This debut episode breaks down my path from the streets to entrepreneurship. I talk about the early risks, lessons learned, and what pushed me to step into the business world. No shortcuts, no overnight success — just real growth and real grind.
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Website: www.welegitclothing.com
Facebook: Markee Carter/ We Legit Clothing
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Welcome to the Wheel Legit podcast.
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I'm your host Marquee Carter and we're going to get into the
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first episode. The first episode is a little
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background myself on how I got into the business world.
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I graduated high school at 18 years old, but year prior to
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that I had a good friend and high school named David.
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Me and him wanted to start a music label, I can't recall the
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name of the label that we want to start but me and him had
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plans to be like. Which is crazy to say right now
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but at that time P Diddy was everything as an entrepreneur.
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Time part goes on Charles and tribulations on both parts.
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He got moved away. I did too also.
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So that dream kinda vanished next following year.
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Senior in high school had no focus or anything but my first
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business venture at that time was I wanted to own a laundry
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mat. But if the Internet not too much
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education, no thought process into it.
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It kind of just slipped my mind for years and years and years.
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So the idea just came and went. I had in the back of my mind but
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just came and went. So Fast forward, finished high
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school, took a couple trade classes, learned a variety of
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different things in different industries.
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Graduated college and I was in my career field and I put in for
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a promotion after about two years, I believe, and I didn't
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get the promotion. I wasn't bitter, I wasn't upset.
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So Nipsey had passed a little after I didn't get the
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promotion. And this is when I was working
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for the state of Tennessee and I overheard little miniseries and
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interviews and documentaries that they had on.
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And he had mentioned that how he got into the business world was
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selling shirts. I was like, hmm, that couldn't
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be too hard to get into. So I decided to do research off
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Google, come up with little designs and like, you know what,
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I can do this. So I was coming up with a name
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and I couldn't really think of anything that was catchy.
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So when I came up was we legit? How I come up with the name?
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It was something common used growing up and I noticed as I
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got older when when a brother have a business say hey man, I
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got this business going on and the first thing on my axis is
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legit. So that's what popped in my
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head. So that's what I saw the name
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came about. So I came up with the name, came
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up with 1 logo, sat on it for a while and worked on it here and
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there. 2021 comes around. I left Tennessee, came to
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Dallas, TX, started a new venture.
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The girl I was dating at the time said, hey, you got an
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interesting concept, you should look and getting it, getting it
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LLC. I didn't know what the LOC was,
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seen it, but didn't really have too much education on what it
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was. So I did my research on it for
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the state of Texas. I did everything, everything,
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checked out, did research. A relative of hers made two
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designs for me. I paid for them and I was ready
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to launch and when I launched I had got the name.
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So I paid for the name 1st through the state of tennis,
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state of Texas to make sure that no one has the name sat on it.
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About a week, August of 2021, it checked out that no one had the
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name and I came up with We Legit LFC in August 2021.
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Then once I got my LOC, I sat on it still worked on it still
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worked on the craft to figure on how to actually press your
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shirt, how to press a hoodie, how to do a lot of different
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things. So that took time and effort.
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So when 2022 came around, working lots of working a little
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business, but just not ready to launch yet 'cause I just didn't
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feel comfortable yet. So as time goes on, time goes
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on. I launched it May 2023 and the
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reason why it took so long is my energy wasn't right, mine wasn't
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right. Lot of distractions and a lot of
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applications that to tend to at this time.
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I had the equipment, the equipment was taken so I had to
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start from scratch and just go around.
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I learned that when you start something that is business
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related, it's always best to do it the best way you can on your
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own before you outsource or reach out to someone to help
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you. Because if you can't do it on
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your own, your confidence level will always be questionable.
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But if you do it with someone else, you have somebody else to
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lean on. And when you lean on somebody
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else, then that's where there's gonna be issues between who
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started what, who did what, back and forth, lawsuits, whole lot
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of, I won't say controversy, but a lot of back and forth on who
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does what, who was what, and on how it came about.
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Me. I took the route of doing
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everything on my own, establish it and make sure everything was
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right. So as May 23rd came around, I
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started up the website welegit.com, I open up a
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business Facebook account, open up a business Instagram account,
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and I officially started a Tiktok account, launched
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everything at one time, posting stuff, showing testers of the
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website to people, people saying oh this is really good, you got
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something. Oh, OK, doing something off the
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RIP. I'm thinking I'll make a bunch
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of sales, 'cause I know so many people and all this other stuff,
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none of that happened. The first six months to a year
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was the toughest when starting out as an entrepreneur because
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you don't know what's gonna happen.
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You don't know if you're doing it right.
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You don't know if people looking at it, you know, it's just like
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a whole lot of unknown and uncertainty, uncertainty that is
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happening at this moment. The once you make it past that
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first year, it gets easy. Trust and believe it gets easy.
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My first year wasn't my worst year.
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I took it lost business wise. I was learning as I go, no
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schooling or anything like that. 2024 comes around, 2024 come
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around, I'm season. I got a whole lot more designs,
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marketing is growing, we're getting better on making reels,
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posting all kind of stuff. 2024 turned out to be my best year in
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the business world. Reason being, the year I grossed
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more than I spent end up having an article written about me from
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the Nashville voyage. Shout out to them if it wasn't
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for them. I want to got national and
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worldwide exposure and in April that was my biggest sales of
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April 2024. Popularity grew and being well
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known in Dallas, TX and then transitioning late 2023 to
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Nashville, TN still kept everything intact, still
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promoted and still was working as in 2024.
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Instead of marking my brand name designs, I start got into the
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vinyl work. When I start doing a vinyl, it
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took me to a whole another direction.
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Now I'm able to create all kind of different things.
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None of the birthday shirts, graduation shirts, name it.
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I did it and it was a very lucrative year, gaining exposure
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little by little, making money, getting exposed due to the
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article and check that article out at nashvillevoyage.com.
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You can type my name, Marquis Carter or wee legit clothing.
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It'll pop right up. 2024 taught me how to stay consistent, work
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on your craft, promote no matter what, wherever you go, and
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somebody's always watching. Coming into 2025, very well
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seasoned, sales coming in, very lucrative.
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I'm being looked at on a consistent basis.
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I end up having three more magazine articles written on me.
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I'm currently in the process of having more articles written on
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me. I have a big support crew, not
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so much fans, but I got a big circle.
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The friends are supporting me, some out in the open, some in
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the background, major family support and it's just overall
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just growth and it led to me starting this podcast.
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This will conclude the first episode that We Legit and what's
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included for this podcast. Interviewing young entrepreneurs
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all across the United States and overseas, interviewing up and
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coming rappers, giving headlines in the business world, how
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things are going, giving education to the youth on how to
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go about starting the business if you don't want to go to
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school route and a variety of different things.
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Encouraging and everything because one thing about me We
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Legit is not just a brand, it's a lifestyle.
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And this will conclude the first episode.
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Peace and have a good day.