot of people get that
[8:12] so no no other shiny object that came
[8:14] across to your life
[8:16] no not really
[8:18] yeah i mean i'm not gonna lie there are
[8:20] times that i looked and i would say i
[8:22] wonder what my life would be like if i
[8:24] did do this
[8:27] but then you know this is a very
[8:29] esoteric answer
[8:32] when you start down that path what ends
[8:34] up happening is that you can't just
[8:36] change one part
[8:37] of your destiny and expect that
[8:40] everything else remains the same that's
[8:42] not how life works
[8:43] if you change one element of your
[8:45] destiny
[8:46] everything else on your path changes as
[8:49] well and when i look back on my path and
[8:51] i look back on the things that um have
[8:54] come good bad and indifferent
[8:57] at the end of the day i wouldn't trade
[8:59] any of it because what ends up happening
[9:02] is if you tr like i mentioned if you
[9:03] trade one thing you gotta trade it all
[9:05] it's very much an all or nothing things
[9:06] would never have worked out the way they
[9:08] worked out for me
[9:10] if i had changed any part of the destiny
[9:12] so i don't spend too much time
[9:15] thinking about what could have been
[9:17] because it takes away from what is and
[9:19] what is quite frankly is quite beautiful
[9:21] you can't have one without the other
[9:23] destiny doesn't just happen to you
[9:25] destiny is
[9:28] in my view and i realize that the
[9:30] different cultures have different
[9:31] definitions
[9:33] in my view destiny is the sum total of
[9:35] the path that you walk
[9:39] no not not the end game because really
[9:42] at the end of the day there is no end
[9:44] game when it comes to
[9:46] writing
[9:47] because end game for me is death and
[9:50] because that's really the only guarantee
[9:51] that you have in life that's what that's
[9:53] when you finally have no chance no other
[9:56] chance to change the course of the path
[9:58] or to do something different or to make
[10:00] or write the universe or whatever it is
[10:01] you'd like to say
[10:03] but
[10:04] you know you don't just write one place
[10:07] and then that's the end of it especially
[10:08] if you want to make a career you have to
[10:11] you have it's it's consistent success is
[10:13] a consistent
[10:14] effort success is a consistent path
[10:16] success is a consistent job
[10:19] and that's something that you you have
[10:20] to understand
[10:21] sometimes you're writing for the client
[10:24] which i'm assuming they give the topic
[10:26] and then you have your own writing how
[10:28] do you balance you know that's
[10:30] a very layered question
[10:33] and it's and and thank you for asking it
[10:35] because it does certainly have layers
[10:37] um
[10:39] i think what we have to do in order to
[10:40] answer the question is differentiate
[10:42] between the creative writing part
[10:45] the actual end goal of writing for the
[10:47] client
[10:48] when you're writing for a client
[10:50] you have to understand what that client
[10:52] wants to give you the example i'll give
[10:54] you blabbity right
[10:56] blabbity is a company that speaks to
[10:59] young black america specifically black
[11:01] men and women who are coming up in their
[11:03] professional careers
[11:05] um
[11:06] they like different things they like
[11:08] sports they like celebrities they like
[11:10] um lifestyle
[11:12] they like travel different things
[11:14] really things that everyone else on this
[11:16] planet likes
[11:17] they like as well
[11:19] the difference is what
[11:21] type of things they like within those
[11:23] sub genres you like to travel i like to
[11:25] travel they like to travel but where we
[11:28] want like to travel to maybe three
[11:30] different answers so you have to
[11:32] understand that
[11:33] uh that's that's the first thing the
[11:35] second thing you have to understand is
[11:36] that you have to speak in such a way
[11:38] that it's authentic at all times you
[11:40] have to be authentic inasmuch as to use
[11:43] the blabbity example again
[11:45] in as much as blabbity speaks to black
[11:48] men and women clearly you and i can both
[11:50] see i am not black
[11:52] so how do you bridge that gap how do you
[11:54] retain authority as
[11:56] a person in that space and it's really
[11:58] very simple
[12:00] you don't become a white person
[12:02] pretending to be black
[12:04] you are who you are at this stage of
[12:06] your life
[12:08] you know we're adults here so i am who i
[12:10] am and i you know i make it clear look i
[12:13] can authoritari authoritatively write
[12:16] about x y and z but i cannot
[12:18] authoritatively write about a b and c
[12:20] because there are some things that i
[12:21] simply can't speak to things like black
[12:23] hair care i can't speak to that things
[12:26] like experiences in america as a black
[12:28] man or a black woman i can't speak to
[12:30] that and nor do i want to and nor do i
[12:32] want to because it's inauthentic but
[12:34] here's what i can speak to i can speak
[12:36] to being black in business i can't speak
[12:39] to
[12:40] business tips i can't speak to things
