 What's going on, it's your man, Kobe. Welcome to another episode of Visual Dash, why big of you guys tips on how to market your song, look at those numbers, boom. And now today I have a very special guest with me, my girl Portia Marie. How are you doing? Hi guys. I'm doing great. And as y'all can see, this is a little bit more of a podcast style interview. I only had one live live mic and I didn't feel like buying another one before this interview. So I was like, I got these two podcast mics. We'll make it work. So no. Yeah, man. But Portia is a friend of mine, a colleague, someone that I work out here, work with out here in Atlanta a lot. She's very invested in the scene out here and probably one of the, if not the hardest working woman I know. Say it. So I guess just before we really start to just dive into exactly what you do, I guess get them a backstory on, you know, how did you exactly get into the industry? How did you get to the space that you are now? Get them your backstory. Okay, guys, I'm going to try to give you a long story short. I am Portia Marie. I came to Atlanta September 17, 2014. And upon my arrival, I just knew like I didn't have no job. I had nowhere to live. Luckily, on the way, my homeboy was like, I got a couch or really a food time you could sleep on in the couch, put your clothes in. I said bed. So then I got here and I just figured it out. And so it really started with me interning. Well, before the internship, I started my own brain called the PM Effect. The PM Effect was a sports and entertainment outlet where I did like celebrity interviews. I did online, like blogging and things of that nature. And then it turned into me starting to intern at radio one, which is now urban one. I started interning and I started to come into the back scene of radio and I realized that I actually kind of like being behind the scenes, making the plays, understanding the logistics and things of that nature. And from there, still at the same time, I was still building my brand. I was still doing my red carpet interviews, my celebrity one-on-ones and things of that nature. And just so happened the following summer. I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with ears. He's signed to ear drummers. But ears, this was birthday bash. If you're familiar with birthday bash, it's one of the hottest concerts hosted here in Atlanta every summer by radio one or urban one now. And it was at the block party. Ears got up on them speakers. He just went, wow, the dude went crazy. What year was this? This was 2016. It was the summer of 2016. And ears just went bananas. And I was like, y'all, who is this kid? I was like, I got to interview him on the PM Effect. And so I just happened to be on the internet the following day. So that was like on a Saturday. The following day was a Sunday. I came across his photographer's page. I DMed him and I was like, yo, I'm trying to interview ears. Can you like connect me? He was like, here's the contact. So I reached out to management. They're like, we got set up a meeting. I'm like a meeting. I ain't never had to set up a meeting for no interview. And mind you, by this time I have interview DC on fly, B Simone, Ray Schrummer. I'm interviewing people at this point. So it's kind of like, well, an interview. So I ended up meeting with them. I ended up meeting with them. And we did a follow-up meeting the following day. The following day, it included another business partner there. So that was like, yo, you remind me of a female version of us. Why don't you join our media team for ear drummers? I was like, babe. So mind you, this is like days before BET. Mind you, I just met these guys. But I'm just like, listen, I'm trying to get my foot in the door. Ear drummers trying to give me a chance. By this time, I said, fuck the interview. I didn't even get the interview at this point. I didn't even get the interview. But I knew that was leaving for LA on that Thursday. And I was like, yo, I'm like, dang, I want to ask them. Can I go to LA with them? But how do I ask? I just met them. And something was just like, just ask. I was like, yo, can I go to LA? They'll say, what you trying to go for? I was like, I'm trying to network. I'm trying to just meet new people just getting endorsed that I've never been able to get in. And they was like, OK, cool. That Thursday morning was like 4 o'clock in the morning. And they moved me in flight for 8 o'clock that morning. So out of nowhere, I was in LA with ear drummers for the whole weekend kicking it. And mind you, I'm about like the only girl around besides their assistants at the time. And but nobody tried me the entire weekend. So I always commend them on that because it's very hard, first of all, trying to get your feet in the industry. But also, not only that, getting people to respect you, especially men, because this is a male-dominated industry. And so literally from that moment, with me being able to go to LA and lying as I am, they told me I was ear drummers PR. So whenever I introduced myself, I'm Poetry Marie. I'm ear drummers PR. I didn't know nothing about PR at that time. And from that moment, when we was in radio room, so for those that don't know what radio room is, it's like a room like this. And it's like a desk, literally side by side, just different radio stations sitting next to each other. And from the hottest artists to the low artists, you know, the up-and-coming artists, I can say low artists, but the up-and-coming artists were in the room. And I was walking around. And at this time, Day Day, it was just getting hot. He was just buzzing in Atlanta. And his manager stopped me and was like, yo, what do you do? I said, I'm ear drummers PR. They was like, I like to work with you when we get back to Atlanta. Can we set up a meeting? I was like, bet. So about two or three or four weeks went by, finally set up the meeting. Meeting went well. I still didn't get no work. I'm like, okay, what's up? And so finally I got my first task to go pick up tickets from DJ Holiday for a concert for Day Day. And then from that moment, that's when I actually started in the industry. And that's a long story, but it was just crazy how God worked and just to go back a few steps, before that moment happened, I actually wasn't even supposed to been working block party. Technically I wouldn't even been at block party, but I'm gonna tell you what got me there. My internship