This is Episode 0 of the "Minding My Creative Business" podcast hosted by ShySpeaks and Ron "Ironic" Lee Jr. The hosts introduce themselves and share their backgrounds as artists and entrepreneurs. They express their passion for helping creatives understand the business side of their art and share their experiences in the industry. Ron talks about how he started coaching and mentoring other artists and decided to monetize his knowledge. Shy mentions her event center business and how it allows her to interact with various creative entrepreneurs. The hosts explain their goal of interviewing successful creatives who have turned their art into a thriving business. They aim to provide guidance, tips, and inspiration for creative entrepreneurs looking to monetize their talents and build a legacy.

What up everybody?

Welcome to the Minding My Creative Business podcast.

I am your host, ShySpeaks, and

I am your host Ron "Ironic" Lee Jr.

And we are.

Listen, seriously, seriously excited to be with you today.

This is episode zero.

I can't wait for episode 100, but we gotta start somewhere and I'm

happy to be starting with you.

So much love to you.

Yes, yes.

No, listen.

You guys are gonna be in for a treat.

You guys are gonna be in for a ride just as we help you along or your

creativepreneur journey, right?

So we had to start with zero just so we can kind of introduce ourselves, let

you know who we are, let you know why we are, and then what you can expect, right?

So let's get into it.

So once again, I'm Ron.

Ironic, Lee.

I am a longtime music producer.

I've been producing music for over 20 years.

,I've worked with.

Artists like Mahogany Jones, Corey Red, , a list of people.

But you know, I've been doing this music, music thing for a minute,

so that's kind of me and who I am.

Ms.

ShySpeaks let the world know, Who

you are, right?

So I am, uh, artistically known as ShySpeaks.

You can just call me shy.

I'm a hip hop and spoken world artist, a speaker, a host.

So I guess you could just say I'm an mc and I am an entrepreneur.

, I have shared the stage as an artist with everybody from.

Ludacris to Lecrae, right from Kiara shear to Bum B, right from

Rapsody to, uh, Jeezy, right?

So I have this unique ability to be able to be an inspirational artist.

So I get to be in the faith-based sector and in the mainstream sector.

Um, being able to be there as light.

My music is all like, everything is positivity and spirituality.

And so, um, Again, like Ron said, I've been doing this thing for a long

time and doing it for a long time.

What I began to discover over the years is what is my sweet spot?

Like how am I able to be able to share those, the stages with those people?

How am I able to be in, uh, plays and write scripts and do

voiceovers for companies and just all the things that I get to do?

Um, How am I able to do that?

I think it's because of how I operate my art as a business.

I'm gonna say it again.

It's how I operate my art as a business.

And so because of that, I, I found myself in what you would

consider, uh, high places, right?

I'm in high places.

And then also, um, I'm interacting on a very high professional level.

In fact, one of the last albums that I was featured on, everybody on the album.

It's an album with, I'll just say, uh, Zaytoven the producer and Lecrae

put out an album Who's the artist?

And they are both on, I believe Capital, capital Records, put

the LA- put the album out.

Everybody on the album was assigned artists except for myself, right?

So how do I get to be on the PO in positions like that?

And I think it's just when I have conversations with.

Artists like Craig, even artists that are aspiring and looking

up to me, they're always saying how I operate in a certain way.

And I think that I like for, I'm passionate, Ron.

I wanna make sure every creative knows how to operate their art as a business.

Yeah.

I call, you said, so you are recording artist.

I'm a music producer, but we not just limited to recording

artists and music producers.

Right.

We really focus on those who identify as creative.

Cause like you said, we've been doing this for a while and I said,

my thing is I've worked with a lot of artists over the years, right, over

my, my two decades of doing this.

And that's one of the constant things is they did not understand their,

their, their business of their artistry.

Whether I worked with a photographer or whether I worked

with a videographer, right?

Or whether I worked with a recording artist or other producers, they

didn't understand the business side of their creativity.

And I always found myself.

Coaching and teaching about business because I, I knew a little bit, man.

Now listen, I'm not gonna say I knew a lot of bit, I knew a little bit.

