Still Building: Growing a Podcast and Building We Legit | Season 3 Finale

[00:00:00] Welcome to We Legit 16 Story & Hustle Podcast and I'm your host Markee Carter. This season we are going deeper. Real stories, real entrepreneurship, real struggles and the lessons behind the success. From Long Beach to Nashville and everywhere the hustle takes us. This is about the people who kept building when nobody was watching. This is We Legit 16. It's not just a brand. It's a lifestyle. Let's get into it.

[00:00:28] Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the We Legit 16 Story & Hustle Podcast. And as per usual, I'm your host Markee Carter. Now you done came to season three finale of the We Legit 16 Story & Hustle Podcast. Per usual, I like to give a shout out to everybody that listened, watched and was a guest for this season.

[00:00:54] To start the show off, I'm going to have to give out a whole lot of countries and spots, locations that listen to the podcast. Number one, United States. But after that, we got United Kingdom, Singapore, Austria, Brazil, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Ivory Coast, Italy, France, New Zealand, Spain, Ethiopia, and

[00:01:24] Pakistan. Pakistan. As far as the U.S., Arizona, Vermont, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Dallas, Houston, Texas, of course, Ohio, Atlanta, DeVille, Phoenix, and a variety of different spots.

[00:01:53] This season, we done gained a lot of different spots. This season, we done gained a whole lot more of a following. And it rose a lot of females listening to the podcast too. And per usual, I got to give a shout out to Michelle out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, giving her story and speaking her truth on what she had went through to get where she's at today. And Kate Assaraf.

[00:02:18] And Kate Assaraf. That contacted me personally through email to want to be on the podcast. So that was a good looking on both parts for me bringing her on and her coming to the platform because. Hey, it's growing. That's all I can say. For this season, it really surprised me. The audience that grew. The reach has grew.

[00:02:43] More females is watching and listening to the show has grown. It's just pure growth all the way around now. But the growth, I'm getting a whole lot more increase of people want to come on, share their stories, let them know how they hustled and came about and did a lot of variety, different things.

[00:03:05] Whether it was personal growth on what they learned on their own without starting a business, but just learning from their mistakes and teaching their next generation how to get things done and move accordingly to fix their generational curse. And you have some that was in certain career fields and something happened like a crash or the company went downhill.

[00:03:33] So they had to figure out a new model on how to get their what it is they're creating together. So you got that going on. So there's a whole lot more to come for season four. And I'm in the process of getting a studio so I can rent it out and do more in-person interviews. That's what's coming for season four. Also, I have a couple people that want to come on.

[00:03:59] I'm going to bring them on as co-hosts. I haven't spoken to them yet, but when they see or hear this video or audio, however they listen to the podcast, I'm going to be sending them the application for them to be a co-host so we can try the dynamic of me interacting with somebody else.

[00:04:18] Even though season three is purely Long Beach with a dash in Nashville, but I really want to give a shout out to my community, Long Beach, not just the east side, but all of it because we all family. We all want it might be differences among folks from way back when to all the way up to now.

[00:04:42] But at the end of the day, we all are kin and related and know one another in a roundabout way. So even though with that going on, I still want to give a shout out to the city because if it wasn't for y'all, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. And this is the piece right here. If you want one of these, just get in my DMs and we could talk a price.

[00:05:04] But shout out to the city. And of course, I really got to give a shout out to Nashville and Tennessee in general, because when Nipsey Hussle had died, I was in West Tennessee putting this all together. Not so much the podcast or the media company, but I was putting together the LLC, we legit ground level.

[00:05:28] But if I would have never had that time to myself, not focus on a relationship, which is me, the job and putting this together. I don't think I would have had that type of time to myself. Not so much loneliness, but more so a peace because Tennessee have a lot of areas where you can go and have peace. Mountains, lakes, all nice little rural areas.

[00:05:56] It's a really beautiful state once you get to travel outside of them cities. So Texas educated me on how to manage my business, even though I got paid taxes and quarterly taxes at that. But it gave me a structure on what to follow and how to stay productive and keep everything going.

