Christian Content Creators w/ Photographer & Educator Alexandria Chrisele (EP 217)

Yo, what's up people? I'm your host Jay Will and I would like to welcome you to inspire guys people where we balance faith and business To guide you to your purpose today is all about being a Christian content creator. I have a guest Alexandria Crassell She's a photographer and educator. We're gonna have a dope conversation today But look man, hopefully y'all are you know living it up doing well and having a good Saturday, you know I don't do a Saturday show super often, but I actually think it's pretty dope because and nobody well I can't say nobody I work But the snow is melting here in Michigan.

That's a plus the Lions winning you of them won the national championship So we doing good in Detroit and I'm gonna tell you like this craziest thing to me is that the Detroit Lions are unifying the city of Detroit in Ways that I have never seen before like legitimately Unifying the city and it's dope to me because especially the last four years Y'all know how there's people ready to be mad at each other for any and everything politics color your skin You live across the street on the left side. I live on it's like all these reasons for everybody fighting and tripping So I'm just gonna be real it's been a blessing to me because I'm like being you know in and around the city Detroit I some people corrected me like the state of Michigan is united and that is facts Um, but it's like everybody being nice, you know all the stores selling out of the merchandise you got Lions gear left and right So let's hope the Lions keep winning You know I'm saying so God could keep blessing the state of Michigan and you know that's that but today We don't have a conversation around Christian content creation And so if you were Christian content creator or someone who has maybe you got a young in that's like You know you trying to train your child up in the way They should go and figure out like how they can get some content of substance to help them on that journey That's what inspire guys people is all about having these real conversations You know I'm saying I really kick it and pick someone's brain Alexandria is like I said a photographer She has a youth program the young the young influencers And she's someone that I've just kind of followed for a long time on social media And I'm really impressed with people who are consistent That's something that always stands out to me because let's just be real especially you follow people on social media Sometimes people all over the place, but she's been consistent I've watched her kind of from afar really low-key would love to do a photo shoot with her other than the fact that she just like is We know we're near each other I'll put it like that we both in Michigan, but where's she at and where I'm at ain't nowhere near each other So that's the only reason I never reached out to her for that excited to pick her brain And learn a little bit about her life and her journey And not just the things that she's done But the things that God has planned her life and then she's gonna do so without further ado y'all welcome Alexandria to the show What I'm doing great. I'm doing great, but I before we start you said we are nowhere near each other I just want to point out that people from Detroit think that our ride from Flint to Detroit is so far and it's just a high-frythound Pines, so we don't we're gonna make it work because I'm in Detroit often and it's not fine Let me clarify too because you speak in facts But this is me being from Detroit and not actually living nowhere near Detroit. You feel what I'm saying?

There we go. I made it That's that's that's what it is, but I don't mean we still can't make it work So let's make it work cuz I'm in Detroit a lot too. I'm in Detroit a lot too. I'm in Detroit a lot too I don't live that far, but it's like, you know, people like you looking like oh man like all right That's a hike, but we can make it work.

Welcome to the show. You know I'm saying thank you feeling that I'm feeling good. I'm excited. I'm excited my favorite things to talk about is faith in life and everything below the surface And so I'm looking forward to getting into this conversation That's dope.

How's your new year off like you know, we still one month into the year I don't know if you a new year resolution person goals or whatever you do But what's that looking like how you how you how you feeling when my thing? I'm feeling like I need to catch up a little bit I'm not much not much of a new year's resolution person But my birthday actually falls at the end of the year December 22nd So at the end of every year I'm always like reflecting a lot about the year before and how what I want to do moving forward And so I am this year is just a lot of transition. It's a lot of Ambiguity and so really I'm just trying to kind of find my way into newness without really seeing a lot So just trying to take the vision that I have and the things I want to do and start kind of step by step I step building into what's going so what's going to happen in the future? So there's a lot of a lot of things happening and it's a busy time, but I'm just trying to sort everything kind of That's a real place.

You know what I'm saying? Like I feel like so many times these days we all feel this pressure to like have it all figured out and maybe like present ourselves It's having it all figured out so I kind of love that you just like yo Like this is about newness and I'm figuring some things out I am I started writing a song this week called faith if they I Which is a variation of like me a play on words of faith and like the whole point of the song is that I'm figuring things out Everything isn't clear yet. So it's like this journey of faith So that like when you said that it's kind of dope to hear just kind of where you are What is like is it anything specific that you could share this like something new like you said there was newness ambiguity Like what does that look like for you specifically right now? Okay, so it starts really at last year So I'm about two days away from the anniversary of my mother passing away and my mother passed away.

Thank you Thank you. It was unexpected. It was difficult. It was dramatic It was a it was a lot of things and so I started off the year with a lot of grief grief with that grief with it Greek with my roles changing.

I Work with you a lot and I had a daughter that had but then I mentioned I became a daughter and so transition there and relationships and kind of Just some things changing there business changing life changing and so last year was really just like trying to figure out How to how to make my way through grief and all of these other things that are happening at the same time and when my mother passed away Before like the Lord had been talking to me about everything there's a season and for me I'm like, okay, you know, the Lord's telling me things are gonna change You know, we were in the midst of some difficulty and there's things that I have been waiting on the Lord to do for like a few years And maybe even a decade I'm like, okay, the Lord's saying that these things are happening But right at the till end of me think I'm going into newness and it's gonna be kind of all this good It really came at the beginning of a lot of devastation And so it was hard to go from being very excited and very looking forward to all of these things and then feeling like man I'm back at the bottom and I want to be excited because I know you're still saying these things are happening Lord But like my heart devastated life is completely changed, you know, my dad and my brother Like we're just trying to figure everything out or at least trying to submit to God's sovereignty and what has happened We're also trying to figure our own heart out and stuff And so my year was really a lot of that and so coming into this year It's like, okay, well, I have a business. I'm a youth programs running I'm trying to pivot my business into something else I'm still trying to deal with the emotional I don't want to fall out with just the emotional and kind of spiritual grappling that comes with the things that I've experienced the year before and so It's really just a continuation of the year, right? I was learning how to when things are shaking and when things are outside of our control How do we then kind of find our stability like and so I do too much talking about I don't remember the initial question But that's kind of like the context of like the craziness and like I don't know what's happening relationships are changing my roles are changing And I'm trying to figure out how to leave everything behind and become something new to walk into the newness Well, also trying to hold on to you know hold on to what was a little bit and so it's like you said You have no idea like you try to control or you try to make sense of it But when it's happening you really learning that you kind of have to learn how to let go of all of the old stuff to let something become new And that's just not comfortable It's not comfortable. It's unpredictable.

It's just it's hard. It's really hard No, well sorry to hear about your mom for sure and thank you for sharing that like that's that's real though You know what I mean? And I can understand like you know I can understand generally speaking like just this idea of like you know walking into newness sometimes like not all change It's because everything was good and so like how have you though It sounds like you you and your family have still like you're leaning on the Lord through this time How has your relationship with the Lord been affected or challenged? Kind of as you go throughout this process I think before I talk more about that the I think what I enjoy about myself and what I appreciate is a lot of times I can see what the end thing is supposed to produce.