I went to, I went to school for business management.

You know what I'm saying?

For, for a short state of town.

Hold on right quick.

I forgot to tell him that.

Right.

I went to school for business as well.

I actually went to school for business, for business admin administration,

and then I got a master's in supply chain management, uh, MBA with

an emphasis on entrepreneurship.

So, yeah, credentials.

Go ahead, Rhonda.

No, no.

Listen.

That, that, that's, that's huge.

Cause once again, we're letting you know who we are and why

we're so passionate about this

Minding My Creative Business

podcast.

Right.

So my thing was, once again, I was always coaching and teaching

and mentoring anyway, right?

2019 is when I did a pivot, right?

I took a young couple out to lunch.

I, I saw, I saw them online.

I'm like, yo, I'm, I'm feeling their music.

They like, they kind of dope, like, let me kind of reach out.

So I reached out to them just being me, right?

Um, and they said they learned more from me in that lunch that we had than

they had learned the entire five or six years that they've been doing music.

Just working with other people, managers and all these other people,

they learned more in that lunch.

So that kind of a light bulb kind of went on, like, hold on, wait a minute.

Like I could maybe monetize this.

Cause they walked away from the lunch wanting to pay me.

I was just taking them to lunch and I was just kind of just, once again, I'm,

I'm, I got a big brother spirit, right?

That's all I know is just to, to to, to help and to, you know,

share my information to knowledge.

But they was like, no, we wanna pay, like, you know, a workman is worth his wage.

So I'm like, Oh, oh on.

So I did a drastic pivot and I, , I developed my, , coaching business.

So that's one thing that I do now is I coach other creatives on how to

monetize their creativity and their gifts and their talents and whatnot.

And that's kind of how me and you, , connected.

Right, right, right.

We get off that a little bit later as well, was like, , how we connected and

then why that synergy was, was so strong.

We was like, yo, we gotta do, we

gotta do podcasts, we gotta do something.

So, We had, we started thinking about all the creatives that we know, like, and,

and another thing I will say is I'm newly, well this year I launched a event center.

Right.

But it's something that was been in the plan since the year before

where you launch it finally.

Right.

So I, uh, own or co-own abide event space, and we work with a

lot of, uh, creative entrepreneurs.

Right.

Because you got, you have.

Caterers to me, they're culinary artists.

Right?

Then you have event designers or decorators, right?

So they're coming in, they're doing some type of thing with their, uh, flowers or.

Know they're doing some type of creative design of florist, right?

We're working with people who are know how to create these arches and balloon arches

and backdrops and all that kind of stuff.

So that's creatives who are getting paid.

They're in business.

So because of the event space industry, I still feel like, yes, I'm a artist,

but I'm also an entrepreneur and I'm in a space that kind of continuously

allows me to be around all these artists and so, or all these creatives, right?

And so, man, it is just like, I meet 'em all the time and I'm so amazed by so

many of them who are doing well, they're killing it like they're excelling.

They've been able to turn it to, from a part-time job into a full-time job and

from a full-time job even into an empire.

And that's actually who we wanna interview.

We wanna interview the people, um, who are going to.

I mean, who have made six, seven, or even eight figures.

So that is something that's like, okay, this is, this is, this is it.

Right?

This is what's up.

Because we meet them and then some of them just kind of shoot off.

And what we found is there is a, there's there, there's some threads

there, and we wanna make sure that other creatives that we come across

are able to be helped in this podcast allows them to take a deep dive.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

Exactly like you said.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

We listen on those that want.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

Take off, right?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

Because I, I, I've met creatives that they don't want to be creative entrepreneurs

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

and they don't wanna be entrepreneurs.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

And that's fine, right?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

Like, we get that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

But this is for the people that they say, listen, I have this

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

gift and I have this talent.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

I know I can monetize it and I know I can provide for myself, but not

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

just myself, but I wanna be able to provide for others as well.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

I wanna be, I wanna create legacy and all these other things.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

So yeah, this is for them.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

This is for people that, like I said, that have.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

That creative edge, but they also understand like, okay, it's some

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

other things that I gotta do because me just being creative isn't taking

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.:

me where I want to go in my career or

an entrepreneur.

