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Speaking of Curves: Meet Plus Model and Creative Entrepreneur, Steven G!
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Oct 31, 2024
We're back with another Speaking of Curves series where we spotlight, celebrate, and support entrepreneurs and businesses in the Plus community! Join us every Thursday at 12pm, EST we will interview different businesses, designers, indies, and influencers in the community! Today's guest is Plus Model and Creative Entrepreneur, Steven G.
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0:06
hello hello hello hello um welcome to our speaking of curves
0:11
we're back and we're back with a fun dress i hope that you are ready i am marie janae i am the creator of the
0:18
kirby fashionistas so as you guys are tuning in as you're joining us
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i think for you to let us know where you're tuning in from say hello don't be scared don't be shy we do these
0:29
speaking of prayers our facebook live series um we do this um every thursday at 12
0:34
p.m eastern standard time and the whole reason why we're doing this is to really show
0:40
love give support to and to help you connect with small business owners creatives bloggers
0:47
influencers people in the community especially now as they navigate the roanoke right
0:53
because the rona's like giving us a little bit of trouble so let me tell you about our guest y'all i know you're gonna be so excited
0:59
because i'm really really really really hyped i know last week we said we don't have a guest because they had a switch times
1:06
so we have a fun guest i've been trying to get him on since last year you know him because he went viral
1:12
out off of the off of his lobster i guess doesn't do men have lingerie i don't know
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um but his his men's lingerie post big and tall showing love and appreciation but
1:24
did you know that he is also an editorial high fashion photographer like that is
1:31
his name so it's like the photographer gets in front of the lens this time right so
1:36
we have an uber guest i want you guys i'm so excited his name is stephen
1:42
and he's joining us and we're going to talk a little bit about everything from big and tall fashion
1:47
from his him going viral and his business and my kind of his pivots through the rona so do me a favor and say hello to
1:54
delilah hello to keisha um as you're tuning in let us know who you are
1:59
and where you're tuning in from don't be shy so do me a favor and everyone say hello to mr stephen hey mr steven
2:07
what's up what's up thank you so much for joining us i'm really happy that you're here
2:13
thank you thank you for having me so where are you from tell everybody where you're tuning in from so i'm based in kansas city
2:20
missouri now are you born and raised kansas city no i was actually born in sykeston missouri so it's like i feel
2:27
like boot hill uh country missouri then moved up here around 10 so pretty much at this point i just say i'm from kansas city
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did a lot of my my growing up getting raised here so yeah casey all day super bowl champs
2:40
just throw that out there um miss jeanette said hello mr stephen from vegas we got charity saying good
2:47
morning y'all keep always keep on telling us hello um so mr steven let's get this out
2:52
the way let's talk about how everyone how you went viral tell us about this experience
2:58
how you got booked everything okay so long story short um
3:04
pretty much i actually didn't start as a model at all um yeah as a photographer as you
3:10
mentioned that's been my lane for nearly ten years so um transitioning
3:15
i wanted to expand my services as a photographer and dabble into wardrobe styling and personal styling
3:20
and so um to do that basically i use instagram as a platform to help promote my services
3:26
and of course put the visuals out there and so doing that i utilize myself and really being able to like tell the
3:33
story definitely especially as as plus size men their fashion but also just in fashion in general
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um just the different looks and editorials i'm able to put together on that spectrum so did that and then along with that
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process of me posting my looks um it got the attention of casting directors and agencies and so they began
3:51
to reach out to me for different brands and uh different campaigns and so you know when that started happening
3:57
back to back i was like okay well this might actually be i could do and so yeah like it was like randomly
4:03
like 4 a.m you know really it was god that kind of just put it on my mind to just start applying for agencies and so
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i was just in my bed and my laptop just like appliance i already took digital's you know of course as a photographer it was
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um just having those resources that helped being able to get my digitals done and take my measurements and then just
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start some into agencies and so literally after two weeks after i submitted i got a contract offer
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from bridge models agency um in my name from new york so ever since then um it put me in the
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space and started creating more like fashion based content instead of style content um of course like i got signed in february
4:40
so in march literally like corona hit everything was shut down right yeah so literally i'm shooting
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editorials in my apartment um so i'm creating like different looks doing different things setting the
4:51
camera up and you know just trying to really push my portfolio let's let's bring
4:56
that back a second because for those models who are listening for those who have been curious about being a model
5:02
you drop so many different gems right there i want to i want to point them out one
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you mentioned how like you knew that you wanted to be a model so you utilized instagram
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to get your name out there to put yours you know to to showcase your work
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so for those models those who are interested it's about showing what you can do in your reigns
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on your instagram page yep secondly you started applying to
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agencies now can you talk about that submission process because we do have
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a lot of times different people who are curious about this and don't understand that process how
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did it work i mean it's actually really simple literally i mean most agencies don't require you to have
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a full portfolio when you come to the agency um it does expedite your process of being able to
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get booked and get on the get on the board but as far as being able to get signed
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literally all you need is your measurements and all you need is your digital so um if you're starting out really just
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find a quality photographer um because i'm always quality over quantity so you can do it on your phone
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most agencies even will still take the digitals on your phone but i feel like if you want to stand apart if you want to be the best you
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want to be booked by the best you know book that quality so reach out to a quality photographer and be able to
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take your digitals um and get those done to be able to best represent you and those are natural photos no makeup
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or very minimal makeup if so for the women um and then um just basics like all black all you know are black
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and white very natural um that's something that's easily easily google google
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i hope you all are listening because he's spitting some facts right now okay um leandra actually had a really good
