Yusuf Muhammad On Managing Desi Banks and Building a Creative Career

In this special replay of Creative Space, we revisit another fan-favorite conversation featuring entrepreneur and artist manager Yusuf Muhammad, also known as Veteran Freshman. With roots in Philadelphia, Yusuf has built an impressive career in event curation, artist management, and creative production. At the time of recording, Yusuf was managing comedian and actor Desi Banks, and his story provides a fascinating look into the world of entertainment management.

In this episode, Yusuf and I discuss:

• His journey from growing up in Philadelphia to becoming a global creative force
• How his love for creativity and systems led him to manage Desi Banks and other talented artists
• The challenges and rewards of working with Desi Banks and navigating the world of comedy
• How his early career in event production and networking in Philly shaped his approach to artist management
• The importance of staying grounded and building genuine relationships in the entertainment industry
• His creative philosophy and advice for aspiring managers and creatives

Tune in for a captivating conversation about overcoming challenges, the power of creativity, and the art of managing talent in a dynamic industry.

For more information on Yusuf Muhammad, follow him on Instagram at @YusufYui.

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SHOW NOTES:

0:00 — Introduction

3:00 — Yusuf’s early life growing up in Philadelphia

6:00 — Discovering his love for creativity and systems

9:00 — How he started managing Desi Banks

15:00 — Building genuine relationships in the entertainment industry

18:00 — The challenges and rewards of managing a comedian and actor

21:00 — The transition from music management to comedy

24:00 — The importance of staying grounded in the entertainment world

27:00 — How creativity fuels his work and personal life

30:00 — Yusuf’s thoughts on teaching creativity and entrepreneurship

33:00 — What’s next for Yusuf: Projects and future plans

36:00 — His advice for aspiring creatives and managers

39:00 — Conclusion

Chapters

• 0:10 Exploring Creativity With Veteran Freshman
• 10:33 Evolution From Film to Events
• 16:00 Community Building Through Networking and Events
• 26:57 From Event Planning to Artist Management
• 33:01 Artist Management Turned Partnership
• 37:46 Creative Partnerships in Music Industry
• 50:42 Embracing Boundless Creativity in Partnerships
• 56:42 Celebrating Creativity and Connection
• 1:04:19 Balancing Time and Goals in Creativity
• 1:10:21 Embracing Creativity and Learning Success

Transcript

Jennifer Logue: 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together.

Jennifer Logue: 0:18

I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we're continuing our fan favorite series. This is the fourth episode in the countdown to the season three premiere on October 20th, and I am beyond excited to share today's conversation with you, with Yousef Muhammad, aka Veteran Freshman. Youi is an entrepreneur, event curator and artist manager whose work has spanned across music festivals, branded experiences and so much more. At the time of this interview, yui was managing comedian and actor Desi Banks, but his story goes way beyond that. In this episode, we dive deep into Yui's journey, his creative philosophy and the lessons he's learned along the way. So, without further ado, here's the interview. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we have the pleasure of chatting with Yusuf Muhammad, aka Veteran Freshman, an entrepreneur, event curator, talent buyer and manager who's worked around the globe on music festivals, branded experiences and much, much more. He's also an artist manager and currently manages the super talented comedian and actor, desi Banks. Welcome to Creative Space, yui.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:44

Yeah, thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Really excited to be here.

Jennifer Logue: 1:56

Oh my gosh, it's an honor to have you on this show, and I'm thinking back. How did we first meet? Was it Rock on Philly TV back in the day?

Yusuf Muhammad: 2:01

Yeah, yeah, you're talking about a time. I mean, this was close to almost 10 years ago, most likely.

Jennifer Logue: 2:08

Oh my gosh.

Yusuf Muhammad: 2:09

We were talking yeah, we were talking 20, probably that 2013, 2014, 2015 time, maybe even a little earlier. But yeah, I believe that's how we met. I believe you were doing journalism in Philadelphia. I was doing a lot of different events. I don't know if someone connected us I'm not sure if you came to one of my events, but I do remember that once we did connect, we were connected. I do remember that, like it was, it was instant. You know, we were connected and that was it. We were friends.

Jennifer Logue: 2:40

Yeah, cause you were always putting on events in Philly and, you know, just making an impact on the city and it was a pleasure to write about and you know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 2:50

I appreciate it. I told you I kept a lot of those writings. They still are there. You know keepsakes of mine I it reminds me of a time that I didn't realize. When you know it's so much, time really does fly. So it helps to have those reminders of some of the things that you've done and some of the places you've been and you know some of the, some of the impact that you've had and I'm extremely appreciative of a lot of the things that I was able to do in Philly. And I told, I used to tell people all the time that you know Philly was, philly was school and the world was my graduation.

Jennifer Logue: 3:32

You know what I'm saying, so I was able to kind of graduate into the world.

Yusuf Muhammad: 3:35

But Philly was definitely my school.

Jennifer Logue: 3:37

For people who aren't familiar with you and your work. Let's go way back, yeah let's go. I know where you're from originally, but for everyone else listening, where are you from originally?

Yusuf Muhammad: 3:50

So I am originally born and raised in Philadelphia, pennsylvania. I was raised in southwest Philadelphia and I also have family ties all over Philly, so West Philly, north Philly but where I was really spent the initial kind of younger years of my life was in Southwest Philadelphia. My mother was from New York, my father was from Philadelphia and my mother she did do a good job of giving me the balance of New York and Philly, you know, as I was growing up, but a large majority of my time was spent in Philadelphia and learning and experiencing Philly in the 80s and 90s. That was my upbringing and it was. It was great. It was a different city. It was a different city. It was a different time. You know it was um I, you know I used to grow up you don't really know where you're from.

Yusuf Muhammad: 4:57

It's like there's a, there's a point where you become conscious of where you're from right but I remember watching, like this tom hanks movie when I was like a kid and I was like that looks like Philadelphia, that looks like downtown Philly. And I remember watching like Rocky and I was like wait, that looks like Philly. And then I think I was watching um, I even think they may have filmed some of um. There was a film with Eddie Murphy I think it was called trading places.

Jennifer Logue: 5:23

Oh, I love that movie.

Yusuf Muhammad: 5:24

They did Philadelphia as well. So, growing up, you know, I I knew that I was from somewhere that was special because I would see it on my TV screen, I would see it in movies, you know, and, and that was a it was, you know, when I, as I grew up, and I was watching you know, the BETs, and I was watching you know the MTVs, and I was just watching the kind of world of music I realized very quickly that Philly held a special place there. There was a lot of, I always would see Philadelphia. Philadelphia was a place that artists were coming to. So, yeah, it was an interesting, very, very interesting upbringing. But yep, that's, that's where I grew up. I grew up in southwest Philly.

Jennifer Logue: 6:04

Cool. What did you want to be as a kid, do you remember?

Yusuf Muhammad: 6:08

So as a kid, I think you know, I think we may have spoken this in the past, but you know I had a very interesting childhood, specifically from an educational perspective, like I was, you know I was a, you know, dare I say I was, I was a pretty advanced kid, um, and so, uh, I was in the first grade, I think. I, you know, I think they went to go put me in like preschool and kindergarten, but I was like surpassed that so I went directly into, like the first grade, like five, like I was six years old, in first grade, in the first grade, um, and it wasn't, oh my gosh, me through life formulas and systems, and I think once you realize, or you understand formulas and systems, just in life in general, it just makes navigating that much easier. That's all it is. It's just, it's the control, all the neat delete to life. You know what I mean. It's, it's the, it's the shift into to life, it's the, it's the wow, you're blowing my mind right now, I mean you knew this from like the first grade.

Yusuf Muhammad: 7:26

So from when I was a kid, yeah, that was just my thing, I would, I was just a system person. It was, hmm, you know, I remember that one of the earliest videos of me, uh, like home home recordings of me, um, they gave, you know, they used to give us, like you know, he had plate spools and I removed the screen door. I don't know how, but I took the screen door like off the thing and my dad, my dad's on video. He's like, oh, that's interesting. He's like, um, are you going to put it back?