coordinator at the time, she was a hater, just gonna say it like that. She was a hater. She was hating on me and the other interns, two of us, two beautiful ladies, just knowing how to work out move through the radio station and just knowing how to get our yeses outside of those notes that most people get. And I was supposed to work actually, birthday bash, the big concert that night with like Future and Drake and all these other people, Gucci, whoever else that was performing that night. I was supposed to been working that night, but she hit me up days before I was like, oh, we're gonna switch you to the block party instead. Okay, big. You know, me sometimes I tell people, a lot of people say, man, you should have told her no, blah, blah, blah. I said, no, it's okay. I was like, God is gonna work it out and you know what? If I wasn't at the block party, I would never been trying to interview ears, I would never make ear drummers and I never would probably even have to experience that I have been able to witness as far as working with Day Day and even making my mark into the entertainment industry. So thank you, girl. So I guess it was, cause I was gonna bring it up, but so you were with Day Day right as he was coming up? Right, so when, this was right before Spindy came out. So it was like, it was like right there. So literally what you mean was hot. Like it was hot at that time. And so people knew of him. Well, this was the trick cause you never really knew who he was. It was almost like, you knew the song. So at this point the song was big, but Spindy was just now coming out and you didn't know that it was him. Cause I didn't know it was him. I didn't know Spindy was his record until I started working with him. And so it was like right when he started buzzing, like he was hot when I came onto the team, but he had like just got hot, hot. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so I guess what was, what was that whole process like of just, cause like you said, you came in early. So you were able to watch him go from minor buzz. Cause I remember at the time, what was the song you had up before Spindy? He had another single out before, right? Oh yeah, what you mean? Yeah, what you mean? So I remember what you mean was like more of a local head at the time and Spindy was the one that really took it all away. So what did that look like being on the inside of an operation, watching the artist go from buzzing to like the hit having the hits on. Well, like I said, he was, the song was hot at that time. So it was just dope to see him in his element and not only that, it was just dope to see his transition from what you mean to Spindy. Because like I said, I didn't know Spindy was his record until one day me, his manager was having a conversation and I said, he's like, yeah, we working this other record. I said, what record he got? He was like, you know, Spindy, that shit. I was like, what? That's his record? And he was like, yeah. I was like, that's crazy. How you in with the team to know this is him? Well, because you know, the thing was it didn't sound like him. It sounded very, very distinctive from what you mean. You know, what you mean is more like a dance record and then it's coming with that Spindy shit. It goes back kind of gangsta. So I didn't, I wasn't expecting that. You know, so it was kind of like shit. I know that was him, you know, and it literally had just started buzzing on the radio. So. Okay, okay. So let's get into more modern day. So what is your, most of your day-to-day consists of doing that? What exactly are you doing within the industry now? So what I do now, I call myself a brand strategist, entertainment strategist, even curator. So I basically work with different brands. Whatever I wanna create, I created with them. So from A3C, from Google, to Spindrilla, to Kcamp, to Rare Sounds, which is his label, to now Red Bull, which is coming up. But basically, I created my head what I would like to see and then I try to attach myself to a brand that I think is replicable for my brand and which would make the most sense. And I just create from there. So I do that, which most of the time it comes out to being an event, from being a brand strategist to now being an event curator, from one thought going to the next thought. And then also day-to-day management for independent artists by the name of Asoa Cartier. And then also DJ Chemp, who's also touring DJ with Lil Baby. You may all know him from his past when I'm working with Gucci Mane and he's now a producer. So that's like my day-to-day operations for my company. Okay, so sticking with the brand strategy side, so you just said something that's interesting. You said you create the vision first and then you find a brand that it fits with the most? Yeah, for the most part. So my creative process is a little different. I just create and I don't create with instruction or like, oh, you gotta be like this, you gotta be like that. No, I just create. And when I create, I'm like, okay, what makes the most sense? Or sometimes it might piggyback from me first thinking about a brand. I'm like, yo, I wanna work with Red Bull. What can I do with Red Bull that will be dope that I haven't seen them do or something they might have done but I can add a twist to it. So that's kinda how my creative process go. It might start with me thinking about the brand first and I'm like, what can I do that they haven't already done? Or I'll create something and I'm like, well, shoot, I can reach out to Google and see if they will be interested in this. So I don't have any stipulations to how I create. I just create. So, what's that about to ask? With, I guess, when you get the clients who come in with, let's say everyone gets those clients that come in like, this is what I want. Like, this is my vision for it. This is the kinds of things that we see, wanting to see executed. I guess speaking for people who want to get into a similar position for you, how important would you say flexibility around ideas like that? You have to be flexible to be honest. Luckily, any brand that you have seen me work with over the past two years or so, I've been able to do what I wanna do. There hasn't been a brand that told me, no, that don't make sense. No, we can't do that. No, don't do that. The only thing that might change is the budget. And you might have to, with that being said, then you have to compromise