Hey they have that creative edge and that what entrepreneurial spirit.

Right?

Exactly.

So, so we gonna take you.

Let, let's, let's talk about what they can expect from the show, right?

So, okay.

So I kinda alluded to the fact that we know all these creatives

that we interact with, right?

In our own, um, respective industries, whether it's from a production

standpoint or from a media standpoint, or for run or from me being an

artist and just kind of like event promoters and all those kind of people.

But also, um, even with the other businesses.

So it, it goes from there.

So, right.

We're meeting all these creatives.

We know all these creatives.

We're, we're actually, if you're part of you're here is because we

interacted with you in some type of way.

Right.

But there are some people who we know and some who we may not know

personally, but we, we have been able to get a taste of the fact that they,

they over here making like, Baby.

They're over here making not just income.

Some of 'em are making amazing impact and yeah.

So let, let's, let's talk about that.

If you are here, you're like, okay, I get it.

I see you shy.

You know, you run, we know, we understand why y'all are passionate about it, but

what can I expect from this podcast?

If that's your question, let's get into that.

Yeah.

So

what we wanna do is we want to go like behind

the veil, behind the scenes, right?

Cause you know, me and s Sha was talking earlier and we were just saying how

a lot of times people present to you on the front end of things, right?

They present to you what you can see, but it's like an iceberg, right?

So we see the tip of the iceberg, but if you look underneath that water, right,

it's a lot bigger than what you can see.

And it's the same thing from the business side.

It's a lot.

Bigger and it's a lot more that goes on behind the scenes.

So we wanna bring that behind the scenes to the forefront so that

once again, if you are just starting out, you can know what to expect.

If you have been doing it for a little while, maybe you'll get some

information or some ideas that you can add, implement within your business

that can help you to scale and grow or to just put some systems in place.

And I ain't gonna get too much systems cause.

Right.

Um, but I'm big on strategy, so being able to hear some of these

people and what were the strategies that they put in place to launch?

What were the strategies that they put in place to scale, to grow?

What were the strategies that they put in place to properly and effectively

brand and marketing, all those type things, so Right, that we can talk

about.

So I wanna go right there for a little bit before we kind of conclude episode one.

You talked about.

You're not gonna get in my lane cuz I'm systems and strategy.

Earlier I just said that, you know, I started realizing I operate my art as

a business, but for me what I zone in on is systems and structure and Right.

And as I was talking to Ron and when we first connected, it was like, bro,

you big on branding and strategy.

And so I wanna talk about that too, because I want you to understand that on

this podcast every time you listen to it.

You are going to get, you can expect to get some type of information about

maybe, um, implementing a system that you don't have or fine tuning your

system or some type of tool, right, that I'm aware of, that I know how to use.

That helps integrate into your business to make things more automated or streamlined.

Right?

How to add structure, not just like a setting up the L L C.

That's a, that's a foundation.

We talking about structure around your.

You're, you're a creative business, right?

So we're gonna get into it in future episodes, but that's

kind of what I wanna get into.

Ron, tell 'em about what you wanna give 'em, what they can, can expect from you,

from the brand and the marketing side.

Well, yes,

once again, like understanding that how you

present yourself in the market.

Matters.

Right?

A lot of times people think that branding is the, the logo, like the visual

thing, and that is a part of it, right?

When you think of mc, acknowledge, you think of golden arches and things like

that, but there's also the way that they deliver their product and service,

that's a part of their branding, right?

The experience that the customer has, that's a part of their branding, how

the customer thinks and feels when they see or hear your name, that's

a part of your branding, right?

So, To be able to talk to other creators and how, how they were able to put

those things in place, how they approach those things and how they continue

to implement them in their business.

It's gonna be key.

It's gonna be huge, right.

So that's definitely some of the things that I'm looking forward to,

to be able to talk to them about.

Um, so yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, man.

Real quick, I just wanna say this like, okay, so when you talk about

how, cause we talked about it from a, from a overview and people are like,

okay, I just wanna make it clear, like, um, here we have, I live in Texas.