Yusuf Muhammad: 7:55

And I basically, like I was like as a kid, I like retraced my steps and was able to put the door back, you know, the bottom of the door back. I was probably like I had to be like five or six years old, but very early my dad recognized that and was like, hmm, and so, education wise I think that's part of the question you asked me but education wise, I started off, you know, very, very young and worked my way up and you know, eventually, you know the story goes that I, you know, I went to college at, uh, at 14 years old, um wow, I didn't know that about you.

Yusuf Muhammad: 8:35

Yeah, it's crazy, I just found, I just found the uh certificate for it and I had been looking for it for a very long time, cause you know, you know you tell people that sometimes they believe you. Sometimes, yeah, okay, right. But yeah, I actually just found the certificate and you look at the date and you look at it and it's like Yousef is the youngest honoree to like enter college at like 14 years old.

Jennifer Logue: 9:00

Incredible.

Yusuf Muhammad: 9:02

Signed by the senator at the time.

Jennifer Logue: 9:04

So yeah, and you went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia.

Yusuf Muhammad: 9:08

Yes, so I was saying all that. That's what I was talking about. Education, there you go, Reminded me. I was saying all that to say, like when I was younger, originally, I was able to. I think it's part of the reason why I was able to like use social media so well when it first came around and like get this large following and, like you know, I just knew how to use it in a different way is because I literally watched the internet be born like literally like I remember when see like dvds, like when those first the first ones, like when they first.

Yusuf Muhammad: 9:53

I remember us being at like a. We were at like this party and this guy was like, um, I have this new thing, it's called a dvd and he's like you know, he puts it into like this player and everybody was like surrounding the TV. But I remember that moment. But I remember when, like you know when. I remember when wifi was just you know, being used. I remember when social media I was on Facebook way before most of my peers because I was 14 years old, incredible, so Facebook was only for college kids at a certain time. So I was on a lot of these things very, very early.

Yusuf Muhammad: 10:33

So my first love was into electronics. That was my first love. My first love was the world of electronics. I wanted to do anything in that space and as life kind of kept going forward. My second, my second love, which became kind of like one of my more passions and I'm still very passionate about it, was films and filmmaking. I believe that the ability to just take an idea or a concept and turn it into a movie or cinema or a story was just really really intriguing to me and from very young I remember I would always watch like the making of. I loved watching the scenes of how films were made. I don't think a lot of kids today don't know that that used to be.

Yusuf Muhammad: 11:20

A part of the rollout for the movie was that they would show you the behind the scenes on entertainment tonight and weekly, like they would do these interviews. They'd be on set and they'd be interviewing the actors and they'd be like this movie comes out, you know, at the end of the year, but we're over here. You know there's explosions going on, you know, going off in the back, in the back, you know, and I was captivated by that. I just loved everything about you. You know the behind the scenes again, formalists, you know, and strategy and how you build it out. You know it was intriguing to me. So, yeah, I ended up.

Yusuf Muhammad: 11:53

I was. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in my apartment at the time. I was working at a place called Penn Children's Center. I was a, I was a, I was a assistant. I was an assistant like teacher. I was like an assistant teacher, like tutor there. And I saw a commercial on television that said you know, do you want to be a filmmaker, you know, do you want to make movies, you should go to the Art Institute of Philadelphia. I never heard of the Art Institute, ever. And being, as you know, as determined as I was at that age, I still am now. But being as determined as I was at that age, I just called the number.

Jennifer Logue: 12:43

Nice.

Yusuf Muhammad: 12:48

And I was like, hey, you know, I would like to go to college, you know. And she was like, oh, okay, well, you know, have you been before? And I was like, yeah, I went to community. And so this woman that I ended up speaking to I mean talk about just the universe, but that person that I ended up speaking to, um, she ended up literally just helping me throughout the whole process. Wow, and helped me. Yeah, she was from that first conversation on the phone. She was like I'm going to help you get into the school and she helped me get into the school and it was great. And from there it just my life changed.

Jennifer Logue: 13:18

Yeah, who are your biggest film inspirations?

Yusuf Muhammad: 13:22

So some of my biggest film inspirations off the top is um, is spike lee for sure. So yeah, somebody who, from very, very young I watched all of his films, studied his films um, I believe his name is wes anderson. Um, I wanted to say his name is wes anderson. Just because of his extremely unique style of storytelling has just always been incredibly unique to me and I feel like he makes funny movies for intelligent people. Like he makes movies that like anybody, no matter what you find funny he makes, he makes films that speak to everybody. So, big fan of Wes Anderson. Sorry, my daughter just walked in on me as we were talking, right?

Jennifer Logue: 14:03

now, I love it. I tried my best.

Yusuf Muhammad: 14:12

I thought I could find some actual free time to do this, but it's just yeah. Unfortunately it's not working out as good as I wanted it to, but you can battle with me. Hopefully you can battle with me.

Jennifer Logue: 14:20

That's a slice of life. It's a slice of life of a beautiful life.

Yusuf Muhammad: 14:27

So you know, yes, yes, which is great, though, like I had a lot of time to myself, so now I, now I have to, now I get to share it with these, uh, these blessings, so it's awesome.

Jennifer Logue: 14:33

Yeah, um. So how did you transition to the to the event side of entertainment, from film, and you're doing photography too, I think entertainment from film and you're doing photography too, I think yes.

Yusuf Muhammad: 14:49

So all right, I can tell this story. I'll try not to be too long-winded. So I am at the Art Institute. Very quickly, I realized that there was a couple of things that all happened at one time. So I get to the Art Institute and one thing that my dad used to always tell me was that when you go somewhere, he used to say make friends with all the older people. That was a that was an intentional. Goal was that if you go somewhere, don't try to impress the people at your age. They have no power. Impress the people who who actually have power and can actually help you as you are motivated and as you have ideas, the people that are your age. They'll come as you continue to extend, but don't pursue that. He's always I don't know why, but that was his thing he's like don't pursue that, pursue wisdom.

Yusuf Muhammad: 15:43

Basically, that was the lesson that my dad, you know, uh, instilled in me and I and I would say my dad like he, definitely that was something he put in me. He used to say make friends with everybody who's older. You know, they are the ones that are going to be able to actually look out for you. So I was very intentional about that. I was friends with the financial aid department. I was friends with the counselors. I was friends with the financial aid department. I was friends with the counselors.

Jennifer Logue: 16:06

I was friends with the president of the school.

Yusuf Muhammad: 16:07

And it was very simple. I would, before I would go to my classes in the morning, I had like set up a route that I would take. I would walk through the school, I would walk through the financial aid area. I would say hello, good morning. I hope you have a good day today. Oh, it's so good to see you, man. I hope you're good man. I hope your kids are great man, I hope everything's fine with you. It was like you know. I was basically saying I was like you know how was you? You know how's your kids?

Yusuf Muhammad: 16:32

Then I walk through the student affairs area. I say hello to the young lady who was like the security. You know, like the secretary person, I say hello to security. I'd go in and say what's up to the president. Hey president, you know, great, great seeing you man. You know, I appreciate good to know you and I just would keep moving, doing that over and over and over again. Eventually they recognized me. They were like who is this kid Like that just keeps us walking through here and he's always asking us questions and he's always very jovial and he's always asking us how our day is.

Yusuf Muhammad: 17:00

So one day, you know, just from doing that, I asked the woman who was working at the desk. I was always coming here and talk to her and I was a new student, so they wanted to be nice and help me. I just ask her. I say you know, do you all ever need help here? Let me know if you do. And she said, yeah, we do. She said what do you do now? I said, well, I currently have another part time job, you know, with kids. I said, well, I currently have another part-time job, you know, with kids. I said but you know, you know, just let me know if you ever need help.

Yusuf Muhammad: 17:26

So she said, well, you know you should come work in the office. I said really. She said, yeah, come work in the office. So I ended up working at the student affairs office part-time. So now I have the part-time job in student affairs. I have the part-time job off-site at the University of Penn, at this Penn Children's Center. Sitting at that desk was the best networking tool that I could have. I met everybody.

Jennifer Logue: 17:51

I met all the cool kids.