[12:42] about knowledge and understanding and
[12:45] coming at it from my perspective
[12:46] somebody who's a little bit older who's
[12:48] lived several lifetimes in these 20 some
[12:50] odd years as a writer um
[12:54] and impart some of that wisdom and as
[12:56] long as you remain authentic within that
[12:58] while still conveying the facts that's
[13:01] how you are successful you don't pretend
[13:03] to be something you're not simply by
[13:08] um
[13:09] you know
[13:10] changing who you are
[13:12] based on what the client is that that is
[13:14] just silly you have to find that middle
[13:17] ground yourself in the client you have
[13:18] to find that middle ground between being
[13:20] authentic and fulfilling what they need
[13:23] and then for your personal writing what
[13:25] the audience and what the message that
[13:26] you
[13:27] want to convey
[13:28] for me it's just about
[13:31] again going back to a life well lived
[13:34] being the age that i am and having the
[13:36] experiences that i've had in this
[13:38] industry that i've been in
[13:40] i think that that's the messaging that i
[13:42] want to convey and speaking from a
[13:45] lifetime worth of experience
[13:47] that that's
[13:48] um
[13:50] what i'm what i hope to convey when
[13:52] people come and talk to me on social
[13:54] media that's what they're getting
[13:56] they're getting um
[13:58] my
[13:59] my thoughts and
[14:00] my experiences
[14:02] company g-force was russia before yeah
[14:06] did you buy that something or what
[14:07] [Laughter]
[14:09] so here's what happened um
[14:11] when i was in rock when i was first
[14:13] starting out in the industry i was in
[14:14] rock and roll and um
[14:17] you know when you're 20 i have no other
[14:20] in 21 you really i really have no other
[14:22] explanation except to say that you're
[14:23] young and dumb
[14:24] um
[14:26] and
[14:26] like most folks in college i
[14:29] you know was
[14:31] even though i had the set goal of what
[14:32] it is i wanted to do
[14:34] um and
[14:36] what it is that i wanted to become i
[14:38] wasn't necessarily sure who i was as an
[14:42] individual if that makes any type of
[14:44] sense
[14:45] um and what that looked like
[14:49] so um
[14:50] brief background i was unsurprisingly
[14:53] raised catholic
[14:54] and so um
[14:56] i knew that catholicism wasn't a
[14:58] religion that spoke to me it wasn't any
[15:01] uh a belief practice that spoke to me
[15:04] so i started you know researching things
[15:06] like eastern spirituality and
[15:10] you know hinduism buddhism
[15:12] uh
[15:13] i guess your non-traditional type of
[15:15] religions at least what we know of in
[15:17] the west
[15:18] um
[15:20] and i had really resonated with the term
[15:23] akasha
[15:24] and so um
[15:27] maybe because
[15:28] and from what i understand even
[15:30] by no means am i suggesting that i'm
[15:32] an expert on the topic but my
[15:34] understanding of of the the word was
[15:37] that it was the being that accompanied
[15:39] that encompassed all beings all elements
[15:41] earth air fire and water
[15:44] and i like that because i think that it
[15:46] it was a message of all inclusivity
[15:49] um
[15:51] so that was that was my company i see
[15:53] and at the same time while i was doing
[15:55] that um to pay some bills
[15:58] i was djing in a lot of rock clubs i
[16:01] used to have a huge crate i still do
[16:03] actually i have a huge crate of rock
[16:05] albums that i used to spin at parties
[16:07] and concerts and things like that your
[16:09] instagram you have some videos of people
[16:12] singing and i mean some some celebrities
[16:14] seems like
[16:15] yeah well that's you know that that's
[16:17] that's exactly it i
[16:19] i run in celebrity circles for years
[16:22] um because of the nature of what i do of
[16:24] being a dj
[16:26] and at the time because nobody you know
[16:28] with a name like mine nobody can really
[16:30] say it
[16:31] um i used to go by dj g-force and so
[16:34] those were the two things that were
[16:35] encompassing me dj g-force and akasha
[16:38] multimedia
[16:39] as i moved out of the rock field and
[16:42] into the hip-hop world
[16:44] akasha was so closely associated with
[16:47] rock and roll and what i was doing in
[16:48] rock and roll that it became very
[16:50] difficult
[16:52] um so i had i realized that i had to go
[16:54] through a name change i realized that
[16:57] because of the nature of what it was
[16:59] that i was doing
[17:01] i didn't want it to be associated with
[17:03] just rock and roll because it would
[17:04] limit me
[17:06] and then of course you know as you get
[17:08] older you start to realize too that you
[17:09] know maybe we shouldn't be borrowing
[17:11] from cultures that aren't really ours
[17:13] and that we don't really understand you
[17:15] have to understand you know things were
[17:16] very different back then and i will be
[17:18] honest and say that i was just as
[17:20] ignorant as most 20 year olds are
[17:22] and i'm happy to say that i've grown
[17:24] since then but
[17:26] you gotta understand like like i was 20.