[00:06:21] Then working in institutions with the youth and the adult system taught me how to manage employees and deal with people. So all that growth in life that I experienced from Long Beach all the way up to now got me to where how I built this company. So don't look at your current situation like, dang, this is all life has to offer and this is what it's going to be.

[00:06:48] Never think like that because you never know what the future has for you. So then getting back to Nashville, Nashville gave me opportunity. Since I came back to Tennessee from Dallas, I had about eight. I got about eight magazine interviews from Nashville Journey, Nashville Voyage, Canvas Rebel and Bold Journey.

[00:07:18] I've been started a podcast. I have a whole bunch of inquiries of people that want to come on and it gave me a chance to blossom and be seen in other areas. Atlanta was the first spot to really recognize my clothing brand. Nashville is one of the first spots to take a chance on interviewing me and introduce me to a whole lot of different things that I need to do.

[00:07:45] So without all that, this thing has grown. Way past to what I thought it was. So I want to appreciate the people that listen, follow and watch the podcast. Follow me on social media. Repost, like, comment, engage. Send me DMs on, hey man, it's a good thing that I'm doing and all that other stuff. I really appreciate that because it lets me know what I'm doing.

[00:08:13] And for season four, it's going to be totally different. So, and I appreciate everybody liking the short film that I'm putting together. I'm just piecing it by piece. But I got new equipment and I got some more stuff coming. And so I appreciate the people that like the trailer of the short film that I got going on. I appreciate Memphis for having all that new stuff that they're doing down there with the downtown construction.

[00:08:42] And, you know, they just, it's going to be nice when they're done with it though. But it was good to go to Memphis and go back to West Tennessee where all this originally started. It got my mind right and got me straight focused. It was beautiful skyline. If you've seen on that short film trailer, I got the pyramid. I got the bridge. So it was real good footage.

[00:09:06] So now with all that being said, I'm just appreciative of everything that came about. And thank y'all. And what to expect. My goals, my goals was just to produce content and keep the podcast going. But this season, I wanted to take it really back to where I'm from because I don't talk about it much.

[00:09:32] But I talked about it in Glimpse, but I didn't talk about it in detail, but you got a picture. So I'm from Long Beach. Yeah, it was trencherous. Yeah, it was a lot going on. But at the same time, it's like with Memphis, they have a lot going on. You still got people going to work. You got people going to school. You got people trying to prosper. You got people trying to maintain life the best way they can.

[00:09:57] Because even though a spot can have so much negativity going on, but there's still some good there. So you can never judge a spot on what they got going on. I used to do that a lot. But as I've grown older, I learned how to look at things in a positive and a negative aspect. Even though people focus on negative, but there's always some positive there, though. You just got to search for it and look for it.

[00:10:22] And with the positive, when you've been around negativity for so long, you can have people, you know what I'm saying, be stuck on the negativity part and not even just don't care about the positive because they've been so traumatized on negativity to where it's like, yo, there's some positive here, too. Everybody ain't bad. But I understand the circumstances on how people haven't really dealt with their trauma, haven't really learned themselves, haven't adjust. They always bounce from people to people.

[00:10:52] And I want to buy people to people. I'm not talking about get out of one relationship, go on another, hang around this group of friends. They don't work out. They don't really give themselves that time to themselves and readjust and see what is missing, see if they spend too much money around this crowd of people. Was this person even beneficial to be around you and your presence and stuff like that?

[00:11:13] So I wanted to, for this season, I wanted to put that out there to where it's like, when you go to school, when you move in different environments, a lot of things change. So when people, I hear people that go to different areas, they always be like, oh, well, it's just like where I'm from. But when you leave somewhere, you shouldn't try to find the same thing that you left previously.

