Doing You - The Art of Working and Doing a Side Hustle

The Bail Yourself Out Podcast is back with a fresh new pod. So you know what that means! The lounge is open, and host, entrepreneur, and creator Kandice Whitaker is back at the helm, joined this week by another like-minded trailblazer walking his own path, co-host Corneilus "Grim" Whitaker. Kandice and Cornelius have removed their blazers, loosened the business attire, and poured their adult beverage for a grown folk discussion on business ownership, growth,  and the hard times that will eventually come. So let's get into it! 

Have you ever wondered how some people follow their dreams and seek out their passions, despite the necessities of life that typically hold back most of us? If so, Cornelius transitioned from a stifled employee to a successful entrepreneur and multiple business owner and has a story to share, and Kandice gets the cold truth. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All to impart information to help others make life corrections and minimize the learning curve size. 

Once an educator with plans to spend his life teaching children, the stressors of an abysmal education system drove him from the career he once coveted, as unruly children and inadequate resources drained all his love away. 

Kandice and Cornelius discuss many different topics from the corporate phenomenon of "the glass cliff," and its relation to corporate black women. Also covered - are the merits of successful black businesses during segregation, black women leading the nation in higher education for years, owning several businesses at once, job pressure so pervasive it begins to impact home life, and the positive role of therapy when things escalate that far.  

So join us to hear Kandice and Cornelius' wide-ranging discussion, it's full of helpful info for new entrepreneurs and ideas for those transitioning careers. So don’t forget to leave a like, or comment after the stream, follow on all social media, and don’t forget to share the episode.

Episode 6 - Doing You - Reference Articles
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/17960156/what-is-the-glass-cliff-women-ceos
https://blog.gitnux.com/black-women-college-statistics/
https://www.jbhe.com/news_views/51_gendergap_universities.html
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/black-women-are-earning-more-college-degrees-but-that-alone-wont-close-race-gaps/

Keep up with Kandice Whitaker and the BAIL Yourself Out Community Online
www.linktr.ee/bailyourselfoutpod
© 2023 Alpha and Omega Consulting Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Speaker: 0:00

Welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour Podcast where each week we'll help you navigate the corporate jungle. Here's your host Kandice Whitaker

Kandice Whitaker: 0:09

Nope, it's happy hour. I'm your coworker Kandice with the K pull up a chair and your favorite drink for the bail yourself out Happy Hour is about to start now. Welcome to the happy hour lounge fam. This is Kandice with a K. I am so glad that you decided to stop by. Have you heard of the term glass cliff? Well, in a recent article, CNN was talking about black women at work. And the term glass Cliff was used to describe a scenario that we in a black community, we're all too familiar with it. Here's what it is y'all you know how like when a person of color is promoted to a position of power in a company, the companies usually in trouble, or they don't have the money or the resources to do what they want them to do. You know, we call that a setup, but it's actually gotten a name called the glass cliff. I was thinking about this. And I remember when Barack Obama got elected the first time sitting in the living room talking to my grandmother who said, Wow, the country must really be in trouble if we're electing a black man. So this ain't a new phenomenon to the community. We've known about it for years and years, it's just finally gotten a name. If you have a chance, you should check out the article. It is entitled very rarely is it as good as it seems black women and leadership are finding themselves on the glass cliff. So I thought the article was interesting because there's been so much in the news recently about black women leaving corporate in droves. And if you're a black woman, you know why you do I think the writer NyQuil Ellis I think the writer was brave in retelling of many age old timely tales of black women in corporate and that directly relates to our episode today because I want you to be inspired. This episode is about you. And it's about celebrating you and I hope you learned something today. Today. Our guest co host is Cornelius Grim Whitaker, he is a serial entrepreneur and he exemplifies hustle and grind y'all. He's a retired Newark, New Jersey Public Schools administrator. He's a real estate investor. He's a co founder of hauls Mills, which is a video production company. And he also owns a cleanup and demo company. And I am proud to call him my family. So right after the break, you're gonna meet up, we'll be back.

Pierce Taylor: 2:31

Welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast. That bail acronym is used to outline the steps to implementing resilience in your life, B believe you can win A accept change as part of the journey. I Inventory strengths and L learn from what's happening together will impact the bail framework in action. Now back to the show.

Kandice Whitaker: 2:48

All right. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast fam on the line. I have our guest co worker for the day Cornelius Grim Whitaker. And he's going to join us today as we talk about how to learn how to just do you. So part of my bill framework is to teach people to learn from their experiences, but also learn from the experiences of others. And one of the reasons I wanted to have you joined today as the co host, Cornelius, is that I've always admired you from afar. You are a hustler. Like when we met I know you had a job. And then you had like businesses. And the thing that was so cool, was that you did both and you seemingly did them. Well. Based on the article that I talked about a little bit earlier, we see that people are leaving corporate, especially black women, we know that's the most educated group in the United States. They're leaving corporate in droves. Right? So there's usually going to be that transition from I have a job to I have a job and a side hustle to I have a job and a side hustle that's almost making enough money for me to leave to I'm doing my own thing. So first of all, can you share with the audiences what businesses you're involved in? And kind of how that came about? Yes,

