And here we are again.

Jeff certainly has a way to inspire me continue sharpening my skill sets.

Speaking of that...I'm really glad that Jeff made this into a class as I applied for 1 of the 100 spots in KSwiss's "The Board" program and wanted to be privy to the information shared.

VIEW MY VIDEO APPLICATION HERE ------> OUR KSWISS VIDEO APPLICATION

Sadly, I didn't get any of the 100 positions chosen by KSwiss. I was bummed and surprised...even a friend of mine that works in sneaker design at KSwiss was surprised that I wasn't chosen!

Anyway, I'm constantly inspired by everything Jeff is involved in as he's a mentor of mine. Since the last class I took with Jeff, I've been busy "doing for self" instead of looking and waiting for someone to offer me a job that's stable.

I've been a sponsorship/branding & experimental marketing consultant for music festivals across the US for nearly 10 years now and have acquired a "Director" role as I aka "my brand" has done great work over the years that deservant of it.

I spoke at my high school a few months ago about what it is that I do for work. Along with my music festival work I am also a Sales Rep for a few apparel/accessories brands. I held their attention in the palms of my hands!!! Not to mention I gave out a pair of Nike Innevas and Air Tech Challenges to their classmates after me telling them to "impress me." If I didn't have their attention before I for sure had it then!

Last week I went back and spoke to an "Intro to Business" and "Entrepreneurship" class taught by the same teacher that was there when I was in high school. Crazy how I fought to get into that "honors only" class back then to be speaking to them 10 years later.

This time I bought a few good friends with me who they definitely needed to hear from. My homie Wayne who sat behind me all throughout high school that owns & manages one of the dopest boutiques in New Orleans named REFRESH and my homie Carl who does tour/road management for artists such as Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Solange just to name a few.

                                                            S  O  L  E  F  O  O  D

I started a non profit organization named SoleFood with the idea that it starts from the ground up. It's a lecture & lab series focusing on non traditional career choices and trades mainly in the creative and entertainment fields. Our target is high school juniors and seniors soon to transition into post diploma education.

The lecture series is self explanatory where each professional will host a speaking engagement highlighting what it is they do for work and the skillsets in which it takes to do so at a high/productive level. The lab part is where it gets really interesting where participants would get hands on experience where they apply the knowledge from the lecture that was taught. Lab topics include retail management, fashion wholesale & distribution, screen printing, photography, videography, apparel design, sneaker design, hat design, tour/road management, song writing plus more.

The ball is rolling and the momentum is very promising as I've received great feedback from everyone and more importantly the students.

All in all, I aim to expose to them what else is out there other than the traditional lawyer, doctor and accountant career choices that are constantly drilled into their heads. Often I look back and think about what 17/18 year old me was thinking...one thing's for sure was that being an accountant crunching numbers didn't sound exciting to me AT ALL haha.

More to come as I begin my first lecture in this class and to continue to develop this over the next few weeks.