So I have no Power over my mother passing away in all of these things But I understand that if I can endure long enough or if I can try to find my way through at the end I'll be able to comfort somebody else or I'll be able to know the Lord in a new way or I'll be able to The crushing of bringing a greater anointing or a great greater opportunity like I know that nothing is lost in the Lord But at the same time I had never had anybody close to me pass away and my mother would be closest person to me My mother could call me and be like hey girl I'm like what's wrong not because there was anything that was indicated she was like what you talking about never like I was wrong She's like I didn't even change my voice and then she would go to go Well, you may be I'm feeling down her and so like me and my mother were close and we're close because we're friends We're close because my mom Disciples me and I guess my mother was a person was probably one of one of the people who I know the most who just spent a lot of time With the Lord and waited on the Lord and lived her life Just uncompromising for the Lord She had a strong personality, but she has strong gifts And so I was able to watch my mother like a Lord tell my mother something she made if she could she shared with me And we'd wait to see if it happens She's like we need to see if this isn't near the Lord and my mother just never missed not because she's not perfect She was perfect But because when people are that close and consistent with the Lord, you know, you just you get to see that and so Having lost my friend, you know, my my comfort and my counselor all those things and when person my parents are pastors and I'm Minister and my parents starts to was like There's that big shift and so initially when this happened, I was like Lord, what is going on? like how like I Was I was just shell shots, right? I still feel very much so like the clips That's only way that I can explain this like immediately life is different in the permanence of this It's not just that I can see the end goal But it's like now I have to learn how to live with something that is never going to change And so my the years been tough emotionally like I felt honestly I felt in a lot of kind of torment mentally and stuff with a lot of things like Trying trying to go to the Lord about stuff and trying to wait on the Lord for answers and I asked the Lord anything I was like why does it happen in like I was like Lord, you don't lie So how come we're having these conversations about, you know, the Lord is bringing us into this I was going to do some healing in some things in some areas like in our family I just like like bringing us to a different level just in our relationship and communication with each other I said but how and how is the beginning of all of this this happens? And so trying to trace that as finger steps your finger footprints and finger prints on things was hard I mean, it's still hard, but I and I thought I never had before I was like, yeah We're gonna make sure I was like this is a simulation and I was like I go from being so sure it's a feeling like I'm not so sure and so I questioned a lot of things But I said my question to the Lord and I still don't have a lot of answers And I still feel periods of doubt or periods of just confusion But I've also seen too much to be like not it's a real like you see people healed You see all these you see guys handing your life in very tangible ways And it's just you can't go back But now you're trying to figure out how to move forward and for me is gonna surrender like grief is really about surrender Like okay, I might not have all answers.

This sucks. This is uncomfortable constantly I have to continue to surrender I have to learn how to wait on the Lord and I don't think people want to talk about that as much right like it even in the most difficult times of your life that can be using it to prone you or to bring you to like to you know or to bring you into deeper consecration and I'm tired emotionally. I'm tired. I don't want to consecrate or I don't want to you know and so it's been a lot of that It's been a lot of this is how I feel.

This is what I see the end goal is I'm too tired or hey, maybe just coming to you and talking is enough Lord or it's really trying to figure out how to place myself And evaluate myself in my relationship with the Lord. What is he asking of me? What does obedience look like? What does healing look like?

What does grief look like? What does the fear of the Lord look like while also trying to grapple with that? Like because I'm a person with God but that ain't wrestling with me So Wow, no, that's powerful That there's there's so much in what you said and especially in the fact of like what I love is that I can see the impact That your mom had on you and like sometimes we don't understand like what legacy is and like that impact of how powerful Someone's example can be like that godly example So no, I thank God for her in that sense and thank God for you, you know, just being vulnerable enough to share something that personal What you also kind of talked a little bit about You mentioned that you took on if I heard you right a mentee and became like a mother I want to say you said that and you happen around the same time Can you do you mind sharing a little bit just about that dynamic of kind of now? It seems like you're maybe in that role in that mother role and kind of how you're approaching that during this time of change So it actually goes back a little bit further.

So she's 20 now. I used to be a part of the youth program Working with young people is what I've definitely feel called to and During that time as I was exiting that youth program She is I come to church with us and doing a lot of things and Eventually kind of became a part of our family like I heard a prayer one day Like the Lord was saying like hey, she's gonna come live with you And I was like I'm like I'm still with my parents because I'm just out of my business full time and there's things going I'm like what is like I knew that the Lord was gonna bring young people to me to help be a mentor and be a support to them I didn't think that the Lord was going to do that while I was single because who is going? Why would the Lord willing to give me a whole child when you know, there's benefit to having a balance, right? But I was living with my parents and so I didn't say anything in a few months later some situations happened She ended up coming to live with us and stay with us and I became a full-time parent I went from a mentee role a mentor role to kind of this parent role of a teenager with her own history with her own upbringing with her own challenges and It was up until my mother passed away I explained it as being the most sanctifying thing that I've ever done because you know When your person is used to helping people like you know You used to be in a voice of reason and trying to talk and walk with people through stuff But it's different when you're with someone all the time right like you're married people are married people have children It's the dynamic shifts some you know, you're loving or you're on desire to help and support people doesn't change But then you realize like okay, like it has to be a little bit more accountability because you're in my space and I'm in your space or You can't really hide from the things that you are doing That's me as an adult her as a child my parents, you know And so it was it was the most beautifully challenging thing I've ever done And I think the biggest thing is that for her is like the Lord shows you something different to give you an opportunity to make some You know make some different decisions and hopefully that those these planets begin to sprout up in your life either soon or later And for me It's I'm called to young people and so the Lord is using this to sanctify me and to strengthen me and to give me the tools and the things I need also as I go out and he sends more people to me to do the work that I have to do and a lot of that also informs my Program because you know young people in social media is such a large thing I got to leave firsthand what it looks like with a young person and the influences that social media has how people interact with how they Interact with it how it hurts them how it helps them and so those things It was a challenge because everybody also gives a brief differently So she lost a grandmother when my mother passed away But you know everybody's coping coping mechanisms are different and like I said it came on the heels of a very challenging your prior And so she's become a young adult so you 19 20 you know you want to be out here You try to figure it out you try to figure yourself out and so it's just uh You know it's challenging.

I felt like last year I also grieved you know that relationship in that sense, but I mean when I went to college my mom grieved me going to college So, you know, it's just it's just a transition No, that's I mean look those are some impactful relationships, right? And I guess I'm curious How did you like you mentioned being a person that kind of helps people and people come to you? Where did that come from like where did that desire? How did you find your way to understand in that part of your purpose because it seems super clear?