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 4:11

yes, well, leaving college I initially got into the world of education, I entered into a master's program, see the masses, especially when education and I decided that I wanted to come back into the inner city to work with children at risk students, because maybe those students had dysfunctional households. I was very fortunate to grow up with a mother and a father. So I had a much stronger foundation. I want to share that with the world. And I want to try to recondition some of the thinking about young young youths in the in the city. So I immediately got into special education and ultimately I evolved from that into administration administrators always took took a liking to my style or discipline, my style of teaching, and it felt like it was being used wrongly so he decided to bring me more into the administrative side and convinced me to get a master's degree in administration. I mainly went for special He keeps his special education students to the working with suspension on site programs, working with the crisis unit, and then eventually became an academic interventionist, which you need to administrative degree to do that, after about 20 or 23 years that I just kind of got burnt out, you know, with special ed working with special education students, and I knew that I needed something else to compensate or the supplement that you know, the income if I decided to leave or retire, or find a different career, and it's hard, you know, once you invest in into education with your pension, and you haven't gotten to the pension for over 10 years, it's kind of hard to just walk away from that knowing you have a few more years of college to get a pitcher for life. So I had to tolerate to deal with it. But I said, I'm going to start planning some other things to prepare for my departure from this industry, I decided to get into real estate, so vested in to a few homes, we had a couple of problems that still have now that uses rental income that really provide comparable amount of income that was making per month with being a public school teacher. So as I started out, I started to see that I had to say to myself, Why am I making this money every month, and I'm not physically there that has to do with it. You know, I can come periodically to do repairs and maintenance. We're here I'm at the school for seven hours, I'm stuck even seven hours to make what really 15 hours a day, you know that that's actually what it when I graduated to, but initially, maybe making 200 a day. So where am I 23rd 24th year, so I've seen about $350 a day, but I was literally physically in the building, filled with asbestos and filled with mental illness for seven years, that's this asbestos,

Kandice Whitaker: 6:35

Wait a minute are you gonna be on one of those commercials, if you work at call in 10 years

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 6:43

They get that type of lawsuit going, I'm jumping on that, because bleeding up inside, started with all these years, all these different schools, and I just started teaching and I was able to generate that revenue without all the stress that I had to endure, you know, that I was subjected to with, you know, a lot of function in inner cities, you know, all the abnormalities and a lot of different precipitating factors that plague our communities, I just realized that I had to find a different route because I was losing it mentally, I started going to the school, really becoming combative and even vile to him on students and parents. So I kind of go out there, I started realizing this stuff was really starting to, you know, affect me. So I said, you know, let me start finding wiggling my way out finding an alternative. And that's kind of where the of the multiple streams of income went in. So real estate, I was able to raise money generating of capital to start a cleanup demolition company. And once I started that company, that's when everything just just came three fold, I started making 1000 hours a day, you know, doing three jobs, cleaning out garbage cleaning out addicts, saw it working teacher to about three o'clock every day, and instead of coaching or running after school programs, I ran my own business. So I will leave and really change it to Superman and get into my work clothes, right for my suit, shirt tie, though my overalls and go make an extra $350 after work. And I said, Man, I made three $50 in one hour, two hour picking up garbage, you know, cleaning out attics and basements. And I was looking for one hour after I reflected Ohio sat in this building for seven hours to make the same amount of money. So then, as time went on, I started the testing being at the school, I started to testing what the educational structure has evolved to which was really like the corporate model, you know, went from like an industry of liberalism to an industry of strict technical corporate, you know, monopolies. And I just said, Man, you know, I didn't sign up for this, you know, I never wanted to be part of corporate America because I hate that coach, and I hate that business model that they had Dre cutthroat, you know, so very much so, you know, and I just said, Well, I know this isn't for me, my, my personality would not adapt to this well, and I end up losing my job and anyway, so you know, starting to clean up demolition company was a blessing in disguise, because education really had more of an impact on me than when I thought mentally and spiritually, you know, just being around such negativity every single day trying to put out fires, that would never be you know, extinguished. And you know, I said I gotta find another way where I can impact this from the top. So I guess the last two years reality sunk in and I said why don't we get some therapy for this? Because I'm putting my hands on these children way too much. You know, I'm punishing them for saying SMD and you know, you know, SMD stands for Right

Kandice Whitaker: 9:27

So yeah, that might take a second Yea yea yea yea. I was like, wait, what? Yeah, I'm here. Oh, yeah, you