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question she asked do you show any behind the scenes of how you shoot your editorial self your
6:55
editorial stuff yourself um i haven't done any by myself i know i do for of
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course my productions when i'm the photographer uh but when i shoot myself i haven't done any bts but that's
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a good idea and thank you for that leandra because i will keep you in mind when i do it for sure
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there we go there we go like that's like great so as you guys are joining in if you're wondering who who this
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handsome man is here with us this is mr stephen we're we're actually learning about his
7:22
process like if you everyone has to remember like he went viral last year in participating in a lingerie campaign
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and a launch and we're getting to know a little bit about his process he's also a 10-year
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um photographer he has that and that is his day job that he's he stepped from behind the
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camera to in front of it and so we're just learning a little bit about the process about the industry
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and how he got to where it is so you just got signed in february growing
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a hit you were like oh my god let me get my like what's going to happen tell us
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about how you got cast for this campaign that we're talking about yeah so with that um they actually
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reached out to me directly on instagram so uh rihanna savage fenty's production team
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um was launching the men's line but it actually wasn't um a man's line yet so it was very
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very new you know the whole idea of men clothing and all of that for savage
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fancy was new so for me when they actually reached out i'm thinking it's for photography so i say you know okay
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cool i would love to shoot it it's like no are you available for remodeling i was like oh you know so i'm like okay well it's
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lingerie so i kind of know how the game works so i'm like okay bad i'm gonna be shirtless so i had to hold you know
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do that whole process in my mind because that was literally my first time on the internet shirtless uh but honestly yeah that that that's
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how it happened directly via dm slid into my dms and set it up with my agency and it went from
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there and that's what created that moment and so savage fenty um now was this your
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first like like national campaign yeah dude so this was breakout
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from instagram to savage fenty like it must have went from you went from like zero to 200 real quick
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real quick real so now you're viral and you're starting to hear the feedback
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and the encouragement i mean people was tracking down like it was amazing to watch like the flurry
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and the excitement around you how did that feel on the other side i mean it was dope because honestly going
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into it like i said it was my first time shirtless so for me i was very uncomfortable you know what i'm saying i was like i
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ain't i ain't my gym goals yet you know i'm like i'm not there yet but it was one of them things for me i was
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just like you know i can't pass up this opportunity to work with you know savage fenty like just a savage fenty
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uh but to see you know the feedback that i had on the world globally like it just really hit me that it's bigger
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than me you know i'm saying it was one of them things that you know me being in purpose and being in alignment is not just for me it was
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it was for the world and it's for other people to also uh be able to be inspired to tap
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into their dreams tap into their their gifts and you know their god-given abilities and that was a moment that
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you know really created that opportunity for that conversation and really opened up even the idea of expanding fashion for big and tall men
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because as myself i like to dress fashionable but we don't have a lot of availability for fashionable clothes so
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that was another thing that was a benefit from that now you have designers that are actually you know having these conversations
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about expanding their you know their lines and expanding their sizing options so it was
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it was dope it was dope for sure the whole opportunity man it was amazing and so
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you know like from that did you you know what kind of uh comments or
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emails or like dms like did you get after that like something that you may have remembered that really like
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like just like hit maybe maybe making a little teary eye do you have that that one moment do you
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remember um i don't know if it was one because it was actually a few um
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and i think it wasn't even necessarily more so what they said it was like who it's from you know what i mean and it was one of
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those moments just seeing honestly so many men of different caliber of ages um that
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reached out that really like honestly just pulled their heart out like bro like you i feel seen
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um i've never seen anyone you know look like me you know in that in the light of
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mainstream fashion i've never seen myself publicizing even really identifying the confidence i think you know
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for them to you know one in particular i remember just saying like you really gave me different confidence about myself
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and that was one of the things that was just like man like you know for me i'm just doing me but you know in
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hindsight looking at a big picture it's like nah like people are looking for people that also look like them to help
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them even see themselves because it's hard when you have a society that doesn't necessarily
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you know um affirm who you are on your sides and different things like
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that so uh for that whole perspective to kind of really come to light man it was it was dope
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and so from there like what happens then like what happens next like so did this
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also help raise your visibility on your photography side on your do you still
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book more work or have you been booking work like strategically now because of your modeling side like
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does it like kind of help each other um i would say it does help each other because it definitely gave me more