like, okay, instead of doing a step in repeat, maybe do a back drop on the projector or something like that, you know, a different way to save money. But it's never been an issue with me creating and the brand feeling like it doesn't make sense or fits their brand. Okay. Let's take it to more so, because a lot of people watching this, I'm sure there are some people that are watching this that are very interested in getting the same space that you are in. So let's say for the aspiring brand strategist or, you know, the person who's doing events in the community that wants to be able to do events for the Red Bulls and the K-Camps and those big brands, what advice would you give them to just start moving in that space? You know, it's so weird to be honest, to be in the space that I am in and to have the connections and relationships that I have with people. Because sometimes I don't think about what I'm doing. I don't even realize the relationships I have. And to be honest, as I see here now and think about it is mind blowing to know that I have a contact with Red Bull. I have a contact at Google. I have a contact at Spent Realah, SoundCloud, YouTube. Like it's crazy to know that I have these relationships. But everything started with me first, attending events and making myself be known. Anytime I introduce myself, hello, I'm Portia Marie. I never say Portia. Anybody in the world named can be Portia. Anybody can be Portia, but I'm Portia Marie and I make sure people remember that. And then if you forget my name, because you know, everybody ain't the greatest with names. But what I do is, and I feel like you forgot my name, I'll come and say, what's my name? What's my name? And you're Portia Marie. And then I leave and I come back, nice to meet you. What's your name again? What's my name? Like you gotta keep making people, you gotta make people remember you. That's another thing. You gotta make people, don't be overbearing towards like, oh my gosh, get out my face. But you have to make people remember you and you gotta stick to what it is. Don't feel like, oh, I don't want to say my first and middle name because people don't think I'm bougie or I'm too much. No, that's your name. I ain't made Portia Marie up, that's my name. So it's just like, it's something I feel indifferent about this old way, but that's my name. So I'm respectable, persistent. Yeah, it is. And that's all it is. And so I just say, get out there, be a part, be kind, be nice to people, speak, you know, everybody, you know, some people are socially awkward, but just say, hey, you don't even have to say too much. You don't have to hold a whole conversation. Just be like, hey, how you doing? I'm Portia, nice to meet you. What you do? Oh, babe, I do this. And then you just figure out ways to connect with each other. That's how a lot of my relationships build. I mean, one person, I tell them what I do. They tell me what they do. I may be able to connect them to somebody. They may be able to connect me to somebody else. And then that's how the circle just keep like building. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. So. Okay, so I'm glad you said that because what I was gonna bring up was, what? Me and just some of the other people we mutually know always talk about you is that it seems like a lot of the people you do business with, you're actually like friends with them on a daily basis. That's important. A lot of people, especially the industry, people funny acting, you know what I'm saying? A lot of people are funny acting. Some people will just socialize with you just for business, but a lot of people would rather have their relationship with you to the point where they can trust you. Cause a lot of people don't like to give out their contacts to YouTube or their contacts to Google or whoever, because there's like, listen, my name is now on the line. And if you go mess up my relationship, then it falls back on me. So it's very important to build relationships with people. You know, every time you hit them up, you don't have to always be about business. You don't always have to hit people up, you know, it's like, oh, what project are you working on next? We're like, what book are you reading? Or you wanna go grab something to eat? Or, oh, that hair color look nice. Like, who did your color girl? Like whatever. Like just try to figure out ways to build relationships outside of just business because it becomes very overwhelming because you gotta understand people are still human. And people are still human. They get tired of just doing business all the time. So you guys sometimes treat relationships, like relationships, even though you just met them, like they're your friends or family versus business partner. Yeah, like you said, everyone isn't trying to talk about business. Especially, I feel like especially here in Atlanta where it feels like 80% of the people here are doing business stuff or industry stuff. It's like, dang bro, I just got done with eight calls a day. Let's go get lunch and, yeah. Let's go get ice cream. Leave me alone. Okay, okay. So let's move it into a little bit of a different space because like you were saying earlier, a lot of your day-to-day is more a brand strategy for some of these major corporations, but then you also step back and you do a lot of the day-to-day brand strategy for your artists, Oscar Cartier and your DJ, right? So do you notice, is it similar trying to build the brand up of a corporation versus the building the brand up of an artist? Like are there things that you take away from brand building for companies that you apply to brand building for your artists? That's a good question. Actually, I don't think, so when it comes to the creative side of things, I just create period. So when it comes to my artists and when it comes to a corporation, I just create. And like I said, I don't do anything with stipulations. You know, if it's corporate America or if it's like urban, I still just create. And then I tell, I'll allow you to tell me when I have to dumb it down. But other than that, I'm going to be as big and as broad and as crazy and outrageous as I want to be until you tell me I have to dumb it down. So in retrospect, I guess it's kind of like one and the same. I treat them both equally the same from my artists to if I was going to take the same idea to a brand, to be honest, yeah. So it goes back to that kind of like current idea and