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 9:32

get it you get definitely kids all day long for the females to the boys, you name it. And many of the children started become gang related also. So I found myself into an environment that was not only detrimental to my family to my wealth, welfare, but to my personal spirit, and it attacked me like a plague. You know, and I was coming home taking some stuff out on my my wife and my, and my children. I couldn't understand it, you know, so I started saying to myself, you know, I'm gonna start getting some help. So get some therapy figure out why am I here? Since zero tolerance, you know for what what this industry is evolved to. So I get the answers that I was looking for from different professionals and different therapists that kind of empathize and relate and kind of helped me make a decision to retire and move on and leave that career to some of the younger generations who can, you know, we could relate more to these children to these students. You know, I've outgrown it, I never want to be that old grumpy teacher. You know, I always said, I don't want to be that guy that's grumpy and cursing the kids out and yelling and screaming, you know, but as I said, I've taken days off of work, I mean, chronic absences, I realized that I'm just doing enough to get by, you know, I'm just old enough to get by to maintain and keep my job. But I'm miserable. And I'm just frustrated and discussed inside making that decision to retire from teaching probably was the best thing that could happen to me. Because right before those last few years, my interest started getting more into creating content, I joined with a group of guys that were starting a children's educational book, and it needed to create some animation for us. So they asked me to assist them with that, because I have a lot of resources similar to you, Candace, you know, I'm pretty resourceful. So I reached out to a few friends that know what to do animation. And before I knew what I was able to get them to, you know, get them that, you know, get the animation that they needed. In the midst of me doing that I met a couple other people that was in the video production realm. They liked my work ethic. They admired my work ethic, two of my partners that worked at the high school with me, they had already started a production company and I ended up bumping into one of those those individuals at an at a place at a studio. Glenn says the studio I think you came to the studio to Kansas years ago. I did yeah. Lynn hertz Right. Right. That was actually the origin of Hormuz network we first launched, you know, when those guys saw how effective i was i resourceful I was they say what a command, you know, you think you might want to join forces with us be part of a whole news network? And I said, Yeah, I said, Sure. I don't mind. I'll try it. So they gave me an opportunity to prove myself and I proved myself doing a couple of different scenarios. And they brought me on as a third part of the whole news network. And as a result of that, we've gone on to create probably over five projects with our video production company and executive produced two of them, as well as a few documentaries that's out there now that's circulating, circulating on YouTube as what Pastor for and I just grew a love for it. And then when I look back, I realized that I had created several different streams of income and was able to put myself in a position to retire or something like that I've grown to dread hate so much the educational system, you know, so that kind of sums it all up on how I created my levels of income in my businesses.

Kandice Whitaker: 12:28

So it sounded like based on what you said, as your frustration grew with your job, you started channeling your energies into things that were more life giving for you most definitely, that's exactly what happened. And you also mentioned a couple of times that you were picking out your stress on family members. And you know what, I love that you could bring that up. And I think so many of us do that. And you don't even mean to because what you're doing on a daily basis is stressing you out so much that you know, you are taking it out on the people who love you the most. But I love the fact that you were able to transform that and make something positive out of it, you know, people ruin relationships, I'm talking to my friend in a couple of weeks, who's a therapist, and we're going to talk about just that, you know, people ruin relationships, because they can't manage that stress and be able to compartmentalize it, but then also channeled their energy into a positive way. So kudos to you on that. There are so many people who are unable to do that. And it definitely has lasting effects. So it sounds like you didn't actually make like a Cognizant decision to be involved in multiple businesses, it seemed like it just kind of happened. Is that a fair assessment?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 13:39

That's a fair assessment. And that's, that's actual, factual. It's just kind of have happened by chance. Like I said, when I look back, when I say, wow, you know, this is what I'm doing every day. And it's generating revenue, and it's generating more revenue than what I went to college for what I have over 80,000 up with a loan for you know, and I say, I wish I had known this before, you know, entering the industry, I will say that, knowing that a little bit more, you know, it kind of came full face with when the frustration kicked in.

Kandice Whitaker: 14:04

I love the fact that you were able to transform that into something positive, though. So what's the best advice that you would give to someone who's looking to venture out into their own business,

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 14:16

I would definitely tell them to find a main career or main job that they can have some type of foundation, some type of security with for insurance purposes, benefits, you know, your health, your medical, and also to have a consistent check come in these every two weeks. But don't get complacent with that, you know, why are you doing that simultaneously you have to find a way to secure your own independence. So you need to find another type of job another career another hobby, even if it's a hobby that you love, find a way you can monetize that but don't have that. Yep, just don't want to sit there and just be complacent with just a job and a career because they lay you off or if you get fired from that, you know what's what's going to be a Plan B, you know, what are you going to fall back on. So I tell anyone to always, always keep your your feet on the gas Um, no breaks and just keep on you know, accomplishing things and creating things just being you know, in genius.

