Hey everybody it’s your boy marcus norman from gentlemen style podcast your host of the number one podcast coming to you live in america and today we are gonna get black we are gonna get blackity black we are gonna get black and we are gonna talk about um a topic that has been
Um on my heart and i found the perfect wonderful stupendous woman that can represent this topic um across the board and it’s women’s history month it’s women’s month and so she is dynamic i can’t hold this woman back any further so we are just going to dive right in i
Am so excited to introduce my special guest today so here we Hey everybody it’s your boy marcus norman from gentlemen style podcast your host of number one podcast coming to you live in america and today we have miss adrina martin she’s an entrepreneur creator author hailing all the way from illinois she’s a creator of the veu magazine which stands for visionaries and entrepreneurs united
Which is a digital and print publication with a focus on business entrepreneurship and thought leaders her journey is amazing her journey into entrepreneurship started while finishing her last year as a student at tuskegee tuskegee university in 2012. the initial launch of vu magazine 2015 gave masadrina the ability to connect with
A plethora of entrepreneurs authors visionaries around the world in late 2017 she realized the necessity for hbcu awareness and started historically black sense which is on all social media platforms she’s on instagram facebook you name it she’s in it and she is putting um hbcu in the biggest line line and she’s
Shining a light this shining star coming to the stage miss adrina hey Welcome to the platform thank you for joining us on gentlemen style podcast we appreciate you queen thank you thank you thank you for having me thank you absolutely i love this i love what it is you’re doing i have been stalking your page and stealing little tidbits and tricks
But you all have to check miss adriana what she’s doing is absolutely phenomenal and it’s absolutely needed especially in the time we are in so ms adriana tell us from your tell us what’s your story what inspired you to start historically black sense yeah so historically black since interesting
Because it actually started off as just an apparel company i was like okay i just want to create some designs some nice hpcu and greek designs and i started the page and so that’s literally what it was like i had no you know thoughts of it being what it is today and so
I did it for um maybe a couple months but then you know i had a lot of other stuff personal stuff going on so i really just i just put the page away and kind of forgot about it for almost a year and then it wasn’t until the end of 2018
I don’t know something was just like let me just start this back up so i still have the initial idea of just doing t-shirts and accessories and then of course i started to um certain things i would post i noticed it started to really get a lot of engagement and the
Community just started to grow and then i’m like this is kind of it’s kind of turning into a direction more of a community versus just what i’m doing and so i really you know i had to ask myself okay what do i want to focus on the most
Do i want to focus on just selling you know merchandise or do i want to focus on really building this community and because of my experience with view magazine i’m like okay i enjoy community building i enjoy building communities around what i do and so i’m like okay the merchandise is
Still there and that can be secondary but i’m like let me just really focus on building this as an actual media platform and really putting on for hbcus for the whole community and so that’s how that’s the story behind it you have been on the grind and might i tell you might
I add your page is phenomenal it is one of the best representations that i could ever have seen of historically black people i feel inspired i want to get my african guard about every time i go to your page and i want to support you in every way
Fashionable that’s why i got so excited when you came on the show so that’s you’ve been doing entrepreneurship for a long time yes it’s been man almost almost 10 years i think it’s nine years this year but yeah as soon as i graduated from tuskegee i immediately
I always knew i wanted to be an entrepreneur but initially i wasn’t sure but i’ve always been creative so i initially started off as a fashion designer so i taught myself how to sew and yes i know he does it all i tell myself how to sew um well i
Actually started off doing jewelry right so i just started doing like little bracelets earrings things like that well then i’m like i want to actually control my whole look so i taught myself how to sew just from youtube and google you know youtube university and that was that i started doing custom
Items i would meet people do measurements um fashion shows yeah i’ve done all of that and so um wrote a book in between and then view magazine came in 2015 and so that’s when my whole media experience started and so i mean it’s interesting because what i went to school for is like
It’s completely almost opposite of what i’m doing now even though it’s still you know marketing my degrees in sales and marketing so that’s okay pretty much use that in anything but i mean just everything else from the media side like i never expected to be into journalism and media i didn’t know
