Film Maker Andru Morgan, a Multifaceted Journey

Yes sir. Welcome back to the thorn city syndicate spotlight show where we network and build discussions to network and build connections to interviews and discussions. This episode is brought to you by GMP podcast group. I'm your host or city podcast guy. Make sure you visit WWW dot Thoran city syndicate.com. Hit that Like Share Subscribe button. Get the bonus episodes, exciting updates and new releases. Today I got another special guest in the spotlight. Mr. Andrew Morgan. How you doing brother?

06:04

I'm doing good man. How you doing today?

Naeem Hall: 06:06

I'm doing good man. I can play it on do you any good anyways,

06:09

it won't. It won't. I'm excited to be here, man. I'm excited to get into this man.

Naeem Hall: 06:13

I appreciate you coming through man. So today we're going to talk about your move to Portland. What brought you here? Yeah. And we're going to talk about automating Hatchie, where you're impacting the community, then we'll wrap it up and highlight the naturally beautiful project you got going on. Sounds good. Sounds good, man. So can you share your story on your move to Berlin how it influenced your personal and professional journey?

06:34

oddly, it was like in May of: 2015

is crazy. And at the time I did a podcast was about mental health. And one of the questions that my co host had asked, as we were challenging people to like, pursue their dreams was what would you do? if money wasn't an issue? Like, what would you do right now? A lot. And so I asked my wife that question, and she said, I guess I would do hair hair. Okay, so we had some money saved enough to probably pay rent for a year. And we didn't really have money saved. Let me just say, we had our 401k. So like, we went with that. Yeah, we went, and we came here with that. And so we sacrificed and you know, multiple months rent to start the beauty shop out of our garage, we brought low stuff to try to dress it up a little cheap chair off Amazon, we did everything we could to make it seem nice. We went down, my wife went down the street, there's only one other black family in our neighborhood. And she said, you know, Yo, can I do, you can do your hair then. And she gave them the two women and you know, two of the younger women down the street, some box braids, and everything started from there. And so once we got that established, we then got the naturally beautiful project establish. And then I sat there one day, and I was like, so what about me? Ask myself that same question. And I went ahead and I restarted at already had an LLC in Tulsa. But it was around photography. And I said, I want to make film. I don't know how I'll know when, but I want to be a filmmaker. So I decided to start a media company. And I knew how to do podcasting. So I start going and hanging out where filmmakers were and start suggesting to them how to repurpose their media that wasn't making the cut, and turn it into podcasting end up getting a few different universities as clients and start consulting for a few major religious organizations denominations and, and that's how it started the entrepreneurial path as well as the social entrepreneur path. Because for each business, me and my wife started, we've started a social entrepreneur, wait like a actual nonprofit, to be adjacent to the work so that we can make sure that we're giving back out of the gift that we was freely given. So that's kind of how that's the story of how we got here. And that's, you know, a kind of answers a couple.

Naeem Hall: 12:49

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you guys definitely took a leap of faith, man. Yes, I was like it worked out for

you. Now,

12:54

I'd had so far it's been it's been a blessing to create community. It is, you know, as you know, it turned out to not be diverse, no. But we started both uniquely down a path of trying to find black people bringing black people into our homes. And you know, when we had the shop in our home, and so we ended up kind of creating our own community, linking up with black people that was given us a chance to do they here. And so we started creating our own community and our own family. And here you go, and try to avoid the toxic nature of just complaining like, Oh, it's so white here, but it's like, but I'm black. So black. This is Oh, I'm here. It's not a lot of black people here, per se,

Naeem Hall: 13:36

but it's more than people think. From outside. Yeah, just like no black people here.

: 13:40

Yeah. Yeah, no, and more than likely, like us. We came from the Midwest like we didn't come from Atlanta. Yeah, like outside of like Atlanta, or some pocket of a large city like, Yeah, more than likely. Like, I'm from Kansas City. You know, we got this space in Kansas City, this ours. But for the most part, no, like the rest of the city is predominantly white. Like, same thing in Dallas. Like I lived in Oak Cliff and was black in Eau Claire. Everything else? Yeah, you know, it is a different story every everywhere you go. So it was the same thing. It's also Oklahoma. North Tulsa was us. Everywhere else was there.