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visibility um but i think honestly right now like the modeling has picked up so much that you know i'm
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i'm not as active in photography as i used to i'm still taking clientele um but i think for me my pivot i want to
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do is just more business to business um and shooting editorial work so that's really kind of where i want to be
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um so that way i can kind of focus a little more on this transition just because i feel like the purpose is a
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little bit bigger you know i've served the photography space for going on 10 years a little over 10 years at this point so
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um i feel like you know i've put my my work in and done my due diligence so i think you know right now where god has
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me in alignment is where i want to you know put that same focus in that i did for photography so now i can really
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create the same moves and really build something that's again bigger than me and so what kind of campaigns like
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since then like what um i guess like some places that you've
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modeled since then can you share like let me pause you for a second if you guys are just joining us
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we are here with mr steven who was the big and tall model for the savage fenty
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um launch of their men's lingerie he's sharing a little bit about his journey how that happened the things he did to
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kind of like position him in the right place for the right opportunity he's talking about like how he pivoted
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and that was a pivot you know and how this pivot um provided him this opportunity and
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he's also a photographer like an editorial high fashion photographer and so we're learning a little bit about
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his journey about the pivot about like kind of how you can still support him he mentioned business to business so all
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of my other small businesses out there my um you know if you're looking for editorial content if you're looking for
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um a photographer who's going to give you a different perspective you need to check them out so let's
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talk about so um delilah asked do you still book as a photographer so
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let's so let's talk about a little bit about your photography because one of the pieces of um content
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that you did you did a big and tall fall lookbook and you put together let's
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talk about that because big and tall fashion like it's you know i think plus size functions have laid the foundation now
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they can tell starting to slowly warm up a little bit more like talk to us about like this shoot
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and like the challenges i guess because trying to find the uh the items you're looking for as a big
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and tall man for sure well i think you know the advantage today is me being a big and tall you know
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gentleman myself it made it a lot easier just because you know i've lived this life so it's a you know
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it's a process we put in place about you know where we shop and how we shop how we do things and so for me
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uh one thing that is key um i would say that can be challenging um it's just like the tailoring i'm all
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about tailing so most of my clothes i get tight regardless with jeans trousers uh
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blazers things like that just because you know for us if we get something that you know is
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in our size it's never really shapely right it's kind of like yeah it's kind of all over the place and
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it's not really a splattering to you know the build and so you know we all come in different shapes and sizes and so when you know
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you have something that is kind of tailored to a certain body type you know doing that you know you have to take that extra
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step to get taylor to get the look that you desire so for me if i want more of like a slim uh style pants that's for sure
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gonna have to be tailored just to really achieve that look and so that was one of the challenges i would say but um
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again with me kind of already sitting in that position it was easy to you know position myself as that um
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expert to be able to get those looks across and so i mean it was dope i was able to uh you know link up with
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one of my homies who um was an aspiring model and stills inspiring model um today and so i was just like hey like
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i have this idea um and i don't want to use myself of course so i want to showcase you know
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another model and you know create some type of a lookbook and create the conversation just to see also
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um what we can do with style and so that was one of the situations where you know we just have fun have fun with it and
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you know we made it happen so miss hello kitty cat said um male models that you've collaborated
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with um i haven't collaborated with any yet and of course corona uh has a lot to do
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with that but i mean right absolutely who would you love to collaborate with then how about that hmm male models i would
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love to collaborate with exact miko for sure i feel like he kind of kicked off the
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the game for us um tyson beckford just because he og in the game and
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um let's see
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and that's really that's really all i could think of oh my gosh so he was actually the other male model
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for the show for the savage fenty show so he walked he did the campaign and he walked into the show
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all right all right you'll have to uh share those uh check he said what's his name suisse
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all right so we'll definitely make sure we check him out too
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all right and so for you like um you know and especially for you guys like you know who are joining in we're talking
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with mr steven you may recognize him as the savage fenty male model who helped launch the
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um the big and tall section of the lingerie collection and he's hearing a little bit about his
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journey rona pivoting business what is next for you
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so for me honestly i want to really allow um you know my space and modeling
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to open up doors for like the the biggest of fashion houses so uh really keep pushing um the agenda of