[17:28] i got no other explanations that that
[17:29] was stupid and it's my bad um
[17:32] so you know those two things come
[17:34] together so i closed down the name the
[17:37] name no longer
[17:39] was associated with me and i just became
[17:41] me you know just it was just part of the
[17:43] jock master it was me it was me it was
[17:44] me it was me
[17:45] and that was great and then just really
[17:48] more for legal purposes there was a need
[17:51] for
[17:52] you have to differentiate between what
[17:53] you do as a writer slash journalist
[17:55] slash seo expert
[17:57] and what you do as a publicist slash
[18:00] growth marketer slash digital marketer
[18:02] just because things were getting too
[18:04] confusing and people didn't know should
[18:07] i come to you to write a story or should
[18:09] i come to you to help me grow my website
[18:12] and
[18:13] so i looked again and i said you know
[18:15] what now at this point i'm much older
[18:17] and i'm very well defined in who i am
[18:20] and what i do and where i'm going and
[18:22] what i stand for what isn't isn't me
[18:25] and it was sort of like geforce
[18:27] marketing blizzard was sort of like a
[18:29] nod and a wink to look at how far you've
[18:31] come you know not so much
[18:33] look at you know
[18:35] look at what you've become but look at
[18:37] where you start and look at what you've
[18:39] become from that
[18:41] it's a reminder to myself that you never
[18:43] forget your roots you never forget
[18:46] when you were that 20 year old kid and
[18:48] you were stupid and you were struggling
[18:50] and you know you were trying to figure
[18:52] it out but one thing was for sure is you
[18:54] were having a grand old time because i'm
[18:55] not gonna lie there are times that i sit
[18:56] there i'm like i am so burned out
[18:59] but
[19:00] you know i g-force reminds me hey
[19:04] remember this
[19:06] and that that's how i keep going how do
[19:07] you switch between your responsibility
[19:11] and g-force it's it's really very simple
[19:13] i i just realized that things have to be
[19:15] done when they need to be done
[19:17] and
[19:18] i get it done
[19:20] i don't i come from a very different era
[19:22] gen x was an era where
[19:24] we didn't
[19:25] necessarily have time or even a desire
[19:28] to think about why are we doing this and
[19:31] you know this is okay and
[19:33] this sort of thing we just understood
[19:36] that
[19:37] we're not we're not a generation that
[19:39] necessarily does things for just for the
[19:41] soul sake of doing them
[19:43] we are somebody that we are people who
[19:45] do things
[19:46] for the sake of
[19:48] this is just what we do
[19:49] and so because of that i just say well
[19:51] you know what this is just what i need
[19:53] to do i never really gave much thought
[19:55] to it to be honest with you not until
[19:56] today
[19:59] how your typical day or week look like
[20:02] how does it look well
[20:03] i'm up at six every morning i have my
[20:06] coffee and i meditate
[20:09] and i set my intention for the day this
[20:11] is what i do and don't need to get done
[20:14] um
[20:16] then i take my dog to school
[20:19] i
[20:20] go to the gym i'm in the gym for
[20:23] anywhere from between 45 minutes to an
[20:25] hour a day
[20:26] and um
[20:29] then i come in about you know we get
[20:31] come in i shower
[20:33] you know do the typical getting ready
[20:34] sort of thing
[20:36] and i'm at my desk by 9 30.
