# Episode 34 - GenX Speaks Series: Marlon's Story

- Podcast: GenX Adulting Podcast
- Published: 2025-05-27T00:00:00.000Z
- Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/17228236-episode-34-genx-speaks-series-marlon-s-story.mp3
- Page: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/transcripts/podcasts/genx-adulting-podcast/episodes/episode-34
- Source: https://genxadultingpodcast.com/episodes/genxadultingpodcastepisode34.html
- People: Marlon (guest), Brian Barker (host), Nicole Barker (host)
- Topics: GenX Speaks

## Summary

In Episode 34 of the GenX Speaks Series, Marlon shares his journey from Trinidad and Tobago to the United States, detailing his experiences with family, cultural identity, and the challenges he faced growing up. He discusses his career in graphic design, his passion for music, and his personal growth through various life experiences.

## Key takeaways

- Marlon was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1973 and is proud to be part of Generation X.
- He faced racism within his own family due to mixed heritage, which shaped his identity.
- Marlon moved to the U.S. in 2004 and has navigated various jobs, including graphic design and working in hospitality.
- He has a passion for music and has played in several bands, including a punk band in Trinidad and a metal band in the U.S.
- Marlon is currently working on a children's book that reflects his journey and experiences.
- He emphasizes the importance of sleep and fitness in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
- Marlon believes in the power of storytelling and authenticity in both his personal and professional life.

## FAQ

### What challenges did Marlon face growing up in Trinidad?

Marlon experienced racism within his own family due to his mixed heritage, which affected his sense of belonging and identity.

### What career path did Marlon take after moving to the U.S.?

After moving to the U.S., Marlon worked in various jobs, primarily in graphic design and hospitality, while also pursuing his passion for music.

### What is Marlon currently working on?

Marlon is currently working on a children's book that tells a story about his journey and personal growth, as well as creating his own music.


## Referenced links

- [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBPH0_yzXI)
- [Listen on Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-34-genx-speaks-series-marlons-story/id1764838823?i=1000710018357)
- [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pGhwzSu6jsMi2Igs1tdd4)
- [Listen on Buzzsprout](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2398379/episodes/17228236-episode-34-genx-speaks-series-marlon-s-story)