Yes, so I think part of it's calling and part of it's got using some hurt to to for his glory I think I'm always gonna be like disciplined and focused person I'm always gonna be very kind and like empathetic person. I think that some of the giftings that the Lord like, you know You just people talking you understand what's going on even though they're not talking about what's going on and um So for me, I think that there's some things that the Lord placed in me where it was just like that was a part of it But then also when I was young I um I remember being hurt by a friend unintentionally But I felt kind of rejected in a band and buyer and I remember the kid saying I'll never I'll you know eight years old. I don't want anybody to ever feel like I feel and I think for a long time that distracted me from Kind of the deep focus I used to have it made me very like I want to make sure that nobody's left out I want to make sure that everybody is taken care of and so um With the leading of my mom often my girl, you know, you gotta have some wisdom in your compassion and things like that But it's been really difficult over the years for me to kind of separate those things And so I think that my heart to want to help people and for people to have a space and a place Um came kind of out of that and just growing up and having my mom and having really really dope people behind me Like supporting me loving me encouraging me telling me about myself. Um, I think bringing those things together I just kind of made it always really clear to me that I just want to be able to help people like for me It's very fulfilling to help people but in my adulthood and especially in this last year It's been a the Lord like reminding me like you can help people and there's some training and preparation But then there's time to execute you have to lock in and allow people to be where they're at or a lot of people make decisions that they make And you can't fix it.

You know, Jesus, you're not the whole spirit, you know, you can't come in and fix Um, and so I also think how to pull back a lot Um, so that I can make sure that I'm getting done the things that I need to be done Um, so that I can impact the way that I that the Lord wants you to and I just think stop emotion, right? Yeah, have you found out to be difficult like when it's time for you To pull back and not help someone because it seems like I probably comes naturally for you Um, has that been difficult? Have you had some trial and error with that of like knowing when to do it when not like how's that How's that process? Absolutely.

Um, I think I'm much better than what I was. I think that um This year has taught me that I don't have no time to waste. I don't have time to waste and I and I think that What has informed me may be staying around longer or or having a hard time tearing away Is it's kind of like you know that people need support even if they don't think they need support You know that they need it and I think because I'm a gapfielder like in high school. I played sports that I play point I'd be I wouldn't be a shooting guard.

I have no job, but I'd be pointing out this my forward. I you know I'd be over here I played volleyball. I was outside hitter that they put me in setting you know in track I'm doing this like in in work as I'm working jobs. They're placing in a lot of different places I think that when sometimes when your skill set can be used broadly you get used to being used broadly and The difficulty sometimes is realizing that even though you can do a lot of things well or a lot of things great Even that there's time and place where you don't do single things At the greatest level and so I have struggled with that I've struggled because you don't want to be mean to be people but or you're feeling like man if I stick around long enough I can help you know I can be there when you do fall because everybody's gonna fall But the Lord basically told me like listen if you put yourself at the center of everybody's help Then that's making yourself idle you're making your ability to help people More effective than the Holy Spirit doing their work his work in them in their timing And so it's not as hard as it used to be but emotional use to grapple but decision wise.

I'm I make the decision Okay, I can do that but internally you like but yeah after a while it'll that'll that down Yeah, I can I can relate to that like you know the whole you know my purpose being to inspire guys people And now that I'm always executing that perfectly right but when you when you are a person that's centered on helping other people I think sometimes what happens is every person only sees what they bring to you So it feels like to them like oh, yeah, you're just dealing with one thing and it's like no I'm actually like actually I've got six of y'all coming to me about stuff And then I'm also human and I'm not perfect and I'm dealing with things And I think you know I love that you kind of shared some things vulnerable because I think what gets missed sometimes is that when you're a person that maybe mature Maybe you know maybe a community around you consider you wise and things like that and they come to you for stuff People also tend to put you on the pedestal and it's something that I am always fighting against people putting me on the pedestal because I'm like You know like I'm human. You know what I'm saying? It's like I'm not god So you have to understand that like just like you have struggles I have struggled too And it's funny because I was thinking this morning about Solomon randomly and just some of the mistakes he made and it was like I just had this random thought of like it's crazy how wisdom doesn't exempt you from sin Like you being wise doesn't exempt you from doubt losing faith struggle Anything that everyone else goes through. So, um, I think that's part of the importance too of like Sometimes as a person that's always given of yourself being able to say no So that you get replenished and that you're not like an empty vessel just pouring out nothing because it's like you haven't been replenished in Um, so I think that's important.

So I appreciate you sharing I agree I agree because you you you rid yourself of rest. It's like the one of the last um podcast you did We guys were talking about rest and how important that is and how rest is a gift and how if we choose not to rest We're also in a sense being disobedient or just kind of slapping god in the face because why do we think that we can accomplish more Because god is saying if you rest in your so that's been that's been a very big like piece for me this year too, right? Like you know guys asking you to rest got to tell you not to worry about everybody else than locking And I don't think I did that well last year. I knew that that's what the lord told me and I don't think I did it well at all I'm like my mom died.

I want my family to you know, I'm moving together as a unit We got it. You know, I'm running here. I'm doing this emotionally I'm doing a lot of stuff to try to behind the scenes and guys like that's not what I asked you to do I'm like but I'm trying to like and you just realize you're spent emotionally physically and people don't understand And even when you try to understand but we got we have to rest got to do it with my rent Yeah, and that's how you get replenished so you can keep going, right? It's like I think about race car drivers And you go they're going along race with however many laps for however many hours They got to stop and get tires change They got to stop and get gas all type of things You got to go into a pit stop and if you don't make that pit stop You end up dying out your car breaks down before you can even finish the race And so I think a lot of times for us we have to understand I've been there plenty of times like trust me I'm I can relate where it's like really like I got to chill I got to go through a season of being quiet and just listen and a season of just reading my word and not You know trying to give everybody advice.

I actually it was funny and I don't know if it was 21 or 22 But the where a guy gave me in that year was take your own advice So I spent most of that year trying with this not to give people advice And like trying not to tell because because you notice things when you were a person that like I use it in that way You're just a noticer some people think of you criticize. It's not your observant. You just notice like hey That's off to decide fix that and that your guy was just like no, I'll take your own advice So I spent most of that you're like all right not telling nobody to stay stuck together I'm I'm gonna listen to that. So I see everybody in the comments appreciate your Gerardo.

What up? What up? Gerard says hey dawn. How you all doing?

I love Gerard. Yeah, Gerard is so dope. I'm so appreciate you Um, I've been knowing him so long like Gerard is one of the first people I tell him all the time he wanted the first people that I know that like we used to travel together And we traveled doing music we as in a hotel one day and like I woke up Let's say it's like seven in the morning you like get up. I'm looking like Gerard is like in the corner Read the bible print.

I'm like, oh, you know, we were young at the time, you know, you know He's a little older than me, you know, it's an you know, not the thought out there Gerard I didn't claim you you still a young man Bishop, but at the time I'm like, oh, we really about this life Like you this is in the morning like my mom's really reading the word Gerard is solid. Um, love him But um, Alexandra, I'm curious about like, you know, so as we think about like content creation and some of the things you're doing You talked about your um, your your youth program. So let's actually go there first the young influencers I mean, it makes sense to me just here you talk. I can see how you would do that But tell us a little bit about the young influencers what led you here.