Nothing about it so once again you know you go to youtube university and google and you can pretty much become whatever you want to for that so yeah and you literally done that you have literally you’re self-taught and that’s amazing that’s a unique quality to have and to be able to just
Revamp and become whatever your business needs you to be that’s huge that’s amazing thank you i’ve always wondered what’s the difference between hbcu and a traditional university um so traditional we’ll just call it pwis right so i mean honestly that’s what i tell people at hbcu the experience that you
Get from an hbcu is unlike anything else you know of course you they’re both going to educate you but for me the main difference um was of course it’s a smaller setting so when you go to an hbcu you’re not just a number you know the classrooms are a lot smaller
And the professors they’re they’re literally like your extended family you know you have professors who will check up on you if you’re not coming to class they’ll they’ll check up on you you know the cafeteria workers you know it’s literally like like family like i literally can go on campus right now
And the same professors that i had class with almost 10 years ago it’s the same relationship you know cafeteria workers it’s the same you know we hug it out and you know it’s literally like an extended family that just never goes away you know and i
Look at this ski it’s like my second home literally so i mean i could go on and on but i mean those are just a few of the key differences the the class sizes and the intimacy and the family-like environment that you get that’s powerful and that’s powerful would you recommend
Every parent send their black child or daughter black son or daughter to attend a hbcu why or why not oh yes i’m gonna say yes all day long i think every black person in america should experience an hbcu i mean because like i said like the experience
And really too you learn so much about who you are and you know it’s i’ve seen a quote on twitter i think it goes something like you have your whole life to be a part of um what is it to be a minority or something like that why not
Spend you know a few years of your life being the majority being around your own people and you learn so much about um just your culture black history i mean it’s just so many different things that you learn about yourself and about your people you just like literally you wake up
To black excellence all day long you wake up to it go to sleep to it all day long i mean it’s just nothing else like it so nothing else yes check out her page y’all we are looking at her page this is historically black since and obviously i’m following
I’m following you you all shall follow too but look at this look at this powerful dynamic women and men just killing it and you’re not gonna get this power of culture you’re not going to get this diversity this level of diversity anywhere else i love this representation i love the community
Atmosphere that you just represented and you just talked about look at this this inspires you are inspirational right thank you yes this is major and this is this is i can’t imagine this yes did you meet us on the art tell us what’s the what is
This we’re looking at is this an event obviously so that was something we actually just did that last night so that’s actually something new we’re starting meet us on the yard so i’m like okay like i said i enjoy creating community and building experiences and obviously
You know a lot of stuff is virtual now we really can’t have the real yard experience and especially like the homecoming so i’m like let me start something virtually so yesterday was actually the first one so it’s going to be something we do uh once uh once a month
I was debating she would do it once a week or every two weeks but i’m like i think we’re going to do it once a month and really just bring the yard to instagram so the what the one we did yesterday we had various student leaders that we featured
And so we just talked to them about what is it like being a student leader on campus we had the mr and misses of quite a few universities we had sga um presidents senators we had um we had all kind of student leaders from and as you can see the list
Of hbcus that are represented there and so for our next one you know i’m just we’re just really going to build on that and incorporate really just really bringing that yard so we’ll probably do like a virtual stroll off next time we’ll probably do you know just have just all kind of
Stuff but that’s really that’s what that’s all about so definitely you look like you look like you stomp in the yard you look like you be you be out there clapping and stomping oh my gosh we gotta go to a quick commercial break y’all we are here with miss
The incredible amazing miss adrina and her company her brand historically black since we will be right right back tune in we’ll see you guys soon podcast listeners this your boy marcus norman of gentlemen style podcast show i wanted to let you guys know that we will be rolling out a new feature
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And serve the future of generations of men and women to come love you guys bye Hey everybody this is marcus norman from gentlemen style podcast we have a stupendous speaker hard worker entrepreneur business sales and marketing guru here on the show ms adrina martin spilling the t on hbcu and black culture greek life and what it’s like and the benefits and the pros and cons