Um, I'm, I'm currently reside in Dallas, Texas.

Run.

You wanna give 'em where you from?

Listen,

I'm from the one and only Detroit, Michigan.

What a dope

think Verdict is still out on who's the Big

D, but we gone just know them.

If you on here with us, you getting both of those.

Right, right.

But this is what I wanna say here in, in Texas, and I seen

it in some other states as well.

There's a razu and then there's a papa do right.

That is there, that's two different restaurants.

You talking about McDonald's and then there is Chick-fil-A, right?

No, no, no.

There's Chick-fil-A and then there's like, uh, Popeye's, right?

You get two totally different experiences, local chicken, but

the experience is different.

Right?

There, there, there, there's a whole lot different, but when you

talk about, so branding wise, you have okay, one that's more like.

Popeye's is kind of like Louisiana style, kind of like flavor, you know, they

kind of seem like they lean into that, that ambiance or that that aesthetic.

Right.

But Chick-fil-A kind of leans into like almost like a corporate.

How would you describe it?

Let me give it to

' Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: em.

Well, yeah, no, I mean, definitely like you said, that you can tell that they

have two different audiences, right?

Where they're there.

Once again, we gotta talk about this too, where we like the importance of niching

down and knowing who you're talking to.

So where, like I said, you, ah, for the sake of this conversation, what I'll say

is Popeye's market is probably more of a urban market compared to Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A is more of a suburban now, just because their market

may be a suburban market.

It doesn't mean that a urban market does not partake in Chick-fil-A.

Just, and just because.

Popeye may be urban.

Doesn't mean that suburban market doesn't take, doesn't take part in in Popeye's.

Right.

But it's like, once again, they're speaking to a particular audience, right.

Based off of how they present themselves, based on what they communicate, based

on how they communicate, based on a lot of things when it comes to the brand.

Right?

Right.

And, and, and then there is strategy that goes behind that brand.

Right?

So, If I, if I'm Chick-fil-A, it is not just the, the, the land that

we occupy where it's metropolitan areas or suburbs, but it's also I.

Somebody who's looking for a flavorful, quick experience and somebody who's

looking for a healthy and wanna make themselves feel, you know,

like they have a healthy experience.

And so you have to lean in that way.

I'm just telling you like you, you can unpack things and we're just

using those, those are not brands that are like creative, right?

So to speak.

Creative entrepreneurs that built that brand, unless we're talking

about the fact that they really are because they're culinary artists.

Who actually probably started the recipe for the restaurant, but we not gonna,

I'm not gonna blow your mind and be like, wait, are those creative entrepreneur?

Okay, we, we'll get into it later.

But then for me, I would look at it and say, when you go through the

line at Popeye's versus when you go through the line at Chick-fil-A, a

lot of times the line at Chick-fil-A is wrapped around the building.

Right?

And then Ch Chick-fil-A started this thing where they created the two lines, right?

To kind of keep it flowing.

That's a systematic.

Systematic approach.

So now they got the, the, the thing that comes over the head and it kind

of comes down like it's why, because we're trying to serve more people at

the same time and keep this line flowing and they, somebody had to sit down and

think about, okay, how do I do that?

So that's a, that's, that's where your systems and your

structure come into place.

I just want to kind of go into detail a little bit, but.

At the end of the day, like Ron was saying, if you're listening to this

podcast, you are going to have some tips and some of the best practices

from some of the most wildly successful entrepreneurs on how to get started or if

you're already started on how to actually.

Scale.

Right.

You got, you got anything else you wanna tell 'em?

Uh, what they can expect from this?

Yeah, I mean,

you, you can expect it from a creative's point of view.

Cause this is the thing, right?

There are other podcasts out there that are phenomenal when

it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to business, right?

I personally haven't seen any that are focusing solely on the creative

or the creative entrepreneur, right?

So keep in mind we.

Literally are speaking to those who identify as creators.

Cause once again, we, we think and process and do things a little differently, right?

So we approach this podcast knowing that, you know what I'm saying?