## Transcript

[MUSIC]
Welcome to GenX Adulting and
today we have Marlon with us.
Welcome to the studio, Marlon.
Thank you for having me.
We're so happy to have you here.
Our first question is
always, what year were you born?
I was born in the year 1973.
So you are GenX?
Yes, and very proud to be born.
Nice. So where were you born?
Trinidad and Tobago.
Okay.
The island, the Caribbean
island, Trinidad and Tobago.
So those are two separate islands.
So just for people who don't understand,
how would you explain?
Because people say Trinidad and Tobago,
but how would you describe?
Tobago is the smaller island by plane.
It's 15 minutes away off.
It's an island off of Trinidad.
Okay. So how big would you say Trinidad is?
That I don't know.
Okay. But do you average how
many people live on Trinidad?
1.3, 1.4.
Oh, wow. And then Tobago, how many?
Much smaller, 56,000.
Okay.
Okay. And then which
island were you born on?
Trinidad.
Trinidad.
So is there a main city on Trinidad?
There's a lot of the capital of Trinidad
is the place called Port of Spain.
That's where everything goes on.
And is there a skyline, like tall buildings
and a downtown and all that?
That's in Port of Spain
where the high rises are,
most of the businesses happen. So yes.
Okay. And were your parents from there?
Yes. I'm trying to think, yes.
In the sense of my grandparents came,
on my dad's side came from India.
Okay.
My mom's side was one of
the original Trinidad people.
There were two original Trinidad people,
the Caribs and the Arawaks.
If you've ever seen the movie "Apocolypto",
it's the like Amazonian people.
My mom was an Arawak, her family.
Wow.
So my grandmother came
as the indented laborer.
Okay.
And she had my dad and then,
so my roots go
scattered all over the place.
So how did they meet?
I guess my dad was a
teacher and my mom, I guess,
I don't know, was just a hot.
(laughing)
I know I have pictures
of them, but I never.
Yeah. Yeah.
But he was a teacher. So do
you know what age he taught?
He was an elementary school teacher.
Okay. And do you know how
old they were when they met?
I know she was 16 because
she had me when she was 19.
Okay. All right.
So was that, at that time,
I mean, we're talking 1973,
was that normal on Trinidad
for girls to get married at 16?
What was not normal was my mom
is what they call a red woman
because she's mixed like that.
And my dad is more of a Hindu looking guy.
And back in those days,
the mingling and the mixing of the people
was not as common as it is today.
So that leads into another
story of how uncommon that was.
And when they got together, a
lot of people did not like it.
Interesting.
So would it have been
your dad's side of the family
that would have looked down on
your mom's side of the family
or reverse? So it's your
dad's side of the family.
So was it almost like they were racist?
Yes.
Interesting.
So there is, so the
island has its own racism.
Because if you know
in, I want to say Hindu,
I'm not sure, there's a class system
from the head to the feet and dependent,
like my last name is Rampasad.
It depends where your family line goes to,
how you're treated.
Interesting.
Because if you look at
my hair or look at me,
I don't really look full Hindu.
I was the Khali out of place Hindu boy
in the Hindu family.
So yes, there was.
So were they racist towards you?
Yes.
From the start?
Yes.
So did you?
I was the first born, so yes.
Okay. So did you spend any time with them?
Like with family
gatherings or anything like that?
I was always placed like at the back.
In Hindus, when they have like ceremonies,
they give out food.
I was always fed last.
I was pushed to the side.
That is so interesting.
So when you're saying
Hindu for our listeners,
would it be more
picturing they look like Indian?
Yes.
And then-
I don't want to get the confusion of Indian
as an American Indian.
You know what I mean?
Yes.
Yes.
Well, it feels like they
brought the caste system to-
Yes.
They were indented
laborers and you would know
indented laborers.
They're not like slaves
where they chose to come to work.
So they thought they
were slightly better than-
Okay.
Okay.
But then for your mom,
she was right from the start
in Trinidad.
Right.
So they were viewed more
what, like tribal almost?
Yes.
Okay. And so the Hindu
came over and looked down
on the people that are
from there essentially.
The teacher hanging out
with this high school.
Yeah.
Cause how, okay.
So what, how old was he?
I honestly don't know.
But older than her.
So because he loved her obviously.
You know, I mean,
there's the answer right there.
They stayed together until-
How long were they together?
I think 40 years until he passed away.
Okay. All right.
Is she still alive?
Yes.
All right.
Do you get to see her very often?
Last time I was in Trinidad
was probably 10 years ago.
I talked to her every day, but-
Yeah. And then do you have siblings?
I have two younger brothers.
And what's the spacing
between how the age spacing?
We're all six years apart.
So my middle is six years
and the last one 12 years.
Okay. And were they
treated the same way as you
by your dad's family?
By that time we had moved on and moved out.
The problem was when
the relationship started,
there were four houses
on the same lot of land.
So we were next to my grandmother.
On your dad's side or your mom's?
Yes, on my dad's side.
So there's a lot of
stories in between the arm,
but they pressured us
enough that we had to move.
They turned off the electricity.
They stopped to run in water.
Wow.
Yeah.
So they didn't want you guys
on their compound, I guess.
I have an aunt and I'm
very bold to say this.
And I'm very happy that I'm
in Tampa that I don't speak to
because she was, that's my dad's sister,
that she was part of that.
And what about cousins?
The kids had nothing to do with it.
I, on Facebook, on
Instagram, I talked to all the kids.
You're fine with them.
So it's more the, so I assume
you're not in touch with your,
are your grandparents still alive on this?
Okay.
So you didn't have a
relationship with them.
And did this affect your
dad's relationship with them?
Would you say?
Yes.
So that would kind of-
I'm not very angry, but-
Of course.
I'm sure they became
fairly estranged over time.
So where did they move?
Just a different part of Trinidad?
Yes.
And then you're on this island,
but you didn't ever saw them.
Never really did anything with them.
When there was like a
festivals or stuff happened,
you're bound to run into people, but yes.
Okay.
And it was more just like-
And I have a lot of cousins.
Like I said, there was a
lot of land with four houses.
Some of the cousins were part of it.
And some of the cousins weren't part of it.
So everything was, it was
crazy back in those days.
Yeah. Yeah.
So would there be some situations
where you might see some family members,
but kind of act like
you don't even know them?
Exactly.
That's so interesting.
Yeah. Exactly.
But then could you have,
where they have a
sibling who was fine to you
and you are straight with them,
but then the other
sibling was racist toward you.
So you kind of ignore them or was it,
was it the whole
family act at a certain way?
The first thing you said,
I still deal with some of my cousins,
but some I just don't,
not because I'm angry
or anything, it's just,
they never brought it up to say sorry.
Or so why am I bringing
it up when you did it?
And did everyone else in
the family marry within Hindu
and stay in, was your dad
the only one that stepped?
No. But of course stepped out.
Okay.
A lot of the cousins, the younger ones,
I'm what they call a dogla,
which is a mutt in Trinidad,
because as time goes on,
everyone started getting mixed up.
But in the earlys, it was frowned upon.
Okay.
But then you're the next generation.
Some of the cousins
started to look up at my,
look up at my dad
because he was paving the way.
Yeah.
And you know, stuff like that
happened with the four houses
in the middle of the four houses,
that's where we would place
soccer or cricket or whatever.
And people would talk and you know,
the people that weren't
part of what was happening
was sit on the side and watch.
But as time goes on, you
either become part of it
or get out of the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm sure, like you
said, as time goes on,
there were other families on the island
that were going through similar things.
So you just brought up sports.
So that just brought, made me think,
what were the sports on the island?
Was it soccer?
We call it football, but I've had people.
Yes.
For Americans.
It's called FIFA.
And then what else would?
Cricket.
I played rugby.
There's any sport.
Okay.
Basketball, baseball is not
really that big of a thing,
but they play.
That's crazy now.
They do everything.
We've been Americanized now.
Okay.
Okay.
So when you were growing up,
it was more like British influence though.
Exactly.
Are the Brits still in charge of?
Okay.
So independent, turn it
out into bag or independent.
And when did that happen?
1979, I think.
Okay.
So, all right.
You were still a kid.
Don't quote me on that.
Yeah.
We know.
Eric Williams.
Oh yes.
Okay.
So did you go to, how
were the schools set up?
Was it like K through 12 or did you have,
how it is in America,
elementary, middle school,
high school?
Do you know how?
It's elementary and from elementary
until like age 11 or 12,
you do an exam, CXC, the
Caribbean something exam.
And then you,
you go to like a five year,
six year or seven year college.
They called it college?
That's what they called it.
So where we call it
middle school and high school.
Yeah.
They are like 13 to like 19.
That's what they call college.
They call college.
And then is there college on the island?
Like how we call college.
There's a university that
you can further your education
after that.
Okay.
And it's like University of Trinidad.
University of the West Indies, yes.
All right.
And then am I saying it right?
Tobago?
Tobago.
Tobago.
Do they have a
university or is the university
just on Trinidad?
It's just on Trinidad.
And.
Is there just one university or is there?
The big known one, yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Do they get people coming from.
Trinidad is so small you can drive around
the entire island in one day.
It's not that big.
Now do they get people
coming in from other countries
to go to school there?
Yes.
And do you know what the drive,
other than just living there
and having that experience,
is there something
that school specializes in
that would draw someone?
Honestly, I don't know.
Okay.
I know Trinidad is the most cosmopolitan
and most technological
advanced Caribbean island.
Okay.
Donald Trump has been there.
Yeah.
(laughing)
And then did you go to Tobago as a kid?
I go to Tobago to relax.
And can you describe the differences
between the two islands?
Trinidad is known for
having a good time, partying.
You pull up anywhere where there's music,
there's a party going on.
Tobago is where you go to,
there's the glass bottom boat,
there's the coral reef.
Everything's relaxed, you chill, you sleep.
It's like a cruise ship
compared to like Trinidad,
which is the party boat.
So it's more like resorting.
Yes.
So there's people that
probably go on vacation
to both islands and have
both experiences, right?
Like their vacation is--
People from Trinidad would
go to Tobago for a vacation
because they're tired of Trinidad.
And to get there, is it--
It's a boat, you can
take a boat which is longer
or it's like a 15 minute plane ride.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
So you went to elementary
and then what you guys call college?
Yes.
And so you were there until,
when did you leave Trinidad?
I came to America 2004, Thanksgiving.
Okay.
Because that was the first
time I saw Deep Fry in Turkey
and I was like, what the, what is that?
Okay, so 2004, so we're talking,
so when you graduated from college,
what year would that have been?
1990.
1990, so--
Don't judge me.
(laughing)
So what did you do after you graduated?
I got in trouble.
I was working odd jobs, textile factories,
I'm trying to remember, tire shops
and hanging with bad people
because there's not so much
you can do back in those days
until I got into trouble.
What happened?
Hanging with the wrong crowd.
I'm sitting on the basketball court,
the entire court gets surrounded by cops,
they scoop up everyone.
They're looking, that's how it works,
at least in that time.
They throw everyone in a cell
until they question and they find out
what exactly they need to find out.
The problem with that is that
I was locked up for two weeks
until they were figuring out what they
needed to figure out.
What are they trying to figure out?
Who stole what or what went wrong
or who was involved.
So something was reported.
Yes, and some of the guys got arrested,
the ones that weren't got released,
but I spent two weeks waiting
for them to figure that out.
That's how it works.
So what's prison like there?
Imagine 11 guys in the size of a bathroom
and you take turns closest
to the door where the pail is.
Don't ask what the pail is.
The plastic.
Like a bucket?
Yes.
And that's where you go to the bathroom?
Yes.
And then the size of a bathroom for real?
Yes, there's like, I'm trying to remember,
there's two bunk bed
type things, single beds.
And there's like guys
lined up on the ground.
To sleep? Yes.
You take turns sleeping type of thing?
Closest to the bucket, yes.
Yeah.
Okay, so does a hierarchy develop
where certain people get the bed?
The meanest, in those
days they call it who?
The guy that's called the
predator, he sleeps on the,
remember the movie predator?
Yes.
The predator gets the top bunk, yes.
And so--
I remember that
because the guy told me that.
Okay.
How old were you again?
Like 19. 19, okay, yeah.
Jeez, so the people you were with,
were they part of the scoop?
Or were you put in with guys who were?
The people I was with, some of them, yes.
They were part of the scoop.
The funny thing is, when we were remanded
and we walked into the
prison, someone shouts out,
hey Marlon, do you know you?
Does your mom know you're in here?
I go, what the hell is going on here?
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
Were there other people in there
for much worse crimes in that little room?
Since we're getting very in depth
in this conviced
emplane, but the first night,
before they figure out anything,
you're just put in a cell.
Okay.
And I was placed into the murder wing cell.
The first night I was there, I got beat up.
And it was, it's just how it is.
And how do you have
been absolutely terrifying?
I can't even, honestly--
The first night I got beat up,
two guys held me down, I got beat up.
But it was cool after that.
So it's kind of like an initiation.
Yeah, it's always something like that.
So, and then they, after
two weeks, they're like,
all right, you're fine, you can leave.
Yeah, and there's nothing you can do.
And you weren't, so it's not like America,
where you get a lawyer.
You have rights.
No.
Do you think that's changed,
or do you think it's
still like that over there?
As far as the--
No due process.
No, no.
Still no due process.
So I have a question.
Where it is geographically,
it's near Venezuela, and--
We can see a piece of Venezuela
from a point of Trinidad, yes.
Yeah, so what's the
predominant culture then?
Is it British, because
it's a British colony,
and it already used to be, or--
Well, it's funny that
you bring a Venezuela,
because right now,
there's an influx of Venezuelans
coming to Trinidad, where
some people don't like that.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's mostly African and Indian,
Indian, Hindu people.
Yeah.
Okay, and what's the--
There's Chinese, there's British,
but the most people are--
Is it, what's the government like?
I mean, can you vote like here?
Yes.
For, is it called a president?
It was just in, just
call it prime minister.
Okay.
Like last week, there was just an election,
and there was a new prime minister,
a female, a woman called,
I don't remember her name,
but anyhow--
Oh, you got voted in.
Yes.
And she's a graduate of the
University of West Indies.
I looked her up.
Oh, okay.
And this is like 10 years of
the previous government, so.
Is that the limit?
10 years?
Like, we have four.
They could go on as much as they want.
Really?
Even the prime minister can go on.
Yes, they can go on.
Like our president can only do eight.
There's no term limits at all.
Is it pretty corrupt?
Like, I don't wanna point fingers, yes.
Yeah, and do they have,
how we have a
conservative side and liberal side,
or is it just corrupt?
They've been playing on the race,
thinking that the Indian people,
the Hindu people will
vote for UNC, alcohol names,
and the black people will vote for PNM,
which is the political
national movement, anyhow.
And they've been playing on people's race,
which makes no sense, but--
Right, that's interesting.
From what I read, it is a two-party system.
And that sounds like
those are the two parties?
Okay, interesting.
So growing up, were you
and your brothers close?
Yes.
Even with the six
years, that's a decent age,
and was your mom a stay-at-home mom?
And they borrowed all my CDs and my clothes
and everything, so yeah.
(both laughing)
Well, you're one, the youngest, he's a
millennial, actually.
Plus I was working while
the last one was still, yeah.
And your mom was a stay-at-home mom?
Yes.
Your dad?
She started doing
private classes, tutoring,
to help my dad, kids would come over.
There was an extra room
in the back of the house
to where she would
home-school kids afterwards
to help them with their homework, so.
Was there a certain subject?
She was good at this?
Everything is good, yeah.
So she also had a little bit of a teaching.
Yeah, she liked doing that.
Doing that, and then
did he continue to teach?
Yes.
Elementary?
Yes.
And did you guys stay in
the same house the whole time
once you moved?
Yeah, yeah.
And I think you had
mentioned something about,
was there a fire or--
Yes.
So what happened?
That's part of going back.
When we lived in the
four houses on one lot,
remember I told you they
cut off the electricity
underwater.
Yes.
We had the neighbors throw a hose over
so we could get
running water to take showers
and whatever else.
Oh my goodness.
And as far as the electricity,
we had to use lanterns and candles.
I'm doing homework with a candle.
I'm reading lyrics on a cassette
back in those days on candles.
Anyhow, there was a window open,
there was a lantern and
a curtain caught on fire
and the entire dresser
started to be in flames.
I woke up and I picked up