Naeem Hall: 14:17

Yeah. Yeah. So what's your background in podcasting in broadcast radio? Yeah. Can you

highlight any particular memorable projects have shaped your career?

14:25

into podcasting. And that was: 2005

want to take this thing around. Right? I had a pool mixing board that I would pull out the trunk and bring in and record people so like yeah, like those was my that was my favorite time like working in that part of it like cuz I did that stuff. And still sometimes during those times, ran a photography business and sometimes had like regular nine to five, which I've never been cut out

Naeem Hall: 18:00

for but it's not for everybody. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do. Yeah,

18:04

defeated. Yeah,

Naeem Hall: 18:05

man. So man, last man. Good, man. That's great, man. So we're gonna take a break here. Get a message from our sponsor, GMP podcast group. The production company is beautiful studio in. We come back. We'll talk about your divorce as you were and the impact you're making in the community. Discover GIMP podcast group studios, located at 2406 East Burnside Street in Portland, Oregon, offering a range of podcasts and packages to suit your needs. Starting at just $49 per hour for your basic setup featuring the road caster Pro Audio console, an SM seven B microphones, as well as options complete with camera operator and audio engineer expertise. Elevator podcasting with multi camera recording. Plus we capture behind the scenes shots within Studio, visit us at www dot GMP podcast group.com and let GMP podcast studios be where your podcasting journey begins.

19:04

Because this syndicate live assist exists don't drink one day be generous my mental is to Reagan and make it from the middle of Fifth our I guess this welcome back to these wires. So I'm a Coldwell right welcome back words for shares.

Naeem Hall: 19:20

Yeah. Yes, sir. Welcome back to the Thor city syndicate spotlight Show. I'm your host, North City podcast guy. My guy Andrew Morgan in the building. Appreciate you coming through my gosh.

19:33

Man. I'm excited to be here, man. I'm liking it.

Naeem Hall: 19:36

Lay it so yeah, that was a little tune from from an artist. I've managed third twin. It's kind of how I got started. What led me to this podcast here started my management company to help my best for about Excuse me. Growing up, he dumped music. He was a hip hop artist. And so as we got older he got caught up in the fast life. Now he got got hooked on pills and alcohol. Really, really bad man, my guy was doing bad. And he recorded a verse at his sister in law's house, and his nephew was recording them. And I heard it and he was sound like he was talking to me. And he was reaching out for help is what he was doing. And so I took that, and at the time, a lot of local music stuff going on, and I'm hearing a lot of music and I'm like, men are guys better than all these people? Yeah, I will also admit where I need some new third twin music and so I decided to pay for my own third to an album. So let's get into studio let's do a couple songs. So we did a few we did four or five songs. We traveled and did some shows and I needed a music video. And guide Mike Harrison, calm plus introduced me to Justin. He's a video production. And so we did the honesty music video. And we introduced some film festivals and we won some awards and shortly after that, honestly music video my buddy went got clean. He just disappeared man. And he bought backups that man I went got clean, man. So now he's just you gotta do man. He's six over six plus years clean, engaged to be married this summer in the bottle house. He's working over at plse did a great job. helping the community and man he really got his life back and that's all I ever wanted, man. Yeah, now that's the that's the story man. That's the story worth telling every single time it was alright. That's all you want to see

for your people. It's just clean, man get clean. And I was that was my guide man. I couldn't let them go down like that man. So we got to we got a documentary coming we put out a EP I got the full length LP I've been holding on to to put out along with the documentary. sometime in the near future, man, this is as deep that's gonna touch a lot of people. Yeah, man, a solid, man. So you got a lot of experience, man. A lot of like I said different hats. The pastor was working as a police chaplain, you got the radio DJ, and quite a few other things. But how some of these roles influenced each other? And what skills have you carried from one to another?