Kandice Whitaker: 15:07

I love that. I love that I like to tell people, there's a difference between your provision which should be your main job, how you get in your money every two weeks and a your promise what God put you on earth here to do. And you'll know the difference from your provision, because you'll feel kind of a way about it. And your promise, it will give you energy just talking about it. And that's right. While you are in your provision, don't get complacent. Don't be like, Oh, this money is good. And forget about your promise. ever forget about your promise. You know, it is that is the reason why God put us here on Earth to be able to meet that part of our lives. This is such an interesting conversation. I'm gonna take a break right here. When we come back, we're going to talk about a little bit why black women are leaving corporate and some advice for the people who are we'll be back. So tell me, are you enjoying the show? Go ahead and rate us five stars and leave a comment. Now back to the show. Hey, friends, we are back. I am in the happy hour lounge with my guest host today Cornelius Whitaker, Cornelius Grimm Whitaker. And we are talking about learning. So in the last break, if you are just joining us, we talked about how to work your regular nine to five and do your own thing but a side hustle that can become your main thing. And the other thing we talked about indirectly is multiple streams of income. Right? And that's so important. Because having multiple streams of income will allow you when life happens because life be out here life and right. So not have everything fall apart. Right? Because life be life. And it's disrespectful sometimes. Yesterday. Ah, so there was an article that I talked about a little bit earlier by CNN, right. And basically, the crux was talking about black women leaving corporate America. So I think everybody knows this at this point, right? It's pretty known that black women, statistically, are the most educated group in the United States, clap it up for black women, whoo. But at the same time, right? We're leaving corporate America because we find these jobs. And they're not all they're cracked up to be. And because I'm a context person, and a history nerd, I'll be the first person to tell you I know why the articles they're cute, right? But I am a black woman who's worked in corporate right. And I'll, I'll start the conversation by saying this. There's a book that came out recently by a black woman who she's here in the local DMV area. And actually, the National Black MBAs, we're hosting a book signing for her. She wrote a book called I'm not yelling, right? The book is called I'm not yelling. And it basically talks about black women navigating corporate now, if you are a black woman who has navigated corporate, you know exactly what that means just by the title. And we had that happen to me. That's why that junk caught my attention. Yeah, the young lady who wrote the book, her name is Elizabeth, Liza, le iba. It's on Amazon. I ain't getting any money from this. But I've seen it floating around LinkedIn all week, and it's called, I'm not yelling, I was actually gonna go to the book signings today. But I was busy. So when ever in my experience in some environments, when a black woman expresses any emotion, it is perceived as anger, hell, I've been in dating relationships where I've had to say to a man, black women are capable of expressing emotions that are more dynamic than anger. I'm not always angry. But isn't that the stereotype about black women? So there's that then let's talk about the history. I started to say to history, and then I went down a rabbit hole, but I'm going back, I don't take it for granted in the context of United States history. I am the first person in my family born with my rights intact, because I was born after 1965, after the Voting Rights Act happened. My father was born before 1965. And so was my mother. I was the first generation born in this country with my rights intact. So that tells you where we are in antiquity. And I think about the fact that my grandmother, my father's mother graduated top of her class valedictorian, and she went and clean people's houses. I think about that every day. Okay. My mother's mother was born in Jamaica, an immigrant. She was a teacher in Jamaica, but she came here and was a babysitter. And because of these women, I Am I right? I think about that every day. And I don't take it lightly. So there's a lot to unpack there. But the first of it is, if I'm the first generation born with my rights intact, they really want us here. Let's just be clear about it. And how do you get treated when you're not really wanted in a space, that's just the truth. And I said, what I said, I don't like being heavy. You know, I like to kind of keep it light. But you know, I will relate it to something that I do in my regular consulting business, I have a training, consulting business, right. And I love interviewing the clients just as much as they interview me, because that's important. We need to be a good fit. I need to know that you like love and trust me, because if you don't, we can't work together. And that's okay. That's okay. But you need to like love and trust me. So any organization that comes to me, and they want a training program, especially if it's a diversity training program, especially if it's a diversity training program, and you've never had one in place, I have questions. Why? Because that tells me you just got sued, and you now need a diversity training. And so then I have to ask myself, you want to be involved in this? So that's my commentary. I know I got on a soapbox for a long time. But feel free to jump in Grim?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 21:16