the dresser and threw it out
because my baby brother was sleeping.
How old was he?
I don't know, six or seven.
Okay.
And I know that because we had a,
this is another story.
We had a musical band where
he would recite his poems.
We were very close.
Yeah.
We were still very close, but yeah.
So did the whole house catch on fire
because you got that dresser out.
Yeah, I threw it out, no.
And you wouldn't have had
water to put out a fire.
That's crazy.
So the weather--
I think around that time,
I'm trying to remember,
but it's around that time when my dad said,
"This is, we need to,
something needs to happen."
Yeah, that makes sense.
He's kind of like, "Okay."
You win.
We need it out of here.
That was too close.
Right.
So is the weather kind
of like South Florida
where it's warm year round?
Yes.
So you guys without electricity
didn't really have to worry
about keeping warm from heat,
but it was probably horrible.
Would it get so hot?
Yes.
Without air conditioning or anything?
There was no--
Well, where it's at, right?
It's between like the
Atlantic and the Caribbean.
It's very hot or very rainy.
Okay.
That's all we have.
Very hot.
Yeah, I saw something about it.
So that's real.
It says like what I read is
the first five months it's dry.
The next seven months it's wet.
Yeah, that's all we have.
Okay.
So after you were in
prison for the two weeks
and you get out, then what do you do?
I said, "I need to change my life.
This cannot happen again."
I started working.
I was at a party.
Why hold back?
I played in a punk band.
So I'm at this party with nipple rings,
with nose rings, with eye rings.
And of course I'm the head of the party
and I see this computer
at the back of the party.
And I go to the guy, I go, "What's that?"
He goes, "That's a computer.
You've never seen a computer before?"
And I said, "No."
And I sat down at a party
learning to move the mouse.
And I became friends with the guy.
And he said, "Hey,
Saturday we're having a meeting
to launch a TV guide.
You wanna come to it?
Here's what we're gonna talk about."
I took scrapbook paper and 17 magazines
and all the magazines from those days.
And I made a four page magazine.
I brought it to the meeting.
And the people go, "Who's this guy?"
And I got hired to work in newspaper.
That's amazing.
I started in classifieds for people
that know what that is.
And after nine years,
I was doing front page
and doing anything else.
So you took the
magazines, you cut out sections.
I made a magazine.
People came with Microsoft printouts
and we're here to have a meeting.
But I had something to
present what it could look like.
And how old were you?
Little after 19, so it had to be like 2021.
And so in your schooling,
there were no computers.
No.
So that was your real first time.
That would have been what, like early 90s?
Yeah, 91.
91.
That's amazing.
That's an amazing story.
I remember it was 91
because that's the party.
And you were like this punk guy.
Yeah.
Kind of jeans and a swatch watch.
I had friends from England
that would bring back stuff
for me and they would,
you know, the Mohawk.
So that's legit.
Right.
It's coming from England.
Yeah.
Because we were in
America trying to copy them.
Right, so.
You know, and I think
you said something like
the Lost Boys.
If you picture the
characters from the Lost Boys,
that's kind of how you look.
The influence was, I wanted to be,
at that time I wanted to be different,
but I just wanted to be creative.
But at that young age, I
wasn't sure what I was trying to be.
But do you feel that you
always had something inside
of you, a creativity inside
of you that needed to come out?
I realized over the years
that the freak lives in me.
I don't need to walk
around like a Christmas tree.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So your way of expressing your creativity
when you were younger,
which I think is true
for a lot of young adults
or adolescents, is outwardly.
Yeah, I was called all
sorts of names from colorful
to everything because
this is the days where I had
my whole face pierced
before Cisco, before anything.
I had Aquamarine
Mohawks, I had blonde hair,
I had, and nobody else,
but I was influenced by English people.
Yeah, and like the Sex
Pistols and all that.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that was it.
No, I was sort of just gonna say,
there was more British punk.
For our listeners, it's
British punk, not American punk.
Very different.
Which is legit because American punk was,
we were talking.
Inspired, inspired by British punk.
So you're doing that, you show up,
do you have that look when
you show up to the meeting
or did you kinda make it a little more?
No, I was still fine on myself.
I wasn't, but once I
realized I had a certain skill
and I can work, I realized I'm not scared
of being anything else but me.
At an early age.
Which is amazing and a gift
because a lot of people go
through most of their life
trying to figure out who they are.
So the fact that you
discovered that in your early 20s.
As pessimistic as this may sound,
I realized if that is
the last scariest thing,
nothing else could be that bad.
Yeah, yeah, that's so true.
So you get this job and
they put you in classifieds,
which describe for the younger generation,
what is a classified?
We know what it is.
It's just a bunch of
lines selling something
or promoting something.
It's no design, it's a little,
it's a white box with a black border
and it has a headline
and some words saying,
in those days, VCR for sale or--
Yep, yep.
The original Craigslist.
Or apartment for rent,
yeah, the original Craigslist.
But it was in the
newspaper and in every newspaper
there would be the classified section.
Right, and there was pages of it.
That's how you bought stuff.
When we were kids,
that's how you bought stuff.
Right, I feel like it was in the back
or towards the back, I can't remember.
So from classifieds,
then where did you move to?
Within the company.
I started hanging out
with the photographers
because at that time
there were like 13 or 14
different
photographers that would come back
and I was amazed how they kept their life.
I practiced photography
also, but in those days,
I wanted to do more and I
started mixing with other people
just to learn different stuff
and people would give
me chances to do stuff
and next thing I'm doing,
I should have brought
some things to show you,
like ads for like,
specialty ads for like stores
and stuff like that, just creative ads.
So you learned from the photographers
and was there other forms of media?
By hanging with the photographers,
I also got to like weasel
my way into being in the ads
with them, take a picture of them.
So then you became a model.
Yes, exactly.
So yeah, because if they need someone
and you're right there, like why not?
And this is all in Trinidad.
Yes.
Were the people you were working with
all from Trinidad?
Yes.
Okay, so did they become friends as well?
Yes.
That's cool, so you had like a community.
What happened was because the newspaper,
television, radio, building I worked in,
once there was a
celebrity from any other country
coming to Trinidad, a
flock of seagulls or anybody,
I would get to meet them
because this is the news spot.
Wow.
The news has to have the story, so.
So who were some of
the people that you met?
I met some, I don't
remember the girl's name,
I met Bollywood stars, I
met the flock of seagulls.
I'm trying to remember,
what's the group that
says everybody dance now?
Oh, that's something company.
Something company, like, yeah,
someone's gonna comment what it is.
It's like, it'll come to me.
Everybody dance now.
But you met them.
I know who exactly you're talking about.
Were flock of seagulls, were they nice?
Yes.
Okay, cool.
That's part of, I tried
to get my hair like that,
but I don't have hair like that.
Yeah, no, that's a whole thing.
Do you watch Friends, the show Friends?
Okay, well there's an
episode where one of the characters
does his hair like, it's pretty funny.
Okay, so you're hanging
with the photographers.
Did you, and then you're
working in the ad department,
I assume.
And then from there, what
did you, did that expand?
Like, did you get into
commercials or did you?
Yes, I was doing commercials and I started,
also started helping lay out like stories
in the middle of the newspaper.
Copyright and I started doing CD reviews
for people who know what a CD is.
When CDs came out, that
was a big deal for all of us.
And so you would, it
would be like an album review,
but instead now it's a CD review.
I would go to the CD shop,
they would give me 10 CDs, I
would review it and it was--
But you get to keep the CDs?
Yes.
That's cool, that's a bonus.
So do you still have all your CDs?
I still have a bunch of
CDs home right now, yeah.
I bet you have a lot of CDs.
I can send you a picture
when I get back home, yes.
We have a lot of, I
have a lot of the albums
from when I was a kid.
And all of my 45s, remember 45s?
Yeah, I have a bunch of those.
So, okay, so you're working in commercials
and then I think you said eventually
that led to you working on the cover?
Yeah, the front page.
The front page.
Which is what taught me
about what a real deadline
and what real stress is when
you're working on something
and somebody buzzes into the room and says,
that has to change, this
has happened, pull that story.
This has to go out.
And that has happened more than once.
No, that's probably a great skill.
An amazing skill to learn.
Were you a reporter?
Like were you going and interviewing people
or were you maybe working with the media?
For fun, but no.
Okay, so you were maybe doing the layouts,
the media part of it and everything.
Was, were you using the
computer for most of that?
So I've gone through every
edition of the Mac computer
from everything, the Powerwall PC
to the one that looked like the helmet,
the one that looked like
the flower pot, the one.
Yeah.
So what you learned on
that job is priceless.
It's people go to university
to learn what you learned on that job.
Yes.
So it's how long did you work?
Nine years.
And did you mention
something that you would start
to get recognized from doing this work?
Because I wish I could,
I'll send you pictures.
I was, I was featured in
commercials and newspaper ads
and Trinidad's not that big.
And I would be in the
arcade playing and people go,
"Hey, hey, hey, that's the guy from the
whatever commercial."
That's cool.
And I go, "No, no, I'm not."
Would they ask for an autograph or?
No.
Okay.
So I started doing, the
last ad I did in Trinidad,
I was dressed as an alien
with a green alien head suit on the beach
where I crashed on the beach
and I was given the guy information
because I really didn't
want to be seen anymore.
So you were like in going incognito.
Yes.
In public in Trinidad.
You were just tired of
people coming up to you.
Now, and then after that job,
did you get another job in Trinidad?
I worked for nine years and
I'm not sure what year this was.
We saw there was a
conference on Miami beach
called graphics of America.
And we come to it and I
love Miami and it was great.
Still working in newspaper,
Mariah Carey's people
reached out to the radio station
and said they would
like to do a reality show
where two people win
tickets and come to a concert
and we filmed the whole event.
In Miami?
It was Atlanta.
Okay.
And I said, can I be part of that?
We did it.
This is Mariah with the heartbreak time
and she was with the
brats and that time period.
We came back to Miami
and I saw Miami after
seeing graphics of America
but I saw South beach
and all the nice things of South beach.
And I go, I don't know
how I'm gonna do this
but I'll move into America.
So going to Miami was
your first time to America.
Yes.
And then from there you went up to Atlanta
and did that job.
Yes.
How was the Mariah Carey job?
Can you describe that?
Because for a lot of people,
that's kind of a once in a
lifetime thing right there.
I'm not a, I will not
say I'm a Mariah Carey fan
but I became a fan to
see someone of that statue,
that power control a crowd
and her voice and everything,
her aura.
I was like 12 feet away from her
because she was surrounded by bodyguards
but you can feel the energy.
You can at least at that time watch it was,
I mean, it was remarkable.
What were you doing there for that?
On a stand with the
cameras, like in the middle.
So you were behind the camera.
So you were you doing
like what you were filming,
was it on the big screens for the audience?
We were filming it to
take it back to Trinidad
to do the reality show.
Oh, okay.
So you were getting
stock footage of everything.
They also gave us a black credit card
and they told us buy whatever you want
and do whatever you want.
So it was a great experience.
Oh, I bet.
Did you meet her?
No.
Okay.
No.
I want to go back real quick
because you had mentioned
that you had played in a band.
Yes.
So how old were you when you did that?
That was around the 1990,
it's probably 19 years old
because I played in many bands
but one of the first bands I played in,
it was called Ward 29
because the asylum in
Trinidad only had 26 wards
and we were the three members
that made up the extra wards.
A ward was made for each one of us.
That was the story.
Like the mental institution?
That's very clever.
So there were three of you in that band?
And we were told to stop
playing white people music.
I can say that because
it was punk rock music
but being influenced from
the clash and sex pistols,
the energy and even the police,
the groove and the energy of the music,
we just wanted to be
part of something like that.
And we just, yeah, we just played music.
And it was the three of you?
Yes.
What did you play?
I played bass and guitar.
And you're-
We were change
instruments on stage sometimes.
And what would they play?
Your other band members?
My brother who's in-
Oh, your brother was in it?
Who's the studio
drummer right now in Canada.
He was a teenager also,
but he's six years younger than me.
The drum set was bigger than him.
All you would see is drumsticks.
And then what about the other member?
The other guy.
What did he play?
He played bass and guitar also.
He was the singer.
Okay, and he was the singer.
And where would you guys play?
All over.
Like in bars?
In the stadium.
There was a, I'm trying to remember.
There's the stadiums.
It's not like a huge, but it's huge enough.
Like an amphitheater kind of?
Yes, exactly.
Okay.
And just your band or would you play,
like a bunch of bands
would be playing there?
It's like a kind of
mini festival type vibe.
We started up almost like,
we couldn't afford instruments.
So we would warm up.
We would open up for
the bands, the friends.
We would do their sound check
and have a little gig going on before.
Okay.
Until we got our instruments, yes.
Okay.
And then how long did you guys,
were you together doing that?
Probably three years.
That's a long time.
And then you said you were in other bands.
Was that simultaneous at this,
when you were doing this
band or did you leave that band?
That was our main, we were very happy.
That was the band.
We did songs.
There was a song called Burn Genesis Burn.
There was a nightclub
called Genesis at the time.
I'm not sure if it's still there,
but it was a big thing where
these were the white Trinidad people
playing black Trinidad music,
not allowing black Trinidad
people to go into the club.
So we made a song called Burn Genesis Burn.
Wow.
(laughing)
I'm gonna follow that one.
So white Trinidad people
playing black Trinidad music,
but not letting black
Trinidad people come in to listen.
Exactly.
That's insane.
That's why we call the
song Burn Genesis Burn.
And that's how we became,
I would say popularly, yes.
So almost like a rebel, rebellious,
rebelling against that.
And that was in the late
80s, early 90s, if that,
if I'm following, that's going on then.
Yes.
Well, and it's punk too, right?
Yeah, it's a rebellious punk song.
So I'm sure that became
a little bit of an anthem
for some people.
Wow, how, I'm shocked
that that was even going.
I mean, nowadays.
Trinidad is a beautiful place.
But there's things like everywhere
that people need to be real about it.
And I've said this to my mom recently,
where she said something
about the new government
and there's parts of the old government
joining the new government.
And I'll bring it up.
There's a black guy
joining the Indian people.
And I said, mom, it's not
about black or Indian or white.
I say, if you're
injured and you need blood,
do you ask for white blood?
Do you ask for, you
know, I want brown blood.
Right.
So what are we talking about?
Right.
So they're still
trying to work all that out,
it sounds like. Yeah, they use that
in the election.
So it's still a thing in Trinidad.
It's still a thing.
And what about over on Tobago?
Do they have, is it just
still chilling over there?
They're not worried about anything.
They're like.
People could Google it.
It's very chilling, yes.
So there's just like, whatever.
Yeah, they don't, they don't.
Okay, all right.
Just to talk, I was reading about,
and it sounds like it's
in a state of emergency,
almost like a perpetual
state of emergency, Trinidad is.
I don't know if you know that,
but they're supposed to
have lifted it, I thought,
in April and it got extended, I thought.
What causes that?
Crime?
It almost sounds like corruption.
There's crime, but it almost sounds like,
it feels very corrupt.
It is very corrupt. Is kind of what
you're saying. Because,
money is allocated for certain things
and nothing happens
and, or they plan to fix.
When I was in Trinidad,
imagine the general
hospital doesn't have lights
in the operating room.
Why?
Because there's privatized hospitals
that they want you to go to,
but the general
hospital for the normal people
that can't go to the, it's
always something like that.
It feels like they brought
the caste system with them
and it's still, they
haven't sorted it out yet.
It's a bunch of foolishness like that.
Yeah, yeah. Come on, come on. Come carnival time, no one thinks about it
and everybody parties, but.
And the tourists obviously
don't know what's going on.
So I would assume that most of the locals
make their money from tourism.
There's a big part of it, yes.
And now is there a drug culture?
Yes.
That like, that people.
We're close to, I
don't wanna call countries,
but we're close to South America, so yes.
Okay, now is that something growing up
that was common to be partaking in?
I've hung up with people, his name,
the guy is as black as Flavor Flav
and they call him the snowman.
Okay, and he's.