What's the vision and things like that? So the idea actually came about four or five years ago I was at the table with my mom and my best friend who's also from the church and I say and we were just talking about Because she's a teacher so we were talking about just The different things that young people are going through and how different it is from our generations and kind of the struggle in that and how it was Forming their mindsets and their identities and things like that just the things that they had access to and um in that conversation I was like how come people aren't like we see all this content creation and all of this stuff for business owners and adults and things like that That's like how come people aren't doing this for young people like it's they're already on their phones all the time Like why aren't we trying to repurpose this noise? I did some research. I didn't find a lot I remember back in um in college I would want to write a research paper on Facebook and how how Facebook impacted people self-esteem But at the time I couldn't do it because there was no research just like 2007 and there was no research I was like you can't my professors like you can't do that I'm like but we see that this is like causing some stuff like but I understand I can't do a research paper when there's no research But now we fast forward however many years that is 16 years or whatever and there's tons of research And so when we were sitting at that table I just I literally two days just sat down and wrote a really large vision for a program and curriculum And then like a nonprofit and all these things and then I kind of started to try to get that emotion I um piloted the program at my old church on the college when I was in Grand Rapids First of the nation church shout out to Nate and um Can't do that and I back to spend two weeks kind of teaching young people about content creation mostly YouTube because the young people wanted to be youtubers really bad and the older people wanted to be influencers But um and then tried to kind of get it off the ground But I was just going into business full-time by myself Um, I have just became a full-time parent to my daughter I was trying you know, the COVID in the middle of all of this and I just kind of got tabled Um, and so at the end of last year I went to pitch competition for this to and I ended up landing in some schools this year And so it's it's evolved into teaching kids the business and the technical side of content creation But we're really using it as a vehicle to talk about mental health To talk about online like responsibility and duty online It's a really try to help Social media is not going anywhere.

So to really try to shape that hey We need to you need to see this as a tool not as something that's consuming you But you need to go from kind of being a consumer to being a contributor You need to understand that the way that the world is going is gig employment is going It's going through the roof and you're going to have to really know how to you know work this thing Whether you want to be entrepreneur or whether you work for someone's business Like social media is a large aspect of business and life at this point And so really wanting to redirect young people who have a lot of access And don't have a lot of guidelines don't have a lot of boundaries Because those things impact your mind like kids are watching pornographic things online Like people kids are on their tablet watching kids stuff and parents have to monitor that to figure out What they're seeing because people are putting all kind of stuff on there Right just because we know that we can plant seeds of influence in ways that sprout later So it's really about that like it's really about helping young people see it as a tool And being able to learn how to develop their own voice how to contribute what you need to them to the world in a way that Um purposeful but also protecting of themselves like I need to understand that they're not a brand to your person And you also need to understand that getting millions of followers and a whole bunch of money is not going to solve your problems Um, but if you're going to aim for this and shoot for it Then you also need to understand that there's a skill set behind it's that this is work and that there's strategy and that there's things that Um, you know that can help you and that's what we've been doing in the program this year. Um, and it's been great. It's been exciting I love that. I love that.

Thank you all for the love and the comments people are enjoying Um, Gerardo says he's proud of both of us. Thank you brother Um, you know what I love about what you're doing with this program is that look Hey, you know, you know, you said you you looked into the research and understand like the research around What social media does? Um, not even just the young people right to to everyone like I've watched so many people, you know, my age group like start falling a victim and stuff And it's easy to fall in that trap But what I like about what you're doing is that sometimes we spend a lot of time telling people what not to do Versus trying to train and educate them on how to do it You know what I mean? Like you said it's like to kind of go from being a consumer to a contributor It's super important because as a consumer on social media To me, it's insane like you are very it's very insane Just like input and information just upload like it's hard to keep up emotionally with everything even me as an adult I know these kids got to be tripping because I have times where I just step away from social media for a month or two Because I like there is no way possible for me to consume all of this information emotion anger tragedy Um conflict In my life within 20 seconds, right?

So what I love about what you're saying is like Let's guide these young people on actually how to use this because like you said from a career perspective Um and just in their lives, it's gonna play a much different role than it did in our lives Um and obviously it's clean and rolling our lives moving forward But I'm such a fan of that kind of mindset So you so you sounds like you're you got into some schools now is that kind of the plan to be able to build out and get in more schools? Yeah, I want to link with organizations and schools that have you know, they already have the audience, right? Definitely going to do some standalone things or we're doing some training for specifically for like youth who Either own businesses or are looking to be entrepreneurs and things like that so that we can you know There's we want to expose as many kids to the concept as possible But then for the people who are like like because young people are decided that hey I have this business or I have these ideas We want to be able to pour into also the people who are high achieving and want to actually do something with it So there's exposure and then there's there's strengthening the people who want to take this and wrong with it too So, um, I definitely have a long-term goal to take the curriculum And and parse it out in some different ways and sell it and do some different things because me and a team of people can't be everywhere But I think that when I look at broadly Like how much deception and confusion and how much like our young people are tied up in social media in a way that Hasn't kind of blind it. I think that it's important that how we're going about this and how we're going to structure it Um can't be multiplied and you have to be willing to kind of put things out there for it to be multiplied So I definitely have a goal to do that as well because no, I love that No, go ahead finish your thought.

I'm sorry. Oh, no, that that's basically it. Um, I was gonna throw a statistic out there the um, the surgeon general came out with a A report last year on adolescence and social media and they said they gave two statistics that were really startling But then the kind of summation of the report was crazy So 90 percent of teenagers 13 to 17 are on social media right now You're supposed to be able to be 13 to get onto these platforms But 40 percent of eight to 12 year olds are already on social media So when you look at the vast amount of kids who are interacting with this at the end of the report He said a lot of the things that said some of the benefits of it said something negative But it said that we cannot say that social media is necessarily safe for people like basically through our research We can't give out a statement and so that alone is very jarring right? Like there's all this research and these things are happening So how are we gonna meet kids where they are to help them move through this stuff?

And so that's that's that's that's kind of like some of the statistical things behind it that makes it important too because we see it We see it all consuming but those numbers say something something even crazier to me Yeah, especially the the 40 percent of eight to 12 that are on there You're supposed to be 13 to get there and I've seen that I've seen that with my own eyes seeing young kids on there and I tell you like a lot of times me and my wife kicking and we don't have children So, you know, I don't want to I'm not here to tell people what to do with their kids That's all who doesn't have children just as an observer though Was interested in me and then thinking about being a kid myself growing up. I'm like there's no way possible I'm talking about me. I'm not talking about nobody else. There is no way possible You could have grabbed me even at 13 was that like seven grade or something?

Eight great whatever it is. I think that's seven great You couldn't have caught me in seven grade and brought me this device and was like, hey, whatever you type in here It'll pop up and then trust me with it Like I'm just telling you like if you trust me with that at 13 you out of your mind And so I think what happens because you mentioned that you like kids are watching pornographic things A lot of what happens I think is that parents are blind to the reality of their own children Like everyone is almost conditioned to see their own child is like he's just a sweet angel She's loving and caring and I'm like well, I remember being an elementary kid was cussing in kindergarten Like so you have to see your kids through the reop the lens of reality and understand You can't trust you can't just trust them with something so powerful a portal into any realm that they want to enter That's literally what social media is you can go and search to it's too much for some of us Oh, we weren't real for this. We weren't built everybody's opinion. We weren't built for all this information like this We weren't built too much Too much and even you know even for me like I constantly have to try to guard myself and revise my plan and like all right Because and the reason is because you said it all these opinions all these perspectives Everyone is an expert.