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really like building you know the plus size male market um so i plan to really stay in this
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work it you know want to be able to work with the you know the top fashion houses so you see plus male
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model that's modeling for dior for givenchy for gucci versace and really seeing us in those spaces and not
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just the commercial uh world so that's yeah that's definitely a goal of mine uh me and my wife are also uh we have a
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business a uh marketing agency so we basically service small businesses creative entrepreneurs
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um with lifestyle campaigns commercial campaigns oh strategies etc so um that's something
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that's definitely going to be in the works uh that we're planning to pivot to in the next few years
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and um really just continue to live my best life whatever that means thank you so let's
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talk i want to kind of go back to the fashion piece what designers because you mentioned
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tailoring so taylor if you're bigger big and tall and if you're or if your plus size like that's a key like a key factor and a
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little tip and trick to really make the clothes like be you you know like really like allow
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for you to own it rather than it owning you what brands are currently on your radar
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um in the big and tall space like that you are like reaching out to or that that have literally kind of uh inspired
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you oh that's a good question so the brains i would say that x that inspire me has been
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um jerry lorenzo with fear of god love what he's doing with his line um
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and especially the collaboration with zegna um being you know a suit collection and really like
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redefining the suit and tailoring um he's like this isn't big and tall no it's not well
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he his regular clothes they do go up to a 2xl um so it's not big and tall specifically
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um big and tall i would say that i actually let's say shop with um it would be i'll do petite
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it's a it's a smaller brand i believe they may be based in the uk i'm not sure or not um but
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they are they're a suit company but they're very like super affordable suits um i've shopped a lot of suits there
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asos is a real big brand um that does a lot for the big and tall uh industry and that's actually where i
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can say i got a lot of inspiration from just because i think for me it was where i got exposed to really seeing like
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big and tall um clothing that's fashionable secondly i saw actually big and tall
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models in the clothes so asos is definitely one that stand out for sure that i would say inspired
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um the big and tall fashion piece for sure and um have you um so you know it's
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interesting from a media perspective we have chubster an xl tribe as like two big and tall
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media um platforms bloggers and so there's bruce and kirk behind
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each one respectively have you worked with them on any like creative opportunities
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no i haven't just yet but uh me and excel we we chat back and forth a little bit so
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yeah he's definitely good people has always shown love since you know i've kind of put myself in that space so
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um yeah hopefully you know when all this is over and you know everything is back in a you know regular
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format schedule with the world i think you know right trying to do something but but for sure yeah he's definitely one for sure that
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showed a lot of love um in this process and um and then so
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let's see there's uh what's his name i'm um blinking mvp collection
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have you linked up with them i'm not familiar with them yes so mvp collection they have a more i
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want to say more of an elevated sportswear like everyday like jeans and sweats
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and like um and they're one whom we've they've actually supported our events in our mvp collections so you'll
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definitely have to check those out check them out um have you seen what dxo has been up to
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lately um i haven't i actually seen a couple of their ads which have been dope
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um i think it definitely is like elevated from the you know what i've seen in the past but i haven't really like tapped into it
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but from the ads that i've seen i mean it's looking good so far
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awesome and so i'm trying to think if there are any other designers that i can think of oh then we
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have um brandon kyle who's based out of new york he's an indie menswear designer he's
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like real edgy like like he's done like um i want to say
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like a jumpsuit but not like a jumpsuit but it's like short sleeve and like right under the knee
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what do you call that like a rubber-ish but it's like the tracking material he's got a lot of like
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really innovative pieces you definitely have to connect with him too
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i mean it's really about like connecting and finding different ways to support because like he has a very specific eye and i really love making
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sure that i can you know give support and love so from especially in the big and tall space
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then there's a new denim company fat trunk they just want to be a kickstarter okay
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and so um oh miss hello kitty cat just said raw mosley would be another model to connect with
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i love raw oh yeah now he's good people he's good people and then there's also rob rob is in new
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york i believe or somewhere up there i'm all somewhere up there but he's he's funny and like so there's
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there's definitely like an emerging community of big and tall um fashion
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and opportunities and it's really going to be about um challenging and being unafraid or
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being bold or orgastic to you know push those envelopes further
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because you know brands even walmart's getting into the game even walmart in big and tall fashion so
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it's like you know definitely some some brands that are paying attention and it's just about your own personal
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style what would you say if you could describe your personal style aesthetic what would that