Oh, no, no, that's relatable, definitely relative. Because when we talk about historical context, we have to go back to the integration, right, we got to go back to integration, we talked about Brown versus Board of Education, we talked about, so about prominent African American leaders like Thurgood Marshall kind of spearheaded that movement. And we look at it as us wanting to integrate to something that we necessarily are not accepted or welcomed into, but understanding the fact that is necessary for our survival. And we're talking about having adequate resources, we're talking about having a quality lifestyle or quality way of living, we kind of fortunately have to integrate into these different mainstream organizations, because this is the world that we live in. And this is what we have to do to provide for our family and to provide for ourselves to survive here. A lot of people a lot of times we we get that misconstrued as if you want to integrate because you want to be Eurocentric, or you want to integrate, because this is this is your choice, you know, no, I think most of us did it, primarily because we realized that we have to bring our children to this until into a world where they have to be able to survive, you know, so But the worst thing that we probably ever could have done was followed that, that way of thinking and integrate, because it was so so much more successful as being segregated from white supremacy, mainstream society, because we were forced to have to find methods of Abom of entrepreneurship. You know, you look at a African American woman like, like a madam CJ Walker, and you see her success that she had as being an entrepreneur, you would think that that kind of set the model or the tone that we're supposed to emulate out here, as far as African American, not only women, but men and just pursue entrepreneurship, when you have entrepreneurship, you're not subjected to these waves of mistreatment, you're not subjected to these positions that white supremacy put you in. And some of the things that white women are going through and something in corporate America is similar to what a lot of African men have gone through historically, you know, they actually found that white men choose to have employee white women more because they can't handle the reality or the masculinity of African African men or African American men, you know, and they'll find themselves trying to make homes dysfunctional, and just employee women, you know, most of our women are the ones that kind of hold some of these corporate titles and some of the hierarchy in corporate America. And that's by design, you know, that's not by default. And I told my sisters, including my wife, who got laid off from corporate America at Prudential, making$125,000 a year laid off, they downsized, and they, you know, they closed her department, and she found herself out there, you know, scrambling trying to find something to supplement it, and there was nothing out there to supplement that kind of income, you know, with her expertise. So she was getting tossed around headhunters and different, you know, resumes tossed around and wasn't getting any responses, you know, just wasn't any money out there for it. And I told her, I said, you know, maybe you might just want to stop punishing yourself and just try to find a way to start your own business, you know, try to find your own way of generating your income, you know, I got your back so I'm gonna help you be able to do that, but I just didn't want to see I'd be punished and he's different. And he's different operations and you know, it was making me depressed and stressed out, you know, not being able to find another means of income. And when that department closed down, it just wasn't here the place for her to nothing else for her to apply for. So is she good now? Yeah, she finally found something else but it's definitely definitely wasn't what she was making before. You know?

Kandice Whitaker: 24:42

Me I hope out No, forever. Oh, I don't even know. Oh, no doubt about it. Yeah. Halab me 25. That's easy to come up on. Yeah, we got

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 24:50

you. Oh, no doubt. I like that.

Kandice Whitaker: 24:53

Nah, that's changed.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 24:55

Yeah. So I told us to focus on just trying to entrepreneurship because one thing about us instead of me Who's gonna be collusion? You know, it's, it's an illusion of inclusion, even with black women, and primarily black women, you guys are taking the brunt of that. So, you know, women are taking the brunt of that, you know, because you're getting subjected to it head on, you know, you're you're, you're the ones being hired in these positions, you're the ones being hired into an environment that's not culturally comparative to how you came up, or how you were how you were raised. So every single day, it's a cultural battle. So cultural difference. So when they hear you talking with passion, when they hear you talking with a level of intensity and aggressiveness, they immediately take that out of content, it merely take it out of content, whether it's cultural, whether it's a gender issue, which you guys kind of have like a double sided sword, double edged sword, you know, and that's why I really empathize with you are the most because just from one side of the sword that I have to endure, I can't tolerate, which is one of the reasons why I said I cannot go work in corporate America and I want to work in education that was more of a liberal environment. You know, some people will look at facts and look at words. And you know, debate is debatable. But in corporate America kind of is kind of, you know, one sided. And it's more of a dictatorship.

Kandice Whitaker: 26:12

That's definitely subjective. But let's keep it a buck. You know, when somebody get on your nerves, or you don't even like them everything they do get on your damn nerves. Why you breathe like that? I don't like how your eyebrow moves, where you honestly feel like in some scenarios, that is really what is happening. They don't really want us so everything we do pisses you off. There's that. Right, you talked about a while back, I want to I want to, I want to walk this back for a second, because you mentioned history. You mentioned segregation. You know, I'm a history nerd. So I got to speak to that. Historically, when we've had those instances, the rosewoods, the Black Wall Street in Oklahoma, what they do when we had our own, they burned to shut down because of jealousy. And we can't teach it in schools because it's CRT and that's a buggy word. But that's a fact. We know madam CJ Walker. But what about Mary Ellen pleasant, who was before madam CJ Walker, who was a millionaire, she had a boarding house and MP pugging. She knew because she made her money in real estate and don't let nobody fool you. There's money to be made in real estate always money to be made in real estate. And because she knew as a black woman, she was not safe. Being a millionaire. She worked for white people in cleaning houses. But not only did she work for white people in clean their houses, she air hustled to get tips of where to get her next thing. This one I'm talking about. We've been doing this for generations. I'm the first generation born with my rights intact. So you have to make me comment. Let's just call a thing a thing. But it ain't because you really want me to be here. Right? So the comfortability factor is what you talked about related to having black men. But the truth of the matter is, most Americans are not accustomed to black culture not being at that ain't black culture. That's television. Right? Now, stuff you see on Real Housewives, they don't know anything about us. They don't know about how when black folk come to visit, we sit in the kitchen and talk, right? The kitchen is all white people sit in the living room, we sit the kitchen, and so they don't know that. Right? They don't know when you go to somebody's house, you got to follow the rules. Some people have no shoes in their house. We know, right? We can't even graduate high school without knowing how to operate and white society. But privilege, their privilege says we can do whatever we want. And guess what, we don't have to know nothing about y'all. And by the way, just your way of being in the world, because we don't know it, it's wrong. Not so