[00:11:38] You should be trying to change, motivate and learn how to do new things to build yourself up. Because it's like the same piece of paper that was in Atlanta. And you're not changing it on that whole journey, wherever that sheet of paper go. When you go to like Paris, Tennessee or Knoxville, Louisville, Kentucky. If you didn't change that sheet of paper on the way there, it's going to be the same sheet of paper.

[00:12:06] You can't go place to place expecting something different when you're staying the same. So I wanted to put that out there. Then I wanted y'all to see 11th and Martin Luther King bedrock. That's how I look now. But back then, it was a spot where, as I said, there's a lot of activity going on. So a lot of youth, a lot of, I want to say a lot of stuff started there. But it was a large presence of negativity there.

[00:12:35] But the dudes from Watts out of Jordan Down Projects ventured in that area. When you go north to like 12th, there's some apartments right there. But that parking lot, it was a, it's a parking lot now, but it was a dirt field. Then it was like a juke joint and a barbecue spot. And no, a spot where older blacks would go play and kick it. That gas station to the left inside always been there. And now they put a laundromat there.

[00:13:01] So then when you go further up, it always been like abandoned buildings, apartments, Cal Rec, which is called McBride. Then a back end of Polly. Then you go into that car wash off 17th. Then the VIP is right there on PCH. So that is like that road right there. I don't know what it is. Even when I go to Long Beach, when I smash down that street, I didn't have a lot of memories there because I was a newborn. But it just gave me a good feeling when I smash down there and see all that.

[00:13:31] So you got to see bedrock. You got to see the new pictures of the drone footage and this new device that I got to where it gives me good camera footage. Like a movie camera. So it's a real good investment. So I'm working on getting some more pieces. But you're starting to see more of my production growing. And it's just overall growth.

[00:13:56] So what I put out for season three is pretty much what you guys have gotten and what I was trying to produce. Then what surprised me was that my guests. These are women. Beautiful women. Successful women. But as y'all seen and listened to their story, they started somewhere. They had a funk. They went to school. They worked. They had children.

[00:14:26] They had a partner. Some stayed. Some left. But at the end of the day, you see they were still determined to do what they need to do to sustain stability. So it's like there's no way that you can't be successful in your own way. You are the person that is stopping all this. Because when you look yourself in the mirror, you have to look at who you are thick and thin.

[00:14:56] You have to look at yourself 100%. You got to be honest with yourself. What is it that I'm doing? Now, you can't please everybody. That's always been a thing I've been trying to push through these three seasons. Can't please everybody. But if you got a good group of people that support you in everything that you need to do, keep them around because that's how LeBron James did it. He got the same group of guys that he was cool with in school.

[00:15:25] And then they built a nucleus. So now the people that he grew up with is pretty much his circle. So, yeah, there's other people. And when you go into different industries or whatever you mean, different people, but you got that core. When you have that core, you can't go wrong. When you have a core, you got somebody to record. So you got to pay nobody to record you. You got somebody to help you take pictures. You got somebody to help you doing this.

[00:15:52] That's why I help you do accounting and marketing and all the other stuff instead of just paying somebody to do it. And another thing that I'm seeing in Nashville, that it's a lot of talent here, but it's territorial on some aspect. Not a lot. It's not bad, but it's just something that is a lot of bridge, you know, that need to be, you know, closed in.

[00:16:22] And everybody should just build around, work, get to know one another. So it's like I'm on the outside looking in. So my perspective on things would be totally different, but I'm not in the thick of it. But I do like what I see with everybody having their own platforms and doing this and that. So with that going on, and this is a strong city of growth and a lot of business people.

[00:16:49] So it's like I see a lot of potential among us. So it's just that we slowly just got to get together. Same thing like where I'm from. Certain things just have to bypass and not make everything personal. If it's business, leave it as business. If it's personal, just leave it as personal. If you just can't work with one another, just let that be known. It ain't mess. Because I would like to work with a lot of different people in the Nashville area.