Yusuf Muhammad: 17:53

I met all the top leads of all of the organizations. I met any of the donors that would come and meet with the president. When they would come in they would have to say, hey, yusef. And I'd say, hey, how are you? And I'm like my name is Yusef and he'd be like, oh, nice to meet you. And I'm like, well, what are you doing? And he'd be like, oh, I own da-da-da-da-da-da and I'm here to make a donation to the school Great meeting to come into the office. So I would just meet them all the time. So I began networking that way and eventually I met the person.

Yusuf Muhammad: 18:30

They recommended me to be an RA, okay. So I said, okay, well, shoot, cool, I will be an RA. I didn't know what an RA was, but again, I work with kids already. So I was like this is just working with grown kids. So I ended up leaving Penn Children and I ended up having a part-time job in the student affairs. I'm still going to school and I'm an RA now. One of the things about being an RA was that they said you had to create one of the. One of the rules was that you had to create three events. Three events per quarter for your, for your, uh, for your students. And I immediately I don't know why, but I was like, instead of me creating the events for them, why don't I just go create the events that they want? I?

Jennifer Logue: 19:23

just go create the events that they want.

Yusuf Muhammad: 19:24

So I called a meeting and at the meeting they started telling me the type of events that they wanted and I said, oh, okay, cool, I got that, that's easy, that's great. Okay, cool, I can do that. But I couldn't figure out my third event. My third event, I could not figure out. My third event had to be something that brought the community together. So I was like hmm.

Jennifer Logue: 19:43

So one thing as an RA you had to do was event had to be something that brought the community together.

Yusuf Muhammad: 19:45

So I was like so one thing as an RA you had to do was you had to do your rounds and you would go to your rounds. You go to every apartment just to make sure that they were, you know, not doing crazy stuff. Um, even though I was the most lenient RA of all time, like of all time, I did not. I never told them.

Yusuf Muhammad: 20:01

I was always like I used to tell them don't make me do my job. That's what I used to say to them. So, trying to wrap this story up, but it's just a unique way that I fell into this world. So all of this is simultaneous. At the same time that I'm doing this community event and I'm doing my rounds, and I walk into every dorm, I'm seeing art pieces that are phenomenal, like, I'm seeing stuff, I'm seeing art, I'm seeing fashion designs and I'm like who made this, who did this? And they're like I did. And I'm like well, are you? Are you like like, what is this for? Like, are you selling it? And they're like this is just a project. I just got bored one day and I just painted this mural and I'm like so I took that information with me.

Yusuf Muhammad: 20:53

Okay, that's one part of it. The other part of it was I'm in film school, and when you're in film school, usually you have to rent your equipment. But I got to the point where I was like you know what? I cannot keep running my equipment. I have to own a camera.

Jennifer Logue: 21:05

I'm going to have to get a camera.

Yusuf Muhammad: 21:07

So at the same time, it just so happened that technology is meeting me in school at the same time and the first DSLR camera dropped, which was called it, was like a Canon TS1. The DSLR. It allowed you to shoot at high resolutions. You can only shoot for a short amount of time, but it allowed you to kind of do these like one minute clips and like the best high resolution anyone had ever seen before. And at that same time I'm doing an RA.

Yusuf Muhammad: 21:39

I end up getting my own camera from a friend of mine. He loaned me some bread. Thank. Shots to shouts to Akeel. Akeel helped me get my own camera from a friend of mine's he loaned me some bread. And shots to shouts to ikeel. Ikeel helped me get my first camera. I get my first camera and, um, I'm using this ra job to pay off this camera. So then I'm like, okay, I need to get money to like just fund myself, to like live. So I said, well, why don't I start doing freelance with this camera?

Yusuf Muhammad: 22:02

So I started doing freelance filming and photography for artists and some of these artists are like big artists now.

Yusuf Muhammad: 22:12

At the time they were not. At the time they were just dope buzzing artists from their cities. But I went on Facebook and I put up there and I told them. I said, listen, I will film you for free If you just give me the access. So they would give me the access, I will go film for free. I would then take that film work, bring it back to school, get an A. I would then you know. So all of these things are all happening at once. All these things are happening. I'm meeting different artists, music artists and people in the film and photography world. I'm getting access. I'm getting relationships through the school. I'm connecting with my students.

Yusuf Muhammad: 22:54

I have to do events and one day I'm in my dorm room and I come up with this event called Whose Art Is this Anyway? Whose Art Is this Anyway? It was the first ever event I ever curated. The rules to the event was this how I promoted? It was everything at the event. No matter what the event, no matter what it was, no matter what medium it was. You could only price it from $1 to $20. The reason why I did that was I knew that it would sell. Somebody's going to buy it and what I would tell them was you set the price on the go. So somebody comes up to you and they ask you how much it is. You now have to negotiate with them, almost like a bartering style, to be able to sell your artwork and you have to talk to them.

Yusuf Muhammad: 23:43

First event we did it was actually pretty successful. There was about 300 people that came and it was a mixture of everything. It was a mixture of art, it was a mixture of music, it was a mixture of a DJ, you had poetry, it was any medium that went under the term art. I actually still have the poster somewhere. I wish I could find it. I would pull it up and show you, but it's a hilarious, amazing. It was like my first ever event. So the second one was huge. The second one, after the success of the first, one word started getting around. Of the first one word started getting around, there's this art show that's being thrown at the Art Institute downtown. And at that point I had a lot of relationships. I was just connecting with people. I was telling all the different organizations in my school and 650 people showed up.

Yusuf Muhammad: 24:42

And I was like whoa, I'm like OK, like this is a lot of people, and it was actually you know what. Let me circle, let me go back. Memory makes you pat a little bit. It might have been 150 for the first event, 350 for the second event, not 650. It might have been 350 for the second event. But this is where the kicker is. This is where this is the reason why I got that at 650 number for the second event, like 350, 350 people came, but like 650 people RSVP. Oh, and this was the time back in back when Facebook, when people RSVP, it meant they were actually going on Facebook.

Jennifer Logue: 25:23

I remember those days.

Yusuf Muhammad: 25:27

It meant that they were actually going on Facebook. I remember those days. It meant that they were actually going, you know. And so for the third one, there was like 2000. Rsu MPs, oh wow. And the school was concerned because they were like there's going to be like 650 people here. Like that's way too many strangers that you're bringing to the school, right, like this has started off as a school event and now this is becoming something that, like people are coming to, so they shut my event down. They shut my event down.

Jennifer Logue: 25:57

All that publicity.

Yusuf Muhammad: 25:59

It was sad I had to put out this big thing.

Jennifer Logue: 26:03

I had to send a message to everybody.

Yusuf Muhammad: 26:22

I was devastated and so my career in concert started from one Facebook post Out of my anger that my event got shut down right due to politics. That's what I use. I use the word politics right Because you know I was just a student. I didn't have any control over the venue space. I didn't have any control over you know who attended, who didn't attend. I went on Facebook and I said my school just shut down my art show. I was expecting like 2000 people and I'm like man, this is like messed up. I said I need to have my own space to throw my own events A guy responded to that thread and he said there's a spot called the Blockley Wow that I am friends with.

Yusuf Muhammad: 26:57

There's a guy named Chris over there that I'm really friends with. You should let me introduce you to them. He said I've heard about the art show. You should let me introduce you to them.

Yusuf Muhammad: 27:06

And that was my career from there, from that moment, that moment of the universe coming together of me being an RA of me going to school for film and photo of me meeting the specific people that I've met during that time in Philadelphia who are all superstars now. I mean, these guys are all over the industry, all over the world right now. That was the launch of Veteran Freshman and my career. I remember, once I got the venue, my goal was to throw a birthday concert. That was my goal. I knew all these different people, I was meeting all these different artists throughout the year and I wanted to throw a birthday concert and I was like what can I name it?

Yusuf Muhammad: 27:51

And this is again me being this kind of like, very like militant kind of you know kid. I named it. I came up with veteran freshmen and the goal was to basically say because I felt like people were treating me as a freshman but I used to say I have veteran relationships. So I was like I'm a veteran freshman, like imagine the, you know the person that is a veteran, you know, you know how to do this, but you're in freshman circumstances.