You could figure out what he's saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As a snowman, yes.
And he's just known.
Yes, he's the snowman.
Okay, okay, so there's definitely.
But as a teenager,
where this is pre-internet
and pre-phones, if you're on your street,
you need to know who to be
friends with or hang with
or else your life will not be.
I can tell you a story very quickly.
On my street that I grew up on recently,
my mom was walking home and
two guys came out to rob her
and one of the head
honchos came out and goes,
no, that's Marlon's mom, leave her alone.
Wow.
Because you don't have to be part of it,
but you have to be cool
with the people that are in it
or else. Yeah.
So there's definitely dangerous areas
and I assume that the
tourists stay in one part
and they don't.
If they want tourism to continue,
they better take care of
the tourists if they want to.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
So how hard was it for you?
I don't know, coming from Trinidad,
how hard was it to move here?
As far as moving here?
Yeah, like how many?
As far as adapting to the different life.
No, like just did you have to go,
as far as moving here, literally,
like how many hoops did
you have to go through
just to be able to move to America?
I came over on an H1 visa,
which is a work in visa
because I played in a band,
a musical band.
Okay.
And as soon as I came,
I got my Social Security and my ID card.
I did everything the right way.
Yeah.
And then I filed for my green card,
it took years and I
filed for my citizenship,
it took 13 years.
It was a process, it's a very--
And when did you become a citizen?
Like two years ago.
And was that a big moment for you?
Yes, imagine every day go into your mailbox
waiting for a piece of paper
saying you've been approved.
Yeah.
Yeah.
For 13 years, my patience is very strong.
I'll tell you that.
Now do you have dual citizenship?
I guess, in a way,
I'll tell you something about that though.
I've gotten a letter in the mail saying
you have 30 days to leave.
From here?
Yes ma'am.
Yes.
Why?
Recently?
No, no, no.
Before you became a citizen?
Yes.
We don't have to stay long on this.
One of my interviews
was sent to Pennsylvania
and I had to go to immigration court
because I never showed up.
And it just says, stop
the record, Homeland.
Does he have a girlfriend?
Does he have family?
Why are you sending it there?
Scratch it, start it over.
But I got the letter
and that's when I hired
a big time lawyer.
Okay.
And then you were able to stay.
And then I had to start over everything
but they sent it to the right place after.
Okay, I see what you're saying.
So when you first moved
here, you moved to Miami?
I was in Homestead.
Okay, which for people who
aren't familiar with Florida,
that's way down.
Yeah, South of Miami.
South of Miami, kind of
like you're on your way
to the Keys a little bit, right?
Yes, it is.
Right before.
And what did you do as
a job when you got here,
when you first got here?
Well, check this out.
I first come into America.
I found a friend that
I went to college with
and that's where I stayed.
I had no place to stay.
I didn't know anyone.
I found one of my college friends
that was one of my best friends.
And he says--
So I'm sorry to interrupt.
When you say college,
again, remind everyone
that's more high school years.
Yes.
Yeah, okay.
And he said I could come stay by him.
So I slept, I pushed this couch up
next to the sliding glass
and I slept behind the couch thinking,
looking up at the stars every night saying,
one day it won't be like this.
Wow.
And for like six months, I did not work
because I came to America
with enough money to relax.
Okay.
And at that time,
there was a job on Monster
that I applied to.
And the guy says, "When can you start?"
And I said, "When do you need me to start?"
And he says, "Can you start Monday?"
And I said, "How much is it paying?"
And he says, "10 bucks."
I said, "Does my
experience say it's 10 bucks
or is the job 10 bucks?"
And he's like, "How much do you need?"
I said, "15 to match the
lifestyle I was living."
And I became very good friends with him.
Good for you though.
I can tell you stories about that too.
I mean, good for you
though, for right off the bat,
being like, I know what I'm worth.
Yeah, yeah.
And setting that standard.
And I worked there for like, I don't know,
six, eight years until
my immigration status
got what we talked about earlier.
So where was that located?
That's Bullet Line,
that was in North Miami.
And what were you doing?
Imagine I was living down
Homestead working in North Miami.
Yeah, yeah, how far was that drive?
I would have to take a bus
to the metro rail, I think,
to get off on Carroll City,
pass through some very bad
neighborhoods to get to work.
And I can tell you stories about that too.
People faking, people
robbing people on the buses.
Did they ever try to do anything to you?
I would sit right behind the bus driver
with my headphones and my MP3 player.
And I would sit right
behind my Sony Discman.
(laughing)
And I would just watch, no.
You probably had a vibe
about you, like, dude,
I'm from Trinidad, I've seen some things.
I've seen some things, yeah.
Yeah, don't mess with me.
I'm not really,
I tried to match people's energy.
Yeah.
You know, it's as simple as that.
And with your life experience,
you can match almost
anyone's energy probably,
at this point.
Probably.
I feel nice, I'm nice.
If you're not nice, I'm not nice.
Yeah.
So how long was it one
way just to get to that job?
I don't wanna exaggerate, like four hours.
One way?
Yes, ma'am.
Remember, buses don't come on time.
That's the first problem.
So what time would you get on the bus?
I don't remember, but I
have a notebook home that,
I can tell you stories about that.
I've always,
I'm very resilient.
It doesn't matter because I know
life is the change and
this will not stay the same.
So nothing stresses me out like that.
I'm never stressed like that.
I'll just do it.
I've done jobs where I
got like three hours sleep
and I had to get back to work,
but that's put on in my career.
But I kept my music on and
pretend life was a music video.
So you just kept a positive attitude.
Yeah, you have to.
I'm not the most positive person,
but I know digging
yourself deeper in a hole
will get you nowhere.
Yeah, so you would get to work
after taking hours to get
there and then work a full day.
And then it would take you
just as long to get home.
Oh, I would work very long over time
to get a lot of money and then, yeah.
So most of your time was in, was-
I did that so I can, the
same guy that hired me,
loaned me his car.
He says it's fully insured.
Don't crash it, but if
I crash it, it's okay.
Use my car this weekend
and find our apartment
closer to where we work.
And that's what I did.
I was working because I knew.
So you were able to improve that situation.
You moved closer.
Well, I moved to 125th North Miami
between Johnson's and
Wales and Barry University
to very party energy type place,
which is a whole bunch
of other stories, but yes.
Well, that's what I was about to ask.
So did you, we're talking,
are we still talking the 90s?
No, we're talking 2000s.
Yes, 2006, 2008.
Okay, so did you enjoy the Miami lifestyle?
It's a different lifestyle, yes.
I got carried away and I almost lost myself
because it's constantly wearing faces
when you're around
certain people, certain parties.
I mean, at least at that time,
I mean, I guess people still do that,
but I did lose myself.
Yeah, I think it's still like that.
I lost myself because
there's stories we forgot,
but coming to America and
seeing 69 cents hamburgers
and buying 10 hamburgers and the lifestyle
coming from Trinidad, I was overwhelmed.
I did lose myself because I
got fat, I wanted everything.
Everything is so easy to lose yourself.
So that's interesting.
So you were coming from a
struggle really in Trinidad
and then you get to America
and it feels like such a
easy, wonderful existence.
And so you jumped in. I'll give you
a quick example.
I can walk my dogs, 11, 12, 12, and it's,
you will not do that in Trinidad.
It's as simple as that.
Okay, so you almost
felt safe the first time.
I can go out at night and
get, and I've done this,
get a slim gym and a coke at
the corner shop and it's fine.
You will not do that in Trinidad.
Even in some of the bad places in Miami
are still better than
Trinidad, would you say?
In terms of safety, I mean,
yeah, that's a loaded question.
I've been in Liberty City and
I was told not certain parts
because I would go there to braid my hair.
Because I'm a new person,
don't be here when it gets dark.
Yeah, yeah, yep.
The girls who did my
hair would tell me that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But so you really, you want that safety.
As far as if it's bad,
I've seen homemade guns.
I've seen a gun that shoots machetes.
Yeah. Wow.
It's like a crossbow,
but there's three machetes.
Yeah, it's wild.
They make stuff.
I've seen a gun shooting concrete pellets.
They make stuff.
It's like a baby gun,
but it shoots in concrete.
That will hurt you. In Trinidad.
Yes, I've seen a PVC
pipe full with concrete.
So it slightly bends when it hits you.
A PVC pipe full of concrete.
So it's not as stiff.
It has a slight half inch bend.
So it will hit you very nice.
You know, it takes a
lot of ingenuity to make.
It's too bad that they couldn't have
centered that energy.
It's like being, no disrespect.
I love Trinidad.
It's like being in a prison
where they make shanks with anything.
Right, right, right.
But is it gang related?
Is it more?
I think it's the heat
to tell you the truth.
I've been on public
transportation on a public bus
and there's a seat at the back of the bus.
But to get to the bus, I
need to walk on the aisle.
And there's a guy with
his knee out blocking me.
And I get to him and he looks at me like,
and I go, bro, not today.
And he looks at you and
then he slowly moves at people.
They challenge you.
Yeah.
They're pushing the
boundaries to see who can I get.
Yes.
Okay, to go back then,
so you did get arrested,
you spent two weeks in prison.
Were there any other?
Then I spent a month home
thinking about my life and how nice it is
to go to the bathroom
or look out the window.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But did you have any
other encounters with the law
or any other risky behavior after that one?
So was that taught you?
It was just the wrong people.
I've been pulled over at
least four times in America
and I've never had a bad thing.
Learning to communicate and be truthful.
Just talk, I've never had problems.
Have you had any accidents?
Yes, I've told all two cars in America.
In America.
It's a big she clips.
Down here?
Yes.
On 95?
Getting off the ramp to 95
where a car swings in front of me
and I had to almost go off.
Like off the overpass?
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
Are you okay after both of those?
That's amazing.
That's amazing.
Okay.
So, all right.
So you got here, you kind
of jumped in with both feet,
ate all the McDonald's hamburgers.
Everything, Ruby Tuesday, everything.
Just enjoyed it all.
And then experienced the Miami lifestyle,
which the way you described it,
I think it's still like that.
I think it's very, my kids would say,
facey, very networky, very--
Yeah, there's been parties to this thing
on Friday night, Saturday night.
Yeah.
There was a time when the
Katrina hurricane was happening
and in the middle of the apartment,
this was my first time,
people are bringing out barbecues and beers
and they're gonna have a hurricane party.
And I guess, what is going on here?
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, okay.
I quickly learned, but the
first times it was like--
Yeah.
Now did your brothers visit you
when you moved to
Miami and were living here?
My brother comes sometimes from Canada
because his
sister-in-law lives in higher up
close to Orlando, so I go to see him, but--
But when you first moved here--
No, no.
They stayed in Trinidad?
Everyone stayed there.
No, yeah.
And so, how long was it
till you saw them again
after you moved to America?
A long time ago.
That had to have been rough.
Yeah.
And so, were you living
on your own in an apartment
or did you, because I know
you lived with your friend,
but then you got your own apartment.
Did you date?
Of course I dated.
Okay, so you met some ladies.
Of course, it was Miami.
Why do you like to sit here so much?
Yeah, the stories.
So you weren't totally lonely.
No.
So you enjoyed, so how
long were you in Miami?
People are very aggressive
in Miami, that's all I'll say.
I can tell you stories where I'm at a party
trying to hook up with someone,
the girl gets up to use the bathroom,
another girl sits on my lap,
puts a number in my pocket.
This is a long time ago, and yeah.
Okay.
So it's very fast life.
Yes it is.
Yes, so you worked
there for how long again?
And lived there?
Eight years probably.
Eight years.
And then from there, where did you go?
I had to stop working
because my immigration
papers got screwed up
and I had to go to immigration court.
So I lost my job, I was
on limbo, I had to wait.
My lawyer said, "If you're
gonna do something stupid,
"make sure it's something big,
"rub a bank, don't rub a grocery store."
And I had to wait.
When I did get back my
temporary work permit,
I started to work in Hilton, down in Miami,
Blue Lagoon, behind Miami's airport.
Okay.
Which is a whole different world
with a whole bunch of different stories.
So what's going on over there?
Tell us about that.
By that time I was living in Hollywood.
Okay.
So I would have to take a bus,
then the metro rail, then
the shuttle to get to my...
How'd you get to Hollywood?
Why Hollywood?
I had no place to live and I started to...
I messaged a bunch of
people and my friends.
I was living with my
friend who had two sons.
So I was staying with the kids.
In Hollywood?
Yes.
Okay, so you're living with a friend?
Remember I lost everything.
My immigration went, I
lost my car, lost my job.
It wasn't lost, but I was in limbo.
I had no legal paper to do anything.
Was there a period there
before you lived with your friend
that you weren't in an
apartment or anywhere?
Where did you go from the
apartment to your friend's house?
No, I was homeless for a little bit.
So where did you sleep?
One of the band rooms on the drum kit
because the couch was
to suspect the sleep on.
There were bodily fluids
that I would not trust on the couch.
And where was that?
Oh, this was in Pembroke Pines.
Okay.
But I was messaging people on an iPod
because I didn't even have a phone.
So an iPod.
Yeah.
That's a blast from the past.
I'm telling you.
I messaged a whole bunch of people
and my friend said I
could come stay with him.
So how long were you homeless for?
I don't know.
Meaning before you were
able to live with a friend.
So for a month, you were-
I messaged a whole bunch of people.
I was to the point where I
wanted to go back to Trinidad
and my baby brother said,
"Molyne, you came to America
with a suitcase.
You're back to the suitcase.
Do it again, but this time do it better."
And I said, "Why is my
baby brother talking like
I'm the baby brother?"
And I said, "Okay, let me get my-
Yeah, because you were
also inspiring him too.
And so, so just to be clear, I've not
totally understanding
before you lived with your
friend, you were in a build.
You were living in a-
I was living in North Miami, 125th.
But then when you, in
between, when you were homeless,
were you in a building before you,
when you lost your
apartment before you moved in
with your friend, you said you were-
Well, I got evicted
and that's the story too.
I broke down the door to get my computer
and a bunch of stuff,
because I wasn't sure what was happening
and how they can do that.
But, and then I, yeah,
I had no place to stay
and I lost all my X-Files, DVD sets and-
Oh no.
I had a bunch of stuff.
It's a different time.
And of course, my friends
lived in a house in Pembroke Pines
where three couples lived.
Okay.
But there was a band room in the garage.
Okay.
So they said, "Come stay there."
Okay, so you were there in Pembroke Pines
staying with friends.
Because I also worked with two of the guys
that worked at the place, Bullet Line,
but I lost my job, but they
knew, they knew what was there.
Which is wonderful, you
had this community to turn to
and then you went and lived
with your friend in Hollywood.
Yeah, I can stay in the band room.
Yeah, yeah.
(laughing)
And then, but to get, then you get the job
Right.
At the air, behind the airport.
Yes.
And you-
While living in Hollywood.
While living in Hollywood.
So now we're back.
Stay in a friend's house close to,
what's that place called?
Whiskey, there's no whiskey tango,
but there's the Art Circle.
I was living walking distance
from the Art Circle in Hollywood.
Okay.
I think it's 24th street.
And then to get to your job near the
airport at the Hilton.
I would have to walk, then,
or take the bus, get to the Metro Rail.
The Metro Rail, I don't
remember where it stops
and then I would have to take another bus
and then get the shuttle.
Or I would have to go to the airport
to get the Hilton shuttle
to take me back to Hilton.
And then reverse that to get home.
Yes, but that's where it becomes tricky.
And people can look this up.
The Metro Rail has to be in West Palm
to stop at the certain time.
I don't remember if it's nine or 11.
Because I'm the first, not the first,
because I'm the new guy in Hilton,
who do you think got
all those shitty shifts?
Yeah.
So I would always work late,
but then I can't get the
Metro Rail to go back home.
So I started going to the airport.
The shuttle would take me to the airport
and I would walk around and talk to people,
hang out in the airport, not fall asleep.
So you would spend your
evenings, you get off work.
Till like seven o'clock,
till the train comes back so I can go home.
And so you would just
hang out in the airport?
Yeah.
Kind of like that movie,
"The Terminal" with Tom Hanks.
Like where he lived in the airport.
Until it becomes so stressful,
I started sleeping in the golf carts
behind Hilton at the back of the hotel
until the security
guard saw me and they go,
"What are you doing?
You work here, what are you doing?"
And I explained to them
and they said, "Hold on."
And they called room service
and where there was the empty room,
they would let me sleep in there.
That's wonderful.
But I had to leave by the morning.
That's wonderful.
Which led to more stories
because I could call
downstairs and get free food.
Hey, it's Marlin.
Yeah.