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 28:42

we have a part of an organization, right? Where you guys was very intimate amongst you all, whether it's a sisterhood, whether it was an investment group, or whatever it is, right. And you all were kind of like the founders of it. And as you've seen your organization start to populate and evolve into, you know, a larger entity, you have to go and recruit and bring in new people, you know, you have to go you have to allow other people to come in and, you know, infiltrate, if you will, that immediate group, the ones that originated that is going to always look at the new, the new person that's coming in as the outsider, you know what I mean? And that's just kind of like a natural organic thing that just kind of happens, you know, you kind of look at that person as the outsider, right? Well, you guys take it personally get territorial because you created it from the ground up. So someone else comes from the outside it comes in, you're not going to be as receptive to them with every idea or every decision that they want to make, you know, you're going to hold them back to some extent right now let's let's tackle that with with cultural differences. This top of that, with racism, right? of people who, who own these entities or founded these organizations. I've already got it where they got it from cotton pickers where they got it from the slavery and free you know, free income or whatever it is, right. Still their organization that they created when we graduate these cars What are resumes we go to these interviews, we all automatically have a sense of entitlement because we put in the work that was needed to get the position. So we come in with a sense of entitlement to an organization or entity that's not ours. We didn't create it. We didn't organize it. But we're actually some some being submissive in order for us to get a check, right. So we have to be a little more submissive, in order for us to be employed, and paint a picture up aside, to make them think that we're Eurocentric or to think that we think that we didn't like them when we move like them, just so that we can be employed. Then once you get employed, you now have to go to you go through your day to day operations, which is a challenge in itself again, because now you have to work your way up to get these titles and get this leverage when you can have a voice. We even no matter how far you go, the more no matter how much you elevate, you will always be considered the outsider, especially if you don't have the same complexion as them.

Kandice Whitaker: 30:54

What did Paul Mooney say the complexion for the protection of the collection?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 30:58

I love that love that guy? I love that guy.

Kandice Whitaker: 31:05

But, I mean, another Paul Paul Laurence Dunbar he wrote the poem, we wear the mask. Yeah, exactly what he's talking about. We wear the mask. So we wear the mask.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 31:16

Coming to that, with that perspective, we are thinking that this is a temporary

Kandice Whitaker: 31:20

, but there's a price to pay, there is a price to pay for that that does not come without price. And the other thing that you said earlier that I wanted to talk about, if we could go back for just a second you were talking about how it is our responsibility to integrate these spaces. I had a conversation with one of my coaching clients about that very recently, that also has a price. We ain't no Martin Luther King. They got a holiday for him right now. Right. But that didn't really turned out great, y'all. Martin Luther King, there is a price to pay. I heard a quote several years ago. And when I heard it, I wished I had heard it some years before, it was something like when you break down barriers, you run the risk of being destroyed by the barrier you've broken down,

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 32:10

look at this in the music industry, with people that own their masters, you know, as well, you

Kandice Whitaker: 32:14

see it every where one of my friends and I had a conversation. And this is where I got to weigh in on Martin Luther King thing from from her in this conversation. She was taking a class in business school, and she went to an Ivy League business school, right? And they were talking about, well, what if somebody said to you in a job interview that we don't want somebody of your color, or we don't want somebody from your background? And I'm like, but they already do kind of say that they say you're not a good fit. That's what that means. Right?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 32:42

Right. That they say that political. Right?

Kandice Whitaker: 32:45

Right. But it's it's the same thing. She was like, listen, I appreciate it. And I would just go about my life. And she was like, the white women in the class would like I would sue you. Oh, what went on Martin Luther King, man. That's fat. Right. Right. That's facts. And like so what I wish somebody told 25 year old candidates and there's a reason why I'm saying this right. I wish somebody told 25 year old candidates. Yeah, we all fight the power and whatnot, right? Because I still believe in that. But do that strategically understand that people aren't going to be happy with your class action suit, or with you go into HR HR is never your friend and on your side just in case nobody ever told you. That's a whopper Okey doke. Don't show friends. Don't go down and talking too much. So I digress. We no Martin Luther King, right. So I want to be integrated but integrated ish. I remember personally having an interview with a company that was based out of Birmingham, and I didn't like how to do it was talking to me on a damn interview. I was like, oh, no, this ain't gonna work.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 33:53

Birmingham. What history we have there.