22:07

I think I think for me, man, I, I think I've always put myself in a position to like, just not always, let me let me say this, I sometimes I do operate with a little bit of fear on some things. But without fear, you can't be brave. And so I the very first job management job, first two management jobs I ever got. I was grossly under qualified. But I was just naive enough to just be like, if they give it to me, I'll take it and do it. And they both in retrospect, didn't turn out well. And probably, but they gave me enough confidence to keep going. So like, for me, the wearing multiple hats is probably part of like the story that we hear across the diaspora, like, you know, I us as black people, we tend to be doing the most in order to break even, or to just to fulfill those dreams because it's a part of being a part of a system in which you know, kind of demands that of us. I think I am just now getting to a space where I'm starting to fully understand that like this concept of generational wealth means that the wealth may have to come over generations. And I need to stop trying to break my back to get rich this generation. And I just need to learn to enjoy myself. But part of wearing a lot of hats was just like being so happy to have a job but then also feeling like I still got to do two or three other things in order to not be seen as lazy and instead another so yeah, like when I was going to police chaplaincy, they had begged me to do it for a while. And then I remember, Terence Crutcher guy killed, and then it made me take the police. I was doing some chaplaincy like some advocacy work. But it was only around the homelessness. And then when the police killed Terrence Crutcher, he was actually like the third black man to have been killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, by the police and that

recent like span of a year and a half. And so different police departments were involved. But still, it was like the third black body that had dropped at the hands of an officer. So I was kind of like, Alright, I gotta get gotta get involved because there was this gentleman that like you see him on the first 48 He was the person who was announcing his name was Dave Walker, like he was the one that was announcing to people like yo, your son's dad or whatever. And he was a seasoned officer who had just been doing it for so long. That it he had a little callous tone. And so for me, part of me and a police chaplain was a combination of one the man that I was at the time which I was a lot more conservative to because I got to own that truth like I'm not gonna say or pretend like I wasn't what I was, you know, I'm saying like, that's what makes me the man I am now. And then to it was just the honest to God truth of thinking. Yo, if I'm gonna make a difference. I know I'm not gonna make a difference protesting or yelling or being frustrated and just talking stuff, I need to try to blow it up from within. So a part of it was like, let me get in the car with some of these cops, let me challenge them on some of these thoughts and some of these things that they're saying. And I'm not saying that that was the right way of going about it. But it was the way I was empowered at that time. And my theory, like the way I kind of live, my life is I'm not gonna talk about in law, like, either I can put my hands on it, or else we're talking about it normal. And so that's kind of what we did, like, so I just hopped in those cars and challenged a few of them, some of the offers, officers would complain about me. And then, you know, but the main thing was, I wanted to be there on death scenes, to be the person that tells like that woman I have to look, you know, I had to look people in the eye and tell them they like your your sons did your mother's day or whatever it might be. And that's give. And I think that that's what happens was just like, I remember the first time I worked in the committee, I wasn't an officer or a chaplain or doing anything with officers. But there was a young man named Jacob Barnes who got shot in the back of the head getting off the bus. So I created like, I did this like rally. And then I recognize there was like a

lot of like, positive black people who showed up to talk to the kids, but nobody was like, touching them, like, you can still see his boys was like ready to go and get back there. And so I remember Jacob, just like, his life just came and went, like, his legacy just kept going, like, or his, you know, like life went on. And he stopped at 16 on that on a curb. And so I wanted to be