What do you guys have?
What do you guys have?
Marlin, just come downstairs.
(Marlin laughs)
That's wonderful though.
So through all of this,
you were finding places of support.
I think people can feel energy
and once you're truthful
and you're humble and you show gratitude,
good things happen.
I have bad stories,
but it wasn't always bad.
It's not bad, that bad.
I've always prevailed.
And I'm not saying that
to be cocky or arrogant.
You're an authentic person.
Life has to go on.
Well, you're an authentic
person and people feel that.
And so I think people are
more inclined to help someone
if they can trust what
they're reading from that person
and they could trust you.
They could trust what
you're saying is reality.
You're not trying to,
you don't have an angle.
You don't have an agenda.
You're just, you're saying
this is what's going on with me.
And people, I think human beings
do wanna help each other.
And so I think you
witnessed that in real time.
I think we're all
struggling and where we can help.
In one way or another, absolutely.
So was the commute, oh my gosh.
So the commute, I thought
the commute from Homestead
to North Miami was crazy, but this sounds,
this even required.
That's when I referred earlier.
I would probably get
like three hours sleep,
four hours sleep, I get home like seven,
go to sleep till 11 and
then I have to get stopped
getting ready to come back to work.
11 in the morning from
seven to 11 in the morning
and then start getting
ready to go back to work.
Because I have to take the,
I have to travel to get
back to work to get back.
Because when would your shift start?
Five or six.
So you would spend your
whole day just to get there.
Yes.
Well.
That's a terrible commute in a car,
let alone having the hop,
skip and jump around, right?
Yes.
Yeah, that's a lot.
Can you share?
I met very cool people though.
I met a guy who I'm
still very good friends.
He was a, he still is,
he moved to Washington.
He's a music teacher at,
he was the music
teacher at Frost University
because I'm the type of person,
if I see you and you
have on a band t-shirt,
I'm gonna ask you.
Yeah.
Are you a poser or are you?
Yeah, yeah.
And I made friends because that's,
I also have a puppet
that I made to have with me
on the ride just to be interesting.
You had a puppet?
I have a puppet, holy.
Like a ventriloquist type situation?
He's a light division of me, but yes.
And you would bring him?
I could send you a picture later, yes.
And he would just like
hang out next to you?
Yeah, he would be like,
what the hell's going on here?
But yes.
And you would just-
It's just a stark conversation because
I think everyone walks
around thinking that rain
is only falling on them and we all have it,
but if you can bring light to somebody else
or something else, why not do it?
Yeah, what would you do with the puppet?
Just talk crap, like how's your day going?
But with the puppet.
I like it here, yeah.
With the puppet.
Nice shoes, simple
stuff and people are like,
what the, and yeah,
just open up conversation.
Was this at the airport?
No, this is on the trip, on the metro rail.
On the metro rail, you would do that.
On tri rail.
Yeah, the tri rail.
Yeah, the tri rail.
I guarantee there's
people that remember you.
Yeah, I've had friends on
Facebook that's still, yeah.
That's amazing, that's amazing.
I've got a question, maybe a comment,
but what you mentioned earlier,
like something about being cocky,
I feel like it's more inspirational.
What you're describing is--
I don't want people to
think that I'm cocky.
No, I wouldn't say it's coming across that,
not to me at least,
that's very inspirational.
Do you, is that an
American thing, do you think?
Or if you compare it to
Trinidad, what you're describing,
is that opportunity, is that vibe there,
or is that really here in America,
and you know what I'm saying?
I think America opened
up a whole can of whoops.
When I came here, I did everything I think
I could have done in Trinidad,
creatively, and everything with people,
and I wanted to see if my success is based
on the people I work with,
or I can do this by myself.
When I first came here,
working and hanging in Miami,
they told me I would talk to soft,
or my words would die out,
and they taught me very early,
if you don't ask, you'll never know.
And I started to get more bold,
and I realized people are
people no matter where you go.
And I wasn't trying to be,
even when I played rock
music, and I tell people this,
it wasn't white people
music, the music chose me.
I didn't choose why I liked this,
I just liked the bands that I like,
and that's how it is.
I think America just made me better,
a better version of my Trinidad self.
Yeah. That makes sense.
Yeah. That makes sense.
And it was like a huge outlet for you,
to then just go for it.
And this is after losing
myself that I mentioned earlier,
and realizing if you
keep changing your faces,
there will come a time
where you'll have no face.
And this is it, either you like it,
or like I told you earlier,
people like me because I talk the truth,
but people also don't like
me because I talk the truth.
You're an open book.
But the point there is,
I talk my truths.
When I say that movie was not nice,
I'm not saying the
movie is not nice for you,
that's what people get confused about.
So my stories are whatever,
I've talked the talk and
I've walked the walk in my life.
Yeah, and people can feel that off of you,
and your energy for sure.
For sure.
Can you offer a little bit of glimpse
into what it was like to kind of exist
in the airport during those times?
Like what is that like to just,
because okay, so for most people,
when they go to an airport,
And you would see sad looking people
because their flights are probably delayed,
people sleeping on the
floor, you just talk to people.
I've made friends
working in the airport too
because the regulars, they had to be like,
what the hell are you doing?
How come we always see you here?
Was it high stress?
Could you feel the stress off of people?
Because people are mainly
stressed in the airport.
I can tell you a lot of stresses.
When I was living in Hollywood,
and I told you for
people who know Hollywood,
24th street, let's just say it like this,
is 24 streets from I-95.
There was a time I was getting dropped off
because I became
friends with people in Hilton,
but they would drop me off on like 95.
And this is like one,
two o'clock in the morning,
I would walk home, 24 streets.
Wow.
Were you east of 95 or west of 95?
I was close to the, oh, walking west.
Okay.
Yeah, that's a whole nother thing.
So high stress coming
back to your question.
I think people need to understand
stress is part of life.
Mismanaging stress is what
slows us down and kills us.
Stress, like an example for an animal,
when the alligator jumps off
the water to eat the gazelle,
the stress should make
you jump higher, run faster.
You should be, you should adapt the stress
and make yourself
better is what I'm saying.
That makes sense.
Great advice. That absolutely makes sense.
So how long were you doing that?
Where you were traveling from Hollywood
to the Hilton behind the Miami airport?
At least six months.
It's on my LinkedIn.
(laughing)
I'll plug my LinkedIn, but it is there.
I'm trying to remember.
Okay, and what were
you doing for the Hilton?
I did everything from PBX,
phones, to bellboys.
Bellboys is the best thing
because people invite you
back to their rooms and
you get very nice tips.
I can tell you stories on that also.
Yeah, yeah.
And so you'd worked there for six months?
Yes, I've seen, remember again,
this is behind Miami's airport.
So it's very high stress where people,
everyone thinks they're a celebrity
and everyone is high stress.
They throw receipts back at you.
There's a room in Hilton, and I can say it,
where you're allowed to go back and scream,
no one will hear you and
then come back out and work.
Wow, just because of feeling--
People complain for
anything, there's noises,
I need to change my room, and
you're just supposed to smile.
I will not work in
hospitality, and I'll say that--
I bet that's a high stress Hilton anyways,
because you're really only staying there
if you're coming in for a cruise line,
or your plane's delayed.
It's very stressed, and 90%
of the people speak Spanish.
Do you?
No, pogo pogo, very pogito, very little.
Actually, that brings
me, what is the language,
is the English on Trinidad?
Yes. Okay.
It's a dialect where they break up words,
but certain people
speak Spanish in Trinidad,
certain people speak
French, but English, I mean.
English is the language. Yeah, I mean,
England was ruling, so.
Right, right, right, right.
It's cot-de-yard and all the good stuff.
Yeah, so when you left
Hilton, what happened?
When I left-- When you left Hilton,
where did you go from there?
I got a job on Sample Road, a place called,
it's all in my LinkedIn,
I plug my LinkedIn again,
a place called Logo Up,
and I'm trying to
remember how that happened.
I think a friend was
applying for jobs for me, closer,
and I got the job, and yeah,
I would get for a long while.
What did you do?
The graphic office.
Okay. Yeah.
It's cuz you stepped away from that
for that brief period you were at Hilton,
so was it nice to be back--
Yeah, because I was
taking any job I could get.
Right, of course.
So it had to have been
nice to be back at it.
It was great. Yeah.
It was great.
And how long were you there?
Five years, I think.
So did you get a place close to that job?
Yes, I was like five minutes away from work
where all the guys would
come to the bachelor's then,
there was Xbox, and my studio apartment
looked like a bachelor's bed.
Okay.
So people would take their
lunch breaks to come over.
I could say this now,
drink beers, play video games,
and then go back to work, yes.
So you had that high stress situation,
and then you're now in a--
I could walk to work, yes.
Yeah, that's nice.
That's nice.
Much better area too, the sample road,
wherever you're at's
better than down in those areas.
Where you were.
So that was five years
doing graphic design there.
And so now we're what, in the 2010s, 2015?
10s, 2015.
Somewhere around there.
On this LinkedIn.
As you get older, the years all--
Oh man, an old one.
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Now in addition to the graphic design,
did you do anything, any side hustles?
I'm still doing side hustles.
I always do side hustles,
but because my line is very,
it's not limited, but I choose
what I want to do with my time,
I choose the people I wanna work with.
I'll help people, but
when it comes to money,
I'm not gonna haggle you, or
I'm not gonna run you down.
I work with two churches in North Carolina,
and I work with a yacht,
if that's how you say it,
a boat company in Fort Lauderdale.
They don't question
anything, they know what they want.
I have a 1099, they send the money.
And so you're doing
graphic design for them?
Yes.
For their marketing?
Yes.
That's cool.
So you have your own side gig.
Yes.
Have you ever opened a business,
your own business, or
founded any businesses?
No, I've been tempted to start at LLC,
but things have been going well enough,
I've never really pushed on it.
Okay, so even through the
years, you didn't co-found--
It's on my, it's all up there.
It's there, I've been an independent,
I've always been hustling.
I learned that early in
America, there's money to get.
Yeah?
No, it's true.
Now, have you, when you've been hustling,
have you worked with any friends
or done things with a partner?
Has it always been just you?
I've worked with friends.
And has that been a
positive experience always?
Always, no.
I had a friend that stole $8,000 from me.
What happened there?
I was doing work for
him and he kept promising
and I kept doing more work
for him and he kept promising.
And then I go, bro,
protein powder is not cheap.
Yeah.
I'm not angry or anything, but I gotta go.
And then he got very angry saying,
I turn my back on him and I
go, you know where I live,
if you really wanna fight or
talk about it, come see me.
No, I can't keep doing this.
Were you doing graphic art for him?
This was after Logo Up.
I left Logo Up after five years
to start the E-liquid
company with a very close friend.
What's an E-liquid?
E-liquid is those
vape, like vape cigarettes,
the flavored smokes.
So you were starting a company?
Yes, traveled all
across California, Houston,
Buffalo, New York.
And it was your company?
It was me and him, yes.
So you were still living in that,
I still had the apartment
base off of Sample Road,
but traveling.
I left Logo Up, I told
them I'm gonna start a company
and they go, okay.
So you and this friend started that company
and you were going to
different places and selling it?
Selling your product?
Yes, we go to smoke
shops, we go to conferences,
we go to expos.
What was the name of your vape?
Conviction E-liquids.
And this would have been
probably in the early time
when vapes were just coming out, right?
Yes, because we were down in Miami,
we were doing a bunch of shows, yeah.
So that had been a
pretty successful business?
It would have been, it was going well, yes.
And then?
My friends started getting too happy
and doing side
hustles, selling illegal stuff
and doing bad stuff
behind what we were doing
to make more money.
And the investors found out
and they shut the company down.
No.
And so how long had you been doing that?
At least a year.
And so when he took the 8,000 from you,
was that after the investors pulled out?
Was that at the demise of the--
Yeah, they gave me like three laptops
and they tried to give me stuff,
but it's just the friendship where you,
every time you start in
something with a friend,
at least have things in writing.
Yes.
So did that friendship dissolve then?
Yes.
And it's the learning thing, right?
It's part of my fault too, I trusted them.
Yeah, it's hard.
And like you said, I think
it's hard to go into business
with friends because if it goes downhill--
Yeah, I was doing everything.
He was like the sales guy
and I'm doing operations,
I'm doing deliveries,
I'm doing photography,
I'm doing the website, but I didn't mind.
I like working.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then starts becoming overbearing
where you use the mic call,
but you don't wanna put
back gas, little things.
Yes.
Drip, drip, drip on the bucket.
Resetment.
Yeah, but you probably learned a lot
doing all the traveling.
You were traveling, you
were meeting with people,
you were doing what, conventions?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so you probably learned with time.
And with my personality, I work shows.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So after that business venture,
then what did you do?
I started working for a rehab company.
And was that still--
In Delray.
In Delray and--
Multimedia, websites, SEO, back end stuff.
For the rehab company?
Yes.
So marketing stuff?
Yes.
And did you keep the place in sample
or did you move closer to Delray?
No, I was still in sample that time.
Okay, and so still graphic design.
That's my love.
That's your thing.
That's my love.
That's your love.
That's my love.
Okay, and how long were you there?
Till the FBI kicked those
down and shut them down.
What happened with that?
Welcome to South Florida.
No kidding.
What happened with that?
The guy's name is
James, that's all I'll say.
He had his wife pretending to be a doctor,
cashing checks in the bank,
and they let that go on for a little while
until they shut it down.
All I know is the FBI came in
and they didn't come in softly,
and they came in looking for him
and they said shut everything down,
this place is gonna shut down.
Seriously, so his wife was
pretending to be a doctor,
a rehab doctor?
I'm not sure, but that's what we, that's,
whatever the doctor's name is on the check,
she was that doctor cashing the check.
And so people thought that they were--
He was embezzling money,
moving money, something.
It's a big business down
here that's all over the place.
Besides, and I could say
this because people notice,
besides changing people's piss samples
and doing stuff like that.
Okay. Yes.
Okay, okay, were you
there when they came in?
Yes. The FBI?
Yes.
My gosh, you get a front row seat
to all the exciting stuff.
You have all these life
experiences that really happen.
That's why I'm not really stressed
because it's like what can happen now?
Yeah, you're like what, whatever.
Did you have your citizenship yet?
No, I don't think so. Oh my gosh.
Yeah, right.
For a second, did you
think they were coming
for you?
You're always on the news. Well, the scoop.
Yes.
The scoop, right?
Oh, the scoop.
Ever since the scoop
on the basketball court,
you probably always are kind of like--
You always think something's gonna happen.
Yeah. They're coming.
Oh my gosh, so were they there
and got arrested in front of you?
Yes, taken out in handcuffs.
And I mean, we weren't
sure what was happening
until after, but yes, they were.
You weren't though.
No. Just them.
Yeah, they knew what they were doing.
So now you're out of a job.
Oh.
Yeah, again. Yes.
Okay, so, and how long were you there?
It's on LinkedIn. Yes.
(both laughing)
Almost a year, I would think yes.
Okay, so-- Wow.
What did you do after that?
Because you couldn't really use these
people as a reference.
This part is not in my LinkedIn.
I started working in a print tree,
which I have stories there too.
A print tree?
A print tree, a print tree.
They do calendars, normal.
Like a print shop. Okay, okay.
Print shop. Okay.
But--
The graphic design for them?
Yes, doing catalogs, doing
calendars, doing postcards.
Were you going into an office
or was that work from home?
That's where the trickiness starts.
It was an office warehouse in the sense,
the work best was right
next to where all the chemicals
and everything was mixing.
So you would have your
lunch and it would taste like--
No. Ink.
Well, not just that.
It's about what you were breathing in.
Right.
How long did you do that?
Very long.
Yeah, you start to feel high probably.
Every time I've lost a job
or something bad happens,
I just do whatever it takes to transition.
I know it's not gonna stay long,
but I'm not gonna stay home and think about
where I'm gonna get money from.
And one day, from there, I was doing cardio
and this guy walks up to me and he goes,
"How much longer you have?"
And I go 45 minutes and he goes, "What?"
We started talking and
that same evening he hired me
and I started working in Bokeliffe,
a place called Essay Fission.
So wait, you were doing cardio what?
Wear it at gym?