[20:40] break for lunch at
[20:43] like 1 30 sometimes 2 o'clock
[20:45] have a quick lunch
[20:47] go all the way through until 6 00 6 30
[20:51] go and get my dog from school
[20:53] by seven o'clock i'm usually wrapping up
[20:55] and if i'm not it's because i'm on
[20:58] deadline with a couple of other things
[21:01] and i i see those things through 99
[21:02] times out of a hundred
[21:04] i'm done by
[21:06] um
[21:08] 6 30
[21:09] and
[21:11] then when i get home you know i i
[21:13] obviously i do it what i normally do
[21:14] which is i spend time with my loved ones
[21:16] i spend time with my dog
[21:18] um we have very light dinner um
[21:22] maybe we'll watch a show maybe we'll go
[21:24] to a movie
[21:26] maybe we'll um you know i live three
[21:29] houses down from the beach so maybe
[21:31] we'll go for a walk on the beach
[21:34] um
[21:35] on the weekends you know we'll we'll do
[21:37] your typical housekeeping and you know
[21:39] your chores type of a thing
[21:42] yeah i mean that's that's my typical day
[21:45] i guess you could say
[21:46] your daily routine looks impressive you
[21:48] stick to that every day uh yes
[21:51] wow
[21:52] absolutely
[21:53] oh yeah
[21:54] no i mean again as i mentioned at the
[21:57] top of the um
[21:59] the top of the conversation success is
[22:02] an everyday thing
[22:03] and it requires consistency and
[22:05] persistence
[22:06] you will not be successful if you just
[22:09] well maybe one day i'll do this and i'll
[22:11] do something else then i'll do something
[22:13] else if it works stick to it this is not
[22:16] to say you don't take days off this is
[22:18] not to say
[22:19] you don't take some time for yourself
[22:20] but this is to say
[22:22] that if you want to achieve the results
[22:24] you want to achieve you must be
[22:26] consistent and you must be persistent
[22:28] there's no two ways about it
[22:30] maybe 40 percent of my day is set
[22:32] like this but then
[22:35] every day is slightly different than
[22:37] others well i think if i may share the
[22:40] nod it's okay
[22:42] not to have a routine you just need to
[22:44] know
[22:45] you can try new things
[22:47] within the parameters of a routine
[22:50] you know that that's like saying well
[22:52] just because you know i have lunch every
[22:54] day at this time that i have to eat
[22:57] um
[22:58] i don't know uh broccoli just every day
[23:02] every day broccoli broccoli every day
[23:04] broccoli day in there mondays and friday
[23:05] rock no nobody wants to eat broccoli
[23:07] every day not even may
[23:09] um
[23:11] so within the parameters of like let's
[23:13] say lunch i can say well you know what i
[23:14] want to try this lentil soup today or i
[23:16] want to try this barley i want to have
[23:20] some mushrooms
[23:21] or
[23:22] something like that so it's okay to try
[23:25] new things
[23:26] you just have to do it within the
[23:27] parameters of
[23:30] that routine
[23:31] and if you manage to do that
[23:33] and i i certainly acknowledge that
[23:35] especially in today's world that there's
[23:36] a challenge to that
[23:38] if you manage to do that then i think
[23:40] that you'll find that
[23:42] you'll you'll find your your purpose and
[23:44] your calling within those parameters and
[23:46] that will make it much easier to stick
[23:48] to the routine
[23:49] your time management method so i guess
[23:52] you have this uh solid routine you have
[23:54] the system that is working for you uh i
[23:56] don't know if you need additional time
[23:58] management
[23:59] uh technique oh i do i absolutely do
[24:02] i listen i you know what i use the sauna
[24:05] boards i use okay sticky posts i use
[24:08] whatever it takes
[24:10] to lay out what it is that i need to get
[24:12] done because
[24:13] nobody nobody's perfect but not nobody's
[24:16] perfect and i read it sooner or later
[24:18] some of those look through the cracks so
[24:20] the only way i i'm able to avoid that is
[24:22] if i have those time management tools
[24:25] like asana and other things
[24:29] and how do you use those tools
[24:33] well the good thing about asana
[24:34] especially is that you have you have
[24:37] options for like deadlines no it you
[24:39] know i wish i could say it was project
[24:41] based but it's really on the basis of
[24:44] what needs to be you know and again i
[24:45] keep saying this and i apologize because
[24:48] i don't want to seem like i'm being
[24:49] flipped because i'm not it's simply just
[24:52] what needs to be done
[24:53] if if x y and z needs to be done then x
[24:56] y and z get done
[24:58] you know and and that that that's your
[25:00] thing right
[25:02] daily planning meaning for that
[25:04] particular day what what
[25:06] everything that you need to get done
[25:08] right exactly
[25:10] that that that's really what i do it for
[25:12] i i say like you know
[25:14] um
[25:16] for the sites you know i need to do
[25:18] keyword research i need to do i don't
[25:19] want to get it too deep into like
[25:21] proprietary stuff that i need to do but
[25:23] basically i'm doing keyword research