then just putting it where it fits. Yeah, the thing is, this is the trick. Don't be scared to create as big as you want because it's Coca-Cola. And like, oh my gosh, I don't want to say this to Coca-Cola. Like no, say it to Coca-Cola and see what Coca-Cola say. And then if they don't like it, then let them dumb it down for you, but don't you dumb yourself down. You know, so I just say always be as big as you want to be, be as creative as you want to be. Of course, be respectful to the brand, but don't like dumb it down because oh my gosh, it's Coca-Cola. Or you know, treat Coca-Cola like it's cartoon network or whatever or adult swim, like treat it all the same. You know, so I just always say create big. So with them, with the artists who, I'm not trying to count their pockets, but I'm going to assume that on a majority of the time, in some places they don't have the same budgets that like YouTube or ATC would have. So how are you able to, or how are you in him? Because I'm assuming it's a partnership. Able to kind of like do those big ideas or think big within a rising artist budget. Okay, so independent artists, they don't have enough money like that. I'm just being real that I don't. They be penny pinching for real. But I will say, and at the wrong with that, you got to learn how to use your creative ability and your budget to make it make sense for you. So with that being said, for example, my artist, Astro Cartier, last year around November, December, I did a whole parade on Edgewood. It's a gorilla-style parade on Edgewood with less than, I pulled that off with less than $150 or $200 I think. Okay. Yeah, let me think, because U-Haul, they tried to play me. So at first it was supposed to be like $100 U-Haul buying the beginning for like $25 or something. And then the little shingles or whatever was like $15 or something on Amazon. And the generator was like $20 or something. The DJ was free. She had her own speaker. The dancers was free. They were my friends, cousins, randoms. They came out of nowhere, did it for free. They had their own outfit. The band, they ended up, I just treated everybody with a pizza. I spent like $150, $200. And we did a whole parade on Edgewood. And it's nothing you can take away from that moment because I didn't have no permit. Everybody flaked on me that Friday. We did this parade on a Monday. Everybody flaked on me that Friday. So I had to research on Instagram, find me a band. Just happened to come across this drummer and he just happened to have like six other pieces to the band that I needed. And then I just said to my cousin, she's like, I'll take off from work. I hit up my little sister. She said, I'll come. And then my homegirl just had two other dancers that I never even knew. They never rehearsed a day in their life together besides an hour before I came up with the routine. Like it was crazy. The U-Haul, literally that day, we didn't get the U-Hauls at five o'clock and the parade started at seven o'clock and we were supposed to have it by nine o'clock that morning. They sent us to four different U-Hauls. So it'd be like crazy stuff like that. You be going through so much and you're a panic. I'm like, oh my gosh, just forget this. We ain't gonna do this. But it worked out and got in our favor, you know, because I was persistent. I went tripping because money went to issue because it wasn't a 150, $200. And you know, people think you gotta have a thousand plus dollars to put on the parade. But we just went out there and did our thing and we had so much fun. And the idea is to treat everybody to pizza. You know, at the end of the day, it's like treat them to a piece of feed people. Like that always works. So like working with that type of budget, like we didn't have no budget, but we made the whole parade go on with just $150 to $200. Now, granted, if I would have had like a Red Bull plug or something, I could have did a lot more. But I did what I could with what I had. And so don't let the budget scare you either because you can be as creative as you wanna be. You just gotta have to write people around you. Yeah, somebody told me once that budget is always an excuse for lack of credit to them. It is, it is. That's a fact. That is a fact, because I do whatever I wanna do with zero budget. Zero dollars, we doing it. Okay, okay. So staying on the, staying on the artist side, or actually, no, I kinda wanna get off of that because when you first brought out to us as you were starting to manage a DJ, the first thing I thought was, hmm, what is that like? Like what, is it different between managing an artist that day and managing a DJ that day? Or is it all, is it all just like, they're personalizing it in there, so it's kinda the same. See, both of my clients are really chill, thank the Lord. They're real chill, but it is a lot easy. Well, I won't even necessarily say it's easier to manage a DJ. It can, it can be. See with him, my DJ, he's always booked because he's always in a row with a little baby, but I'm trying to work on things like in 2020 to get him like a residency in like Miami or something like that. Something they can bring in more money on the side just because, but sometimes it's hard to book him for things because like I say, he is on the road and it's just like, oh, I'm going, it's not stopped. The trick to it now is that he's a producer, so now I need to make an initiative to remind people that, okay, I also manage a producer outside of just him being a DJ. So it's like, now you need to work overtime so you can help it bring in more money so it can get the big placements like everybody else and have the celebration plaques and stuff like everybody else gets to do on Instagram. So it's technically easier to manage a DJ but then again, it's not as easy if they don't have a successful artist with their DJing for it. Then you have to go out and really try to find bookings for them so they can have money to survive every month, you know? Well, that's why I asked because I was looking at like managing a DJ where it's more service-based and you can get them booked for a gig a lot faster than you can get a small artist a paid show. Right, now that is true. Now it's way much easier to get a DJ before an artist, up-and-coming artist because like I said, it's easier. Like you say, it's a service so, but then you might have a bougie DJ to where, you know, they might not want to be booked like, cause my