Yeah, LA Fitness.
Okay, and so he wanted the machine.
He wanted a machine.
Were you doing like
Stairmaster or something?
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, and then you
guys just started talking.
He's like, "What do you do?"
I do graphics, he goes,
"Really, tell me more."
And we started talking and he's like,
"Can you come in?"
And I say, "Yeah, when I'm done."
"Gotta finish my cardio."
(laughing)
I never wanna seem
desperate in any situation.
I'm not jumping
because even if I wanna jump,
because I know people will prey on that.
So smart.
I don't know if it's smart,
but I'm sure I've been burnt
before and I learned that very fast.
No, that's great advice for listeners,
that you kind of set the standard
of how you wanna be treated.
Even if you need what they're offering,
hold back a little bit.
Always.
Don't play your hand.
So we know not to play poker with it.
(laughing)
For sure, for sure.
So how long were you at the print shop?
Six months.
Yeah, that's enough time.
But that's not on my LinkedIn,
because I wasn't very
happy to put that there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You need to get out of
there health-wise too.
And then you worked for, what was the
company in Boca then?
S.A. Fishin.
And what did they do?
You can look them up there.
They mainly do face
shields and sports apparel,
fishing and hunting.
Mm, okay.
When we started, there
were like 13, 11 to 12,
with 13 people.
I shared a desk with my
very good friend Lauren.
I think she moved to Italy,
but the place was, it
was a startup company.
And we shared a desk.
And three years after, it
was the million dollar company.
Wow.
And during that time,
were you still in sample,
or did you eventually move
closer to Boca del Rey area?
I think I was.
After sample, I think I did move to Boca.
Okay, while you were working there.
I just kept moving north.
I kept, one day I might end up in Naples.
Yeah.
So still graphic
design, still saying the same.
Yeah. The same.
And then you were there three years?
Where are we talking about?
The--
Until COVID happened.
Okay.
We're moving up the years now.
All right.
So you were, it was called S.A. Fisher?
Fishin.
S.A. Fisher.
It's still, they're still going.
Because they were bothered
by some New York investors
right at the COVID time.
And everything changed.
What happened when they were bought up?
They changed people.
And so they let everybody go?
Yeah, but I was already tired.
But the boss and I are
friends, Tom DeSonea.
And he asked me, he started
another company called Sama,
S-A-M-A, which does marketing for anyone.
And he asked me if I
wanted to go over there
and be in charge of some graphic people.
And that's what I did.
So during COVID, that's what you did?
Yes.
And everyone was home, obviously.
So this would have been, so that's perfect.
The way it all just--
I was still making money.
It just kept working
out, working out for you.
Because you can't be scared to take,
I'm not sure if
opportunity knocks more than once,
but I'm not giving it that chance.
Yeah.
You just, no matter what's going on,
you're just moving forward.
Moving forward.
Well, you have a skill too though.
I've seen your work and it's awesome.
Thank you.
And it's quick, right?
I recently did a job,
for the job I'm working for right now.
I did 1230 images in eight days.
I had to format it for the web.
And I don't think anybody
that I know can do that.
Yeah.
No, that's insane.
Did you do like a batch through Photoshop?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
I took two Fridays and I said,
if I went out with the
girls from seven 30 to 1130,
I would be having a good time.
So I could be home seven 30 to 1130,
playing my EDM and still get this done.
Why?
I like challenges and I
like stress this at the level.
I like people.
I'll make this quick.
I did not go to school in America.
I did not go to
college, elementary, whatever.
I did not go to school.
So my reputation is not,
he's a Harvard graduate.
So I built my
reputation by doing good work.
And everyone that knows
me, every job I've left,
I'm sure I can go back and get a job there.
Even the people I was
living with in Hollywood,
while I was there, I was doing the dishes.
I was cleaning the house
one day because I'm home.
And I'm not doing that to get a star,
but make life livable.
Well, you've built your reputation.
Yeah, I built my reputation.
And not just
professionally, but personally,
like you're saying, it's
why you had such a strong
support system when things weren't so easy.
People were happy to help you
because you had such a solid,
authentic reputation.
And there's something to
be, it's called integrity.
I have in COVID, when COVID
and we're not gonna stay there,
I have friends that are
sheriff that had gyms open.
I probably shouldn't say this,
but there were gyms open in
COVID when gyms were closed
and you couldn't train
because I made friends
with good people.
Yeah, yeah.
But that doesn't just happen.
That's that you're
attracting that from your energy,
from your authenticity.
I need to grow more than.
From your integrity,
from your integrity, right?
So, and during this time, I
mean, I know when you were
in Miami, you were dating,
did that continue on through,
as you moved up more North,
were there any relationships?
I'm in a relationship
now for the past 11 years.
Okay.
I don't wanna sit the girl,
but I'll start it like that.
It was an okay cupid for
people that know what that is.
I don't know what that is.
That's around the time of plenty of fish.
Okay, so it's an old dating app.
Okay, so that's how you guys met?
Her friend told her, go on
this and see what's there.
She went on for a week, we messaged,
and she deleted the app
because she's not like that.
And her friend says, but you
didn't even give it a chance.
She came back on and she says, hey, I
really hate this app.
Here's my number.
And she was living Boca, I was living Boca.
I said, hey, you wanna go to Denny's?
I'm old, you wanna go to Denny's?
Denny's is good. They're great milkshakes.
Milkshakes, they're milkshakes.
And since then, I say
now I need to get paroled,
but we've been together.
So is she from here?
She's originally from Connecticut,
moved to New York, Green Point,
came down to do school and
never moved from Florida.
Okay, that kind of happens.
You start living down here
and you don't leave again.
And are you comfortable
sharing what she does,
what her profession is?
She's a mental, she's a family therapist,
she's a gambling
therapist, she's working on a PhD,
she's a brainiac.
Wow.
She does, she's like the,
I'm trying to find a funny way to say this.
She's like the encyclopedia
and I'm the coloring book.
Okay, yeah, I see, I see.
I bet you guys
beautifully compliment each other.
Yeah, it's funny because Brian always says
he got his degree in psychology
so he could be married to me.
So I'm sure she, with her as a therapist,
she can handle whatever.
Sigmund Freud and the way
things happen and Nietzsche
and a whole bunch of stuff,
because I think I'm the YouTube therapist.
And of course things have changed
and they say the things that are wrong,
but in that time, it wasn't wrong.
So we just, we play argue,
we don't argue anymore, but.
Yeah, oh, it's okay to argue,
that's part of a relationship.
I think when you--
After 11 years, I know, I don't argue.
Oh, there you go, there's that avoidant.
I'm with you, man.
I always say if things
get quiet in a relationship,
you gotta worry.
Yeah, because there's nothing to win.
When you win, you still lose.
Yeah, yeah, but it's
worth working something.
If you gotta say
something, you gotta say something.
There are times when I've said stuff where,
under stress, I really didn't mean,
and I do apologize and I do get past it.
That's why in any relationship,
for 11 months compared to 11 years,
you had to have something working on.
And she has made me a better person.
Gina is the name.
Yeah, and well, and as a couple,
and separately, it's
important to always evolve
and continue to grow as
people in the relationship
so things don't get stagnant personally.
I've been harassing her right now
to do online therapy because she told me
her friend is doing it and she quit her job
and now she's doing it and I go,
stop being complacent and lazy,
on Saturdays or whatever.
I joke with her.
I said, get off her SD and
you can be making extra money
that you can go to Sprouts with.
It doesn't have to be, I joke with her,
but I was like, yeah, yeah.
That's related to why I love Sprouts.
Does she like Whole Foods too?
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
So we have the same taste.
I love that.
So in addition to graphic design--
So I'm off the market since then.
Oh yes, yes, to make it clear.
It's been 11 years and I'm very happy.
That's wonderful.
But in addition to graphic design,
is there other creative things you do?
I do everything.
I do photography, I do video editing,
I do web front page
design, I do a little bit of SCU,
I do back end stuff.
I'm not really big into that
because that really slows you down
and you have to be very, on the back end,
you have to be coding.
I know HTML, but it's not really my thing
because I like to create
and I like to be fast moving.
I like to take an empty
space and create emotion.
Even with my Instagram posts or whatever,
I have to say
something what I think is funny
or do something funny.
If people look at my stuff and they go,
you either hate it or you like it.
I'm going for that.
So everything I do in my life,
I want to present part of
me in everything that I do.
You're almost sharing a story
in everything that you're doing.
She says the therapist, my girl says,
you're always telling a story.
I say because people remember stories.
Yes, and it stays with
them and it affects them.
Do you still do anything musically?
Right now I'm trying to
go into my nine inch nails
time where I'm learning to play drums.
I have a MIDI keyboard.
I have friends that
play different instruments,
but I have songs I want to do
all the instruments for myself.
And if I have a friend
that plays saxophone,
he could come in.
If you can sing, you
come in and you say a line,
I want to do certain
things for myself right now.
I've played with bands where
the last band I played with,
and I'm not going to call the name.
It's a 20 minute set that takes three hours
because everybody wants to get
high and get drunk and party.
And I don't, no, I don't want to do that.
You're past that point.
Yeah, I could be as raw as I,
I don't want to be a whore just
because I love being on stage.
I like to be on stage,
but if I feel no connection with the people
or the things that I'm doing,
and if the creative
direction is not, I'm not part of it.
I cannot be part of it.
And there's that authenticity.
Yes, I'm not trying to be anything anymore.
Way past that.
So did you do any
performing or continue musically
when you got to America?
Yeah. Did you?
So where did you perform here?
Where would you? Cher Shells.
Yeah, the famous Cher
Shell in Little Haiti.
Yeah, Marilyn Madison
played there all over.
We drove in up to Tampa.
We've all over the place.
Was it one band?
Yes.
And how many members were in the band?
Four members, a girl drama.
The band was very good.
And what did you play bass?
Yes, I played bass.
But you don't want to say the name, right?
At that time, the name
of the band was Hymen.
Hymen, oh, nice.
You asked for it.
And it was a punk band.
Yes, a metal punk band.
Metal punk.
I have like, was that
newspaper called The New Times?
I have articles with us in it.
I have it printed, I have it scanned it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So when you, did you start that right
when you got to America,
or did it take some time to find them?
I was working in Boseland,
the band room that I stayed in, the guys,
the guy in Marlin, you could,
you used to play bass, right?
Yeah, dab a little bit.
You want to join a band?
You know how it's.
Yeah.
Next thing I know I'm in a band
and I'm playing a year after,
I'm still playing in a band.
So in the middle of all the job stuff,
where you're traveling from Hollywood
and you were homeless and everything,
you're also in a band.
Yeah.
Well, I gotta do something.
There's layers to this.
I'm gonna go crazy.
I am already crazy, but yeah.
So you were, in addition to these jobs,
you were also traveling
and performing with a band.
So I assume you would
do that on your days off
or where you didn't have work.
Take time off or in the weekend,
or take a trip.
The problem was never driving up the Tampa
for people who know where this is.
The three hour drive
after standing up for gig,
falling asleep twice, almost crashing,
driving home was the problem.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's the Tampa's, that's a drive.
It's a hike.
Yeah, people don't realize always that.
What has made me move away from the band
is that the band members
would be so high and drunk.
No one would call to even
make sure you made it back home.
And I go, "I can't be apart."
This is not my family.
Right, right.
So how long were you in the band?
That band, probably three years.
Wow.
It was going great.
Yeah.
And besides Tampa--
We played in Studio A down in Miami.
We played all over.
I have, my Facebook has the videos.
Wow. Yeah.
So did you get into another band after that
or was that the one band you did here?
No, I stopped playing
because I was so disgusted
and I go, I started playing with people.
Like even in arts, I
would go to drum circles
and play music just for fun.
But I didn't wanna be in a band anymore.
So now that you're
learning how to play the drums,
this is kind of, you're
stepping a little bit back
into the musical world.
Well, like a year ago,
the same guys from that band
messaged me and I joined back the band
thinking things had changed.
It had changed, it got worse.
Oh no. Wow.
And I played for a year
and then I just dropped out.
Okay.
Yeah, because your life isn't,
that isn't your life anymore.
They would give the band,
and I'm very transparent,
the band leader would take the money
and give everyone else drinking tabs.
I don't drink.
Yeah.
I have nothing against drinking,
but I spent, give me five bucks for gas.
Right. I believe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I started to get,
I could show you a
Facebook message that I go
and he goes, no, well, I
have to put the money I made
back into the band
before anybody could get paid.
I go, yeah, but that makes no sense to me.
Yeah, yeah.
So, no, that's too bad
that didn't work out.
What are you doing now?
Are you playing different instruments,
laying down single tracks, so then--
Yes, home, yes, yes. You're buying them?
Okay, cool.
I have a foresight,
USB, I have everything home.
Yeah, yeah.
MIDI players, I have a
Yamaha acoustic drum set.
I got three bass
guitars, I got an acoustic,
I got an ROG 350, neon
green, Ibanez guitar, yeah.
So you're creating your own original music?
Yes.
That's cool, that's cool.
I mean, you--
Just for fun, I put it
on SoundCloud or wherever.
Yeah.
It's not to make money
or be famous or anything,
it's just, it's just to have fun.
It's your outlet, you're an
incredibly creative person.
Yes.
And you need those outlets.
Usually creative people need
something or they go crazy.
I'm also, just to say something,
I'm also working on a children's book.
Are you really?
Yes.
About what?
It's about an amphibian, which is me,
but it's about anyone.
The story is about coming to
America and finding yourself,
going through hardships and
balancing the water and land.
But I wanna write it in
such a way where anyone
in any part of life will understand
you have to go through
this to become who you are.
That's wonderful.
Are you, and you're doing,
I assume, the art for it.
Yes.
And then are you also writing the words?
Yes, yes.
How much of it do you have done right now?
I would say two thirds of it.
That's exciting.
I have friends that
are very creative people
and everyone wants to get involved.
But I'm very, I'm not stubborn,
but I like people to come in after.
If you wanna present
something to me, that's fine,
but I don't want you to
taint what I'm doing first
until I get my vision out.
Yeah, you wanna make sure it's your,
like you said, your vision, your dream,
what you have in your mind,
and then they can come in,
but you need to make sure that's set.
I'm very, I don't know if it's stubborn,
but it has to be true.
Yeah, authentic.
Yeah, it has to be authentic.
I think that's a theme here.
When did you realize you were an artist?
Or when did you get that artist bug?
I was probably, I don't
know, I was probably five.
And the weekend comics for
people that know what that is,
I would take candles, candles
from not having electricity,
rub candles on pieces of paper,
take the Spiderman or whatever cartoons,
use that as tracing
paper, and I learned to draw
with the ink printing out on the candle,
and I started to draw, learned to draw.
That's how I started to draw.
So could you always draw?
Because I would love to be able to draw,
but none of us in our family can.
None of us even have decent handwriting.
No.
So we're all jealous of guys like you.
Yeah.
I bought an iPad so I can
start digitally drawing.
And I have so many
creative things I wanna do.
I had to download an app called Habit Hub
to organize my time in 15-minute segments
to make sure I get to
do the things that I like
that is part of me.
Wow.
I have to organize my chaos.
That's interesting.
Because I could go on
YouTube and get the next video
and the next video and
forget what I'm doing.
It happens to all of us.
So is that an app for artists to organize?
If anyone's trying to cultivate habits.
Okay, and so you're using it to organize.
My life.
And your creativity.
I did once I woke up and
I wrote everything I did
for a day and I saw
loopholes where I can maximize time,
or use time better.
And then I realized if
I don't do the things
that I like doing, what am I doing?
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
So I go to bed usually by 8.30, 9 o'clock
and I get home like 6.30.
So you just have like a couple hours.
And I've got three
dogs and I've got a wife.
Yeah, yeah.
So do you get up at like three in the
morning or something?
I get up at four, 4.50.
Yeah, okay.
And I go, why am I doing this?
But I do get up.
If I fall 15, I go, excuse,
this won't get anything done.
So I do get up.
And what do you do?
Is it to work out?
Yeah, I go to the gym.
So you go to the gym and
then you come back home
and get ready for work.
Yes.
Wow, okay.
But that's good, you get
