Purpose in the Youth

Episode 49: Looking back on his early years, Matt’s football coaches taught him work ethic and to go out there and just go for it which he credits has helped get him to where he is today. Instead of just sitting around waiting for opportunities he was proactive and created his own which is ultimately how he became an A&R Scout for Atlantic Records. Growing up in West Caldwell, NJ there were only two passions he had, music and football. Matt was realistic and knew it would be a longshot to make to the NFL so he decided to pursue music and enrolled at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA to pursue music management. He subscribed to to every newsletter of the local venues around town and when he had got word that PartyNextDoor was going to be in town, he contacted his management offering to help in anyway that he could. Matt got a response and was on the road doing merch for a couple of his shows. He landed himself an internship for Electric Feel Management in Los Angeles by contacting them and leveraging the little experience he had just gotten from the tour and locked that in. Matt recognized that if he could make all this happen just from Philly, he could 10x what he was doing in a bigger city and decided to transfer to Pace University in New York City where he is now entering his senior year. In this episode Matt discusses what the role of an A&R is, learning email etiquette to network and create opportunities for yourself, when in a room full of people that are doing things you want to do be a sponge and soak it all in, everyone has their own unique journey and what has worked for someone else might not work for you, treat everyone with the same level of respect, importance of brand cohesiveness, being a good person will always return in your favor, the characteristics of successful people, enjoying “Y through B” or the entire journey that is helping you get to that final destination and not seeking validation from anyone but yourself. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 48: In middle school Jay dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player, in high school he wanted to become a music teacher and in college he visioned being a recording engineer. As of today he is the the Visual Jockey (VJ) for Steve Aoki and runs his own Boston based production company called NightRide Visuals. His childhood in Haverhill, MA was a variety of moments that have helped shaped him to who he is. Jay’s parents were never married and he can only recall one time of remembering them being in the same room as him. When he was 8 years old, his older brother passed away from a car accident and although this was such a devastating moment for him to deal with death at such a young age, it changed the dynamic of how he looked at life and he didn’t take things for granted. Studying at Salem State University, he knew the only major he could actually complete was music even though he was still unclear of what exactly he was going to be next after graduating. With a little involvement of production lighting for a local nightclub and slowly becoming their VJ, he saw what opportunity to provide this service to all Boston nightlife and protomers and began sending hundreds of emails. Just a year or so later it became standard for video walls and increased production inside these clubs and people finally began to respond to his email he had sent months prior. Being at the right place at the right time, he got introduced to Steve Aoki’s management as they were in search of a new VJ for his upcoming tour. Two years later Jay now travels and does 250+ shows in 30+ countries every year with him while still running his 13 person team for his business. In this episode Jay discusses taking meetings with anyone that is willing to listen to you, doing the research and putting in the time to become the best to stand out from your competitors, creating the ultimate experience that gets people to come back, keeping an open line of communication with your team to ensure problems are resolved timely and appropriately, no one achieves true happiness because it comes in waves overtime, keeping a to-do list to make the most of your time, working out everyday for “Aoki Boot Camp” and keeping it all business on the road and exploring any opportunities that you find interest in because you never know what will come of it. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 47: At 26 years young, Evan is the proud owner of Bentley’s Barbershop, rental property and most recently a party bus business. For someone that was kicked out of his public high school during his junior year, he has come a long way. He grew up in a small Portuguese town of Ludlow, MA where a lot of the kids he was surrounded by came from money and always had the nice cars and brand new clothes. Nothing was ever handed to him, he always had to work for it. During his freshmen year he started cutting people's hair for fun and slowly was beginning to turn it into a business. Knowing he would never get his GED, he attended Mill Pond School in Springfield, MA which was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. Evan became more focused with his school work when he realized there was no other option if this did not work. He’d get out of school and head straight to his garage where he was slowly building clientele for his haircutting service. When graduation came he was fortunate enough to receive a $10,000 grant from the school to pay towards his barbershop education. After receiving his license he went to a local shop to ask for an opportunity to prove himself where he spent the next couple years mastering his craft and really building a name for himself. What was always a dream for him eventually happened when he opened up his own barbershop at just the age of 24. Leather chairs, pool table with a chandelier, full time chef to cook food while you’re waiting and even a pet duck that can be found quacking around the shop... it has become the dream shop that any barber would wish to create. It all stems back to him just cutting his buddies hair for free, then for money and eventually to where he is today providing for himself and allowing him to in turn make his money work hard for him with the investments he has made. In this episode Evan discusses doing what you love and it’ll never feel like work, consistency builds longevity, everything happens for a reason, unique marketing tactics to get people talking about you instead of your competitors, pushing yourself because no one really cares what you do, showing love to the people you respect and admire without ‘riding them’, not shying away from the things that you fear and attacking them, the 45 min lecture he would teach the world from what he’s learned thus far in his journey and not wasting time because you can’t get it back. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 46: It doesn’t matter how much money is on the line for a project or what relationships will be built, Foley cannot be forced to create something he’s not passionate about. Passion is the main driving force for keeping him motivated and pushing him forward. At just 11 years old and half way through sixth grade his parents pulled him out because he was unhappy and was only being punished while in school. His parents had told the school and state that they were going to homeschool him and instead bought him a Macintosh computer. Foley began to dive head first into creative programs like Photoshop, iMovie and Garageband, had YouTube where he could teach himself anything and he had nothing but time to kill. He got to work. Utilizing his camera skills for both photos and videos, he was paying out of pocket to travel to different shows in New England and was getting into rooms with people that he wanted to connect with. Still unsure of exactly what he wanted to do, he kept at it. Packing up and moving to NYC was one of the best decisions he ever made because it’s where he really began to establish himself and was only two degrees away from people that he desired to work with. As his relationship grew with Mike Stud, Foley eventually made the move to Los Angeles where he narrowed in on his ‘ByFoley’ branding. Most recently he collaborated with OVO Ryan to create ‘Chacha The Wave’ clothing which is focused on beachwear apparel. In this episode Foley discusses the importance of showing people you’re willing to do more for them than you are for yourself, focus on things that you want to be good at and things you’re passionate about to get your foot in the door, creatives going through a phase of not being satisfied with the work they’re putting out and only getting better by continuing to work, treating people the way you want to be treated, releasing a Nike shoe collaboration as one of his top business moments of his career thus far, his tattoo ‘Do Something Today To Make Tomorrow Better’, taking constructive criticism seriously and listening to those who take the time to give you advice and wanting to give his family everything for the sacrifices they’ve made for him. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 45: If there is one thing Kwakes has never been afraid to do, it’s to try new things. Growing up in Lincoln Village in Worcester, he was surrounded by a very diverse culture. His neighborhood consisted of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, West African cultures, Whites, Albanians and more. Looking back, he doesn’t think he’d be the same person he is today if he didn’t grow up in this environment because from a young age he was always sticking his nose out, trying new things and gauging on his personal ‘skills rating scorecard’ if it was something that stuck to him. Studying at Babson College made him realize grades didn’t matter for the ‘game’ that he was trying to play which was building the right relationships, always working hard and following through with what he said he was going to do. His radio/podcast show ‘Fresh Out The Mint’ was a product from Kwake running around Boston getting involved in anything that was of interest. He purchased a camera to shoot photos for artists and events, started blogging for Laced Boston, saw his coworker at Karmaloop chase her dreams becoming the DJ for Kehlani and was hosting underground hip-hop shows around the city called ‘The Earthquake’, packaging it as his own movement. Instead of wasting his money going out, he continued to invest into ideas he had which was something he had learned at a young age as he has always been very materialistic conscious. Interviewing people on the show has given Kwakes perspective and if he doesn’t walk away learning something then he feels he didn’t do his best. Recently he started ‘Inside the Vault: Looking Inside The Industry’, a series of panelists that answer questions and give insight on what’s happening in the music industry today. In this episode Kwakes discusses trying to be humbly confident in anything that he does, the difference between a hobby and a business is huge and extremely difficult to monetize, removing the safety net as he gets ready to start his new journey in Los Angeles, stopping to care and pour out negative energy for no reason, being laser focused and staying consistent, staying transparent in anything that he does and wanting to be remembered as a net positive. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 44: Just recently back from traveling alongside ‘Party Thieves’ creating video content for his tour in both Australia and India, Matty is living a life that he once dreamed of but never thought it would actually happen. He spent some of his childhood in Irving, Texas and then moved to Berryville, Virginia right outside of Washington, D.C. after his father was beginning to work at a hunting club. In the beginning of his freshmen year of high school, Matty was close to being homeless. His father had lost his job, struggled to find his place and eventually lost their house so Matty would leave and stay with his friends whenever he could. It wasn’t until his senior year when he won a national video contest and was handed an award by American actor and television host Mike Rowe with his friends that he realized maybe he was onto something. Once he graduated, he started working at CostCo and just after twelve months he decided to quit and put all of his time and energy into his passion