DJ like, I have to be very strategic about it too cause he don't want to be anywhere consistent. Like, you know that he gonna be here every Friday. He don't want nothing like that. So it's like, you gotta do strategic type of bookings. How you gonna get him a residence in if he doesn't know? Well, I guess if it's not, well I guess more so, say if it's not in Atlanta. Oh God, oh God. It's a little different. Yeah, so that's why I was like, let me try, you know, go out the market to like Miami, LA or something like that. Then it'll be different cause it's like, I hang out with about people in Atlanta pulling up on him, you know, type of thing. Does that help? Like, does the fact that he's Lil Baby's DJ, like have you seen that translate over to making it easier to move him in producer spaces? Well, I think for himself, like he has had relationships with people with these artists for years, even before now. So it's easier for him to be able to send over a BPAT to an artist versus me having to like figure out like who is their A&R because he already had a relationship. So it makes it, so that's why I say it depends on who you're working with. That makes it easier too, because when you're working with somebody like him, they already have relationships with these artists before they even blew up and stuff like that. It's just kind of like, oh, that's my homeboy. I'm just about to send him a BPAT and he gonna send it back to me. Back to the relationship. Yeah, back to the relationships. Okay, okay. So moving back to the brand strategy stuff, because like I said, I'm sure there are people who are watching this. I know there's a couple of people that reach out to me that do events and stuff. And the big thing that always comes up is everyone wants the sponsor for their event. Like everyone wants to be able to put an event together and say like, oh, cool, I had Red Bull there. I had X and Y there. So are there any actionable steps that someone with a solid event reputation could start doing today to start reaching out to sponsors? Like what advice would you give this one who wants to get people like that on that stuff? Well, I would say this. What you see these sponsors at, like if you see other events going on and you see that they're a sponsor or power by these brands, go to the events and try to meet the person. That's the first step, like how I built the relationship with my Google Connect, Ashley, my homeboy, close friend of mine, Ashley, he had his event with Google first. And then I'm actually, I didn't get to make it to his event because we had an event that same day. I'm like, dang, I'm not gonna be able to meet the dude from Google. So then someone else ended up having an event with Google and I just went to the event, found who I need to speak with. Ashley, I recognized who he was on Instagram first. So when I saw him in person, I know exactly who I need to speak with. And so when I saw him in person, I just knew what exactly to say. Like you need to have a plan too. A lot of people y'all go to people and you don't even have a plan. And then that automatically kind of makes the conversation go left because you don't even know what you're talking about. You don't even know what you want. And a lot of times what I do, I already have a deck created for what I want. So therefore you can't even tell me no. So my very first event, I already had the deck created. And I just... What's a deck for people that don't know? So a sponsorship deck is basically, and I'm gonna try to simplify it. It's like a slide show that details step by step what the event is, when, why, where. And it's just basically telling the person why you want to do the event, why they should be a part of the event, when will the event be, who will they cater to, what can you bring to the table, what would they get out of the sponsorship, and things of that nature. So that's to dumb it down for those that may not know what it is. But it is literally like creating a slide show or a presentation to tell somebody why they should come to this event and why is it important to you and how it can benefit them in the long run. So like a blueprint pretty much telling them like this is why it'd be beneficial. Yeah, this is why it's beneficial for you to be a part of this. Yeah, so yeah, and that's what I do. I just create decks and I present them to people, but I will go to those events with people who I want to connect with or bring that I want to connect with or whatever. And really before even that, you should start writing stuff down. Like in the top of the year, I was right now on different brands or people or creatives or whoever I want to work with and I manifest those things because like my red bullplunk, it came out of nowhere, literally out of nowhere, but I manifested early last year and I was able to build a relationship late last year and to now early this year, I'm able to create an event with them. So I say first, the first step is like, you just need to get out there and go to the events where you see the sponsors and figure out who to talk to, ask questions, ask anybody, ask the doorman, ask the secretary at the front desk, you know who Sonso is, like more likely they have to introduce themselves when they first enter that building. So those are the type of people you need to be paying attention to. The people you overlook, people you need to be paying attention to. Have you ever made a sponsorship connection just through code reaching out through social media or anything? Or just through any code reach out process? Like has it always been you had a? It was, I feel like for some reason I always just been in a relationship. And just so happened, like a lot of times my friends ended up in positions. Like a lot of the times these people didn't have these positions when I first met them. They probably was somewhere else doing something totally different. And then when the opportunity presented itself for them to be in a higher position, it even opened doors for me to have a connection inside their company at that time for me to expand and grow. So sometimes I think a lot of it just came from my relationships. And then I just looked up to have dope friends that ended up doing dope shit. So it's cool that you say that cause I remember, like I feel like everyone when they first started getting into industry we always try to reach out to people who are bigger than us, right? And they