a part of just trying to figure out how do I prevent that next one. And so you know, my one of my last chaplaincy calls one of the last two chaplaincy calls that I had still stick with me to this day one was a 17 year old who, who was playing with a gun allegedly with his friends and killed himself by accident. 10 feet from like, he was in the garage next door, 10 feet from his mom and his dad sleep, but they slept through the whole thing until I got there and knocked on the door. So like the body being on the ground for hours while the coroner came to pick them up. And people in the neighborhood screaming all this stuff, they slept, they slept through all bled through all of it until I got there and told him it's so like, it's stories like that to still stick with me. And then his stories like the police that killed a mentally handicapped man shot him multiple times. And when I got there on the scene, I had to tell his mother that he was gone. And a group of people in the community started to form because they was getting tired of it. This was like the fourth body to drop at the police hands. And they don't know the difference between whether I'm a cop or not. And so I remember having rocks thrown at me being spit on that day being called Uncle time, with everything that you got to go through. But I knew that the police on a man on the police and that they were ready to pounce. So it was just negotiating back and forth between the crowd being told by the cops don't keep going back over to the crowd are you gonna get what we got for them. And then the crowd saying, we don't want to hear you wanted them. But eventually, like pulling certain people out the crowd and being like, Yo, help me advocate because it's babies in here, my niece was actually in that crowd, because one of her Arts on another side of the family brought her. And so it was like, Alright, I gotta make sure my niece make it home. And so after being able to break up that Riot, I kind of remember just sitting on the curb, and just being tired in this, this photographer,

captured a picture of it. And ended up getting syndicated in newspapers I had like a cousin in Chicago was like, bro, like, you're on the cover. And so it was like, those were memorable moments that made me just say like, not because it like brought attention my direction, but it was just like, the serving the community has a purpose. And it was hundreds of me and they're like, I remember like, you know, bringing them today house like walk them through the process or like seeing them graduate from drug court. Keeping people housed used to always be the thing like, like giving people shoes, you know, like when they you see somebody like living your life for other people is like, it gives me a fulfillment. So when I moved here, and didn't have like, a lot had to hurry up and figure it out. And that's, that's where I kind of just was like, Alright, how do I, you know, I went from like, everyday, it's just serving only almost extreme love. So I got here had to get quiet, had to get my mental health together. That's a lot of PTSD. You know, so I had to do a lot of you know, I go to therapy and I have sugary moments. I started painting I started, you know, putting my attention into other things so I can channel that energy and figure out what's next man. So that's kind of you know, the pastoring all of it. That's just kind of part of what I feel pastoring is Yeah. When I moved here I got my chance to do the straightforward what people think pastoring is, it was I Yeah, it was I you know, it wasn't you know, but I'm not meant to sit in a pulpit on and to be looked at on Sundays. I'm meant to disciples shoulder to shoulder like Well, let's go on the streets. Let me show you what I know you show me what you know, like let's make a difference. And I'm not for the ceremony like I'd rather do it and then I'll leave before the cameras come here. So that's kind of my attitude toward Yeah, that's

Naeem Hall: 30:44

deep. That's tough work. That's kind of similar. Well, my boy or more third twin so he does what his job is when he was in the violence prevention so anytime a violent some violence happen where someone gets shot or stabbed or some him or his team member shows up to the hospital and nearby resources to the victim and try and stop the retaliation get

31:05

now that's where it's at. That's the good work right there. Yeah, I grew up my father was on was on crack and line when you see it there, like you know, when you see it firsthand and how it affects you by he went from selling dope to own dope to selling it again to only you know, so I watched that back and forth and a lot of my coat like my brother and a bunch of other people out there was in the game, so it was just like hard to do I know the impact. And I was blessed for a while not to really take too many losses. But now like when it's real to you, and it ain't about picking up a check, or you know, like we're capitalizing on I'll try to create these these poverty, porn storylines, but people like when it's real to you rather just do it and get it done. And now you got it because you already got another one on the burner. It's always something to put out there.

