about me
Cause I vowed that if I'm gonna tell it, I might as well tell it all...
(circa 2016) I've been denied for a gazillion loans in the past several months, whether it's been for personal credit, business credit, car refinancing, home modification, Neimans, Target, Staples, Old Navy...........YOU NAAAAAMMMMEEE IT!! I feel like Pastor Shirley Caesar's beans, greens, potatoes & tomatoes right now. Somebody might as well throw me in a brewing pot of WTF cause the universe must be cooking up something that’s gonna turn into a heck of a stew or a helluva story.
Icon Global Group, my labor of love. The business that I gave birth to many moons ago has officially made me tired. Somehow I have managed to dedicate 110% of my life to head on hustle, relentless effort and an unwavering persistence over the last decade. I wouldn’t say that I’m tired in the sense of “Oh I need a nap” but moreso I’m mentally, physically and emotionally spent!
Oh Icon looks great on paper. We've worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment, had major photoshoots go off without a hitch, helped many people bring their ideas to life, realize their dreams and ultimately make millions of dollars.
But as I sit here in the midst of the final chapter, ready to close the doors, call it a day and literally say "fuck this shit." I'm brought back to my original dreams. The dreams I had for this company when I started it. The freedom that I longed for from corporate America. The vision of having my daughters look up and see that their mom had accomplished something great and that they could as well.
Read On.....Below
BONE OF CONTENTION
"When Your Dreams Won't Let You Rest"
The goal was always to be ICONIC but when I look back over the years, many parts of this journey doesn't feel that way at all. I could tell you about the time when I outran the repo man while on a conference call with Deena Campbell the (then) beauty editor at Essence magazine. Or how I missed the opportunity to see Prince at Essence Festival for a product launch that was happening in a nearby Wal-Mart. While I’ve always put work first, I knew that seeing Prince would mean flopping big time for this launch. To make matters worst, the night or should I say morning before I got about 45 min of sleep and literally had the last item hung on the shelf before Steve Harvey walked in to talk about this new product and his partners. It’s crazy that I never so much as got a thank you from the person who put our asses on the line to make them look great.
Fast forward and I could tell you about the time when I was working with a group of people who were filming the pilot for a reality show with Lion TV. We were well into the second day of filming and I knew I had to be there. Little do they know, I showed up, eyes puffy and all in spite of the fact that I had been up crying all night because my cousin had killed himself the night before.
I really really had such high hopes for this business when I opened the doors back in 2010. But let me tell you about what happened 6 months after I opened those very doors. I had just gotten my new office. It wasn't big but it was mine. I was excited about the possibilities for what I could accomplish. I got a call from an unfamiliar voice telling me to hold on a sec. The guy on the other end clicked over and said "Slim" Another familiar voice then chimed in and said "Tam." It was my kids dad telling me that he was locked up for some bullshit he couldn't even explain but it wasn't looking good. Blah blah blah blah and fast forward 10 min into the call and all I heard was 30 years.
"What in the whole hell do you mean, 30 years" I asked. We had a 2 year old and a 4 year old at the time and all I could see was black, all I could hear were my own silent tears dripping down the phone. My dreams immediately felt like mountains. Mountains that I could not climb. Mountains that I could not see past and an avalanche coming my way that could be the death of me.
I hung up the phone mad, pissed actually not knowing what to do. I said to myself that if I ever got a chance to tell the story then it was gonna be a good one. And if the story made it to the public then that means that the mountain wasn't insurmountable after all. So here's my story.... It's about going after your dreams, even in the midst of your storms. It's about what happens to a dream defined!!