always say the same thing. They always like deal with your peers and it should have worked out. And then at first you're like, what are we talking about? My friend works at like FedEx. Like what are you talking about? But then in two years, you're a friend that wanted to be a DJ has been grounded in two years. None of that DJ for a bigger artist than they can if you put it into those positions. So would you, for someone that wants to get into this same space, would you advise them to put more of their energy into relationship building and maintenance? Or more into the like creative, like refined that creative approach to the way they put things together. That kind of can do both. You definitely wanna build the relationships. But also when you're doing a good job at something, people gonna start to recognize you. So we like, though people meet, when I created though people meet, so many people underestimated me, then opened up their doors for me when do nothing. When my mentor Jason ready to open up his doors to me at the ASCAP office, that's all I needed. Just give me a chance to see, just give me a chance to either succeed or fail on my own. But I don't need you to tell me that I'm a fail. Let me figure it out. You get what I'm saying. So the thing is for me, I just feel like it's better when you can just create and allow yourself to fail if you're gonna fail. But by the grace of God, I've just been able to go up and up from though people meet. A lot of people that I have relationships with now and people that are trying to do stuff for me on the back end and things of that nature came from them seeing the work. It didn't come from a relationship or anything. It was just like, yo, I saw what you did. That was dope. Like, oh my gosh, this was the best panel we came to at A3C. Like, oh my gosh, this and that, your workspace for itself. So outside of just building relationships, you also need to have a unique platform or brand, whatever it is that you're building that people can respect and grow with you as you're still building it. Because like right now, I don't know the answer to everything. Like people, I tell my team that all the time, like just because on the outside looking in, y'all think, oh my gosh, it's so great. Everything is this and everything is that. Y'all don't know what's going on. Y'all don't really know. Y'all let y'all see what y'all wanna see. Y'all know what y'all wanna know from. It worked, man. Still good to see. Yeah, we just make you believe what you wanna believe. But it'd be so much more to it than you could see. You know? And so I think it's just a good thing to do both. Like I said, just build through, build the relationship, but also be dope at what you do too. Because just because you had a relationship, don't mean you gon' have the opportunity to create and build with that person either. Like then just because it's your friend, don't mean she just follow through all the time either. That's not a rule. Yeah, I'm trying to take the approach that, because I have friends that are, for lack of better terms, are like bigger positions than I'm in the industry. I have friends that are like, for lack of better terms, like in lower positions I'm in the industry. And I've always looked at like, just wait, like if it's meant to happen, we'll work together. It's gon' happen regardless. And I still support you over there doing your thing. You know what I'm saying? And hopefully it works out. So let's pivot into dope people meet. So what exactly is a dope people meet for those who don't know? Dope people meet is where creatives meet. But now, seriously, dope people meet is where creatives meet. Dope people meet is an event curation platform where we create dope events on a monthly basis, is working with the different brands and different entities within the community around us and beyond. We are working on a national scale right now where we're doing these mini pop-up tours. That's what I call it. So it's like a mini pop-up tour going on. We started in New York in November and in February we are going to Charlotte and then we might be going to LA and then we might be going to Toronto then we might be going to, you never know. But it's definitely a space where creatives meet. And this, seriously, you come to a dope people meet event, you're guaranteed to meet another creative, another dope creative from an exec that you wish you could meet or somebody who's like, I would never get to meet them. I'd never get to touch them. Or artists you, I love him, I adore his music. You actually get to touch them, talk to them. Like I literally create these environments for you to meet people that you feel like you can physically touch or speak to. And but I put them right in the palm of your hands for free. Nine times out of 10, we have free events all the time. You're getting to meet these people for free, for free. Which is always important, right? It goes back to like the whole concept of like in order for you to really move, you gotta be around people who are at least mildly trying to take it seriously. No, for real. Yeah, I feel like that's a big part of it. So sticking with Dope People Meet. Cause I was there, like I watched Dope People Meet go from the room in the Aska office to some of the things that you're doing now. So what have been the bigger lessons that you've learned from building, building, it's like, it's been more like two years in the making now? Going on two years in the making? Going on two years in Jones and Jonah will be two years. What's the question? What are some things that you've learned from starting it then to getting to where it is now? The biggest lesson, wow. I have one that might be cause I remember the argument she was having with Jason that night, but I don't know if that's what you're saying. Tell me. Well, he was telling you to calm down, be patient and just that shit ain't gonna work, but do it again and figure it out. I was like, man, that's a pretty, I don't know if you don't want to hear it, but that's a pretty solid lesson I feel like. Yeah. So the biggest lesson is understanding, you do have to learn how to be patient, especially when you're working with a team of people that you're not paying. Not because you don't want to pay them, it's just because it's a brand new baby and you just don't have the funds to do so. Like the only funds that you may have is just to execute the event and that's