Yusuf Muhammad: 28:20

I see and that was the whole idea was that. You know, I was like I want to showcase veteran talent that people know, but they might be a fresh face to you, I see, know if that rings. And I was like, what is freshman veteran? I was explaining something like, yeah, you know, it's freshmen, but they really better. And they were like and then I just was like, well, what about veteran freshmen? And they were like, ah, that's it. That's the sound like that's it it sticks. No, that's a nice ring to it that was how my career started.

Jennifer Logue: 29:00

So sorry for that very long-winded answer, but that is how my no, it's so fascinating to hear your story and the way things happened. Everything was so organic.

Yusuf Muhammad: 29:11

Yes, I am big on. I paid attention to A making B happen, that makes C happen, that makes D happen, that makes E happen, that makes F happen, that makes G, that makes H. I pay attention to that and I think more people should pay attention to that. It allows you to appreciate the moment, but next moment it's only going to lead to something. Next, it's either going to lead to you never doing it again, or you're doing it better, or you're doing it in a different way or a different light, and so that was a lesson that I started learning very young and I used to, and so that was a lesson that I started learning very young and I used to.

Yusuf Muhammad: 30:05

You know, being a promoter is, it is it's like I'm trying to figure out what you can describe it as. Imagine, imagine you are. It's the longest, it's, it's, it's an, it's a, it's an everlasting checklist, right Mixed with the reality that anything can happen and that you can lose it all that anything can happen and that you can lose it all and there's so many factors that can lead to that that have nothing to do with you.

Yusuf Muhammad: 30:55

There's the right before the door opens jitters, where there's been shows where there were two people standing outside and the show ended up selling out. And then there's been shows where there's a line outside and the show ended up selling out. And then there's been shows where there's a line outside and the show ended up taking a loss. And then there are shows where it's sold out but a water main breaks and the entire show is canceled and you have to rerun everybody's ticket.

Jennifer Logue: 31:22

Oh my gosh, and you just got to roll the punches and just go through it.

Yusuf Muhammad: 31:27

I have so many stories of just you have to roll with the punches. You have to roll with the punches. I was at one show, and it was an accident. It was in Atlanta, the show was happening, everything was going good, the venue, the club, was one of these older clubs. An ornament from the ceiling fell down, down hit the performer in the head and what show was over?

Jennifer Logue: 31:50

he was okay oh show was over. Oh god, I thought the show was over.

Yusuf Muhammad: 31:53

No, not him no not him.

Jennifer Logue: 31:54

Oh god, I was like oh my gosh, the next time I go on stage it'll be like no, no, the show was over.

Yusuf Muhammad: 32:04

He was fine, thankfully, you know he flew off the stage. He flew off the stage a couple feet, but you know he was fine. He was okay praise god funny thing is he kept performing. That was hilarious that he kept rapping, even on the ground he's still rapping, that's the mark of a professional, oh my gosh, professional, amazing.

Jennifer Logue: 32:24

Um so what led you then to artist management? Yes, you, you initially were managing distorted, the Philly visual artist yes and then you manage a few artists after that a few bars after that. Yes, we'll throw you to it.

Yusuf Muhammad: 32:43

Artist management was something that I used to run away from via the. I used to run away from it. We're just going to use that word. You see that sometimes you got to use a really intelligent word, but your lips don't work with that word that's me all the time but for anyone who's listening to it, I ran far away.

Yusuf Muhammad: 33:01

So I ran far away from from artist management for a very long time because I just didn't want to be solely responsible for the advancement of someone else's career. I felt like that was just not the way that it should work. I, you know, and a lot of times, a lot of the the, a lot of it's telling you is so crazy because I'm not going to say her name but there's one artist who's buzzing, she's huge Now, she's huge in Philly, and at that time she used to ask me to manager but I just was not ready. I was not ready to be a manager at the time, you know, and I was. I really did feel like, you know, management is something that you should do. You know when you, when you're able to, you know when you, when you're able to, you know when you, when you know how you know. It's something that you should do when you're, when you're confident in your abilities. It's just not something that you take for light because it really is another person's career. So Anya distorted and I refer to her as Anya because that's how I met her as Anya, you know, before I knew she was distorted.

Yusuf Muhammad: 34:07

I was throwing a Cameron concert and at the time, used to sell tickets by hand. You would. You would literally get a group, a stack of tickets and you would put it on Facebook. You would say hey, you can either buy tickets online or you can meet up with me and I'll sell you tickets as the promoter. So I sold a bunch of tickets that week. We were trying to get together but we finally found a day.

Yusuf Muhammad: 34:33

She pulls up on me and she's like I'm you know. She wanted to get two tickets to Cameron. I said, oh good, and it just so happened that we struck up a conversation. Like we we had already knew of each other, but we kind of just struck up a conversation and she's like yo, I'm a big fan of yours. I'm like yo, I'm a big fan of yours. Like you know, tell me about you know, kind of tell me about yourself.

Yusuf Muhammad: 34:53

She's like oh well, you know, I'm an artist, my name is Distorted. I'm like, oh, that's dope. Well, you know, you should definitely check me out. She's like you know, currently I work with she also worked with kids. So she's like I work with kids. And I said, where she said yeah, she said my art is a little, you know, a little freaky. So she's like I can't really, you know, I don't really show it to the kids. She's like because it's a very unique style of art, she's like, but it's very creative and I feel like it go places. And I said, oh bet. I said, well, you know, that's really really dope and it was great meeting you. And she said, yeah, it was really good meeting you.

Yusuf Muhammad: 35:24

And she said you know, the only thing I'm really missing right now is I really need, like you know, I really need like, a manager. And I'm like, oh well, you know, good luck with that. I hope you, hope you find a good manager. You know, god bless you. You know, so we do the Cameron show. Cameron show was great.

Yusuf Muhammad: 35:40

She was there, but then I kept seeing her, we kept seeing each other at places and every time I saw her she would tell me you need to manage me, you should be my manager. She's like why don't you just be my manager? And I'm like I don't want to be a manager. I'm like look, I appreciate that you think I am, but I'm a promoter. Like you know, I don't manage.

Yusuf Muhammad: 36:04

She said, no, I really believe that you could manage me. So she would. She would just constantly like tell me that she would text me, she would see me at parties, she would send messages to other people. She was very like adamant that she felt like I could be her manager. So one day, in like a fit of like frustration, I was like you know what, forget it, just come meet me. I was like come downtown today. You can come down today, come downtown and meet me. And I said we will talk about partnership. I said I don't, I can't be a manager. I said, but I can be your business partner. So she came down and that day I feel like we met for like nine hours. By the time she left that meeting we had the entire year planned out of everything we wanted to do with each other and we went off. We started doing art shows, we started doing merch. Her following started growing and getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Jennifer Logue: 37:02

Incredible.

Yusuf Muhammad: 37:07

We started doing um shows we put together because I was in concert where I put together an art show for us. So I said listen, let's do an art show. That's part art show but also a concert. So we used to do these things called art parties, where we would go from city to city and whoever was the popping artist from there they would come and perform on her art show. So you got the music community, you got the art community. These shows are blowing up and we did like a 12 city tour. You know it's just in her as just an independent kind of artist and it was great and it went very, very well. You know, we did a lot of phenomenal things together. We're still in touch. We still have, you know, great friendships. Even the manager that she has now is a friend of mine. He's someone that you know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 37:51

Once I stepped down as her management, he ended up kind of stepping in, and I don't say that in a negative way, I just say that even once you get to a point where you feel like you can't take them to that next level, you automatically say absolutely to whoever else wants to step up and work with that talent. Oh for sure, and I handed everything over. I mean I didn't hold anything back, Any connections, relationships, anything. He asked for any data. I handed it right over because I wanted to still see her become a success. Because I wanted to still see her become a success Between Distorted and going into music. I did manage a few music talents but they were like hit or misses and that's another thing. A lot of managers we have hit or misses Before you get that one client. I use a perfect example Doja Cat's current manager at one point was a co-manager with me for christian combs and which is puff sun, you know I ended up managing.

Yusuf Muhammad: 38:53

I ended up managing puff sun. It's a long story how I ended up getting that job, but once I ended up getting that gig, the guy who is now currently doja cat's manager at one point was supposed to be my co-manager. We both kind of left that situation and we moved on to, you know, our next situations, but now he's managing Doja Cat. You know what I'm saying and so and I say that as uh, as a as an amazing, you know that's an amazing, amazing accomplishment that you can go as you kind of keep moving forward.