They never shared their experience though And again you give that you give this to adults and we lose our minds. You're raising children in this It's a very dangerous Undeveloped identity And you're just shaping them And it's like what you said about being a parent You're like I don't want to say we tell parents what to do and stuff and a part of what we want to do is later on That's why I educate parents because when I was coming into being a parent to my teenager It was like I had to take your phones on time I had to take social media You probably thought it was really wet and you was the only one that has some restrictions at 16 17 But if things Someone has to do but has to give the boundaries, right? Like if parents are doing everything that they want to on their phones constantly It's really hard to hold a kid accountable not to do those things Why because are you eating by example or are you just telling me not to do something? And so like we're all wrapped up in this but like for young people We're like this generation doesn't know what life is outside of blue lights and always having a tablet Like we had the TV and we had things that still stimulated us I don't want to ask that we went from nothing to something but right Our young people don't know what stillness in their mind is We played outside we did different things like you know like everything is instant Gratification is instant embarrassment is instant Whatever you want to do is instant and there's no sense of like boundary So how then as a young person if your mind is always doing this and you've taken in a thousand videos in a day You've read sad stuff or you've read happy stuff you know you come over here You read 12 listen to 12 mindset videos How do you place yourself in that when your parents you know either don't realize that they need to not help you navigate this or they don't want to Or there's other factors like you know poverty or abuse or different things that make that pile all of this stuff on on top of each other When we work with our students, I found that they're very money motivated You know scam and all these things is on the rise It's like the things that are motivating them You know when I'm when I get a big girl job, I'm gonna give you a Bins You know we think it like you know I'm 30.

I'm gonna get in your house You know these kids are 14 12 13 14 they will design their mind clear I don't even know what half this stuff is oh, you know they want all this stuff at this young age Like they want you know at 16. I want to get you know It's like There's no concept of like the things that you're seeing at a young age come later on or come with a certain amount of work And it's because you just get fed all of this stuff so much that and that's not everybody because some people have boundaries and guidelines and parents that are able to Appear into them, but but it's still is affecting the mindset, you know of everything in relation to how you see yourself What you want to buy how you spend money how you're trying to present to the world, you know, it's it's all consuming And it's looking at four years And man and it's scary because if we're being real about it, not only is it all consuming It's challenging to fight so again. I'm talking like as an adult And I think part of the issue is and as you kind of you kind of alluded to it is that the parents themselves are trapped in the loop as well So what's happening is These children are left to navigate this world themselves because they're seeing their mom and dad Trapped in the same thing like trying to impress trying to find her the same way You know, my thing is again, I try to be real about it Even when I think about like this podcast, right? Yeah, I know, you know, I work in sales and marketing I have my degree as in marketing I view marketing as mind control as a form of mind control So I understand the good in the bad of marketing and one of the biggest challenges when you are out here trying to create content responsibly Is like all right.

I know the kind of shows and topics I could do that would just have this show on fire I know the type of things that you could show people that will make people react a certain way But my beliefs my standards my morals I have to look them in and face them every day and say what does inspire guys people? What do you want it to be and my goal is always say I would rather reach reach a hundred people deeply than a million people on the surface and so that is What you know, I try to remind myself of daily so that I don't fall into the loop of the likes the just the comment and again I appreciate this is not to say I appreciate the people who genuinely consume this content But I don't want to start catering content to what everybody likes because the reality is people love the surface these days Nobody lives there for 15 seconds, right? So How do you as a content creator though? Like how do you manage that?

How do you navigate as a creator as a person that's putting content out into the world Through your photography through your programs or whatever else it may be like how do you kind of think through all those things? So I'll be honest. I wouldn't even consider myself a content creator I would consider myself myself as someone in multimedia that has the skills to be able to teach people how to be a content creator You know, right and so I say that because I don't do stuff online My you know my personal page is private because I used to be an education and I was telling my students you can follow me You know, I was they were college students and stuff but y'all can follow me my life is my life is private I'm doing an crazy job so can't follow me because I have my business page I visit pages and to be honest, I'm teaching people things but I need to do better at it You know, I'm not consistent online. So I think um But I think I agree with you is that when I do show up I'm showing up as myself, you know However quirky or different or crazy that is or you know, um, I think that I don't I don't have a desire to not be who I am if people don't like me how I am or people can't accept me how I am And they'll just not my people you know or you know, so I um Yeah, I don't think that I'm I'm that great at that But as a creator, I think I anything I do I want to do it will I want to do it to the best of my ability I want to try to do with the right heart I want to try to do the right mindset Integrity is of the most important to me.

Um, and so I think that that that's kind of the quick the quick approach to it Yeah, no, but you you said some important you play an important role as someone who is not necessarily creating the content But you're educating young people on the content. So that's where that perspective is super important Um to because you have an opportunity to you know, um, you know, give them wisdom and guide them right and you know, that's what That's what this show is about guiding people to their purpose I think so many young people right now are um navigating and traveling through life without a guide where they have these guides that are Um, you know pointing them in the wrong direction You talk about like design or clothes and all this unrealistic stuff that is like, you know I deal a lot with poverty just because this is a fake and business show and I'm like always trying to tell people like real rich people don't act like this They don't they don't they don't they don't I'm around people with money all the time like people don't act You know, when you're in business and you're you know, I'm I deal that deal with c-suite people with organizations And you know the conversations that you're having when you're out at dinner and things like that Is about people going to lake tahoe or the mountain they climbed or whatever It's not it's not about they win it spend $600 on a t-shirt That's robbing you of life experiences. So, um, it's very interesting man Um, some of these things can we talk? Before we get out of here.

I want to I want to talk a little bit about your uh, your photography again Um, I'm curious where where maybe the desire to get into photography and you know with that With a feelment you get out of that, um that business, um, you know, so kind of a journey into it and then like, you know What's like being a photographer for you? Yep, so I fell into photography. I um, I said my background is in education I worked in higher ed for a few years Um as a student idea like a care pro doing like our orientation I read all that stuff and then end up pursuing that, um, in grad school and then working in higher ed for three years So when student development and being a committee director and things like that And so Photography happened because I was I worked at a art school I worked at the Savannah College of Art and Design as a residency director and one of the things that I said in undergrad was when I Get a big girl job. I'm gonna go buy a big girl camera.

I'm gonna get a real camera You know again me at 18 s before camera and then people you know, some of our young people now 18 ready to be on a yacht You know, the mentality was a little bit different Everyone is that we wanted to know that we couldn't afford to stuff that into but um, so I was at the school and one of our students Helped me find a camera to the photography major and I started to do it as stress relief And then I realized when I look back at my life, I always had my point shoot in college I was taking you know, the disposable cameras at the end of the school year like I actually enjoyed Um that I feel like I'm a I'm a split in half of a very technical kind of brain and a creative brain I don't I don't fall all the way over to one side Um, and so I started doing it for fun and then of course you do it for fun and people ask you to do it like how you want to go shoot my wedding? You do not want that, but uh, thank you for thinking so So And a old college friend asked me to do some work for them one was a wedding Um, but um from now I was like, oh, you know, I kind of do it some side I enjoy it and fast forward to I leave Detroit. I was working I ended up going to Detroit for a couple years working at Wayne state and then I moved back to Flint So I was like, I'll come home for six months figure out what I'm gonna do live off my savings for a little bit And then kind of get back out there. Um, because I felt like I was far away from my desire and goal to do Um, work with young people or you can use or work in trio programs or just I had a very specific like I know I'm called to work with young people You know, the older I get is always gonna be more working with young people, but um It didn't work out.