it. And you have to remember to respect people's time and be patient with people when they're still trying to learn you because everybody don't know how to operate and maneuver around certain people. And me, I'm not the easiest person to work with, but I'm not the hardest person to work with either. I'm just very direct, but at the same time, I'm trying to get into space where I also try to like, everybody know I'm very blunt, but I try to also be careful with my words because I don't want to offend anybody that is giving their time to me, especially when I'm not paying them. But by the grace of God, I can say anybody that has worked with me over the past year, those that I wasn't able to pay in the very beginning months or a year or whatever however long it was, I have been able to pay every single person on my team at some point in time. So I feel very proud about that because they don't understand, like people think that people always want to just get free work, free work. Yes, free work is great. However, a lot of me want to pay my team. Like that's why I always say, somebody that's gonna walk inside of one of my events one day and place a million dollar check on the table and say here and walk away. And I don't say nothing to me. And that's the day I can literally take my team away from the nine to fives because it's hard to maneuver with people where, you know, you gotta consider the fact that they work in these nine to fives, they're tired as fuck and then they gotta deal with jump math too. Like it can become draining. So I've always had a goal since I started was to take away, take my team away from the nine to fives. And so for me, I think over the course of the year is trying to learn patience. But also one thing my grandmother taught me, one thing my grandmother always used to say, don't ever beg nobody for anything. So one thing about me, you come around me and you at life for a second, you wanna leave. I'm going to let you leave. No matter how much I love you, care for you, I will let you leave. I will not beg you to stay around my team, my company because I'm very protective of energies. I'm very particular about what energies we let in and around the space that I create in. So patience, patience is a key. Always. So how do you convince people and by people, I mean sometimes me to work for you for free? Cause these events take a lot of work. Like I said, being at some of these events also work in them for free. I've seen Washington, it's a shit ton of work. So what are you doing to convince them and us to continue doing this stuff for you for free? Cause that's one thing a lot of people reach out like we tell them like team building is so important. You can't execute these ideas yourself then. Like I don't have any money to pay somebody. This videographer wants $200, this marketer wants two racks. Like how are you convincing people or making it worth it for people to work for you for free? It's energy. For some God-given reason, people gravitate to me on one way or another out of nowhere. Like before this team I have now, I had a dope team before them. And there was some young students in college, they were, they was very, there's some go-getters. I love them. I love them so much, but got to a point where some of them became seniors in college and they were trying to graduate. And it's like Porsche, everything you asked me to do, I can't really do and focus on my work at the same time. So I ended up losing some people. But I still, like I said, you let people go, let them do what they gotta do. And then out of nowhere, see one thing about it, I never reach out to people. Nine times a day I'm not gonna reach out to you. I'll let you reach out to me because when you reach out to me you're more invested than when I reach out to you because it's like I'm trying to make you do something that you may or may not want to do at that time. But if you come to me, it's more likely something you're more interested in and something you're more willing to give your efforts and energy to. So honestly, it just so happened randomly how my teams even formed. And my team now, I made Sam, which is my business partner, or I called the COO of the company, the Chief Operating Officer for those that may not know who that is. But Sam, I actually, before I started out, people meet, I was trying to figure out me as a brand, Porsche Marie. And I was like, yo, you should manage me because he was able to tell me about myself and I was receptive to it. So I'm not very receptive to everybody. But one thing about Sam, I was able to be receptive to the things he was saying. So I started out with him, so supposedly managing me. And then he come and have a friend named Ducore that do. I'm gonna get my government out, bro. I'm gonna get my government out. Oh my God. What do people know you buy? I'm gonna get my government out, bro. It's color, bro. You out here throwing the government out. What you want me to say on here? Nah, it's cool. You're not excited. Keep going. Goodness gracious. So then I meet Mr. I don't know how you get last night. So then I meet Jacory, who I do play listing and things of that nature. I'm like, okay, that's dope. That's somebody cool to know because, shoot, I got an independent artist. I hate that. Then comes Glenn, who emails me, who's an accountant, but wants to work with us. And I'm just like, okay, we're gonna need an accountant right now because I can send the money. I'm flowing like this. It'll be, need somebody to count our dollars. Like I can count them two or three dollars. But we have an accountant and Sam thinking, he's over qualified. I'm like, no, he's not. Because the people meet is a multi-million dollar company. We may not have the millions in the bank right now, but we're gonna have it and we're gonna need somebody to count that at some point. So I bring Glenn on board. And but he also mentions that he's into artist management. Okay, I have an artist. I can always be everywhere, all the time because I would be the schedule too. Come help me manage my artists, you know, bet. Then I come and I had Morgan, who ended up becoming like an assistant, like a day-to-day person to me. They have Queen who love to do events. So she's helping with the logistics of the event. Then we have Reagan, who just wants to intern. She's really into modeling and things of that nature. But then she comes on and almost like an assistant too and learning