Yusuf Muhammad: 39:23

So sometimes when it doesn't work out, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a negative. It just means that you know you two weren't able to create together and you just have to move on to the next. You know the next thing Usually when you see people falling out with their management and it's like really negative, a lot of times they didn't really start with the purest intentions. You know what I'm saying, um, and I think when you, when you do have that relationship, that does start with real intentions of partnership, not this idea that I'm your boss or that you're my boss, but more so this idea that you know you take what you do well and I take what I do well and let's just do that together and let's just see what happens.

Jennifer Logue: 40:04

You do well and I take what I do well, and let's just do that together and let's just see what happens. Even your initial approach to distorted, making it a partnership like just coming to the table. With that in mind, I mean, I think that just set a foundation for success and because it's a collaboration, it's a creative collaboration at the end of the day.

Yusuf Muhammad: 40:22

Absolutely. Managers are not miracle workers. You know, that's something I used to always tell people, and I really believe that Managers are not miracle workers, like, we can't create out of thin air. You know, we need to know the things that you like in order to bring the things that you like to you. You know we need to know the things that you want to do in order to be able to go out and hunt for those things and bring them back to you. But it has to be a partnership and and and. Yeah, you know, from there I ended up going into music. I, you know, worked with Puff and I ended up, you know, managing Christian Combs. For two years I was a part of his management team, which was a crazy, crazy experience. I then ended up going over to Janelle Monae's team and managing and well being on the management team for Jidenna, and I was, you know, his day-to-day manager as well. And then the pandemic hit, so I left music and now I'm in comedy.

Jennifer Logue: 41:19

Yeah, and we're going to talk about that a little more.

Yusuf Muhammad: 41:22

Sorry if I fast forward it. Oh no, oh no oh, no, it's fine.

Jennifer Logue: 41:26

Now you're managing desi banks, who's hilarious and so talented. Oh, my gosh, really funny guy, really funny guy I mean, I I actually started following him because you were sharing his stuff. Wow, I'm just like, oh my god, he's so funny and so talented, so I'm a big fan of this guy.

Yusuf Muhammad: 41:43

Yeah, he is so funny and so talented so I'm a big fan now, really talented guy.

Jennifer Logue: 41:45

Yeah, so thank you for sharing his work. Absolutely, but this is Creative Space. Yes, I love asking this question of everyone, because everyone has a different perspective on creativity. But how do you define creativity?

Yusuf Muhammad: 42:09

But how do you define creativity? How I've described it, probably over the last 10 years, is that I tell people that your purpose is like a tree. Your purpose is a tree, so your purpose is your center. Your passions are the leaves and the branches that come from that tree right. Each leaf that hits the ground allows you to be able to create something from that right. It's almost like you're feeding the earth, you're feeding the soil, and so creativity, to me, has been something that it's actually interesting that you say that, because this is the first time in my life that I've actually wanted to teach this. Yeah, I wanted to teach this ability to be able to create for a living. Yes, and I don't mean this to be like too deep or anything, but I genuinely believe that, if you go back in time, your social capital was based off of what you enjoy doing and what you love doing. The butcher whole family was butchers and they enjoyed preparing and being butchers. The sowers there was a school of that. This was something that they would teach their children, their daughters, their sons, their grandsons. There was a family of that. The fishers they went and they fished. The people who wrote books and were scribers that's what they did and that was their rent for being on earth. Their rent for being here was what they enjoy doing right, what they enjoy creating right, what they enjoy creating Well, mine, personally, is joy.

Yusuf Muhammad: 43:50

I enjoy creating joy for others. I enjoy creating spaces where people can have memorable moments and memorable experiences. That is my payment. My payment is that five to 10 years later, I still get messages, I still get emails, I still get people to stop me in the street telling me I met my wife at your party. That was the best concert I ever went to.

Yusuf Muhammad: 44:09

No, it's a blessing to be able to um, to be able to have touched so many people and to be able to spread joy and to be able to have people you know give me so many. A lot of the memories that they pull from are from shows that they went to or seeing artists for the first time. Or you know, like I said, people telling me they met their wife at my events. Or you know people lifelong friendships. You know that I even have from concerts and music events, and you know, music is something that genuinely brings people together, probably more than anything else on the planet as well as, and so one of the things that I like to just tell people is the idea of doubt, is disregarding or disrespecting Like the only reason. Okay, in order to doubt yourself, you have to already know what you want to do, but you don't believe that you can do it.

Yusuf Muhammad: 45:12

That's a lot of people Doubt, but the root of doubt is that you know what you want to do. That's the root. Okay, you can't have doubt without knowing what you. The only reason why you doubt yourself is you're telling yourself that you can't do it.

Jennifer Logue: 45:33

Cause you do know what you want to do.

Yusuf Muhammad: 45:34

You know what you want to do. You know what you want to do you know you want to write that book, but you read it like you can.

Jennifer Logue: 45:41

I just read the war of art by Steven Pressfield, highly recommend.

Yusuf Muhammad: 45:47

Yeah.

Jennifer Logue: 45:47

Someone just recommended it to me. Shout out to Sam Jones Awesome, basically, he has this concept called creative resistance and it's you know he describes it as like that barrier between us actually doing the thing we're supposed to be doing. Yes, like procrastination, doubtination, doubt, fear, all those things.

Jennifer Logue: 46:07

It's creative resistance sorry, that's my dog oh, okay, um, but all these inward things, the excuses we make, doubt anything. It keeps us from doing what we're supposed to be doing. And he even believes it manifests into like mental health issues. And you know, I know what I don't create, but it's something that I'm very passionate about because, yeah, it's, it's.

Yusuf Muhammad: 46:46

your blessings are yours. For a reason, the things that you enjoy doing very much can be your life. Sorry about that. Very much can be your life and you know, I haven't worked a nine to five since I was 23 years old, 2030.

Yusuf Muhammad: 47:00

Wow, was that the last time that I worked, you know, kind of a standard nine to five, my nine to five now is just creating. My nine to five Now is just, you know, coming up with an idea, creating the system or the avenue to success. And then, as long as I follow these systems that I've learned, you know, through different processes, through my wins and through my losses and my lessons I'm sorry, not losses through my wins and my lessons, I'm sorry, not losses through my wins and my lessons.

Yusuf Muhammad: 47:28

I've now gotten to a space where a lot of these things are automatic. So I say you know, creativity to me is a life source and it's something that that is true capitalism. True capitalism is creativity. Not money, not any. Your true payment is being able to do the things that you want to create into this world and putting them out there and just doing them and trying everything, trying everything that you can, and not to get deep, but that, to me, that is how you capitalize off of your existence here. That's how you capitalize off the blessing of, of, of, of, of. You know, being in this time that you're in is that is to create something. So even this, you know, even us having this conversation, you know, taking it from a concept of wherever you were before the first episode, and now we're sitting here having this conversation.

Jennifer Logue: 48:22

Yes, it's the act of creation, like if I'm called to do something, I have to do it, even if I don't know where it's going to go. One person might hear this and it might change their perspective completely. You want to encourage them to make something. We just don't know how we fit into the grander scheme of things.

Yusuf Muhammad: 48:41

Absolutely, absolutely, so it's important.

Jennifer Logue: 48:44

Yeah, I just found it's easier to just go go with it.

Yusuf Muhammad: 48:48

Yeah, you know again. The root of doubt is that you already know what you want to do.

Jennifer Logue: 48:53

Yeah.

Yusuf Muhammad: 48:53

So remove the doubt, because you already know that you want to do it. Doubt is just, doubt is just. You know, I used to always say a no just means I have to find a different yes.

Jennifer Logue: 49:07

Ah, I love that.

Yusuf Muhammad: 49:09

That's all it means. One person's no just means I have to find a different yes.

Jennifer Logue: 49:13

That's going on my wall. I want to have a quote wall from these interviews. All the wisdom that's awesome.