So I went home got a job end up getting a job at the case manager And I got to work with young people but then I got laid off and I was just tired I was like, I'm tired of working for people who don't really care about young people or who don't have the ability to To bring a vision of life and they wanted me to do some stuff to bolster like their youth program But they wouldn't really let me do the stuff and it's because of grant funding. They want to hit certain metrics Metrics and we can impact lives, but it was just that tussle. So once I that laid off I was like, I'm tired So I decided to go in the business for myself full time and at the time the purpose was going to funnel to be to funnel a portion of that money to youth stuff And I did that for a while, but it didn't quite work out and I just stayed doing photography Um, and it's kind of bloomed and blossomed in all of this so I'm self-taught Went to a conference and Detroit met some great mentors and a great group of people that helped me grow And here we are. I don't know that It's almost 10 years now seven eight nine years and something later and I found the guy doesn't waste anything like it's literally been this great blend of What I'm called to in ministry what I've learned as an educator I mean what I've learned administratively running programs to being a creative and also I like my life experience as a parent and so the young influencer saying it's really a combination of that and photography is really a Vehicle it was never like I really love this like people often are like, oh, you're so passionate about photography Not my passion and they're kind of confused like well, why are you doing it like why and I'm just like I enjoy it But my passion is young people my passion is being a springboard to being a sounding board for young people And so I do a lot of high school like senior photos and I do business brain and head shots and stuff But working with high school seniors is very meaningful because you know it's a important time in their life or them in their parents And so I'm able to enjoy I enjoy it, but it's all been leading up to kind of more of this other stuff If I didn't talk again in life, I'd be fine as long as I was out here helping these young people navigate life a little bit better But it's something dope in what you're saying though, um, and I love it and I don't even know that you're saying it on purpose But I think sometimes people um they can't see how their purpose um kind of applies to things that they don't necessarily like in life So it's like, you know, sometimes I'll be talking to young people that's you know, don't have a career yet and don't know what they want to do And they're like, you know, I'm looking for something I love or whatever and I'm like, well, you know, a lot of times What you love is wrapped inside and hidden and things you don't love, you know, and you find out like like for me You know inspiring guys people is my purpose.

I've worked in corporate America for 17 years now And kind of worked my way up climbing the corporate ladder Um, but what I found is when I was younger in my career, I thought there was no purpose in what I was doing at corporate Like I want to go and do music. I want to do this creative stuff And then what I ended up finding out was that a working through corporate America gave me opportunities to have real leadership jobs Because a lot of times we say things about ourselves I see a lot of people get on social media and they start talking as experts about things they haven't experienced And it's like the idea of being a leader and being a leader is totally different So God allowed me to be leadership roles You feel me like but God allowed me to be in these leadership roles in corporate America That then allowed me to apply the principles that I found in his word that when you talk about wanting to be a good leader Um, and then I started to be able to exercise these things in real life So now it's like this parallel path of being able to do things like this podcast where you know and go speak places at churches or whatever it may be But my job allows me real life daily in leadership to see If i'm to give me an opportunity to um to use the principles that I learned and try it because my goal I want to be a great leader. That's one of my goals I want to be a great leader and you can't just do that if nobody if you're not leading anything so You talk about how photography isn't your part isn't your passion But young people are but the don't think is that photography puts you in the presence of young people And so so someone out there I would tell them like do things try things right everything contributor right because then you will end up figuring out like oh I thought The corporate didn't mean I thought God wanted me to just go this route in ministry and leave corporate alone and then I realized i'm like If i'm being real the experiences i'm getting from corporate like Local ministry would have never been able to provide me in a real way, you know And so doing both of those things balances some things out and gives us some perspective so I just love that you said that it's not your passion, but it puts you in that purpose Um with young people that I called you to so that's pretty dope. Um and that makes me think about can add something to it Yeah, for sure.

Let's go ahead It makes me think about a couple people makes me think about Moses God said Moses to go and talk to the pharaoh Moses said I got I can't speak. I'm like you know, I'm not a public speaker. Let's not mean and God was like Go and he got mad. I'm gonna go.

Let me take this. Okay. You can go with you But like this wasn't something Moses would comment in it wasn't something that he was good at and ultimately he still had to choose to obey So they got to get the glory, but that was probably uncomfortable full of fear probably feel crazy You know and then you think about Daniel though who had great wisdom great intellect great great talent But he was they were in you know, they were in um I would say bondage, but they were they were captive They were captive in um a pagan society different than their beliefs and he was called to the highest places in government And you know in these places uncompromised But are we able to withstand that kind of testing or joseph having a vision in these dreams early would happen to be in jail Having to be you know, he was a great You know, you know, all these things like I think that one thing that has preserved me But that sometimes it made me feel like I'm missing out is that it's I've always had this this is this ideal of delay Gradification it's not about suffering and enduring just for the sake of suffering But it's that in time things will happen like I've seen God be God So even though this is taking a year or 10 years or 12 years Like I'm gonna trust that it's gonna happen And if it doesn't happen the way I want it or as quickly as I want it It's gonna work something out of me in college guy was like look at some of your favorite worship leaders How old are they I was like, I'm gonna kind of in the 30s Look I would be upset. I'm like Lord.

I know you called me to teach I know you call me to do these things in the kingdom How can you keep sitting me down? How come I see my friends doing this and doing that and doing that Or I'm getting all these deep heavy convictions about things and my mom My mom would tell me she was like, you know in the beginning She was like it's gonna feel bad because the word is showing you things or that or because you're choosing to To follow what the voice of the Lord is saying She said but in the end it's always going to work out to your benefit It's always gonna be better and I think that um, I've been very unsatisfied in a lot of my jobs and a lot of my work I've been unsatisfied in photography sometimes But I've endured long enough to see God let it all come together for something that's gonna be deeply fulfilling Not just because I need to be fulfilled but because he used it all and I was able to wait and he'll honor that and use it for And gory Because someone told me earlier or sometime last year like, you know, I can tell that you've been unfiltered something Somebody who don't know me, you know, sometimes we come to you never fake you look crazy But they were like feel me this coming and I was like and I appreciated that I'm holding on to that because I'm like most people think like oh you live in the field That's like you got a business you this you that I see you here You know, you're doing that by proximity and I like no like I've been doing this and enduring through this trying to figure out Growing in business and changing my mindset. I didn't want to be entrepreneur My parents were entrepreneurs I did on a business here in Flint for 25 plus years my brother's entrepreneur Just look just drop some speakers and throw that out there He just designed it Yeah, he designed it in a collaborative project. He's creative.