[00:17:19] But when I speak to some of them, it's like a, it's a certain vibe that I just always see. I don't speak on it, but I just feel it. So with that being said, it's per usual. You have people that's from here doing things the best way they can and all the other stuff. There's opportunity all the way around. So it all depends on what you want to do. That's all it is. It depends on what you want to do.

[00:17:47] So also, it's a more of a female presence for this season on the views, listens, and watch. So it's like women. I'm glad that Kate and Michelle came on here and told their stories and let it be known that you can do this. Whether you might have to outsource some aspects, but not all aspects.

[00:18:12] You can do the traditional route, word of mouth, no internet, things of that nature. But you got to do what works best for you. Now, you can have a job. There's nothing wrong with that. It has security, steady income, benefits, until you build whatever it is that you're building off the ground. And once you feel like you're comfortable and you maintain a certain status and spot, then you all do what you need to do.

[00:18:40] So then again, for this season, like I said in the beginning, all the different countries, all the different spots within the United States, this thing is really growing. I'm telling you, it's really growing. So for me, all this is 100% funded by me. 100% ownership, no loans, no nothing. I own all this stuff that you see in creating. Own it. So with me working a regular job, I record, edit.

[00:19:10] I work a lot of overtime. You know, a lot of sleepless nights. A lot of putting this together. Going throughout the parts of Nashville, filming, recording. And also, I have a video coming out of a Nashville artist. I've been putting clips out of it. It's going to be coming out. So I say within, it'll be coming soon, just say that. So if you're from the Nashville area and you want to be highlighted on a quick interview, let me know. Bang the DM.

[00:19:39] We can do something. And so that's coming out. I got footage out south, JCUC. I got drone footage of Edge Hill. Variety different spots in Nashville. Nashville, the soccer stadium, the Titan Stadium, downtown. So it's just overall growth. You know what I'm saying? And I cannot deny the fact that Nashville is country. It's country in some aspects.

[00:20:09] But they're still, when you run into a local from here, they got southern hospitality. They keep that true value of the south. But everybody's personality is different. You're not going to meet the same person. So don't look at it as, you know, there's nothing to do here. There's a lot to do here. You just got to find the right crowd of people to be around to attain what it is that you're trying to do.

[00:20:36] So with all that being said, what I learned in my proudest moments was I told, I still ain't tell everything about Long Beach, though. But I'm going to eventually got to put some stories together and put it out. But y'all got a glimpse of how it was growing up. A lot of people had Snoop, Dog Pound, Death Row, the whole gangster rap scene in the 90s.

[00:20:57] But to be in society and within that era, it's a lot of people that is not here due to decision making. Like, so you, but when I came in to play, I was in 88. A war cracked off in 89-90. Lasted, you can say, up to this year.

[00:21:21] So from then to now, one person, we'll just say, I ain't going to say his name, passed away. Then other people was involved. People went to jail, got juvenile life or took a joint suspension, wasn't involved, was involved, but they couldn't place him at the scene or whatever. So just say that when that situation cracked off, a lot of people went to jail and then it was just a split among Long Beach on the east side.

[00:21:52] So then you got to navigate, you know, what you wear and all that other stuff. So potential shootings, stabbings, dealing with women, you don't know if you're going to get backdoored and all stuff. So it's kind of like you got to be on, you got to be tense on whoever you're dealing with and how you move. So imagine being around folks that's in that lifestyle.

[00:22:22] Then you have someone that wants better, but they don't want to leave where they're from. So it's hard to leave a spot, even though all this is just dangerous and a lot of stuff going on. Long Beach is big, but it's small among the black community wise. So everybody know each other. So it's like it's not hard to go find the next person or whatever or this, that and a third. So it's like. What do I do?

[00:22:48] Do I take a chance to go somewhere else or do I stick it out and just just say I was out here or whatever? So. I will say that to say. That with current times, it's the same thing. The only difference is the Internet's involved. So you can do research and go. If you want to leave where you're from or you want to stick it out, you have that option on that phone or that device to figure out what it is you want to do or where you want to go. So.