Naeem Hall: 31:59

Yeah, that's crazy. Wow, man. So we're gonna take one more break here and get a message from Thor city syndicate management. When we come back, we're gonna talk about the story, the storytelling project, and we'll talk about the naturally beautiful project. new hobby,

introducing torn city syndicate management, your solution for brand management, social media promotions, digital content, distribution, and podcast production, from shaping engaging content that resonates with your audience to amplifying your brand's reach through podcasting, or your partners in driving success. We offer free strategy sessions and leverage our recording studio and personalized strategies to establish an online presence. The brand's journey to the stock starts with Doreen Sivan syndicate management, where innovation meets results Contact us now at www dot Boeing city syndicate.com to embark on the future path of transforming your brand's future.

32:55

This syndicate live assisting says don't wait one day be generous my mental is to begin to make it from the maybe the fifth the earth. I guess it's Welcome back to these wires. So I'm a co well right welcome back words for shares.

Naeem Hall: 33:11

Yeah. Yes, sir. Back in the spotlight. Andrew Morgan. So yeah, man, tell me about the storytelling project and how it allows you to impact teaching filmmaking and podcasting to young adults. I know we had to. We had opportunity to collaborate this past weekend. Shout out to my youngster, Nate bond man got some special stuff in the works with him. It's good kid, man. He's excited to get into the podcast and he really enjoyed and

33:43

I have an ailment i That's the future right there. Yeah, I for real he's the future like yeah, now he's he's the epitome like that story right there. I'm excited for y'all to hear what he what he has the potential to do. And to just really help that potential become potent, like, I'm already a fan. Yeah. Because he's fine. And he's, he's aiming to try to find his purpose. And that's what the storytelling project is about. I take my motto for the storytelling project starting from like apocalypse, where he says the power is in the people in politics they address and so I find that we have to empower the youth by allowing them to be in charge of their narrative. If we teach them how to properly tell their story then they don't have to wait for the news crew to come later. And I think a big part of that is I remember moving here and I worked on priced out as opposed to post production producer for that film and develop podcasts and other things for it. But what I noticed as I was sifting through lights things that didn't make the cut I'm hearing story after story of black people just saying like yeah, man North Portland was this it was this. And part of it was no one came to tell their story until after gentrification is setting too late. And so for me that really influenced me in starting the storytelling project. And naming is something as simple as storytelling project actually is full name is got storytelling project. Part of it, that influence is just to say, like, Yo, I want to empower you and put a camera in your hand, put a mic in your hand, give you the skills to tell YOUR story the way you want to tell it now, because when you go to school, when you go to college and do all these other things, they're going to tell you this the proper way. And all those proper ways are going to be with you know, majority culture white basically, white storytelling. And our hero arcs are sometimes look a little bit different. They're not always that, you know, like Hollywood tends to call some of our high arts, you know, what they call the antihero, where what they're heroes, but they're black utilized,

of life that Jesus in Matthew: 2323

came to them first. And basically is no regulation in the state of Washington, which we're advocating right now. We've written letters, and we're advocating to try to get some regulations because we are concerned about safety, sanitation, as well as trafficking because hair trafficking, hair braider trafficking is a real thing where they, you see some of the shops where it's like five or six women working in one time, and it's like, well, who brought them and where they stand and what's going on. And I'm not saying that that's prominent here, but it is a prominent problem around the country. So with regulation, that helps not saying we need people all in our business. But we need some regulation, some self, some health and safety regulations, just like we have in the state of Oregon, which conscious coils did an excellent job going down there, and making sure that the legislators built a proper like curriculum that you have to pass the sanitation curriculum, you have to pass. And she did a really great work for Oregon braiders. And we stand on our shoulders, like you know what we're doing. So what we want to do is get people certified out of the state of Oregon. So we pay for that. And we make sure and we even help people get get started with their LLC on the business end of things. Nice. So we we've been blessed to do that through a few grants that we've been able to get. But