He has a business I don't want to I just want to have a business I want to be somebody's you pastor running around after the keys helping to support parents and kids in that way God shut that down every time and I didn't I'm like marketplace I was like I don't want to be in the marketplace trying to do ministry and here I am 15 years later Submitted and surrendered Doing something that I love in a way. I had no idea that I wouldn't chose it You know what though like you said some dope stuff like you preached a whole message I don't even know if you really really realize like you just preach and I'm gonna tell you what what really resonated with me is So I have it up on my phone. I've kept this up on my phone for the last week is the idea of a time horizon So, you know full transparency like when I was originally looking at this definition and thinking through this It was more around like investment in my investment strategies over the past years or whatever And one of the things you learn and like I try to look at the word of God first And then filter what I do in business investing those things so that lands of that right Versus just because otherwise you could just get caught up being money hungry greedy Opportunistic and all those things but what you talked about that that ability to have delayed gratification, right? So many of us struggle with that because we think what is today will always be but always tell people like if you go back to 1999 or two let's go 2000 I'm just trying to go to the time before the internet and social media really was what it is today, right?

Um, there's a lot of people almost anybody who was alive during that time and was you know 15 years old or whatever Let's say they had the opportunity to purchase apple stock as an example Like it was there amazon stock was there Netflix was there right? But if I would have came up to you in 2000 and said hey man, you know, there's this apple stock This is gonna be something in that moment you would not or amazon in that moment You wouldn't have been able to even take me serious you'd have been like what because because i'm too early Right sometimes we're too early and seeing what God is gonna do and when you're early you look crazy You're like what you're not looking for that for like what are you doing like because you're early But then if you're just patient enough to give it enough time to go by Then everybody else starts jumping on board and now actually from an investment standpoint when there is the biggest the greatest opportunity for gain Is once when you've been early and in people jump on so for me I look at that through the lens of a believer of like whatever God is doing in our lives today like we have to have um some type of um understanding of how time works and understanding where you are today is not where you always be and sometimes we make We make life change and decisions based on today As if this as if this good or bad is gonna always be your life and where it really helps us is for the good things Right things that are going good in my life It causes me to be grateful and understanding that there are some things that are going well that I don't want to take for granted That I think they're just gonna all i'm entitled to them going well But the things that i'm working through and challenged it was like hey It's not gonna always be this bad and keep going So to me it's understanding that and in the other part that you said it's really dope It made me think about it's the fact that like some of us are so concerned about what everybody thinks We can't go through the through the rough patches of our lives And this isn't important sometime the importance of turning a phone off getting off of social media and everything is because We don't allow each other to struggle because you know if I was if I was if people were seeing me struggle They might judge me. They might you know everything is funny everybody now I might be the mean the but of somebody's joke And I think we live in a society where so much pressure for perfection that the people who are struggling they're struggling It's silent because I don't tell nobody because like I got this many followers or you know We try to live up to the audience and things versus just being a person so yeah I got it from what you say Well, man, but that's life and I'm getting a lot from what you're saying because it's true Like how how have we created you know the literal title is influencer and so I'm like I'm like even adults We walk around like things don't influence us. We have like music don't influence what we desire like people don't influence us By nature like if we're spiritual beings like everything's gonna have some influence whether you are aware of it or not Whether you perceive it or not and so it's just like How how are we how are we turning to this society that's so front-facing that we're saying that we're being authentic But people really really like they don't know how and some of these people are doing stuff and content stuff and it's they're being authentic But they don't know them sales.

They don't have they're not established in their identity or at least in the basis of like a base of the character But it's I think that's it's crazy. I think that we are in a very diluted time And none of us are above being deceived like I don't say that from this heel top of like I can know I've been deceived before I've been thinking I've been doing one thing and it's not that or I've been deceived by people like and in the end Like it's that even the very like the very elect could be deceived like if the lord doesn't come in and kind of snatch us out So it's like we have to be humble enough to know that you know we when we miss our mark like We can be deceived but also know that like you don't have to live your life for these views and he likes and these people Especially if it's not the life that it's actually you like and we talked to our young people about that like this last session Like they can it till you make it like like what's up with that? Like why do you feel like you need to do that? Why are you lying online?

Who are you trying to impress like what? At the very least to get them thinking about these things so that hopefully as they grow in their lives Anything want to do content stuff that they can identify Okay, I'm doing this because I know if I do this it's going to cause this type of reaction And maybe they'll have a checkpoint in their mind and say that's not authentic or that's not that's not right or that's not do I'm just doing this because I want some people to laugh but it's somebody's detriment Like we want to be able to instill those checkpoints and that dissonance so that they can can navigate this stuff better because we see as adults We don't always navigate it will and if you add money and pressure and all this other stuff to it like They're gonna we gotta be able to combat that Any of us you said I love that you said that like any of us could fall victim of that like me included And I think that's what some people people mistaken when you talk about something that you're concerned about As if you think your exempt is like no I'm concerned for me for you for all of us that we're living in this society and we're just accepting and willingly living in a society Where we're gonna apply pressure to each other because we're all faking and we're trying to be something We're not with our content with whatever and even you know like we talked about like trying to live up to these status symbols And that's why with me where it's like what I've tried to do right and again I'm constantly observing and critiquing my own content to make sure I'm keeping the focus But what I've tried to do is focus more on the how to than the what and what I mean by that It's like there are so many people because I talk about you know finances and business a lot It's like what I'm trying to do in real time Is actually show people a playbook to escape poverty because I grew up in an around poverty and understand how damaging it is Spiritually physically financially in so many ways But what's crazy to me is that people don't want to hear it unless you're showing them something and I made a conscious decision Like I'm not here to show you a car a house I'm not here to show you anything if you're not gonna If you're not gonna appreciate substance and be attracted to substance then you're gonna miss what I'm trying to do Because then now I'm putting myself in this weird position Let's say as an example I start trying to like show people cars and say hey You should listen to inspire guys people because I was broken I got this kind of car And then it's like now what happened if I lose that car now my whole identity is wrapped up in when you see me or when I'm out I gotta be wearing this like I tell people all the time. No, you catch me in the grocery store I saw this dude the other day. I'm the reason I say what up because I get confused with do I know people in real life?

Because I don't forget faces. I saw this in the grocery store. We looked at each other. I was like that He probably thinking like I'll tell you I go to the grocery store looking like somebody crazy uncle like I throw away every jogging pins Whatever gymsus Oh man, I go out.

It's bad. I'm not gonna lie. It's bad. I'd be comfortable But my point with all of that is even with all of that it's like for me I'm like man, I'm sorry.

I'm not about to I'm not about to turn going to the grocery store or the car wash into like me Having to like get dressed for y'all if you're gonna judge me because I look told it today Then guess what that's just what it is and so I think we have to be comfortable We have to learn how to become more comfortable with who we really are and allow people to think and feel what they want to you know I've enjoyed this I was injured. Look, I want to I want to do a couple rapid fire before we get out of here and shout out to everybody in the comments I See you guys Couple rapid fire just quick, you know 30 seconds You I'm also trying to be respectful your time. I will be here all day dealing with me because I love talking through this So I want to actually a couple things just things I saw on your website and like things you said about yourself that were interesting to me, right? So the first one is stood out is you call yourself an ambiver Um, I never ever hear that's what I call myself whenever I'm introducing a new team at work or something That's on my slide.

A lot of people don't know what an ambivert is or why you would call yourself that so can you tell us a little bit about why you call yourself an ambivert? Most people who meet me think that I am an extrovert. I'm loud Probably get to be doing something silly. I'm very I'm serious.