how to do social media marketing and learning how to do influencer marketing and things of that nature. So just slowly but surely like the team formed itself and I didn't have to force it. It was just kind of like one of those things. I put everybody in the room one day. I was like, well, hey y'all, just the group chat. Hey y'all, let's meet. Hey y'all, let's talk about the next event. And then just from nothing came everything to me. Everything came. Like some of those people may not be with us now but the team's still solid. Like I still don't lack. I don't feel like I'm without or anything. I feel like still with some people that are not a part anymore, I still feel like we're solid. I still feel like we're solid. My cousin, whenever I need her to step in, she'll step in. So at the end of the day, I always have a team around me. So it's not the easiest thing but I will always say, let people gravitate to you, gravitate to you versus you go looking for them. And then they'll respect you a little bit more. And when you say, hey, I got no money to pay you, buy, feed you, people will respect that. Cause like, okay, she didn't just say, forget us. She at least like put some gas in my car or maybe she fed us some pizza. You know, it's not probably gonna, you know, last year for 10 hours to have you fooled for 10 hours. But it's like, okay, she cares enough to do something for me. And there's enough outside value. Cause we talk about it as like, if you want people to work for you for free or really little, you have to be bringing them value to something that they wanna do. Right. It has to make sense. It has to click in their mind and make sense for them to go like, okay, yeah, she can't pay me. I am doing 20 hours a week but she's put me in positions to talk to ex people or she's put me in a room a room that I may not normally have went to if I wasn't working these things. So I think a lot of it is important cause I even look at some of our operations, like a lot of people that are working with me, I was asking them first, like, what do you want out of the situation? Like, what do you feel like you're gonna get from doing this with us? And if it's something that I know I feel like realistically can come from it, then it's like, cool, I can make that happen for you. Then it's like, it's not. Then just give me a number, man. I'll figure out if I can pay you or not. Yeah. No, yeah. But that is real. But I'm glad you brought that up. That is another point to our operations that I am connecting them and putting them in rooms to meet people that they wish for themselves that they could meet someday and may actually build a relationship with and be real cool with them. And they'll just be like, dang, there's K-Count right there and he just cool as fuck. Like, you know, just be a little stuff like that where people be like, dang, like I wouldn't be here or you know, cause I don't look at all this stuff and be like, oh my gosh, so I'm still on the wrong. I'm like, okay, and I've been around so many people like it is what it is, but to somebody else that's working with me or you know, they be like, yo, this is amazing. Like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. So, you know, people be very grateful for the, you know, the environments I'm able to even put them in to for real. So. Yeah, thanks. You're welcome. Thanks. So I guess what's next? What do you have coming up? Is that anything particular that you want to plug or push people? No, we have a very cool audience, man. Yeah. We'll check it out. So I will be hosting my very first webinar, the PM webinar, how to build sponsorship dates. So many people try to figure out, what's the step to get a sponsor on board? How do I talk to them? What do you put in there? What is this? What is that? What is that blueprint you're talking about? This is the chance to get to learn how to create a sponsorship date that is significant enough to attract a potential sponsor. And let me say this too. Don't always think just because every time I pitch, I get sponsors. Sponsors are not that easy to get. It don't just come as easy as people think they do. So it's not like, oh, create the sponsorship date and tomorrow, yes, I got red bulls. Yes, I got Sprite. I got Coca-Cola. It don't work like that. But this is a great starting point to learn how to even get the attention of a potential sponsor. And then the following month, I will be teaching you how to pitch to the sponsor after you have the sponsorship date created. And also, on February 8th, we are doing Doe People Meet the Carolinas, a conversation with Arnold Taylor and Keen Carter, which is home of the Baby South Coast Music Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. So you guys, please stay tuned for that. Follow me at Portion Marie, P-O-R-C-H-I-A-M-A-R-I-E for ticket sales, you know. The chorus there, I'm too early, but get your tickets now because seats are for another. It was like my lead-out question was like, you know, tell them what to find you in there. Please. So yeah, you got it. So all the socials, Doe People Meet at Doe People Meet at Portion Marie. Yes, Doe People Meet at the PM firm at Portion Marie. Follow all of our brands and companies and help keep making us great. Okay, okay. Did you have any final thoughts on any last pieces of wisdom you wanna give? I will say in all that you do in whatever you want to do it. Don't let anything or anyone, no amount of money or anything discourage you from doing you. Do whatever you wanna do. I don't care the amount of any circumstance. Like, I've had zero dollars in my account on so many occasions that it never discouraged me. I always felt like I had a million dollars when I had zero dollars in my account. Don't ever let a dollar amount, don't ever let any words from anybody that's not doing what you're doing discourage you from doing anything. Do what you wanna do, dream as big as you want to and just be prosperous and manifest everything you ever want to do in life. I bet those are some dope words. But thank you again, Portia. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's been a long time into making. Other than that, if you feel like you learned anything, please like and share this video. Hit those post notifications as well as I wouldn't want you guys to miss anything. Once again, I am Kory. This has been my guest Portion Marie and I will see y'all next time. Thank you guys.