Yusuf Muhammad: 49:20

There's a yes out there, you just have to find it. There's the yes, you know one one no just means you have to find that other yes. So that is you know. To me that's you know. Creativity is, you know again, you, you are the tree, you are the root, you know, and those different leaves and branches that you, that you build out, that's how you create and find those different branches. You know, don't feel like you just have to be a one-stop shop, you know, do all the different things that you want to do in this lifetime.

Jennifer Logue: 49:49

Yeah, that's something else we'll touch on too. Well, you know what? Let's bring it up now. A conversation I've been having a lot lately with some of my artist friends is like you know, let's say you're an actor and a musician from a manager perspective, being a jack of all trades, master of none, like do you think there's truth to that? But is it possible to like enjoy your creativity, enjoy your career and do it at a high level, even if you have these different outlets?

Yusuf Muhammad: 50:21

I used to say I am a jack of all trades as long as it's fun so as long as you're having fun, you should do it. Why talk yourself out of something that is fun? It's fun. If you enjoy doing it and it's fun, then do it you know what's interesting jack of all trades, master of none. For some reason does not apply to celebrities.

Jennifer Logue: 50:45

Interesting.

Yusuf Muhammad: 50:47

Celebrities can do all types of random stuff that they have no qualifications for whatsoever.

Yusuf Muhammad: 50:55

Oh, we've learned that I won't get political on this Whatsoever, they're just known by a lot of people. So, because a lot of people know them, they just say, hey, I'm going to start a water company and people are like, where are you getting your water from? They don't even ask. They don't even ask where you get the water from. You just put your name on it and you have water. You know what I mean. And so if that rule applies to them, then it applies to us as well, that you can do every and anything that you want. There's no rules anywhere, anyone who's telling you that you can't do something as somebody that should not be around you.

Yusuf Muhammad: 51:29

One of the greatest lessons I ever got was this is something I still say to this day I was in I want to say we were in Arizona and I was with Puff's son I tell this story, sometimes most hilarious story and he was doing something. He was doing something that was very like Puff Daddy. She was doing something that was very like not even Puff Daddy. She was doing something that was very Christian, where he was just being free. And I said to him I said yo, man, come on, man, we can't do this. And he pulled me to the side and he like grabbed like the front of my shirt. He was like stop speaking and can't. He was like stop speaking and can't. You can Stop speaking and can't. We can do whatever we want to do. And I said, ok, he's like now, if there's repercussions from that, cool, but don't tell me like, don't even talk to me in camp. You know, we always can try. This is a young 19-year-old kid teaching me this, you know.

Jennifer Logue: 52:32

Oh my gosh, but he told me that.

Yusuf Muhammad: 52:33

And that was a great lesson that I got from him when I wrote it that day and I keep it with me. I don't speak in camp anymore. There's no such thing as camp.

Jennifer Logue: 52:39

I I'm not speaking in Canton anymore either, and I'm learning it way later.

Yusuf Muhammad: 52:44

It's a language that you don't want to speak in. You, just you, just. That's a language that you don't even want to speak. You just leave it alone. You know there's no rules to language. There's no rules to this. You can make up language, literally. People understand this.

Yusuf Muhammad: 52:57

There's different dialects, you know. You go to the South there's a certain way that they speak. You go to the West coast there's a certain way to speak. You go to Norway there's a certain way that they speak. Everyone has their own form of slang. What is your slang? What type of speech will you speak into your life and speak over your life? You know, and so, speaking in can't, speaking in what you don't think you can do, speaking in what you've seen other people fail at, you know, and you applying that to yourself, those are things that you have to remove from your you know. Remove it, remove it from your spirit, remove it from your mind and just stop speaking at it and speak in can and speak in will and speak in. Try, you know, at least try. And even if you you know there's some things. It's funny that I said that now I want to teach this. In 2016, I did an event called Curator Class.

Jennifer Logue: 53:51

Okay.

Yusuf Muhammad: 53:54

Now, almost 18 years later, I'm finally at the space where I'm like I want to actually teach this. So I reached out to like Temple University and stuff you know, and it's like something that. I really want to teach.

Jennifer Logue: 54:04

Yeah.

Yusuf Muhammad: 54:05

But it's my older self speaking to my newer self. I did it back in the day. I tried it once. I was like man, I'll put it down. But because I did it, I have the entire blueprint on how to do it now.

Jennifer Logue: 54:16

Yes.

Yusuf Muhammad: 54:17

And I was able to just go back, pull it right back up and start it. So that's another thing. Also, don't be afraid to, later on in life, start something that you might not have been able to do earlier in life, you know. Don't think that because it failed in 2003 or 2013, that it can't work in 2023.

Jennifer Logue: 54:35

That's true. You can always pick up a project again.

Yusuf Muhammad: 54:40

That's something that I've learned to do, and I enjoy that probably even more because it's like almost like your old self is guiding your new self, so it's pretty cool.

Jennifer Logue: 54:47

That is a great perspective to have. It's not just because you close a chapter doesn't mean you can't pick it back up again. Absolutely, and you come at it with more wisdom 100% and no more can't talk.

Yusuf Muhammad: 55:00

So you can, you know you can pull it off.

Jennifer Logue: 55:02

And get rid of all the can'ts. Yeah, no more can't talk, so you can pull it off and get rid of all the can'ts. Yeah.

Yusuf Muhammad: 55:11

So how does creativity come into play in your work as an artist manager and in events In management, especially working with a comedian and an actor? This has allowed me to tap back into my love of film, my love of directing, my love of coming up with creative ideas and skits and sketches, and my love of structure, my love of you know free creativity to be able to go into any space, to be able to go into this room that you're in right there and turn that into a scene.

Yusuf Muhammad: 55:45

You know whether it's dramatic, whether it's action, whether it's comedy, whether it's romance, you know to be able to take that room and tell a story with it is incredible, and the blessing that you know with him that we have is it's a partnership. You know he allows me to bring to him the things that I enjoy doing and, vice versa, the things that he enjoys doing he puts on my plate to help him kind of navigate, and so that's how we work. And we're going on our third year and it's really been a blessing, you know, working with him and I'm really happy that you know whether we continue to work together or not. And I say that with all my clients because you never know that our relationships are built off of just wanting to see each other win.

Jennifer Logue: 56:31

Oh yeah.

Yusuf Muhammad: 56:33

And that is the ethos of like. That's the core of how we work together On the event side. It's the creativity there is endless. The pandemic really kind of shocked the system because it was the first time since 2012 that I couldn't do an event.

Jennifer Logue: 56:58

And I couldn't bring people together.

Yusuf Muhammad: 57:01

That I couldn't. It was devastating. I mean, it was devastating. It was and I tell people all the time, like my life, my life's passion, is bringing people together. Of like, I can't, you know, when you insert culture, you remove color and in this country specifically and not again not getting to do you because this is a creativity talk but you're taught that you know certain people, you can hang out with certain people that you know they have this way and you allow people to to, to to to see that and be a part of that and have fun with that on all mediums. Um, it removes that. It removes all of that type of energy and that's what I enjoy doing.

Yusuf Muhammad: 57:57

That was probably the more of the reason why, you know, the work that I did in Philadelphia was so impactful to me was that I knew I used to always, you know it was more than just coming, and just coming to a show or a concert is that I really wanted you to have an experience. You know I used to leave and I still do it. You know, after the show I would stand at the door and I would thank people for coming and they didn't know who I was. They used to think it was just some random guy saying hey, get home safe, get home safe, have a good night. Thank you so much. I appreciate you for coming. I still do that, even now with Desi whenever I'm on a road with him.

Yusuf Muhammad: 58:36

I say in the door and I thank people for coming. Hey, thank y'all so much. They have no idea who I am, just some random guy to tell them thank you, but it's because I really appreciate being able to be a part of those spaces that bring people together. So in the events world, you know, the concert world, the comedy world, if you notice that medium, that medium is joy and that medium for me is bringing people together as long as those two things are there, where there's going to be joyful energy.

Yusuf Muhammad: 59:05

You know whether it's laughter, whether it's people singing their favorite songs, nothing better to me than seeing a dad with his daughter and the dad is literally singing at the top of his lungs and they have that moment. Nothing better to me than seeing a room full of you know black, brown, you know white, anybody, all types of people of different nationalities, different cultures in one room laughing their hearts out. Yes, that joke doesn't have any race on it. That joke is just a joke, because life is hilarious. Life is hilarious. So those are the things that I enjoy being a part of. So I put creativity in everything I do, even with my children. You know, my daughter was a ladybug yesterday.