your workout out of the way.
Yeah, and unless people where they live,
people listening go to a gym
where it's not crowded at nights,
I'm not going in at night.
Yeah.
It's either the
hardcore or the older people
very early in the morning.
I can't, I'm much rather deal with that.
I saw something that
said the energy at a gym
in the morning is completely different
than the energy at the gym at night.
In the morning you have the day ready
and it's just more of a positive feel
where at night it's kind of like,
I get to come back to work.
I get to the gym when it's dark.
By the time I'm
leaving, the sun is coming out,
you feel good and dolphins are released.
You go, I don't care what happens.
I just squatted, this is great.
Yeah, yeah, we do our walk.
We get up, I set the
alarm for 5.35 exactly.
That's great.
And then we're out the door,
usually our goal is
six, sometimes it's 6.10,
but we get our walk in.
That's great.
Before I have to wake up
our youngest for school
and our one dog can't handle the heat,
so it's a way for him to be able to walk
before it's really hot out.
But you're right, I mean after that,
I feel like I can do anything.
I'm like ready.
I'm ready to get back in bed.
Our youngest the other day, Dylan was like,
why are you so happy?
I wish I could go back in bed.
Yeah, well he works from home.
So he can get back in
bed and get on his laptop.
Well you know what's happened is,
it's a habit forming, right?
So now we're like maybe
three weeks to a month
back into this, right?
So now it's like--
But I've been told you
have a gym in the back.
I do, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's midday stuff.
I have a 600 foot
patio which I told my girl,
I wanna put a gym and
she's like, no you're not.
You know what I would recommend is--
I would have that.
We'll show it to you afterwards.
I wish I had some.
What I would do is get a sled.
Are we pushing and pulling a sled?
Yeah. It's amazing.
Yeah, that's a great workout.
We do it on the side.
Well you do it more than me.
But the nice thing
about the gym in the back
is you could go out there
anytime throughout the day
and just get a set, you
know, even 30 minutes.
Yeah, yeah, push.
And then yeah, no it's very convenient.
I'm joking saying I'm going to Home Depot
or get one of those pods
and I'll make an enclosure
and I'll put the gym in
that so my girl doesn't see it
so she doesn't think I've changed it.
(laughing) I'm like, I want a
little work out place here.
Yeah, yeah, no it's very convenient.
It's convenient.
It is.
You know what you do
though that we don't do
is you go to bed early.
Yeah.
You have to.
I know.
Because if--
I'm gonna move your mic down a little bit.
Like, you look at the space.
No, it's fine.
It's fine, okay, so make
sure it was in the space.
If I probably have anger issues
and the gym is therapy,
I don't have anger issues,
but you feel much better with the gym.
Yeah.
And I prep talk myself in
the gym like you have to.
But do you do that also for sleep?
When you say what?
I feel like you getting up
and going to the gym early.
I say mantras all the time in my life.
But to commit to going to bed early,
I feel like it can be just
as hard as getting up early.
I have my Alexa saying it's
time to bed by nine o'clock
and I know it's late when she says that.
Okay.
And my girl, every time she says that
and I can say this, when Alexa says,
"It's time to go to bed," my
girl goes, "Shut up, Paul."
(laughing) Because she doesn't want to go to bed.
And my girl tells me every day,
you know you don't have to go to the gym.
I go, "I know this.
"I want to go to the gym."
And I'm impressed by your commitment
to make sure that you get enough sleep
so you can get the full
benefits of your workout.
Almost fell off a treadmill multiple times.
That's what happens when you don't sleep.
Yeah.
Now are you the type that
goes to sleep right like that?
She says in two minutes, I
say, "Yeah, because I'm tired."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You got up so early.
I'm not saying I'm tired
and going in bed with my phone in my hand.
Yeah, that's it.
That's it.
Yeah, that's the one
thing we're still working on.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm not saying anything about anybody,
but I'm just saying
people say they're tired,
but then they find something else to do.
I'm tired, I'm going to sleep.
No, you're right.
You're 100% and sleep is just
as important as working out.
Yeah, and people don't realize sickness,
growth, brain power, your sleep will help.
You feel much better,
you can deal with stress.
So yeah.
Yeah, no, and I read something
or I probably saw something
that said during the night,
your brain cleans itself.
And you have to give
it that time to do that.
It's almost like a,
and so if you don't sleep enough
or getting a deep enough sleep,
it can affect your brain,
the health of your brain,
which I didn't know that.
So I think that's really interesting.
People say I'll sleep when I'm dead.
You will die faster if you don't sleep.
It's true.
It's so important.
And I've seen a Joe Rogan talk about
if you miss sleep on Monday, Tuesday,
and you think you can get it back on Sunday
by sleeping all day,
you've already damaged yourself.
Yeah.
It's not building back.
Yeah.
You've already.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You can't catch up.
You can't catch up.
So in addition--
Well, do you do,
are you like that Saturday, Sunday as well?
So every day you're in bed by 8 39.
I go to the gym 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Okay.
So I get a little more,
I could spend a little
more time with my girl.
We could watch an old movie like Joe's.
Yeah.
I still like the old movies.
Oh yeah, it's a Gen X movie.
(laughing)
So I spent a little more time, but yes.
So that might be like a 10 o'clock bedtime?
Yes, I still need to get at
least eight hours of sleep.
You're so good at that.
You're an inspiration for me with that.
Honestly, that's
something we have to work on.
I don't know.
When I tell people my age
and they don't believe me,
I go, that's the plastic trophy that
bodybuilding gives you.
Yeah.
I'm walking in life and--
Yeah, no, it's true, 100%.
So in addition to your children's book
and creating your own music,
are there any other outlets
you're doing outside of work
as far as like, are you
working on your home or?
Always, I'm trying to
make my home more expensive.
So when I sell it in
like five, seven years,
because I'm not gonna
keep paying that HOA, yes.
So you do stuff, are
you a do-it-yourselfer?
I try to do some stuff by myself.
Like I wanna UV coat
and I wanna make my patio,
like how they make pool surfaces
where it's like glazed and smooth and,
but I can't do that,
there's no way I can do that.
Yeah, yeah.
There's little things I wanna do.
I wanna do it for my bathrooms.
So I wanna make the house more expensive.
I live in a townhouse and
in about five, seven years,
when I sell it, it should be wood.
So you're always kind of,
you're like a typical homeowner,
we're always doing something.
Yeah, I didn't understand
that movie from apartments,
but I don't mind, I like using my hands.
Well, the nice thing
is when you do something
on your home, it's your home.
So you're making your home better and
that's the mentality.
Dad, do you and your girl travel?
We want to, but we recently,
we originally had five dogs.
Wow, what kind of dogs?
Bad things happen, no, we have three, but,
Okay.
One was the Pitbull, one was the Pointer,
one was the Shih Tzu, I
don't know what the other one is
and one was a Ralphie Fee, was a Yoki.
Three passed away, which
from five minus three is two.
And for some reason, my
girl said we needed another dog
and we're back to three.
So coming back to the question,
it's hard to go anywhere with three dogs.
Yes.
We can take the new one
who's a puppy, the bastard hound,
but the two older ones.
Yeah.
You probably don't want to send them.
We could wake up early, which we do
and we'll drive to Naples, spend the day
and come back at night.
We'll leave food for them.
We go places, being an immigrant,
I try to go to places
I've never seen in Florida.
Myrtle Beach, wherever, someplace close,
but it's a new experience,
new restaurants, a new view.
We would love to go to
Dollywood or someplace,
but with dogs, I'm not sure.
We can pay for doggy
hotel, but you know what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm not sure.
Well, you know, the challenge is
when you live in South Florida,
it's like a day trip just to
get to the Georgia border line.
It's so big here.
Are there any other states
you want to go to in America?
You have a list?
I want to go to like mountain places,
like places with mountains,
only because I'm used
to mountains in Trinidad.
They have mountains in Trinidad?
Yeah. Oh, that's cool. It's the Holy Trinity.
That's where the Trinidad name and
everything came from.
Oh, wow.
Usually hurricanes,
they usually pass that low,
but when there was a hurricane,
the hills protected most of
the country from getting hit.
Wow.
How high are the mountains?
I'm not sure.
Do they get snow?
No, they don't.
No, no, no, no, it's too hot.
They're mountainous, though.
I was researching, and
there's mountains for sure.
It's beautiful, beautiful place, really.
I can tell you stories of where people hike
through the mountains to
get to the beaches and stuff,
and it's very nice.
I bet it's, did you hike the mountains?
I bet it's absolutely gorgeous.
You walk in the side of a cliff,
you're walking through the mountains.
So you would love Montana or Wyoming.
Yes, exactly.
Yes.
Yes.
You could even get a decent
vibe up in the Appalachians,
like Tennessee,
Georgia, like north of Atlanta.
My girl wants to move to Europe to London.
She likes, my girl is a
very Addams family fan.
The house has very dark--
Like Gothic.
Yes.
Yeah.
New York Gothic is what she calls it.
Yeah.
There's pictures of
that famous bridge from,
was this show at Macaulay Culkin?
Home Alone.
Home Alone. Yeah.
But it's winter time,
and all the trees are dead,
and the bridge is,
that's the kind of pictures
we have in the house.
Okay, okay.
She likes dark and gloomy.
So she wants to move to
Seattle or London or--
Portland, I'm from Portland.
Those type of places.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I, which is fine.
If I could get my Amazon
packages where, I don't get--
(laughing)
Now, but South Florida.
If you make, it's not wife
happy, you're happy, but--
No, no, you're onto something.
(laughing)
You know, though, you could get a--
You're onto something.
There's nothing to win,
and plus, like, my wife has
the whole house to decorate,
my room with my instruments,
with my stuff.
Don't tell me anything about that.
Yeah, yeah.
She could, I bought the flintier,
and I did everything that she wanted.
We're very happy, but we're
grownups, and she doesn't get,
like, I told her I was gonna be here today.
She doesn't have to text me or call me,
"Are you sure you're gonna be there?
"Who you gonna be?"
So, we have a relationship where we just
compliment each other.
That's wonderful.
Very healthy, very healthy.
And yeah, I mean, the places you mentioned,
Seattle, London.
Yeah, we talk about it.
I think Ireland, Scotland, all that.
She wants to see castles and all.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, the thing with the dogs, I mean,
you can do, like, a
daycare thing, but you'd have to,
you know--
The older ones, like, we
have a dog that's 13 years,
and he's, jokingly, he's
been dying for years now,
and he's still going.
It's like any minute, but he's still going.
Yeah, that's awesome.
You just never know.
The ones that we didn't
think that we're gonna die,
died before him, and he's
like, "What's going on here?"
That is so funny.
That is funny.
So, to go back, okay, so
to go back to during COVID,
how long were you there
at, you were working--
Summer?
Yeah, yeah.
Probably three years again.
That's like your pattern a little bit.
Yeah, I give every place three years
until I know nothing's
gonna change the way I want it.
And then you're ready to move on.
So then from Sama, where did you go?
I'm trying to remember, no.
Because now we're outside of COVID.
Honestly, there's a time
lapse in between there,
because there's a time
I wasn't doing anything.
I saved up a lot of money.
Okay.
And I should have bought my house then,
but I was just happy not doing anything.
I was burnt out,
because I don't mind working,
but I don't take days off.
I'm never sick, knock on wood.
Once I start feeling symptoms,
I'm gonna start chewing
medicine and swallowing medicine.
I try to keep always moving,
but like any non-robot, I will burn out.
So sometimes I just
don't wanna do anything.
Now I have to check my LinkedIn.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, what you're currently doing is
graphic design, right?
I started working for a
place, I Heart, Mac and Cheese.
Oh yeah, that's here in Boca.
Yes.
Yeah. Yes.
What did you do for them?
I have everything, design.
I was still, yeah.
Social media design, yeah, help
them in the kitchen sometimes.
They had a kitchen in the office
to mock pretend doing stuff and stuff.
Okay, cool.
Free food always.
Kids love it there.
I think it's still open.
Yeah, they have
franchises all over the place.
Yeah, they do well.
And then from there, you
went to where you are now,
where you're doing graphic design.
Yeah, I stopped
working there and follow time
and yeah, I applied to this job.
Yeah.
And so where you work now, marketing still?
Yes, I'm the senior graphic designer.
It's more like a multimedia designer
because I'm still doing video.
I'm still editing GIFs.
I'm still doing motion graphics.
I still help with photography, but.
So everything that you've
learned from way back when,
when you got that job with the newspaper
and from those
photographers, all these stepping stones,
everything you did, led
you to where you are now
and all these skills you have.
Because I feel like you
could almost do anything.
Yes.
And not just the skills you
learned in graphic design,
but the life skills you learned.
That is harder to learn,
but as far as doing anything,
this is a note for anyone
listening, you can do anything.
There's no excuse not
to do what you wanna do
with YouTube and Google.
Because even in COVID, in downtime,
I use the downtime to brush up on skills
to make myself better.
So yeah.
Well, what's your opinion on social media
and content creation?
As far as what?
As far as a career, as far
as how there's influencers
and people are using it like that.
That's great.
I mean, we live in a world,
once it's authentic and real
and the energy and the vibe
and whatever you're doing,
I'm all for that.
There's a lot of fake like in everything,
but just, you know, choose.
What people don't understand is that
everything we take in
is the effectiveness, the shows we watch,
the social media we
follow, the foods we eat,
the people we hang with.
Just be careful of
negative energies around you.
And if it's not like my
social media, I follow,
I follow foods.
I learned, I just learned
a new way to take edamame
and cocoa powder and stuff
to make a protein mixture
with low fat.
And you can learn a lot of stuff.
Yes.
Oh, I love YouTube.
Right.
So use it like a tool.
Don't use it to distract you and then,
or to keep you in fear.
Yes.
Don't let it trap you.
Or you're just doom scrolling and,
but use it as a tool to learn.
Or think, don't use your
followers and your likes
like a currency in the sense
of you can't have a conversation
with people in publics
or sprouts or wherever.
And you're so, Chuck B said it once,
it's called a cell phone
because it entraps people
in a cell.
I mean, it's a wrap line, but
it's real where some people,
social media has opened
up and connected people,
but also made us go more
inward where we can't even look
at people in their eyes
and talk and anything.
So like everything,
we won't start talking
about gun control or anything,
but it can help save a
life or it can take a life.
How you use it is what's important.
It's a tool.
Yeah.
It's a tool.
It can be, yeah.
Yeah.
And I think also what you
said, authenticity is key
and don't do things for likes.
Don't do things for followers.
Put whatever you're creating out there
and whoever it's meant for is what,
who it will resonate with.
I feel the fake, I'll use my stuff.
I'm the best gym influence.
Stop being fake.
Yeah.
The simplest I am right
now is the same person
I'm with my girl, the
same person I'm at work.
Just be real.
Yeah, be real.
Are there any mentors
you've listened to or?
Tony Robbins is the man
that made me change my life
and I'll always go back to it.
Okay, so when did you start
listening to Tony Robbins?
I started listening to his box CD set in Trinidad
and he made me realize if I'm not happy,
why am I not doing what I should be doing
and I go, I'll move it to America.
Wow, wow.
So--
So that's pretty cool.
So you saw his videos
and were listening to him
at Trinidad and he was a
magnet for you to come here.
No doubt, yes.
That's awesome.
Tony Robbins.
That's cool.
And do you still continue to listen to him?
Yeah, yeah.
I love Tony.
You get inspiration from him.
Yeah, I love Tony.
He's incredibly--
You know, he kind of lives near you.
He's not too far from you.
He's up here in,
forget the name of the town.
I know someone who's
done some work at his house.
It's supposed to be phenomenal.
Like just crazy.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, there you go.
There you go.
You might run into him in sprouts.
(laughing)
I don't know about sprouts, but--
Or one of his people who's
shopping in sprouts for him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, he's an incredibly positive person.
Yeah.
You know, and inspirational speaker.
So how cool is that that,
because how many years have you been
listening to him now,
would you say?
At least 20 years.
Yeah.
And that--
This is way before 2004
when I came to America.
So it was before that.
Yeah.
Probably 1990 something.
What's the draw?
What resonated for you that
really attracted you to him
in his message?
His direct,
no bullshit,
straight, what are you doing?
Why are you not doing it?
Yeah.
And why are you waiting to do it tight?
Yeah. You know?
And that's my whole life now.
Why?
The two biggest crimes
is thinking you have time
and wasting time.
Yeah.
And I know that pretty well.
That's why coming back, I organize my time.
If I want to get this done,
I need to find a way to get it done.
And I value my time
because as you get older,
it's not coming back.
No.
That's so true.