Right?

We listen, we may use some of the language, some of the, the business

language, but we also wanna scale it down to where No, we're speaking to.

You in your language story, you understand it.

Cause if I start talking about KPIs and ROIs and things like that, right?

The average creative may not understand those terms.

So we're gonna speak it to you in your language.

We, we'll teach you those terms because I think you do you, you

know, you need to know those terms.

But if you're just listening to somebody out the gate and they're using those

terms, you not gonna understand that.

And it may go over your head and then you may lose interest.

So we're.

In a way to where you can digest it and it benefits you, right?

So you gonna learn some business speak, but we're gonna speak

it to you from a creative's perspective.

And that's really important to say, because again, you, I mean, if I'm hearing

people and they're talking about, they're big in business, they're talking about

real estate or car sales and all that, and you're like, man, I'm a florist,

or you know, I do balloon arches or, or you know, I am like, I, I do have a

business, but I need to talk about how.

How to scale it up, but it's not the same as like selling houses.

Not the same as like, yeah, selling cars and stuff like that, or a

coffee shop or something like that.

It's kind of different with what I'm doing.

I'm a photographer.

Or I'm a videographer, how can I have a system?

Right?

What does structure look like for me?

I just got clients coming from every which away, and like, how do I like, or like

see, and it's like, well, their, their business is already built like that, so

the structure is built into the business.

But it's like, no, there, there's a way right for you to take that

videography and get some structure around it for you to take that.

Um, but even if it's like some type of.

Whatever it is, whatever your creative thing is, there is a way right to

dial it in brand wise, strategy wise, structure wise, system wise.

And so you are going to get that here and it's gonna be from that perspective and.

I'm gonna let you in on a secret.

Listen, when you listen to other creatives on other podcasts, cuz

you're like, man, I, I hear them.

They're, they're on other podcasts as well.

They're gonna talk about it from a general perspective.

We're gonna ask the type of questions that make them go further and

further and further into the back office that's saying, you know, we

gonna be in the file room, right?

We gonna, we, we gonna be in that file room, Rob, because you need to

know what's really, really going on.

I'm gonna add this, and this is the last benefit that I will highlight, and

I think it's the most important one.

Um, in conjunction with this Minding My Creative Business podcast, we have created

a creatives corner community, right?

So it's the community specifically for creatives to be able to network with one

another, find accountability together, and talk through these business ideas,

and even work through your business ideas from a creative perspective.

Again, you could have other friends and other entrepreneur endeavors.

Maybe they're in trucking, but that does not translate over into

owning a production agency, right?

Owning a videography agency.

So you gotta be able to talk about it, talk about it as in

entrepreneurship and business with other creatives in the creative's

Corner is a perfect place to do that.

What is the creative's corner, Ron?

What does it consist of?

So

we have a Facebook group.

Right where, so in that group we're going to be posting information, you'll have

access to the community, we'll be able to share information with each other.

So it's not just gonna be us.

We're curating everything though.

That's gonna be a part of it.

But no, you guys will be able to participate in that community as well and

share and connect and like, uh, so I was saying, oh, accountability and whatnot.

And then we have a newsletter.

What we're gonna send you on a regular basis to where we're giving you tips

and things that are practical, strategy, all those beautiful things that you

need, just keep you motivated on this.

Created new.

So we got a newsletter popping.

That you get just for being a part of the community and a private

Facebook group that you can network with people on in the Creativepren-.

So how, if they wanna go ahead and get joined up right now before we even move

on to episode number 1, 2, 3 to 100, how can they get signed up for that community?

So it's simple.

You just go to the mm c b podcast.com.

Once again, that's mm.

B.

podcast.com.

And if y'all didn't know, MMCB is this acronym for

Minding My Creative Business Yep.

Yep, yep, yep.

Well, listen, that's all you need to know for all your updates, you really

can head over to mmc b podcast.com.

Thank you so much for tuning in to episode number Zero.

Hopefully you're just as excited as we are about these guests that

we're about to be interviewing.

This information you're about to get.

Because listen, it is gonna be good.