Of bringing black culture to major university and the benefits of that so ms adriana tell us who is i gotta ask and i think i know but i’m gonna leave it i’m not gonna guess it yet put your guesses in the comments who is if you could have lunch with any
Black historical figure and spend time with them and just pick their brain who would you have lunch with who would you want to sit and just talk to and just learn from um do they have to be alive or they do not have to be alive okay we’re not talking walking dead
Though we’re not talking zombies oh i would say annie malone why annie malone so i would have to say annie malone because so a lot of people only know madam c.j walker right they usually you know they kind of think that madam cj walker was the first to do it well
Before madame cj walker there was annie malone who madam cj walker you know she pretty much got her whole her whole business model from it so for me she was one of the first self-made millionaires andy malone first black self-made millionaires and just to see
What she was able to build i mean she built a whole she built a whole beauty empire a whole college where she was able to employ other women and so for me just being able to see what the women were able to do back then
Like i like i was i was talking to somebody else about this um another conversation i’m like i get so inspired when i look at our history and i see what they were able to do back then was so little i’m like they had no social media
They had no emails no google none of that but this woman was able to build a whole beauty empire like with nothing like literally from nothing so and i’m looking at myself i’m like okay if she was able to do this with the limited amount of resources that she had
Imagine what myself and other people like me can do with all the resources in the world right now so definitely yes andy malone definitely yes i’m gonna have to add her to the list she’s going on the list that’s huge and that’s major and what you said is right back then
Being a person of influence you you had to bring it right you had to really have a passion for what you do to to be rosa parks to the coretta scots the martin luther you had to have a passion and to be able to move a body of us a body of people
In in unison takes coordination especially in the age of you don’t have internet you don’t have social media and to be able to move so many people and to cr and to touch so many lives and impact so many lives that’s powerful you’re right you are so so
Right um i think i would want to have lunch with um several i can’t just pick one but i would i think i would want to sit down with malcolm x to kind of pick his brain yeah it’s i mean it’s honestly it’s so many
Others and for me i think i would sit down with all the women like i can keep going like violet t lewis who started the lewis college of business which is which was the only hbcu in detroit michigan um who i mean it’s so many other women like i said what
Like you just said to be somebody of influence back then you had to really be doing some things it wasn’t just uh you know let me hop online today and tomorrow i’m famous from you know from social media like no like these women were really putting into
Work they were really making moves back then like i said with nothing they was raising kids husbands going through divorce you know like all kind of situations but it’s like just to see what they were able to do and accomplish and create like i just get inspired just
Reading about it and you know and that’s what really that’s what inspires me to even post this type of stuff on the page so other people can be inspired and see what people who look like them were able to do and what we can do today
That’s major and you you touched on a major point in an era of time where women weren’t allowed to work women weren’t allowed to have a public education right attend a major university it was it was seen as taboo so you you’re right the the history black history is unique in itself
But the history and the the power behind women in black history is very is very powerful and it’s very um it’s a lot a lot they had to overcome right if a woman wanted to go get go to a major university and get an education that’s that was seen as weird that’s
Strange why are you going to get an education your place is to get married get a husband have some kids and keep a keeper home and that’s it that’s end of the story that was the end of the story so you touched on it you touched on it specifically yes oh my gosh
I wouldn’t have made a good slave i’d have been running away all the time oh yeah yeah most definitely how do we keep the black dollar in circulation how do we keep it flowing and going and growing i think really just really supporting each other when i say support i mean really just
Financially supporting each other not just um you know just talking about it or you know just just really really financially supporting each other and really you know the same way how we support the major brands and the you know the luxury labels and all that really showing that same support
You know like i like what i think you like my thing is when i get to a point like i want to be able to when i see you know you hear the songs and you hear the names being dropped the you know these these major labels like i