wanting to see where it could take him. Just ten days later, he was offered an opportunity to tour Europe for the summer with Afrojack and was getting shuttled around from show to show in a private jet. The leap of faith had worked out. Along the way he started working with Boston hip-hop artist Sammy Adams and traveled most of the country documenting the entire journey and recently working with Party Thieves who he will be moving to Los Angeles with in the next few months. Through it all, Matty’s motivation has been to one day be able to give it all back to his father for always finding a way to put food on the table for both him and his five other siblings In this episode Matty discusses what it was like being the youngest of six children, being found by DJ Kap Slap’s manager from a video he had posted on Instagram shot from a cell phone, the lifestyle of living on a tour bus and waking up in a new city everyday, creating his own art and not trying to replicate others, being most grateful for his family and friends, weighing the experience and opportunity in front of him rather than the money he’ll make from it, every person having 100% complete control over their life and always expect the unexpected. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 43: When Alexa first started her blog, ‘A Life In The Fashion Lane’, it became a form of therapy where she could express her thoughts and feelings and she never hesitated to hit “publish” on any post. At just seven years old her father was wrongfully convicted for a terrible crime and served five years behind bars at a maximum security prison where she would visit him everyday. Growing up in a small town in Eastern Connecticut, the story got around fast and due to what was going on in her personal life as well as becoming a blogger, she was beginning to to get bullied by the kids around her. Uncomfortable with her surroundings, at sixteen Alexa dropped out of school knowing that she had 0 intentions of going to college and was able to finish taking courses online. She would travel twice a year to New York City for Fashion Week and continued to push out as many blog posts as she could create. Her post “Role Model or Runway Model?” got sent around to major publications as it talked about the honest truth of the fashion industry and what she had experienced first hand trying to become a model and the eating disorders that were tagged along with it. At just nineteen years old she’s had segments on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Good Day LA, NBC Nightly News, Rachel Ray, featured on Rolling Stone with her thoughts on the Netflix Series “13 Reasons Why” and many other media outlets In this podcast Alexa discusses how there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes of becoming successful than people realize, having the power to do whatever you want when being in a creative field and a young entrepreneur, being turned down from a Warner Brothers producer and reworking her brain to want something more, confidence is something that comes with age as you grow into yourself, if she wrote a book today she would title it “Life As We Know It” because of how quickly our lives change, importance of writing down your goals if you haven’t gotten the opportunity you’ve been waiting for and visualizing exactly what you want and stop caring what people think about you, give yourself enough credit. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 42: It got to a point where the lifestyle of being in politics was not sustainable and she knew deep down it was time to leave. No plan or direction of what was next for her, Kerri quit her job in Washington, D.C. and moved back home to Boston to see where’d she would end up. Today she is a health and wellness coach who connects with people and tries to help them live the life of their dreams in this moment. Raised in Andover, MA she knew from the age of 12 that she wanted to go to college in D.C. and eventually wanted to work in politics. Everything in her life had always been about making a difference in people’s lives and working in this environment would allow her to help people on a massive scale. After finishing up high school she spent a gap year working with Americorp and then landed at American University. After finishing school she jumped right into the madness of the political world and had the opportunity to work in the nonprofit sector, advocacy organizations, campaigns and ultimately provide aide to some of the top politicians in the country. Unlike any other industry out there, if you worked hard and had the talent to back you up, it was easy for one to raise up the ranks quickly in a short period of time. When her health started to take a turn for the worse as she came down with an autoimmune disease and one campaign was ending with one of the biggest opportunities for another was about to start up she took the leap without having any plan of what was next and got out while she still could. Never thinking she’d ever come back to Boston Kerri signed up for a course with the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and began her journey of learning about nutrition, holistic wellness, lifestyle, yoga and meditation. She began learning how to integrate and embody all of this while taking her experiences and trying to help guide other people. If your personal life isn’t in a position where you want it to be then any other external things that happen in your life aren’t going to fulfill you and that's where the importance of both mental and physical health play a role to the overall happiness of someone. In this podcast Kerri discusses how age is just a number and we tend to put limiting beliefs on ourselves because we think we don't have the experience or enough education, your life can look anyway that you want it to look, social media allowing us to directly network with people but also gives us a false sense of connection, what someone can do today to make healthier changes in their life, why getting fatigued from decision making allows us to make bad choices, benefits of food prepping, why she has “breathe u r alive” tattooed on her left foot and why nourishing our bodies and having mindful practices helps keep us grounded. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 41: Since Adam was a kid his father would always tell him, “do what you love but something that benefits others.” When he was first launching his streetwear brand “Lisn Up Clothing”, that advice stayed with him and he decided that he was going to donate 50% of all profits towards charity. Six years later he still holds himself accountable and allows each customer to pick from a list of which charity the money will go towards. Growing up in Saugus, MA he saw firsthand the lifestyle of an entrepreneur as his parents ran a business, Toni’s Own Cookies, and he watched them go the extra mile with each and every customer to ensure they were satisfied with the transaction. Adam attended Babson College, one of the best entrepreneurship programs in the country where he learned quickly that you always want to create a team of people who’re on the same page, understand the vision and are willing to do whatever is necessary to make things happen. With inspiration from hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco and his ability to create socially conscious music and the world’s first t-shirt bakery Johnny Cupcake’s attention to detail with products and experience, Adam has incorporated both into his brand. Each new clothing line that releases is a new “album”, every product is a new “track”, the collection is printed on “CD booklets” and when the product arrives at your door it is packaged in a cardboard “boombox” with business cards and stickers inside. They’ve hosted different pop-ups across the country as what they refer to as their “tour.” With an industry full of competitors, he has made sure that the customer feels valued and satisfied with each step of the process so that if they do make a purchase they feel their money wasn’t wasted. It not only got them a tangible product but there was also this experience connected with helping a bigger cause with profits being contributed to a charity. In the past he’s been featured on Forbes, Huffington Post, Business Insider and more and he believes it’s only been possible because he’s always stayed focused on making sure the customer was happy and never letting the money get in the way of any of it. In this episode Adam discusses what it’s like to be a Muslim in America today, how he got the name “Lisn Up Clothing”, why he has entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and hip-hop artist Logic on his iPhone home screen, having a public phone number for followers and fans to call, learning from a mistake of announcing a release date when he wasn’t fully ready, how to tell if someone is being authentic versus a salesperson and dealing with negative people. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm

Episode 40: Moving away from home is never easy for anyone. It’s the place that has helped guide us into becoming the person we’re today, where our family might still live and there are memories that we will carry for a lifetime. It shouldn’t hold us back from wanting to explore and see what else this world has to offer. When Kim Kunzler finished college at Indiana University, she packed her bags knowing not one single person or even having the chance to visit and decided to move to Boston. Originally from Downers Grove, Illinois right outside of Chicago, Kim had spent her entire life in the midwest. She went to the big University alongside 40,000 undergraduate students and there she started to get a taste of the business world. Unsure of what she really wanted to do she tried anything that sounded interesting to her such as attending different workshops like Investment Banking and Design until a friend had pointed her to check out RECESS, an entrepreneurship festival that Mark Cuban was affiliated with. She instantly fell in love with the energy of the people involved and knew this is where she was meant to be. Kim started working for Viral Gains, a startup based in Boston that focused on video distribution and having prior experience launching her own entrepreneurial venture in college, she decided to create “TREPI Vlog” which introduced new startups every week to its audience and broke down the core values and vision of the company. She chose Boston knowing that it was a friendly hub for the entrepreneurship world because of all of the available resources like Harvard Launch Lab or MassChallenge and that the city has some of the most intelligent people in the world studying here. As if she was a sponge, she wanted to soak in all of it but what's interesting is that along her journey thus far she has realized that at the end of the day we’re all on the same playing field no matter where you come from, how much money you have or who your parents are. People have more advantages than they think they do regardless if they’re a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond. At the release of this podcast Kim now has 18 vlog episodes out available where she has spoken to the host of the Purpose in the Youth podcast as well as technology, fashion, fitness, and a variety of other startups. In this episode Kim discusses why people are choosing to work in the startup world more versus the corporate route, you think you know where your life is going but you really never know, entrepreneurship is a mental game of tricking your brain and believing in what you’re setting out to accomplish, remembering that there is someone out there who could take the hand you’ve been dealt and still win, having goals and making day by day steps to get you closer to them, changing the pace when you’re feeling unmotivated or uninspired, being true to yourself and trying to figure out who you’re rather than think your life has to be similar to someone else. — Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for new interviews (and more) weekly: http://bit.ly/2zprpon Follow us on Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2hcSBws Subscribe to iTunes: http://apple.co/2yE0u9l Follow us on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2j82AHF Follow Bobbbaaaay on social media: Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Ap24ce Twitter: http://bit.ly/2hj6Ljm