[00:23:16] For my mom, she had no Internet, no recognition or nothing. She just moved. And figured out that she got there. Three kids. Me being oldest. So it's like as I got older. I look at certain things. It was OK. As a kid, I didn't understand it, but she was really looking out for us in the long run. So with me, I always travel back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

[00:23:46] So when I came to Tennessee, Tennessee was really like that spot I felt comfortable at. And it's a connection here with me because my great grandfather, Fred T. Carter, is one of the first black business owners of Nashville. And he was part of the community and everything. So I have a connection here. So I feel a connection here. More so. Not Long Beach, but outside of Long Beach, I feel more of a connection here than anything.

[00:24:15] But a lot of other spots I went to, I like, but I really have a special, you know, stay for Tennessee. And then to learn about the history of the family, the corridors and all this other stuff. And it's just like, wow. It's just magnificent. So my proudest moments was learning from what I learned being in Long Beach taught me to survive all the way up to this age I'm at now at 38. So it's like.

[00:24:43] There's always going to be difficult lessons on what you go through. It's just life. But if you're figuring out, learning new things, learning how to communicate better, knowing what you're going to tolerate, what you're not going to tolerate. That's all that matters. If you want to get into my change of subject, but if you want to get into a relationship with somebody. And not feeling you. You don't have to please that person to keep them around. Just treat it like how it is. Just do you go.

[00:25:13] If you want to communicate is on you, but you're not obligated to. And what I'm noticing is like a lot of people feel like they're obligated to something where there's nothing there. So a lot of people just got to learn how to just step away. So with all that being said. Recognize who you are as a person. Get yourself a journal. Write down things that you want to achieve and work on it little by little. Because all the stuff that I'm speaking doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. It takes time.

[00:25:43] And for season four, as I said earlier in this episode, get used to the in-person interviews within an actual area. I got some people in the music industry and military personnel, real estate. Someone had been in business out in Florida and somebody else. I can't remember who they are, but I got that email saved. So there's going to be some more.

[00:26:07] I think if everything goes the way I plan, it's going to be a whole lot more interviews than me speaking. So let me know in the comments. Would you want me to speak more or you wanted more guest orientated? So with all that, that's going to be season four. And I really appreciate everybody that, you know, supported. What is that? The hustle and the humbleness podcast. That right there.

[00:26:36] And watching, supporting, looking, engaging and everything. Because without y'all, this would never have grew the way it has. Shout out to Neighborhood Nip for having them interviews and really giving a blueprint on how to buy back the block. And also letting you know from his story that it can be done. So he started off selling shirts, same thing I did. But all this grew.

[00:27:07] You can start at one level, but you can elevate to something more. So you're going to be seeing me a whole lot more when I put these stories out. Be on the lookout for the first episode of Nashville Stories featuring artists out of Nashville. And after this episode, I'm going to put some pictures at the end to show y'all Long Beach.

[00:27:32] Not so much, I would say, the city or anything like that. But individuals, to me, that's part of this growth all the way around. So what else? So all that is good. Shout out to the USC Trojans. They did what they did against Ohio State. The Raiders showed out and the Lakers was looking magnificent.

[00:27:58] So I say that to say that, you know, stay solid, stay rooted, stay grounded. People that see changes in you, they're going to poke the bear because they want you to return back to who they want you to be. But that's the test. If you stay grounded and rooted, can't nobody do nothing to you. Nothing will phase you. And I say that to say, be on the lookout for season four. Stay solid.

[00:28:27] Stay legit. And as per usual, keep it legit. I'm out. Thank you for tuning into another episode of We Legit 1-6 Throwing Hustle Podcast. If you enjoyed the conversation, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify and all major audio platforms. Check us out at WeLegitClothing.com for the latest from We Legit.

[00:28:56] And follow us on social media at WeLegit1-6. Keep building. Keep hustling. And remember, it's not just a brand. It's a lifestyle. We Legit. See you next episode. We Legit.