Want to start hearing more black owned labels being represented just like the luxury brand so you know i’m not like that’s my thing when i get to that point to be able to do that like i want to be able to go and buy out let’s you know let’s take a
Group of people and go buy out a black owned um boutique let’s go buy out a black owned uh what you know i don’t know whatever it is let’s just shut the whole website down you know flooded with sales every day though not just on a you know we pick
One day like let’s make this the norm so that that’s yeah that’s the way i see it to really keep the black dollar circling just really financially support each other i like that i like that and i want to give a shout out to our sponsors here
Thank you sponsors for joining the show thank you for supporting the show we appreciate you um your sponsorship allows us to connect and find great guest speakers like miss adrina and ms betty i want to thank you you are finally here miss betty is what i call black
Af i can’t say it on the show but betty is very very pro um black and she’s very pro-women so um thank you betty for tuning in we have the incredible mreena martin if you’ve missed any of this episode she has talked about if you’re just tuning in she just broke down
Um who’s her favorite black historical figure who she supports who and how we keep the black dollar in circulation and her story on what gave her started in starting her brand historically black black sense this young lady miss adriana has been an entrepreneur since diapers right practically and she is changing
The game so if you’ve missed saying that please check it out live on youtube what is let’s debunk dismiss isn’t it isn’t it hbcu right hbcu colleges are his are predominantly black but some people believe that it’s a uh it’s segregation it’s modern day segregation to have a school system or a
Major university um basically have black people in it is let’s debunk that myth how is that true is that it’s definitely not true and so i would definitely encourage for anybody who says that to look look at the history of hbcus and why why they would even start in the first
Place we couldn’t get into their school so we created you know our own institutions were created for us and so you know it’s definitely not segregated and so and i’ve seen you know people have to debate online and people you know say well other races aren’t welcome well there
Are a lot of other races in hbcus like it’s not just of course it’s historically black and it’s mostly black but they’re like even when i was in college we had you know other caucasian people in the band and you know serving in other different things so it’s not you know it’s it’s
Other races but of course no it’s to answer your question no and that’s it’s definitely not segregation at all no i but i tell people once again do your history the history and look up why these institutions were founded i love that i love that what are some
Jobs or career advantages of attending an hbcu or having um my son my daughter attended hpcu yeah so i mean the same advantages and careers that you will get from a pwi you get those same opportunities from hbcu and i think that’s one of the things too like a lot of people think
That or if i go to hbcu i can’t get certain type of things like we’ve even on on our page you know we’ve shared a post and that was it was actually a twitter thread and there was a young lady and she was saying how
She wanted to go to hbcu but her parents i think her mom may have went to a pwi maybe her dad one of her parents went to hbcu and the other one to pwi but the other one they pretty much talked her into going to a pwi
Because they wanted her to be able to get a certain type of job they felt like she could only get this if she goes to this certain school and she was basically saying how she regretted not going to an hbcu because you know she was influenced by you know her parents and so
That’s the main thing i want people to get like you can become you can become what you want to be from hbcu i mean look who we have in the white house right now we have an hbcu graduate i mean it don’t get no bigger than that so it’s
Like well like i said where can your hbcu degree take you definitely straight to the white house and anywhere else you wanted to take you so yeah so you can the same opportunities that you would get from pwi you get those same things from hbcu
I love that i love that what is your what is one what is a book that you recommend every man or since this is woman one every woman should read my thing okay back okay okay one more time okay no problem no problem we’re good what is a book that you recommend every
Man or woman should read I would definitely say so many um so there’s a book i’m actually looking at it right now it’s called the laws of human nature and it’s by robert greene and he’s the guy who wrote the 48 laws of power and so this book it’s it’s basically it teaches you to understand why people
Think the way they do why do people do certain things the way they do and it really just it just breaks down really like the human mind and the human just interactions they really just help you understand people on a different level that’s one um what else what else i got so many
Books i’ve done um let me say let me think um oh there’s another book it’s called no excuses and it’s by oh man i should have but it’s called no excuses i’m not the sentence from the author but basically what that book talks about is really just creating a disciplined life for