Kandice Whitaker: 33:56

Everybody wants to move to Atlanta. Birmingham's only two hours from there.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 34:00

Yeah, this is facts. We only went for two years. We moved. We're not talking about a long time. We moved from all that Jim Crow. I was

Kandice Whitaker: 34:08

born in 1981 first generation born with my rights intact. I'm gonna take a break right here. It's such an interesting conversation. Why is this going so fast, man. We'll be back. In our virtual Happy Hour community, the party never stops. Follow Kandice with the K Whitaker on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Tiktok. Now back to the show. What's up y'all welcome back to the happy hour lounge family. I'm talking to my guest today. Cornelius Grim Whitaker and we talked about a whole lot of things about going out doing your own thing about working in corporate about the history and how we all got here, but now we're talking about something fun. We you know, he has a lot of different ventures and one of them is if film production company called halls mill network, right? So I know you got some projects that are coming up. Oh snap here comes the logo y'all. So if you are watching the video that's going to be on YouTube you should be able to see the halls mill network logo that kind of looks like a on and off button. And it's in blue and it says H M N All right, cousin so what do you what what should we know what y'all got coming down the pike?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 35:26

Oh, so many powerful things. I mean, currently, we're doing well with lit the movie that's on to be right now. We had on amazon prime for quite some time. But that movie, right this is making waves and opening doors for us that I never ever imagined, especially with Jersey club music making stepping into the forefront right now. All across the nation. People are recognizing a genre that we've been enjoying and celebrating my entire life in New Jersey. Well,

Kandice Whitaker: 35:52

junkets say like 40 years after New York just had the celebration and hip hop in New York in the house

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 36:00

in the 90s Billy so we talked about some of these clubs Yeah, you right New York is the mecca you know, we hit on Jersey so Jersey jersey, the movie lit is based off of that subculture of Jersey club and dances and you know, the way these people jiving with the bodies and some of the movies you've never ever seen before this is this is stepping into them to mainstream society now so but we made this movie boy five years ago no, no four years ago we may we may live and live this is telling the story right hidden Jersey you know, so drama, the action, the drama that embodies some young kids that's trying to get into the industry and they using the jersey clubs genre to do that, battling each other and dancing as a ways of handling their altercations and their their beefs with one another kind of like how we deal with breakdancing right same exact thing with Jersey club and of course money is the root of all evil. So eventually some lives loss and violence and you know, erupts because of the opportunity to be the head person in charge and be the best dancer be the best DJ and we go through this in life now. So kind of depicts what some of the younger inner city children are going through. In New York especially. But in New Jersey, I mean, primarily No, but all over New Jersey.

Kandice Whitaker: 37:21

So art imitating life All right. That's right art imitating life isn't this the movie? I think I saw it on prime where you did a cameo. That was my first independent film. Yeah, you got to see do come strolling in to danske I remember

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 37:40

it made me do it because I didn't want to be like P Diddy. You know I mean I'm more of a shooting night type of guy

Kandice Whitaker: 37:45

in the middle of the video,

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 37:48

so I didn't want to do but they made me do it. And I'm glad I did. You know, lit just opened the doors for us. We raised a lot of money with that on video video on demand platforms and also the red carpet premiere that we did. We did pretty well with that we're able to raise more revenue to create a movie called liquor run liquor run the movies I knew baby right now you know that liquor movie the gram files the Instagram at at liquor, run the movie. And you kind of see where we started where we were going. I cast it with split star split star, you know, split stars. This is the number one height man for Busta Rhymes. He's been with Busta Rhymes since the 80s. So Busta Rhymes came out with conglomerate before that bus services, right min height min and get on stage to get the crowd hyped up, I actually bumped into him at the airport and just asked him well, you know, we'd be interested in being part of my movie that we started. And he said, of course, and then we finished the movie, I never did the movie before. So stars signed up, as well as some Instagram celebrities like Daniel Jean, and we had a few other surprises in there, but that movie should be premiering at random middle of June, I'll be having a red carpet premiere in Kansas is going to let you all know about it. So she so you all can travel to New Jersey and attended but that's hopefully that's gonna be the movie that breaks, you know, breaks the barriers for us in Hollywood, you know, we really stepped out game over the production value of this and with our acting, you know, with a cast the actors so we're hoping those two great things we look around. And again, that movie is about a group of friends who, who have struggled financially and they come together to find a way to generate some revenue that will change their lives. And it kind of reminds you of like National Lampoon's Vacation where they just traveling, going through different adventures and different adversity, trying to raise some money so that you can invest into crypto, which will ultimately take them to a life of financial liberty, financial independence, but we had that going on. And of course, we're just looking at some other things too, as far as on the production side. You know, creating some more documentaries, creating short films and even doing commercials for small businesses out here. So almost network, you know, as a full fledged video production company, you know,

Kandice Whitaker: 39:59

Let me know if you need some voiceover artists. I mean, I'm just saying oh

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 40:06

that's good to know you have a lot of skills sister so I

Kandice Whitaker: 40:09

was on the radio for like I had a radio show. Yeah, I

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 40:14

had the kind of voice remind me when Wendy Williams a little bit.

Kandice Whitaker: 40:17

Oh God, everybody tells me that you know what it is from growing up listening to Wendy Williams my entire life from where she started on Kiss FM. Oh, no, I got my start at 94.3 Why BC and number one for r&b hits and all these this is Kandice with the K keeping you company on the evening jam. What's up? Yeah, still got it?

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 40:38

You know How hard it is just to do that little clip that did a little opening like this. There's nothing easy about that right there. I can see that being your niche though. You could do a great speaker great or to re organize it well thought for so I can see that being a strip silly

Kandice Whitaker: 40:52

as hell throw that on there too.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 40:57

No doubt about it.