[25:25] blog post writing um seo writing
[25:28] technical writing for some of the other
[25:30] sites i'm doing research and long form
[25:32] writing and essays
[25:34] for the books that i've written it's
[25:36] again you know long form writing essays
[25:40] getting my stuff out there uh speaking
[25:43] to folks like yourself
[25:45] these are all things that just you know
[25:46] i need to get done um
[25:48] and so it's it's all a question of like
[25:51] i wish i could show you inside my brain
[25:53] to see how it works but basically it's
[25:54] all like this you know within my brain
[25:57] like this this this this and that that
[25:59] that that that that it's something that
[26:00] my parents especially my mom instilled
[26:02] in me from when i was younger like we
[26:04] would wake up in the morning
[26:06] after breakfast and it would be like
[26:07] okay so today we need that
[26:10] dot done and then toronto
[26:12] done it was literally like almost like a
[26:15] captain of the army reading off all
[26:16] orders to a soldier
[26:19] so that's pretty much how we just
[26:21] learned how to do it you know i'm the
[26:23] product of two immigrants so the the
[26:25] methodology is very different than what
[26:27] you might see in america
[26:29] so your book is coming
[26:31] um so i'm sure there are a lot of
[26:33] activities around that that we're trying
[26:35] to finish
[26:36] oh yeah um in the middle of somehow all
[26:39] this chaos i've you know i've got these
[26:41] two books that are coming out i have um
[26:44] the first one that is called in living
[26:46] color and um
[26:48] cultural history
[26:50] what it does is that it focuses on um
[26:52] [Music]
[26:54] pretty much what it says the the
[26:55] cultural history of of the television
[26:57] show and living color
[26:58] um how as a black comedy sketch show it
[27:01] pretty much set the template for other
[27:03] black comedy sketch shows that we know
[27:04] and love today um
[27:07] that
[27:08] just the way it addressed topical issues
[27:10] the way it addressed things like racism
[27:12] [Music]
[27:14] social justice and that that sort of
[27:17] thing things that you think are are new
[27:19] today in the 21st century and living
[27:21] club was talking about back then there's
[27:24] really nothing new under the sun it's
[27:25] just a question of who was talking about
[27:28] it and in what context and that's kind
[27:29] of what in living color cultural history
[27:31] talks about
[27:33] um
[27:34] the second one is um a golden girl's a
[27:38] cultural history
[27:39] um
[27:41] and um
[27:42] again it's the same thing um
[27:45] that it talks about
[27:48] where the golden girls fits in in the
[27:49] grand scheme of things how do you set
[27:52] your big goals things are obviously very
[27:54] different
[27:56] um when you're older
[27:59] and i think my goals now that i'm older
[28:02] are where am i going to see myself in
[28:05] 15 and 20 years what does the rest of my
[28:08] life not as a professional look like
[28:11] what do i do when i retire
[28:13] um because you know now you got to look
[28:15] at the long term
[28:16] so that's
[28:18] really what you know what i'm thinking
[28:20] about now because frankly i've achieved
[28:22] everything i've wanted to achieve in my
[28:23] professional career i've got nothing
[28:25] left to prove
[28:27] um i've been to the grammys i've been to
[28:28] the emmys i've been to the oscars i've
[28:30] worked with everybody from english
[28:31] celebrities to reality stars i've been
[28:33] all over the world i've been published
[28:35] everywhere and anywhere i could possibly
[28:37] want to be published i've had books
[28:39] uh come out um
[28:42] and these are all things that i did for
[28:43] myself by myself nobody gave it to me
[28:46] so i have nothing left to prove
[28:48] now it's a question of
[28:50] what does it look like from here
[28:52] so
[28:53] is there any question that i did not ask
[28:55] but you wanted to answer
[28:58] just for me the only thing i do want to
[28:59] say is thank you very much for having me
[29:01] on
[29:02] i hope that it imparted some wisdom to
[29:04] your audience and um
[29:06] i hope we can do it again soon and uh
[29:09] you know again i i hope personally that
[29:12] you do find your your purpose and your
[29:14] uh
[29:16] in your writing and i'll be on the
[29:18] lookout for it for sure and please stay
[29:20] in touch and let me know what you're
[29:21] doing because i i'd love to be able to
[29:23] see how i can you know help you along
[29:26] and give you a guiding hand your message
[29:28] to the audience definitely do check out
[29:30] um in living color or cultural history
[29:32] um
[29:34] hire black riders pay black riders
[29:36] um
[29:37] white women stop being karen's
[29:40] and
[29:41] never give up on your dreams
[29:43] it was fun talking to you thank you
[29:45] likewise thank you so much and stay in
[29:47] touch please let me know how you're
[29:48] doing and i definitely let me know if i
[29:50] can help in any way
[29:51] bye
[29:52] bye