Well, and you hit a point.
At least I can speak for myself.
When I turned 50,
I realized if I'm going to do something,
I need to do it.
Yes.
Like this is it.
Yes.
And so, and actually this
podcast is one of those things.
I'm honored to be here.
No, we're so happy to have you.
We're honored to have you.
Absolutely.
But it is that you need to do it.
Yeah.
Because what are you waiting for?
People think and I'll
use the gym or anything.
I want to do this,
but I don't have the right sneakers.
I don't have the right shoes.
Yes.
You know, the gym,
stop making excuses and just start.
Yes, so true.
You will not do a hundred pushups
until you start doing one pushup.
So true.
Yeah.
It's so true.
So what advice would you give to Gen Z?
That's the younger
generation that's in their twenties
and they're entering
into the corporate world
or they're entering into their jobs
and they might be
getting a little disillusioned
by what they're encountering,
whether it's the daily grind,
whether and whether it's the,
is this all there is?
Like we go to work, we come home,
we go to sleep and we wake up.
What advice would you give
or what inspiration would you give to them
as far as helping them find
some meaning into all of it?
I'm not sure if I can
help them find meaning,
but understanding that you are,
we all have a greater purpose in life.
And if you have a job that
you're not 100% happy with,
don't ever stop working on yourself.
What is, find out what it
is that makes you happy.
Use your job as a tool to get the money
to do the things that you want.
Don't just quit and go home
and still be depressed or
worried or what am I doing?
Go through the grind.
The grind will make you stronger.
You might learn a new skill
and use that to find out
what it is you really like doing
and then start doing it.
We live in an age and time
where anything is possible.
Social media, the information is there,
it's on the internet.
Why are you not doing it?
Take your, do your job
and use your downtime
to get closer to what it
is you really wanna do.
Yeah, and I think that by doing that,
they'll just be less
discouraged as a process
and find their meaning, but stay in action.
Yeah, I don't think anyone as far as,
and I'm not Gen Z,
but you don't find your perfect job
the first few times anyhow.
So you have to go through a time,
but never stop working on yourself.
Read more books, learn about stuff.
A lot of stuff that I do now,
I knew I wanted to do it earlier.
I think finding out earlier what you want
will only help you be better at what it is.
Yeah, no, that's great advice.
What would you say besides
being inspired by Tony Robbins?
Was there anything else that fed your drive
to continue to grow and improve
and strive for your goals and dreams
through all these years?
And as you encountered ups and downs,
was there anything
else that kept you going?
I listened to a lot of Sam Harris.
Oh, I've never heard of Sam Harris.
Christopher Hitchens and a bunch of people.
Sam Harris is a
neuroscientist and he talks about self.
There is no self.
If you're always growing and
your body's always changing
and you're always having
new foods and new experiences,
what is self?
Self is always growing.
And he just opens up your
mind to think differently about,
it's called waking up, Sam Harris,
and it makes you think differently.
I'm happy every day I wake up
and I tell myself one of my mantras
is bigger, better, stronger.
In everything I do, I'm gonna get bigger,
better and stronger.
Stronger doesn't have to be about weight,
it could be stronger mentality.
And just open up, I
rebuild myself every day.
Every day is a new waking,
waking up to a greater day
where the next choice you
make can change your life.
I've gotten job
opportunities under Stairmaster.
All it takes is a simple hello or a simple,
just know that life has so much more.
And I listen to stuff like that
because I think there's so
much more I still have to do.
Yeah, and it's almost
like we are constantly
in fluid motion.
Yeah, I have so much more to do.
I'm not sure how I'm gonna do it,
but even when I get it done,
I don't even have time to think about how
I just move on to the next thing.
Well, and I think that's a great message
for the younger generations,
because I think they think once you hit 50,
life starts to be over.
And it's hard to explain that.
I'm gonna be 52.
Let's hear the comments.
I'm gonna be 52 in July.
And I think I'm in,
mentally, physically, I
think I'm doing great.
Yeah.
And I mean, if I could
do it, anyone could do it.
Well, and you can start
something new at any age.
Yeah.
And life doesn't end until it ends.
And I think Gen X is one
of the first generations
that we are continuing to tackle life
and challenge ourselves
and search for new experiences,
even more so in this
second half of our life.
Whereas generations before
us would kind of be like,
"I'm gonna go sit in the chair,
on the porch or watch TV
and not continue to challenge myself."
I think our generation is like, "No."
Like we're gonna continue to
go for it until we're done.
This podcast happening right now, is that?
Yes, exactly.
And I think we're a good example
for the younger generations is,
once you hit 50, that's
not like an end of anything.
No.
It's just another phase of it.
I'm ready to go.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because some of them think
30 is old and it's like, oh.
I remember when I was younger
and your uncles or older
people, 30, 40 is like,
Yes.
Yeah.
I'll never get that age.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was cool.
Yeah, and now I think
they see 50 and it's like,
no, no, no.
Like we're all still able to just continue.
Jokingly, they call me, "Come on, grandpa,
let's go in the gym."
And I go, "Okay, watch this."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So do you still,
do you see your brothers regularly at all?
One's in Cambodia as a teacher.
Oh, wow.
And the other one lives in Canada.
He's the studio drummer.
Okay.
Do I see them?
No.
I see them on WhatsApp when we face that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All the time.
That's the beautiful
thing about that, right?
Yes, it's free. So what's he teaching?
Yeah.
What's he teaching in Cambodia?
Same elementary school thing.
That's wonderful.
How long has he been over there?
Two years right now.
And he likes it?
I think he's extending his visa.
He loves it.
Wow.
He loves it.
That's wonderful.
Yeah, traditional love from kids.
He's a, imagine someone
looking like me in Cambodia.
He's a, people look at him.
So he likes that too.
Does he do, do they want to take pictures
with them and stuff?
(laughing)
He doesn't, does he stand out?
He stands out?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Interesting.
He says, and I don't
want to don't cry anybody,
but he says a lot of
the men are not masculine.
At least where he is.
So it stands out.
Yeah, yeah.
And then your brother's a session drummer.
So does he play with anyone famous?
He just played with some famous band.
I'm not sure because I don't follow that.
He plays like,
the Soaker Calypso.
Okay.
And I'm more into the rock music.
I love what he does,
but I don't know any of those music.
Now, do they go back to Trinidad ever?
No.
My mom is in Trinidad.
When was the last time
you were all together?
10 years ago in Trinidad.
Was that for like a holiday?
Yes.
Wow.
But yeah, that was way before COVID.
But since then.
And did your mom come here?
No, my mom says until I make
a kid, she's not coming here.
I'm not sure when that's gonna happen,
but that's what she said.
Now have your brothers.
She says, I'm not getting on a plane.
She doesn't want to get on
a plane unless I have a kid.
Okay, okay.
Have your brothers had children?
No.
So she's waiting.
Yeah.
She's gonna wait.
(laughing)
Now before I ask my last
question, do you have any?
I do, I have a question.
With all the learning you
do and all the YouTubing,
have you gotten into AI stuff at all?
As far as?
Just like learning how to leverage AI
to maybe do some graphic
design or create music.
Yes, it hasn't gotten to the place
where it can take my job yet.
But I have used AI for like personal stuff
to figure out diets,
figure out all sorts of stuff,
grocery lists, everything.
Yeah, I mean, AI--
Like a personal system.
Yeah, you either start
using it and learning it all.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, no, I think that's something
the younger generation
should definitely look,
start learning.
Yeah.
Yeah, AI is gonna be a big thing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Are you done?
I think so.
I think you got my question earlier
about what advice would he give to folks.
And I just find you to be
incredibly inspirational.
I would assume if, for listeners as well,
I mean, you have an incredible story.
I think your positive attitude is awesome.
And it's just--
I left out a lot of stories, but--
It's really cool.
I think one of perseverance,
your perseverance, your coming here,
I think it's
fascinating to come to America,
not really knowing anybody.
I don't think you knew
anybody and making it,
making it happen.
I think that's just cool.
It's the American dream.
Yeah, it's exciting.
It's exciting.
And in 2008, when things
went to the slight depression,
and again, I lost everything.
I called my friend in New York and he says,
"Mallon, I'm shoveling snow
on top of a building right now.
You're in Florida.
What are you complaining about?"
Yeah, yeah.
I go, "Why are people talking?"
And I realized, look
within and gain strength
and knowledge on stuff,
because nobody can take that away from you.
Yeah.
It's so true.
I just remembered, I didn't ask you,
what is the food in Trinidad?
Is there-- Everything, so good.
Is there any, like--
You can't be healthy in Trinidad.
There's so many different people
and so many mixed up different people.
There's things called
roti and there's paleo
and there's doubles
and there's all these
different types of food
where you just wanna eat.
Just eat everything.
Yeah, you just wanna,
the Chinese have a
different type of Chinese.
There's a Trinidad Chinese food.
Everything's just crazy.
It's so good.
Wow.
So you kind of have a mix of, from
different influences.
Well.
Spanish.
Look it up, it's crazy.
It's so good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Can you cook it?
My mom sent me a book.
It's called "The Naparimas
Girls High School Cookbook,"
which shows you how to make everything,
but you need the right ingredients
to make it taste like the real thing,
which is harder to get.
Yeah, because I doubt,
is there any grocery stores here that sell?
There are, but there's one in,
there's not really.
Yeah.
They sell some of the
stuff, but you need everything.
Yeah.
Is there, I don't know
if I'll say this right,
a Trinidadian community here at all?
Like, you know, there's
Venezuelan, there's Cuban.
I know in Miami, they
have like a Trinidad carnival
where Trinidad authors comes from Trinidad
and they have like a
Trinidad carnival and they do stuff.
The problem with me and that is that
when I worked for the newspaper,
I was always the
newspaper's in the carnival,
so I don't really dig carnival anymore.
Yeah, you're gonna-- I work it.
You're like, I've done that, yeah.
They do have that in Trinidad.
It's carnival, right?
Yeah, it's like three days of carnival
where the whole country,
it's a party, the whole country.
The streets, the whole country,
black, white, robbers, thieves, bank,
everyone's just happy, it's just carnival.
What time of year is that usually?
February. Okay.
Right before Ash Wednesday.
So it's like Mardi Gras.
Yeah, it's right.
I think it's all related.
It's all the same, yeah, yeah,
because in Brazil, they do the same thing.
Yeah, the real, right, yeah.
You good?
I think I'm good.
Okay, so my last question is always,
where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully still alive.
I'll put this out into the universe.
My dream is to have a warehouse
where me and my girl can help people.
I wanna have a free gym, a
free stage with instruments,
a free studio, free graphics.
She does therapy, we save
animals, we help people,
we give them dogs, we help rescue those
so that they're not killed.
And I help do creative stuff for people
and I help bands charge
five bucks or whatever.
I help promote and I help,
I wanna be Professor X
for a bunch of X-Men.
That's amazing.
That's what I wanna do.
That's amazing.
That is wonderful.
So what we need is some
wealthy listeners to fund this.
And I'm not even kidding,
really there's a lot of
wealthy people out there.
This is worth funding, right?
That's it.
I don't wanna get a
bunch of great people to work
and come together.
That's, I think we could
only do more and better work.
So yeah.
You wanna do all the good things.
I wanna bring smiles on people's faces
and that could be from creative stuff.
And that's what I like to do.
That's amazing.
That might be one of the best answers
we've gotten to that question, honestly.
That's the dream.
So I'm thrilled you put
that out into the universe.
Yeah, a lot of people don't know that.
And my girl knows that
because we talk about it
and she could do
therapy and we can rescue dogs
and we give people who want dogs
and we could help the dogs, cats, whatever.
But it's all about helping.
Yeah, it's amazing.
Well, you never know where
this children's book might go.
The children's book
might be able to fund it.
Probably.
Depending on what happens there.
Now you're putting that
back on me to get it done.
Which is great, which
is great, which is great.
You'll find the time.
Which is great.
Just get up at three tomorrow.
Yeah, yeah.
Shifted up.
I'll show you something later.
I'll show you people
inspiring me and showing me.
You can always do more.
And that's what I live for.
That's so inspiring.
If I'm not doing stuff that is scary
or out of my comfort zone,
I'll say this to end it off.
I'm not sure if you can
stop brain cells from dying,
but I'm sure to hell slowing that down.
And that I'm sure of.
Well, there's a theory.
The older you get, the more uncomfortable
you should make yourself.
I honestly believe that.
I cannot play drums.
My hand and feet don't listen,
but I'm forcing myself
to learn to play drums.
Only because I've played
with drummers and I go,
I could do that.
What are you doing?
And it's not to be better than anybody,
but once I get an itch,
it needs to be scratched.
And I love being uncomfortable.
And I love people going, what?
Yeah, surprising people.
But I think
cognitively, it helps so much too.
Cause you're challenging
your brain to do these things.
I hope I came across as
semi intelligent on this.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Not that I really care what
people, but honestly, yeah.
Challenge yourself, never
be complacent, be happy.
And if you're not, figure it out.
Figure out what makes you happy.
And happiness is not a destination.
It is the journey to get
there and then keep moving.
I love that.
It's a perfect way to end this.
I have so many, I'm just, I
can't wait to watch this back.
Cause I think this is an
episode that people will probably
listen to more than once.
But I can't thank you
enough for coming here
and sharing such amazing
inspiration with our listeners.
I'm getting goosebumps
because I tell people,
life is surprises.
The ones you like and
the ones you didn't expect.
This podcast, I never expected.
I'm honored and
privileged and this is awesome.
This is great.
I'm happy that you like it.
Oh, we're thrilled.
We're honored that you shared your story,
that you shared your inspiration with us
and with our listeners.
It's a gift.
And so we're so grateful
that you brought it here today
for us.
So thank you so much for sharing that.
Thank you.
I feel like we could do another two hours
and hear more stories.
It was close.
Yeah.
For my 20 minutes to me.
And we would love to have you back on.
Anytime.
We definitely would.
And whether it's-
Trust me, I left out a lot of stories.
A lot of stories.
We'll have to do a Marlin part two
and call it the stories.
Is it easy what people
think if I should come back on?
Oh, I think so.
We could mark it as explicit and we'll-
We'll have a lot of stories.
No, that would be cool.
Marlin the stories, the stories episode.
But again, thank you
for coming on and sharing.
And I know what a lot
of what you had to say
and share will resonate with people
and probably help some people feel seen,
not feel so alone and inspire people
to maybe take a
positive step in their lives
that can completely change
the trajectory of their lives.
And so you certainly, I know
you said your five year goal
is to create this amazing
positive place to give back,
but you gave back just in this podcast.
So to people. I'm hoping like you said,
if it touches one person,
that's when I create anything,
my book or music, if it touches one person,
that's all we can ask for.
If it touches more, that's great.
But be authentic and be true, be hungry.
Yeah, that's perfect.
And I think authenticity
was a common theme here.
And people need to talk
about authenticity more
because if you are your
authentic self, things will come.
Stop hiding behind your
phones and hide in behind.
Faust, a great
philosopher, you can look him up.
Said if you could be true
to the people around you,
you would see how true
people are your friends.
If I told you I didn't
like what you did or whatever,
and I'm fearful that you're
gonna stop being my friends
because I tell you the truth,
then we're not really friends.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, no, by being true, you
create a true life around you.
That's basically what you're saying.
Yeah, and I hope I came across.
100%.
100%.
I never expected this to happen.
And when it was presented
to me, I was like, what?
This is crazy.
I'm very happy to be here.
Oh, we're so happy it was an
enjoyable experience for you
because there aren't words right now.
I know Brian and I are
gonna talk about it later
just to take it in, but what
an amazing experience for us.
And we're just, again,
so privileged and honored
that you came on as a guest to share.
Thank you guys very much.
Thank you. Yeah, I totally agree.
And for our listeners,
please share any comments
or questions or anything
you would like to share
related to this episode.
I know you are just
finishing listening to it
and have thoroughly enjoyed it,
so we'd love to hear from you.
And we will be having
Marlin back in the future.
Let's go.
And we'll see you next time, bye.
Bye guys.
(upbeat music)