Kandice Whitaker: 40:59

Yeah, I love this. I love the idea. The movie actually, I don't even know about liquor runs. I just followed it on the gram myself. When the red carpet thing is because I need to get it on my calendar. Because if it's not on my calendar, it doesn't exist. Unfortunately.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 41:16

Does that happen? That happened in your 40s it started happening because I remember everything phone numbers. Oh, God,

Kandice Whitaker: 41:23

like we have this little digital thing in our hands. That reminds us of our lives. I think it started with we don't need to remember anything anymore. Right? Because remember, we had to write people number on a piece of paper. member that Oh,

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 41:39

that's my lifeline. It's over. My life is over.

Kandice Whitaker: 41:44

I don't remember nothing. If it's not on my calendar, it does not exist. And like, it's so bad. Like yesterday, I literally missed an appointment. That was important to me. Why? Because it wasn't my calendar. Forgot. My Calendar doesn't exist.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 41:59

And you know what, and that's something I had to learn too, because I don't want people by not supporting. And I'm a big advocate of that. You know, that's the major funding supporting. I remember you told me you aren't coming out with your shirt line. He was doing your graphics line. First thing I did was, you know what I mean?

Kandice Whitaker: 42:14

1000 is bad. But wait, I gotta tell people the story of how that came about. See my cousin Cornelius invited me to his birthday, right? And he knows I'm single as a wendy's cheeseburger. So he was trying to introduce me to his friends. And I was like, I don't know, man, you know, because I don't like talk to strangers. So probably one of the reasons why I'm single, I don't talk to strangers. So he was like, Come on, man. It was millionaires out there. You know, he's always excited about everything. He sells everything. There was some 1000 is out there. Like 1000s. He was like 1000 is matter. And I was like, Yo, I put that shirt on the shirt. That's how we got that concept. So that was his shirt. I went home and made it that same day. That's his right there.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 42:59

I don't care what you're doing. You're my lover. You're my family. If you're selling, if you're selling BS, I'm buying it. You know what I mean?

Kandice Whitaker: 43:10

But you know what, that's how it should be. We got to support one another. iron sharpens iron, you know, you never know what's going to hit and you can't despise the days of small beginnings. We all start small. But I remember when I opened up my online store who the first person was to buy something, you know what I mean? So for those of you who are out there who are listening, if you got something to sell people and supporting you like that, that's okay. Keep going. Because when you find your people, your people will support you. Yeah, your tribe will support you.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 43:41

There's not gonna be the low hanging fruit. It's not going to be family. Even a bloodline. I love us to death. You know, we pull up 200 Deep every family reunion, we spent a weekend so I love unconditional love. And that's that Sunday the solver to support the content solver you know, find you in the daytime with a flashlight not at all man. So you got to accept reality. I don't take it personal anymore. Like I used to. I really used to take it personal. Even cut relationships off like my thing is, like you said you're not bringing any value to my life. If you're not supporting me, I don't see the purpose of you being around me or, or engaged. You're engaged in my personal business or exposed to my life, my lifestyle. I just cut you off, but I'm not

Kandice Whitaker: 44:25

having access to me as a privilege.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 44:29

No, so, you know, I'm not all the way rehabilitated from that way of thinking. But, you know, I'm not to

Kandice Whitaker: 44:36

show some grace. It's not exactly wrong. It's not exactly wrong. But to have a hard and fast line. There's some gray area there because some people do be tribal in a real life. Yeah.

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 44:45

And those sorts of people suddenly forget to put on the calendar. That part right

Kandice Whitaker: 44:49

so you gotta be both like we're gonna have a little grace right next time you're gonna learn your calendar ministry and learn how to use it in Jesus name. Uh oh, I love it I can't wait to come and support I already found it on the ground liquor run the movie liquor run follow it on the gram y'all

Cornelius Grim Whitaker: 45:12

go to my store he's pretty glasses. Paul Mills store.com You know support the movement every little dollar dollar helps for the next production and next project we got t shirts bookbags you name it well that's

Kandice Whitaker: 45:24

what's up I didn't even know you have merch like that? Yeah. All right. We definitely will go out and support thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being part of our happy hour vibe. You sit right next to the laid back chill yet smart. We do it all multi dimensional. Definitely got to have you back for another episode. Thank you all for listening. And we out. Wasn't that a great interview? Hold up before you grab your hat and head out. Make your way to facebook.com and join the Kandice with a K Whitaker's Facebook group. That's where you can find our free Happy Hour community, luxuriating and chatting. Thank you for listening. And if you enjoyed the show, please leave a review. That's how we keep the lights on. If you're on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, feel free to shoot me a message and say Hey, girl, hey, I'm Kandice with the K Whitaker and I would love to hear from you. And with that, I love you. And I mean, you know why? Because there are people in the world who hate for no reason I choose to love for no reason. I believe as the great Martin Luther King Jr. said pain is too great a burden to bear and I choose to love peace y'all be great.