Yusuf Muhammad: 59:50

Oh she wouldn't be, cute my son. We do something called hip hop class, where he'll come in in the morning and I will curate the different music videos that I want him to watch.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:00:02

I let him watch everything from Janet Jackson to Paula Abdul, to MC Hammer, to, you know, tupac, to Biggie, to the Isley Brothers, to Marvin Gaye, to the Beatles, to. We just got out. We just got to Led Zeppelin. I gave them my top 10 Led Zeppelin songs and they were in here. My son's going like this and my daughter's going like that.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:00:24

So you creativity, I feel like you know that's what I want to teach my children. I want to be able to teach them how to create for a living, not work for a living. How to create for a living. Whatever you enjoy doing, whatever you appreciate, whatever you enjoy. Turn that into your life. Let that be your social currency in this world.

Jennifer Logue: 1:00:49

It's a mindset, absolutely.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:00:51

It's a mindset shift.

Jennifer Logue: 1:00:53

You know, absolutely. I think there's generational traditions of working a certain way. You know, and you know some of us break out of that.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:01:05

Absolutely.

Jennifer Logue: 1:01:06

And change. Change the narrative for your family, for future generations. You know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:01:11

And I hope that, with all of the incredible things that I've been able to do in my life I mean one day I said I was like you know, if I ever did a podcast, I would. It would be a. It would be a crazy stories podcast, because no one will believe some of the things that I've seen. No one. No one would believe some of the rooms that I've been in. But that's the joy of being a creative is because the celebrity of it all doesn't, it doesn't impact you as much of as much as the reality of it all. That wow, just because I am doing what I love, I'm in this room right now.

Jennifer Logue: 1:01:58

Yeah.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:01:59

That is the celebrity, that is what you celebrate, you know it's not necessarily the people you know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:02:04

I think that's why I've been able to work and be trusted by and have really good, strong relationships with a lot of the like quote unquote celebrities or people that I've worked with or that I've known is because of that, is because you know as much as I'm in that world, I'm not out of it and I stay grounded and it's not fake. Like I can, I'm okay with being in the room and only having a hundred dollars in my pocket.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:02:26

I'm totally fine, because guess what? I'm totally fine Because guess what I'm going to eat all this free rich food in here and enjoy it and take some of it home. Oh my gosh, I'm going to take a couple of cakes home and put that in my pocket and take it home and eat it in an Uber. You know what I'm saying? Like I have no shame.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:02:44

Okay, I'm going to take my water bottle, fill it up with some of that rich wine and say okay everybody, you know, but like I am, you know, with love, you know, but, but I say that to say like I don't have that I there's. The celebration to me is, you know, is the creativity. The celebration to me is seeing people win and being able to put people on and connect other folks and and and and. Just that joy, you know, that's really important to me. So, you know, I'm thinking about getting back into music management. It's something that it's a bug that's been in me. You know, I still love music and it's something that I've been thinking about getting back into. And I and I have a talent, I have somebody that I have my eye on.

Jennifer Logue: 1:03:23

I have a young lady.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:03:24

actually, it'll be my first time kind of going back and managing a young lady, but there's a young lady that I have my eye on and she's really talented and I'm excited to see what we can do together.

Jennifer Logue: 1:03:36

Oh, that's exciting. Oh my gosh, you'll have to keep me posted when you're ready to announce, absolutely. So what's the greatest challenge you've faced in your career so far?

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:03:47

So what's the greatest challenge you've faced in your career? So far, I have an associate's degree in parenthood. I'm only a few years in, not in my bachelor's degree, I'm not in my doctorate, I'm not in my master's or anything. But the one thing that has been the most challenging now for me currently is time management and balance has been the most challenging thing for me.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:04:28

I'm sure it is something that a lot of parents go through and a lot of parents experience, especially when you're like at the prime of your career. You know you don't and we lost those two years in the pandemic, so it's like which. We're kind of still going through. So I, you kind of go into hyperdrive because you don't want to, you don't feel like you want to lose it again, right? So finding that balance has probably been the most challenging thing for me as a parent of being able to find. You know, just just that balance of time just to be able to spend time with them. You know just just that balance of time just to be able to spend time with them.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:05:12

I miss them as soon as I leave the door, as soon as I walk out the door. I miss them. I'm only thinking about them when I'm on the plane. You know you don't have wifi and all I'm doing is looking at them from babies to to now. Every single time I can't like people have caught me on the plane and I've been like they. Like you know, I've had fellow dads be like. You know I do this thing. You know what I'm saying. It's literally scrolling. You know what I mean, because you just miss them so much. So that's that's what it's been. As far as being a parent is yeah, it goes back to time Wanting to do everything, just wanting to do. At this point in my life there's so many things that I want to do. It's just having the time to actually be able to execute and pull them off.

Jennifer Logue: 1:06:07

Yes, I hear you there when I looked at my goal list.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:06:10

It was funny. I put my goal list up every year and when I put my goal list up this year it was like 15 things in there. I'm like come on y'all. And of course I tried to do all of them in like the first five days of the year. And then I'm looking at today's date it's the 16th day of the year. It's like calm down, you have 300 more days to go. You know what I'm saying? There's no reason to rush. There's no reason to rush.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:06:34

So that's kind of where I'm at now, where I'm at a place where, you know, I said this year is my jordan year. I'm not rushing the shot, I'm taking my time with it. I don't care if it's only two seconds left on the clock. I know my skill level, I who I am, I know the championships that I've had, I know the rings that I've had. I know I can be in the hall of fame. You know my own hall of fame. So there's no, there's no rush on taking that shot. I can take my time, I can drill up the court and I can get into the right position, have the right timing and be able to execute oops, sorry and be able to execute, and that's kind of just where I'm at now. I'm at that space of. You know, challenges are more, so you know they're like Self-imposed with like having all the goals and stuff.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:07:24

I think, I think something that you know, a lot of us have to do better of is just giving ourselves grace. Yes, oh, it froze a little bit, sorry, but giving ourselves grace, I think, is probably one of the key things that I think a lot of us need to do, and, especially as creatives, I think it's probably the core, and it's really, really important for us to do is just take a breather sometime, calm down, realize that you know you got this. You know, even if you don't got it today or tomorrow, and you'll be fine, and we um, we live under different rules than the majority of other people do. You know, bills are bills. They're going to always be there. You know, but when you, when you, when you put stresses and things onto it, you really you realize every time it just doesn't, it just doesn't work, it doesn't it just it doesn't help it, you know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:08:19

And so I think, giving yourself that grace. You know grace will always lead to coins, you know it'll always lead to to success. So I think that that's you know. I think that's the challenge. The challenge is finding, finding, you know, making sure that you give yourself more grace, and finding that time, that balance with time.

Jennifer Logue: 1:08:39

Yeah, just like staying in peace, no matter what's going on around you.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:08:43

Absolutely.

Jennifer Logue: 1:08:44

You know, yeah. So what advice do you have for aspiring creators who want to make a living out of this, who want to create for a living?

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:08:58

So three part. Three part answer to that question. So the first, the first thing I'm going to say is go into your phone. I'm going to say is go into your phone, right? Or, and I want you to take from A to Z on your phone, take a day or two and write down different people that you know what they do and where you know them from On paper. I want you to be able to see and look at the network that you have. Just look at your network, right. The second thing that I want you to do is I want you to write down your goals, no matter how big they are, no matter how small they are. Write your goals down, and you can write them down in keyword form. Keyword form, for me, is always the best way to create because it doesn't force you to flush out all of your creativity at once right.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:09:54

It allows you to be able to just say I want to paint. You don't have to talk about what you want to paint, you just want to paint, so you put down paint. I want to ride bikes? Okay, Just write down I want to ride bikes. You know, you write it down in a keyword form. And then the third thing I want you to do is I want you to take time to really look at your network, look at the things that you want to do and go have fun and go create.

