My name is Kareem A. Cox. I host the Hustle and Motivate Podcast. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3699781/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemacox/In all fairness although my business is only 6 months old, the path to get here took about 1 year. Over the past 10 years working my way through the television industry I’ve had some great experiences and learned a lot. I’ve achieved some noteworthy accolades as well as garnered praise from some of the industry’s elite.However, it wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles in 2016 that I realized how truly depressed I was. I began to hate my career decision. It was the scariest thing in the world to no longer want any part of something I was once passionate about but to be so dependent on the check for survival. It would be another two years before I realized that I did not hate the television industry. I hated the position I had worked myself in to. I wasn’t in control. I was at the mercy of someone else who determined my income. My heart was screaming for more control and my brain knew that if I continued on that path I would create a life that depended on my employment. For almost the entire year I had Nipsey Hussle’s album Victory Lap on repeat. Eventually I began to know the lyrics by heart. Chanting his motivational lyrics as I drove through Los Angeles, something came over me and I knew what I had to do. In August of 2018 I made the decision to step away from the industry and focus on creating enough income -through multiple streams -to be able to pay my bills and create my own projects. To start an independent media company. From my understanding, the average millionaire has at least seven streams of income. My journey to accumulate those seven streams was about to begin.
The First Transition: Self-Employed
In 1998 Robert Kiyosaki released Cashflow Quadrants. I first read this book around 2008. In it, he explain the 4 different cashflow quadrants. So, in 2018 when I decided to make my move from employee, I already knew that my first step had to be self-employment.
Uber was the easiest way to transition from employee to self-employed. The feeling of creating my own hours and not having a boss to report to was part of the freedom I needed. Almost overnight I began to feel so much better. My determination to achieve my income stream goal went though the roof. Day and Night I would listen podcasts like business wars, audiobooks like “Tipping Point” (Of course some entertainment ones like “The Read” and old episodes of “Tax Season”). One podcast stood out among all the rest though, the Gary Vee Audio Experience. He spoke about garage sale flipping on eBay a few times on the podcast but it wasn’t until he released “Trash Talk” on youtube that it finally clicked.
The Second Transition: Business Owner
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yyg1G97_Zl0 - “Trash Talk Ep: # 1”Around Sept./Oct. 2018 I decided to give it a shot. The feeling of this hustle was exhilarating. I wanted to share my experience with anyone who would listen. So, I started a podcast. The title is from a track on Nipsey Hussle’s album Victory Lap in which he states “This all I’m tryna do, Hustle and Motivate...” He goes on to speak about taking control of his situation. It just fit. The message behind the song, the title. I was hustling and I wanted to motivate.
https://anchor.fm/hustleandmotivate
https://anchor.fm/hustleandmotivateFast forward 4 months to March 2019. Flipping on eBay had taught me a lot about the platform and was a great introduction to inventory management and accounting. However, I didn’t want to handle the inventory anymore. I felt like I was becoming a hoarder. So I stopped going to as many yard sales and wasn’t really listing as much. Honestly, I was about ready to give up on eBay. You can even see a small decline in my podcast episodes during this time period.On March 29th Nipsey Hussle passed away. I spent the next few days with a knot in my throat rewatching all of his interviews. Even in his passing his words recharged my hustle. I knew I didn’t want to flip anymore but I also didn’t want to give up on my eBay store. I decided to learn how to dropship. I consumed as many videos, podcast and articles I could over the next 30 days. I stopped doing Uber temporarily just so that I commit my full attention to learning how to dropship effectively. Day and Night I learned and studied. Then on May 1st 2019 I listed my first item from Lowes.comIt has been 6 months since then and my store has grossed ~100k in revenue. It wasn’t easy and once eBay even removed all my listing accidentally. If you listen to my podcast from beginning to end you will get every aspect of the what you’ve just read in real-time as it was happening. This podcast started as a way for me to share my experiences and continue to be creative as I embarked on a new journey. It is my hope that I can continue this podcast as I accumulate even more successful streams of income so that my hustle can motivate you like Nipsey’s hustle, motivated me.
The Final Transition: Investor
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9466970/?ref_=nm_knf_i4
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9466970/?ref_=nm_knf_i4I invested in and, produced on a tv show called “Dropouts” which is currently in Post-production. As I stated before television producing is my passion. I’m developing these streams so that I can produce more and more content the way I want to.
“After RHAD finds his girlfriend, STACEY, hooking up with their boss, RANDALL at the Czar Nightclub, Rhad quits his job and his girlfriend. His flamboyant, playboy, roommate, DONNIE then scores him a job interview at THE FORTUNE COOKIE RESTAURANT- - - which to his surprise it' s on the same street as Czar. Rhad is interviewed and hired on the spot by LARRY, the bizarre prank- pulling boss of The Fortune Cookie, then puts him under the care of LIZ, the general manager and generally a narcissist. This is the millennial version of " Freaks and Geeks" , " Community" and " The Breakfast Club" as a series. A witty and playful tone with an engine that focuses on the competition between the nightclub and the restaurant which awakens one small town' s decades old rivalry between the local college students/ alumni and the dropouts. The central conflict of the series will be the competition between the two businesses. " The Czar" is well- established, well funded and well- popular. " The Fortune Cookie" is a struggling Chinese restaurant, run by dropouts/ outcasts, trying to become the most poppin' spot in town. It is essentially Rocky. But with nightclubs.”