Yourself and not making excuses as to why you can’t do the things that you want to do why you can’t become successful so definitely those two books for sure i would recommend absolutely what’s your favorite way to give back to the community i would say creating opportunities you know
Um what’s the one song when uh i think it’s called boss when jay-z and the version he says i look at success when you’re putting other basically he was saying uh you’re successful when you’re putting other people on and um you’re providing opportunities for other people and basically you’re still broke
If you’re the richest person in your circle so for me being able to create opportunities for other people and not just say okay yeah i made it okay but who else did i help who else did i help make you know x amount of money you know because it’s
Not just about what you can do for yourself but how are you impacting community so i would definitely encourage anybody here you know think about impact don’t just think about you know i want to get rich or i want to get this so that i can be okay think about
What you can leave and legacies that you can create for the next generation so yes i love that giving back giving back um lastly i wanted to ask what’s this video happy 130 years to north carolina agriculture and technical state university i see kumbaya i see a wave
What are we doing here i love it i’ma hurt it anyway this is like the like this video here is like the essence of hbcu culture so this is swag serve so you have have you ever okay let me ask you have you been to an hbc before
Shame on me um are you gonna take my black card i have not i have not i have not oh man so look you have got to i’m going to fingers crossed there’s going to be home coming this year but i don’t know where you’re located but you can find the nearest hbcu
And this is what we will be doing for homecoming so it’s basically what this is swag serve and what you’ve heard the service the song swag surfing right yes yes so that song is like an hbcu oh she’s like i barely made i barely made the black heart that song
Is like i don’t know it’s like we took that on it’s like the unofficial almost theme song for hbcus because as you can see in the video when that song comes on it instantly just i don’t care what the mood is like you can be in a room
That’s somber and sad when that song comes on at an hbcu it instantly just lifts up the mood it’s like family people they you know they wave inside the side i mean it’s just literally like it i think this this video explains the hbc culture in one video right here family fun and
We look out for each other i i think yeah this is the perfect representation yeah i love that i love that i love that whole vibe i appreciate you breaking that down because i almost lost my black card y’all i was nervous i was sweating y’all i was nervous
Oh my god how can my audience connect with you how can we support you how can we uplift what you’re doing mr sadrina and can grow with you yeah definitely so follow us on instagram at historically black sense for sure historically black sayings we’re on instagram
We’re on facebook um we’re on twitter i think our twitter is um since hbcu we’re not really that active i only do twitter like that but what i mean if you just want to follow us we’re there but definitely instagram and facebook and also our website which is
Www.hbcusense.com that’s the best way to connect to us and reach out we got a lot of great things coming up a lot of content we’re getting ready to put out so definitely um connect with us and yeah stay tuned this is this is dope stay tuned i’m gonna look for that crowd
Servant i’m gonna look for that wave i gotta get i gotta get my black one get my black on y’all miss adriana i thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on the gentleman style podcast show i appreciate you and i want to say to you personally
Never ever give up don’t ever give up on what you’re doing because we need you the world is changed and influenced by you every single day and we need what you’re doing because um the biggest thing um the unfortunate thing and the biggest thing and the good thing
That came out of this covet 19 recession is it made a lot of us realize that we need to come together because your job doesn’t care about you your medical provider doesn’t care about you your doctor don’t care about you so the only person left is your own
And i think we’ve seen the biggest movement with the riots with the protesting with the death of trayvon martin brianne taylor and george floyd all these things have brought us closer together which we should have been all along right right and so thank you for shining a light for
Since 2015 shining a light on what should have been the most important piece all along yes thank you thank you as well you keep doing what you do this is nice i love the platform this is nice i appreciate you i work hard and i work hard to work hard
I thank you thank you all my audience for tuning in to the gentleman style podcast show i hope this has served you and she has been a blessing to me i know she’s been a blessing to you all um and we hope to get her back on the show in the future
Wink wink and him um like i always end every show take care of your families take care of your business and take care of business this is gentlemen style pockets your host marcus norman and mrs adrina martin signing off love you guys [Applause]
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