Jennifer Logue: 1:10:20

Cool.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:10:21

A lot of times 99% of the time a lot of the answers to the things that we want to do are already right there. There are already things that we know. There are already people that we know. There are already things that are in our universe. There are already places that we've been, there are already experiences that we've had, and sometimes we need to see it in order to be able to move on it. Google is your best friend. Youtube University does exist.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:10:47

YouTube university does exist. Free education does exist. It's right out there. There's information is there. We live in a time now where anything you want to do if right now I wanted to learn how to make a light bulb, I can go on YouTube, type in how to make a light bulb and I can go make light bulbs, and there's no reason why I can't, there's no reason why that I, that I shouldn't. There's no reason why you shouldn't. It should be a goal of yours to push yourself, not even push yourself to walk yourself into your success. It should be a goal of yours to, to, to and I know you're probably picking up my toddler, yelling and screaming in the background.

Jennifer Logue: 1:11:30

Oh no, I don't hear anything. No, you're fine.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:11:33

But I don't know what the listeners are. But but that's having kids.

Jennifer Logue: 1:11:39

Slice of life.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:11:41

Yes, yes, and it is a blessing. You know, I think sometimes people look at children is like this negative thing.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:11:47

No, it's not. It really is a blessing. You even your tone, you know. Your tone may may sometimes be in frustration, but it's only because, as adults, you know, for some reason we get to a point where we feel like we stop learning.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:12:00

And you always learn, you know. You never stop being a children of a child of knowledge. You never stop that and that's the thing I want to teach my kids is that, you know, we label it as you know child, toddler, teenage, adult, and we stop at adult as if that's it. That's the last stage and, as any of us that are adults know, you continue to learn. So that's another thing I want to tell those creatives, like you know, as I kind of, like you know, in that kind of three part is never, just again, never be afraid to learn, you know. Never be afraid to learn, never be afraid to continue to be a child of your creativity and continue to, you know, to try new things. Your creativity is like a. It's like a well, you know, and the more that you pull from it, the more you'll be able to survive, the more you'll be able to create you know, you're going to be happy.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:12:56

You know you'll be able to give yourself that nourishment. So continue to go into your. Well, you know, don't don't. Sometimes you get to go in and hide for a couple of days. That's cool, we'll get back out and keep and keep digging, you know what I'm saying so that would be my. My advice to all creatives is you know, do not stop creating. You know, continue to follow your purpose and create from your passions and you will always see success, as long as you're doing it.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:13:28

You're successful. Yes, that is so true. Redefine what success means to you. That's something we have to do. We have to redefine it. Success is what you say. It is not what anybody else does.

Jennifer Logue: 1:13:37

Yes, exactly, setting your own goals, setting your own parameters for what success is.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:13:42

Success is success. I remember for me, I used to be at the venue and I'd be celebrating. They'd be like know there was only 25 people here today and I'm like that's amazing, 25 people left their house.

Jennifer Logue: 1:13:53

Yes.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:13:55

To come to some concert that I'm putting together. You know what I'm saying. That used to make me so happy, so I think we have to redefine what success is.

Jennifer Logue: 1:14:08

You know, I appreciate social media, but the thing is, before social media, what were you comparing yourself to? Yes, that is so true, yui. It can be hard, because you see everyone's highlight reel, you know, but you don't see all the sacrifice, you know. You don't see, maybe, the misses. You know celebrating, I don't want to say failure, I want to say lessons, like you said. I like what you said earlier, you have wins and you have lessons.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:14:30

That's, it Wins and lessons, wins and lessons. Social media, I believe, was a good tool, but it did. It heightened that, you know. It heightened a lot of people's ability to not realize that. Again, like you said, you're only seeing that, you're all. All you're seeing is highlight reel.

Jennifer Logue: 1:14:45

Most people aren't showing you the highlight reel.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:14:47

Most people aren't showing you the losses. Most people aren't showing you the things that they're not doing. They're only showing you the result. They're not really always showing you the work. So I always just tell people you know, before ancient 2009, uh, you know you didn't compare yourself to someone that you saw. You did it because you enjoy doing it and the people in your circle knew about it and they supported it and they loved it because of that. So continue to do that. You know, as creatives, don't psych yourself into believing that someone else's success has to be yours. Let your success be your own and continue to pour into that. Every success story that you've heard, they all had to. Every podcast had to start from episode one. If you notice, most of the most successful podcasts Unless they were already a celebrity, they are in the ones now that got like these crazy bags. They're like in episode 300 something.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:15:45

Yes 200 something 500 something. Yeah, maybe even more than that yes, they've been at it for a long time one okay, so don't just assume that you know outside of, like I said, just being a celebrity it you have to start at one. There had to be the first mcdonald, there had to be the first McDonald's. There had to be the first Wendy's there had to be. You have to start at one. So start at your one, you know, start at your one and make your way up to your franchise.

Jennifer Logue: 1:16:16

And enjoy the process as you're going along, you know.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:16:19

Absolutely.

Jennifer Logue: 1:16:20

And just doing these interviews for me is so fulfilling because I'm learning a lot and I know if I'm learning, people listening are going to be learning. Someone's going to appreciate it and it's going to help them.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:16:35

So but yeah, I hope so. I mean, I hope that, hope I wasn't too long-winded. You know, I wanted to make sure that I spoke in detail, so I hope I wasn't-.

Jennifer Logue: 1:16:44

No, it was all valuable information. So, no, this was great. And I do have one more question, though what's next for you, yui? I love your hashtag, yuistaybusy.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:16:59

So next for me, yuistaybusy. So next for me is, by the time this probably airs, next for me is, by the time this probably airs, I will have my third child. Congratulations, oh my gosh, thank you. So you know this will be something that I play back to my son when he's here, but baby Leo is on the way. Continued success with Desi Banks is a big thing. That's something I'm really excited about is continuing to work with him, continuing in the festival and events world. I created a festival virtually called At the Crib Fest during the pandemic that was pretty successful, and I do want to bring that to life.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:17:42

I want to bring that to a physical entity. So that's something that I want to do. I do want to get to creating more shows where I live, which is in Las Vegas. I used to back in the day, and I want to kind of really get back into doing that. And then I think, lastly, is you know, like I said, I want to teach this. This is something that I want to teach.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:18:02

I feel like people need to know that you can also work. You know, working a nine to five is great, because it'll be your first investor, yeah, but, and also we live in this world where you just have to pay your bills and you have to make sure that you're taken care of, but outside of that, your passions and your purpose can be things that can lead you to successes that you've never even imagined, and I want to be able to teach that to creatives. And so, if I can hopefully put together this curriculum I've never done it before, but I'm going on YouTube university to find out how but put together this curriculum, I want to teach this to people. I want to teach this curator class. I want to teach people how to do everything that we talked about, you know, in this interview today.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:18:47

And yeah, I think those are the next things for me. You know, just continuing to to to do cool things, work with great talent. I do want to. You know, there's some of the things I want to do in my management kind of career that I want to continue to work on and and yeah, those are those are some of the big things, but yeah, I have some some really dope lessons coming with Desi Banks this year. I'm really excited for those to come to fruition. I'm really excited to meet my little guy, my newest little guy to the tribe.

Yusuf Muhammad: 1:19:17

Oh little Leo, oh my gosh, so many he's going to have a lot of fun with Ja and Zayla, his, his older brother and sister, and I'm excited to uh excited to see him oh well, yui, thank you so much for taking the time to appear on creative space, for dropping all this knowledge and um, yeah, this is such a great episode.

Jennifer Logue: 1:19:43

and for more on Yui, you can follow him on Instagram at YusufYui, which I'll link down below in the show notes. What an incredible conversation with Yui. I love how he shared that the root of doubt is that you already know what you want to do. That is such a powerful takeaway. Doubt exists only because, deep down, we know our purpose and we just need to push through to make it happen. As Yui said, creativity is the real source of capital. It's how we make an impact on the world, and I hope you found this episode as inspiring as I did. And, that being said, I would love to know what resonated with you. You can do this by reaching out on social media at Jennifer Logue. You can do this by reaching out on social media at Jennifer Logue, or? Well? Also, please leave a review for Creative Space on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Your support means so much and it helps other people discover creative space, so go and leave a review. That is all for this episode. My name is Jennifer Logue. Thanks for listening.