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be um you seem a little fancy i'm a little
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fancy a little fancy smashy but no i would say though honestly because i like to be comfortable too
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um and i love streets i love streetwear i would say it's a good mix between urban and
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classic so um i love a timeless look i love to always dress for the occasion so my
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personal style i would say would definitely be timeless um
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maybe urban urbanesque some type of blend between you know
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streetwear and classic i would say if there was a celebrity whose style like you kind of like
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that's me i that they inspire me who would that be um that's a good question
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uh style wise
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i love the actors yaya his style yes yeah his style definitely like
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embodies my style um another person i would say would be
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um fab i feel like fab was like og with like
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books okay okay i see i see where you going you like a little bit of a i want to say a little renaissance a
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little street classic like you you yeah
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you like from this from a suit to a sweatsuit like you can switch it very
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seamless but it's really about like putting your own spin on it your own spin on it if you guys
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are just joining like i know miss tammy joy was like i'm late man hey boo thank you so much for still joining
26:41
um i'm here with mr steven g he is the model that you recognize and remember from the savage
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fans he launched he went viral people were excited because they saw a man that looks like them
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um and really put uh help you know bring conversation to and attention to
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you know the big and tall fashion space and so he has shared his journey like how with
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rona his pivot so you know how he submitted his uh um how he shot himself submitted to some
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agencies joined instagram showcased his work um and was given some tips so for those who
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are you want to be a model like you know he definitely shared some tips then talked about his work
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and you know now where he's wanted to make sure he's so he's a photographer first and foremost and kind of marrying
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both worlds of the of them being a model and and shooting the model right and so especially in the
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big and tall um space he's been you know sharing a little bit of his journey um and so my question to you stephen
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in you know let's say rona ends you know december
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next year what are some of the big things that you want to do with your business and then you launched
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a whole marketing agency with your wife like order what are some of the big things that you want to do
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for next year so one of the big things for sure right now my studio space um i've
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kind of created um with the idea to eventually rent it out for other creatives um
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other photographers yeah small entrepreneurs and creatives um to have a space that's affordable and
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be able to do the pop-up shops and be able to do small events to really gravitate to their audience
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and really be able to tap into the community um and then you know eventually transitioning from that space
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um have my own uh major um studio which would pretty much be like production studio that could do more
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commercial as well as editorial so that's that's hindsight big vision
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um but also um creating a program specifically for um teams that are transitioning from
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like high school to college or high school to entrepreneurship but be able to have resources and availability
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and mentorship before transitioning so and that will kind of encompass everything in the arts field of fashion photography of makeup
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of hair of wardrobe styling but be able to have those and things like that so you can really
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actually be prepared for this industry because i feel like you know and i work non-profit part-time during the day so
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i'm able to connect with the schools in a different way and to really see that you know this isn't
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something that a lot of schools are really you know put into um education as far as
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entrepreneurship especially being a creative entrepreneur but myself along with many of my other
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friends and colleagues that even i went out to school with that are super successful in what they're doing
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in their creative industry and you know i really want kids to be able to have that affirmation you know i feel
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like they see it more than we did in our generation because i got social media and stuff like that but yeah i still feel like you know for me
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uh transportation yeah that was so hard a lot of my own
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you know because i didn't have like mentorship to be able to really help develop me at an earlier stage but i feel like you
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know if i was able to have that access at 16 17 um then i would have you know definitely skyrocket
30:07
my progress a lot um in the sense of you know being a business owner but um definitely that's that's a goal to
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really see that happen and uh yeah well i mean wow thank you um and and we're here to
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help support so don't ever be don't ever hesitate to reach out be like yo have this idea or
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like yo here's what i'm working on like no one ever has a stranger can you tell everyone where
30:34
they can find you how they can book you all your details real quick for us
30:39
absolutely so you can follow me on instagram at the official stephen g um you can book me for any of my style creative
30:46
direction services or any other opportunities where you want to connect offline at officialsteveng.com uh to book me for
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photography services you can go to stevengephotos.com you can also check out more of my work
30:58
on instagram at steven g photography underscore thank you thank you so
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much for giving us some of your time thank you guys thank you girls out there who who stay
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with us and who enjoyed you know ask your questions show some love appreciate you um
31:15
we will be doing these every thursday we will be back at 12 p.m with a different guest each
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