I'm serious. Um, and so I think I naturally I probably had some introvert. I'm some extrovert tendencies, but I am Actually more of an introvert and so I charge I recharge myself. I like my own time.

I like quiet. I like stillness I don't need to be doing a lot. Um, and so what I found when I did like one of those personality tests that I really fell in the middle I was like 51% introvert and like 49% extrovert and what they call this an ambivert And so earlier I said that I'm really this split of like uh technical mind and creative I found in my life that I am often kind of not emotionally but uh in a lot of things very extreme I'm like all the way over here on this, but I'm also this and so um, I think that that tension though allows me to flow in and out of a lot of Stuff really will I love it. Yeah, I'm actually the same way believe it or not.

Um, ambivert for Almost identical reasons that you said Very creative person. I'll give you an example where sometimes it's challenging Um when I'm in the creative world and around my people who make music and things like that Those people are not technical at all. They don't like business at all and so it's like all creative and I'm like constantly sometimes talking to them like Hey, bro. You got to do a B and C or what about this part in your like I know we drop at albums or like we went in vest And it's like you need to get your credit together and then I go to the business world Yeah, like and like it's a balance and then I go to the business world and I'm like sometimes people lack so much creativity They're just all technical and I'm like It's so yeah, it's weird.

It could be a gift in a lot of ways because it allows you to navigate and it could be challenging sometimes because you Never actually feel 100% Aligned with the things that you are into in every group you could feel like a contribute. So interesting. Okay, next next Yeah, it is Um next rapid fire I want to ask you about this uh this idea that you want to spend the season of your life as a nomad Why do you want to do that and what do you want to do that and get out of that season of your life? I don't know that it'll ever happen.

I remember in college. I wanted to um To i'm gonna go back my mom was like great, but get your head head out of the sky But I was like later on I was like it's just some stuff that black people ain't seen yet and later on in life You realize it's some of the people out here doing this fine. She's like you ain't got no money Uh, you ain't ever been you know, she was like, you know, go traveling do stuff But you're gonna backpack across where and so I've always been kind of the hippie of my family in a sense like um And so for me I watch a lot of youtube channels of like people who live full time on the road maybe in a Spider-man or the traveling and for me I I think that that's cool and as a single person like that Ideal of like silence and that introverted part of me is like I get to enjoy a lot of different things and kind of take my life with me As I know so I think that's the biggest piece of it. Um, I don't know if I want to be crammed in a van with husband and And we're in it like this, but I like the idea of moving from place to place to see anything eating food because I love food and uh, you know Next one I was gonna ask about this idea that food Alright, so I got a question along those lines the end where where do you have a favorite restaurant whether it be you know I know you from flint you spent time in Detroit.

Where's uh somewhere that you like to eat or favorite food in general? So I suck at favorites so I don't really have a favorite restaurant, but I just like to eat like if we're gonna travel somewhere Some people I want to see the museums. I want to do what the people do I'm like looking up all the restaurants looking at the pictures trying to figure out what I want to eat So I um, yeah, I don't have any favorites. I love everything Indian food Thai food black folk food Mexican food like I um, I love to cook You know, so no favorites just feed me like okay Take a nap on the couch and then get up and talk about these stuff So food is really the love language got you well look if we get out of here Can you just tell the people where they can find you where they contact you if they want to get some photos if someone wants to learn About your youth program and follow that like telling where they can find you how to connect it All right.

So on social media my business is Alexandria cresil for total and that's also my website Alexandria cresil photo that I'm in there you'll find all of my High school seniors headshot and branding stuff. Um and also the youth program information is how's there as well the young influencers On online for the young influencers. I g is the period young influencers same on tiktok and also on facebook And then I pivoted my business because one of the things is I need to free up time to be able to do more with the young influencers And also kind of after my mom passed away. I just didn't feel like I had the capacity to do a lot of one-off stuff as I've pivoted to I'm a business called alongside multimedia agency and we are tackling a large-scale event in conference photo content video coverage We also offer headshot stations for conferences who want to kind of elevate what they provide their attendees to so we do we have a System where we can come in and do headshots rather quickly for large amounts of student I mean my attendees and also deliver that quickly so three different things and that's at alongside m a on instagram I mean alongside m a dot com for the website Does though what are just what are some big events that you've had the opportunity to work on?

I have been a part of TEDx Detroit for the last four or five years and that's always fun to get to meet people and speakers And um, I've done the speaker head shots there. Um, obviously anything I've done for my brother My brother, uh, had partnerships with the Detroit Chris pistons and um time to the time go or sorry if I get the wrong and he'd be at courts Here in flint where he designed and painted those courts and so I've been able to help capture some of that I'm sure there's other dope things that I've done places but I'm trying to think I've done stuff for footlocker I've done stuff for local brands and some national brands too, but I don't be keeping score enough to recall them But I'm grateful that I've had a lot of really cool opportunities. Uh, oh Brooklyn that's an immediate day for the Brooklyn that's a few years ago too. What a friend Um, that's cool.

Yeah, well, Alexandra, I could tell you man. This has been a joy for me. I definitely appreciate I'm inspired by what you're doing in the community inspired by your faith your tenacity Your focus on young people. Um, keep going man.

Like one thing I will say is we need more people like you in a body of Christ doing it in this authentic way, right? This is just I just resonate with and I've appreciated for a long time from afar and was looking forward to having a conversation with you on inspire guys people And it was definitely well worth it to me. So, uh, please do stay in touch. You know, don't ever hesitate to reach out to me Please community inspire guys people community check out Alexandria and the work that she's doing keep her in your prayers and all that good stuff And y'all have an amazing day I'm gonna tell you thank you though.

Let me tell you thank you first because I'm Thank you to you and I'm inspired by you because I don't know how many people probably if they knew or if they true But you can drop a nugget. I'll be reposting and copying and pacing your stuff everywhere So I'm grateful that um, you you felt, you know, that I would be a good person to come here and I've enjoyed our conversation and I also appreciate real people So I just want to say thank you, um, and that you're dope also. So you got let me thank you too before we got off That's what's up. I appreciate you and much loved everybody in the comments y'all stay connected You'll see this interview and then the daily you'll see a lot of stuff chopped up There's a lot of good things said today.

So we drop daily inspiration at inspire guys people on youtube Uh, continue to grow that and you can always find us on apple podcast spotify all those things always tell people Look if you enjoy the content of this show the first four years of inspire guys people happened on audio before I went to video podcast And so there's about 160 episodes of audio inspire guys people on apple podcast I've interviewed some amazing people CEOs of banks. We had my cell Jordan on one time We had all kind of people that I've interviewed and talked to on audio. So so, um, yeah check that out And hopefully you'll be blessed the other thing about that is that's where I spent a lot of time talking through the foundation of the show Especially because I tap to uh, tap into the business world a lot and I talk about investing and money and some people You know, they hear those type of things and they can lose track of the fact that this has happened through the lens of the bible So I spent about a hundred and something episodes making sure people understand this was about the bible Talking about why I talk about money and those type of things So if you ever kind of question it like what did you main owner something like that? I advise you to check out inspire guys people when apple podcast and spotify anywhere else where you can listen podcast Alexandra, this has been amazing listeners y'all be blessed staying in touch all that good