42:01

yeah, the naturally beautiful project is just over the past. You know, for the years, we were just doing families. And we really hit this point, and we love our families. And we mean no ill will toward anyone when we when I make this statement. It's like you hit a point where you start to plateau in any mission. And when you recognize you're plateauing, like what's wrong here, what are we doing? Because the passion starts to, you know, like, down a little bit, we started notice we were serving this demographic, but we weren't teaching them. We weren't educating, we were just giving them a service. Yeah. And I didn't want my wife to be a mammy, like I didn't want her to, I didn't want her to look up and like all she's doing is just serving these people without and she loves them and she's caring for him. And she cares about the babies mainly. And we were getting other asked out stylists involvement, that conviction came there to be like, Yo, we got to implement education and curriculum for these families, there has to be some level of accountability to knowing how to take care of these babies hair. And so we started really just pressing families and just saying like, Hey, you're gonna have to sit down and learn how to shampoo how to detangle like, you can't just sit here like some we got to the point where some families were like dropping their kids off and just leaving to take care home. And we're like good with that. Because like you're leaving and when you're where you're leaving them with a black family. So that part was always cool, especially when the shop was still in our house there because a lot of these kids who might be in foster situations a parent like a lot of them they'd been snatched out of their black home and it was fractured. And I loved bringing them into house and I was working from the home so I'm opening up the door and they're seeing black art on the walls and a single black dad sit there and cheer them on it like so it was like we tried to create that dope environment just to say nothing is wrong with the family you have Yeah, like love your your fan because they adopted you and they love you and they're worthy of you calling them Mom Dad whatever. But I also want you to grow up and recognize that like your blackness isn't fracture isn't the fractured part your parents made some mistakes your birth biologicals made some mistakes but that's not innate to you because of your your being black you're still beautiful perfect you're like that's what makes you beautiful. So come see this beauty in this this household, this community and get get baked up you know, like so. We go to you know, we buy Black Books, we have people send us Black Books, we give books to the kids I go over the third eye bag and try to get some books you know when I can and make sure that we just we keep black kids reading this material because a lot of parents

so like we built a space over: 3520

Naeem Hall 46:45

Man Man as tight man. Good stuff, man. So Allah we look forward to doing some more workshop work with you man. GMP podcast group is it was really like in the get into the youth podcast workshop. So appreciate you coming and sharing your story, man, how can people connect with you and get signed up for the hair or the storytelling projects. Um, so

47:04

what the naturally beautiful project, if you go to the national beautiful project.com there's a signup page. Under naturally beautiful Project Academy for the training, it usually has the dates. We've we were looking for larger cohorts. But now we're going to just do some more one on one. So you will see a chair shifting dates on that to be probably be representative Tuesdays every month. And as far as we're going to open up booking at the beginning of the year for families to come in on Tuesdays. And then as I get a few additional, I have one hairstylist wants to cut hair for the homeless. And so we're gonna open up booking dates for people who are experiencing homelessness who need a haircut. And so we've got that going and a few. We've got black Santa coming here in a few weeks. So yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot man that we do, but it's got to be it's good. So you just had to nationally be for project.com As far as the storytelling project. I do a lot of that work. Not necessarily with like, as far as a public offering. I do a lot of that like with groups like with, you know, partnerships with you or I have partnerships with

Portland School District, Portland Public, I teach a class for them and just find grants so that I can I can be able to do things but if you go to the northwest doc, the NW doc.org. We will we have a list of classes and other offerings that are coming up real soon. Nice,

Naeem Hall: 48:38

man. Good stuff, man. That's tight man. Like I say, I like to encourage listeners to explore their passions and embrace innovation and pursue entrepreneurship in their own unique ways. Thanks for joining us explore the power of networking and find inspiration by following me at door city podcast guy for updates exclusive behind the scenes content and to join the conversation today. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes of thorns city syndicate spotlight show where we continue to highlight individuals, businesses, brands and podcasters don't forget to subscribe to the Thor city podcast Guy YouTube channel. Follow up at Thorin city syndicate the management company and at GMP podcast group to production company. Make sure you drop by WWW dot Dornan city syndicate.com Schedule a free strategy sessions. The ones that you podcast guy, highlight you, boy. Appreciate you brother. I seriously it's so many Thank you, sir